*Epilogue*

I watched as Ben slowly dropped his arms from me and he dropped to his knees. My mouth went dry and I took in a couple of deep breath to steady my nerves and Ben must have picked up on this as he looked up at me.

"Are you sure?" he offered.

"Positive" I advised as I slid my hands onto his shoulders. I watched as he nodded at me before he reached forward and slowly pulled up shirt slightly.

"There's loads" I heard him say.

"Yes" I confirmed as I started to push away the memories on how I got some of them. "There are mainly on my stomach; back and top of my legs; thankfully I can hide any others with magic" I explained.

"There's more?" he asked as he looked at me.

"Yes" I repeated. "I know you want to know-" I started. "Most of my scars are from my mother" I confessed as I felt my chest start to tighten but I concentrated on Ben and I pushed this away.

"What?" he questioned in horror.

"Yes" I said for the third time. "Punishments and character building" I muttered as I tightened my hands on his shoulders. "The rest are injuries from fighting or accidents trying to escape from schemes" I advised.

"I see" he noted and I felt his left hand start to stroke the scars on my stomach. "I hate how you have lived" he muttered.

"So I do I" I agreed.

"But you made my life better Ben; that is what we both need to concentrate on" I smiled warmly at him and I watched as he smiled back at me.

"Yes" he stated and I watched as he looked back down at my stomach before he pressed a tender kiss against one of my scars.

"Oooh" I muttered as shivers ran up and down my spine.

"What?" he asked in shock as he looked up at me.

"I got chills then" I admitted with a smile.

"Really?" he grinned.

"Yeah" I replied. "That is what you do to me" I admitted. I then watched as he grinned at me as he climbed back to his feet; I opened my mouth to say something but stopped as he quickly picked me up in a bridal hold. "BEN!" I screamed as he pulled me close to him.

"Oh shush!" he teased as he carried me out of the room and towards the staircase. I couldn't help but giggle at my playful Beast as I snuggled into him; I loved him so much and yes this wasn't the first time that I had done this to him. But I was adamant that this wasn't going to happen again; this time proved to me even more that me and Ben was meant to be and this is how it was going to stay.

Hey guys, thank you for coming on this journey with me. I am over the moon that we finally get to see where this story took our favourite pairing. I hope it has been worth the wait.

Much love, RaInBoWsKulLdRoPs

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo.