Chapter 13: Happily Ever After

Passed off from her father's arm, clutching her bridal bouquet tightly, Belle beamed happily at the man who was to become her new husband. She had been surprised with herself when she found no hesitancy in deciding to marry again, for she understood that her new marriage would have the foundation of a deeper understanding and intimacy than her previous nuptials.

Standing before the priest, Belle and Prince Adam gave their vows. Belle had been delighted to learn her new husband's name, though she sometimes still slipped up and called him 'Beast.' Adam took it in stride, thinking of it as Belle's pet name for him – and only she was allowed to refer to him this way. Not that the servants needed to be told.

When the holy man blessed them and pronounced them husband and wife, Belle and Adam leaned in close, embraced and kissed to great cheers. Clutching at each other, Belle lifted her hips to cradle them against her new husband's. She could feel his desire for her already, and it made her overheated.

"I love you!" Belle whispered into her husband's mouth, her voice strangely hoarse, and she felt Adam moan. She pressed her hips into his, and the moan turned into a choke, and she cheekily smirked against his insistent, pliant lips. Drawing back, she beamed at him gently. "I love my husband."

"Announcing their Royal Highnesses – Prince Adam and Princess Belle de Villeneuve!" de Villeneuve had been Belle's maiden name before she first married, and seeing as Adam had little memory of his own surname, it was one that he had readily agreed to share and take, as her new husband. She couldn't believe she was a princess. She was married, though this time to royalty. To a man who truly loved her. And she loved him, more than she had ever thought it was possible to love. More than she had loved Gaston. She was still only 17 years old, yet she was a wiser young woman than she had been, not nearly as naïve about what love was and ought to be.

Belle had not thought it possible to be that happy. But she was that happy. Deliriously, wonderfully, blissfully happy.

Gliding across the ballroom in her Prince's arms, she smiled as she passed faces now so familiar to her. She saw her father, free and healthy. She caught sight of Lumiere and Plumette dancing nearby. She saw Chip, wedged between his mother and father, pretending to be annoyed but clearly loving the attention. Cogsworth was there, as was the diva, Belle's former wardrobe. She waltzed happily with her maestro. This, Belle thought as she gazed around the room, is my family.

She lifted her head, and her eyes met the Prince's piercing blue ones. He smiled down at her and she felt the now familiar warmth of love shoot through her whole body, starting at her toes and traveling to the tips of her ears. Over the past few weeks, she had found herself loving the Prince more with each passing day as she watched him embrace the life that had been denied him for so long.

I'm living my own adventure, she thought as he swung her around. She had found a life outside the village, and there were still so many places to visit and experiences to be had. What's more, she had found a partner who wanted her to travel, as well as a partner with whom she could share all these adventures. And there is nothing more I could ever want. Except...

Feeling Belle tense in his arms, the Prince looked at her, his eyes narrow with worry. "Belle..." he said. "What are you thinking?"

Belle took a moment to consider her answer and tried not to smile as the Prince's expression grew more worried. Then, reaching up, she ran a hand down his smooth cheek. "How would you feel about growing a beard?"

Letting out a roar of laughter, the Prince pulled Belle closer. His eyes locked with hers and he nodded, an unspoken promise to always try to be the best version of himself, the version she had believed was possible before he had. Then, leaning in, he kissed her. And as she closed her eyes and gave into the magic of the kiss, the world faded away until it felt as if it were just the two of them, caught up in a tale as old as time. Belle thought about the future - about the reading classes she could teach in the castle library for all the village students, the traveling she and the Prince would make time for, the friendships with those in the castle that would undoubtedly be lifelong. A tale that had begun once upon a time and would end, Belle knew, happily ever after.

Belle let out a shriek of surprise and delight when her … her husband (the word held a different connotation now, thank heavens!) swept her off her feet and carried her bridal style into his – their chambers – in the West Wing. The entire area had been renovated by the magic of the spell being broken, and now was bathed in fire by the light of the setting sun.

Once the door was closed, Adam gallantly set his bride down, only to then press her into the varnished wood and kiss her breathless. Belle melted into his kiss, mewling, her lips soft and pliant.

"Hmm…. Mmm….." She shivered as she felt her prince's hands dip lower, past her waist, to feel up her bum through her wedding dress. When he cupped her there, his fingers clutching at the supple flesh, Belle gasped prettily into his mouth. Gallingly, shocked by her own boldness, Belle assertively hitched her leg up to her husband's waist, curling it around his torso. She lifted her hips invitingly, locking them against Adam's and they rocked against each other, dizzy with want.

Her Prince tore his lips from their kiss and began to mouth down along Belle's jaw and into the soft curve of her creamy neck, causing her breath to hitch. She wound her arms about his neck just to keep herself upright.

"B-Beast…." She sighed.

"My real name, love. What's my name, Belle…"

"A-Adam….." she crooned the given, Christian name of her husband and Belle felt her husband growl, much like he would have as a Beast. She could feel his erection through his trousers, and she squirmed impatiently. "Adam, un…. Undress me, will you? Help me…. out of…"

The newlyweds were in enough control of themselves to slip Belle out of her wedding dress without tearing it to be pieces. Bits of Adam's blue waistcoat met a similar fate, the articles discarded on a path to the four-poster bed as Belle fell back across the mattress. Strewn naked before her spouse and lover, her brown hair in ringlets and framing her lovely face like a halo, Belle invitingly spread her legs for this gorgeous man who loved her – all of her, and not just her beauty. Respected her, and treated her as an equal.

"Adam…." She gasped breathlessly. "Make love to me…. please…."

He could deny her nothing, and clambering on top of her so that he straddled her, Adam's blue orbs locked on her brown ones. Reverently, he pushed inside of her. Belle arched her back with a breathy gasp, swallowing an overjoyed shout. She hoped her husband didn't mind that she had already known the touch of a man, that she had been before defiled. Adam's loving gaze let her know she had nothing to dread.

Husband and wife learned together, Adam growing more confident in his thrusts while Belle undulated against him in perfect time. Her moans positively sang through the room:

"Huhhhh…. Uhhhhh….. Uggh….. Errrrr….. Mmmmmm! Ohhhhhhh! Yes…. Yes….. Faster…. Harder….. Oh, GOD, fuck me, Beast!"

"Belle…."

"Adam….."

"Mother of God, what you do to me, woman…." Her husband was pounding into her now, but growing tired. He was shaking, and his kissing of his wife's lips grew more desperate as she clutched at him and moved, rubbed herself, against him. "Belle, my sweet Belle, I'm…. I'm gonna…"

He tired to pull out too soon, but she wasn't having it. Locking her quivering thighs around his middle, she stared up at him determinedly.

"You're not going anywhere. You're going to come deep inside me. And you can stay in there as long as you like."

Adam's jaw was unhinged, in sheer awe of her. Still, he tried to act like a gentleman as he weakly protested. "But… but what if….?"

"If we make a baby, or a cub, I wouldn't mind at all. I would have you in my bed as a Beast and let you shag me. And if my belly were to become round and great with child, I wouldn't mind at all. I wouldn't care if it came out human, or as a litte Beast cub with fur all over its face – I would love it. As much as I love you!"

Adam lost all control, body seizing up as his release overtook him. "BELLE!" He emptied his seed deep inside her, and Belle quaked as she felt him release himself within her very wet and pulsing walls. Her husband thrust into her again, and she screamed as he made her cum. He kissed her deeply, and the sound turned into something between a groan and a squeal. "MmmmmmHmmmm…"

The couple collapsed against each other, sweaty and spent. Drawing her husband's lithe form tighter into her arms, Belle fell asleep along his firm chest, blissfully content.

She was where she belonged now.

Adam felt Belle stretch luxuriously in his arms. He gloried in the pleasure he had brought to her, fully satisfied in the sensation of having done right by her. He knew she wasn't virgin, for she had once been married to Gaston. Though his wife never spoke about her first wedding night, and Adam instinctively knew better than to ask. Had it been quite horrid to lie with another man, especially such a ghastly one as the hunter after taking him as a husband? It was a thing he'd never given much thought to before, but a thing that now seemed terribly unfair to him. Why should a woman carry all the pain in life? Surely women were not truly to blame for all the evils in the world? His world was larger than hers and the men in it were such wretched creatures. He knew far more pious, tender women than men.

He reached to brush a lock of hair from her face and balked at the sight of his hands. Gone were the pale tapered fingers of a prince. In their place, he saw his beastly claws once more. The sweet face of Belle evaporated before him and darkness and dust was left in its place. Sunlight turned to ashen night, and the glory turned cold in his chest.

Anguish slashed through him as the face of an old woman loomed over his bed.

"A beast you once were," she said, in her broken old voice. "And a beast you shall ever remain."

He roared in torment, the sins of a thousand generations lacerating his soul, as he bled on the cold stone floor. It was no less than he deserved.

He woke with a roar and a shudder to find Belle clutching at him. Ice pierced his chest and he wanted to vomit from the empty, sour, all consuming panic in his gut. Still, she brushed sweat dampened hair from his face as she soothed him and pulled his head to her breast.

She did not ask him what he dreamed of. He knew she dreamed, too. He wondered if it would ever end. He supposed one could not live through such as they had without such consequences. He had died a beast. She had watched him do it. He wasn't as strong as he'd always pleased himself to think he was. They had died. All of them had. His servants, his friends, everyone he had ever loved. They had all died. They had been reborn, but rebirth did not erase death fully. They still remembered it. All of it. All of them did.

