22 (part2)

That Beast meant. He would keep her safe no matter the cost… he had to. Not just for himself, but for her as well. Her smile was something he had come to enjoy. To keep her with him, he would do whatever it took to break the chains that held him and show her that there was more to the world than the ugliness she had known.

“Trust me,” he urged her again, trying his best to ignore the soft feel of her body in his arms or the way the dry ends of her hair tickled his snout every time she moved. Although, he admitted he enjoyed the way she clung to him like a second skin.

“Rufus, Rockwell,” he called to his old friends. Once beautiful creatures that had called this lake home had become, thanks to Cassandra, hideous things to look at. At first, even with his curse, he had been hesitant to reach out to the creatures. Their warped and twisted bodies had caught him off guard, and he had even recoiled from them.