"Thank you," he whispered into the soft crook of her neck, as they lay together, tangled in the warm sheets.

"Always," she answered, cradling him close to her. "You do it for me. It's what people in love do." He kissed her, then, a soft kiss, not meant to inspire lovemaking, but to convey the depths of affection he felt for her.

"What do you dream of?" he asked her, at last. "Or is it something you don't wish to talk about?"

"Death," she answered bluntly, turning away from him. He was hardly surprised.

"I dream I am a beast again. I dream that you are gone and all the world is cold and nightmarish." He sighed as he felt her embrace.

"I'll never leave again," she said. "Not if I can help it. And I would love you even if you were a beast."

"But you couldn't make love to me," he said. "And I do love the way you touch me," he kissed her lips. "And kiss me."

"I kissed you," Belle answered. Adam was confused. He knew she kissed him after he transformed. "I was too late. You wouldn't remember. But I kissed you. And were you unchanged. And I would kiss you again." There was a long pause before Belle continued. "I don't know about the rest of it, but I think…" Belle let her sentence hang and was silent then.

Adam stared at her in wonder and horror and fascination and uncertainty.

"I, uhm," he paused. "I don't know what to say." He was fascinated with the deepening blush on Belle's cheeks as she refused to meet his gaze. "Oh, my god," he exclaimed. "You're quite serious, aren't you?" Belle still refused to meet his gaze.

"Am I utterly perverted? Are you repulsed by me?" Adam still could not speak. Some sort of shameful lust began to grab hold of him. "You really were more man than beast, you know," she tried to argue, finally looking at him. Tears glittered in her eyes and he began to see that these feelings had tormented her. She did not know what to do with them.

"How?" he asked. "How could you see me like that?"

"A beast cannot make conversation, cannot read or quote poetry. A beast cannot speak of love and history, teach mathematics or latin, or converse in languages. A beast does not care, does not give of himself in generosity. A beast does not empathize, does not dance, does not live as you lived. If you were an animal, then so was I, and so what difference would it make, as we were both the same. You were just… hairier?" Adam was moved by her description of him. He had not seen himself that way. She had made him feel more human, more alive, but he truly had not seen himself as a man.

"Your lips," she continued, touching his lips softly. "Your lips are the same now. Full and sweet and lovely. They were a man's lips, even in your broader face. Your eyes," she touched the outer corners of his eyes, "are the same now. Still blue like the summer sky. I would have kissed you, even had you not been dying. I would kiss you again, even with the same face."

"Is that why you asked me to grow a beard?" Adam mused softly. "Do you miss his face?"

"There is no his," Belle denied. "No 'him'. 'He' is not separate from you. You mustn't think of the beast that way or you will never heal. 'He' is you and you are 'he' and you are one and the same and always will be. You'll always be my beast, and I will always love you for it. I'll always love that wild untamed part of you. And yes. Sometimes I miss your other face. I fell in love with that face. Does that make me odd?" Belle looked utterly and preciously vulnerable in his arms and Adam leaned down to kiss her fully and firmly on the mouth.

"Wild and untamed?" he asked, teasingly. Belle moaned softly in agreement.

"Very wild," she agreed, moving seductively under him.

"Then I shall always be your beast," Adam agreed, finding a peace in the words he did not think he would ever feel. "Yours, and yours alone." The remainder of Belle's unfinished sentence hung in the back of Adam's mind. She didn't know about the rest of it, but… But what?

"Belle," he breathed softly. She answered with a soft noise of acknowledgment. "What did you mean by you don't know about the rest of it, 'but…'?" There was silence and Belle was utterly still beneath him. Even her breathing had stilled. Adam began to regret asking. "Belle?" he eventually prompted?

Belle exhaled and the sound was weary and worried and sad.

"Please Belle," Adam told her, his heart clenching at the concern emanating off her. "If something is troubling you, please tell me. We, each of us, have enough burdens to bear without making new ones or trying to carry them on our own. I will not judge you, for I feel as though I know where your thoughts lie. Still, I would like to hear you say it. I think I need to hear you say it." He felt hers muscles loosen, as though she'd let go of some mighty weight.

"I keep trying to convince myself that I never would have lain with you as a beast. That I am only here now because you are a man. But," she paused and the silence was utterly pregnant with implication. "I don't know if that is true and it speaks to something dark and terrifying in me." Adam watched Belle lick her lips, struggling for words. "By the time you freed me, I was already free, though I didn't know it. By the time I made it to my father, I knew how much I loved and needed you. By the time I saw you on the turret, I knew I would spend all of my life with you, regardless of your eternal outward shape. And spending all my life with you," Belle again did not finish her sentence.

There was another long and length silence, and Adam allowed Belle to gather her thoughts into words, curious to know what she would say. Already, she had gifted him with more peace than his transformation had.

"The night we danced," Belle paused and smiled. Adam smiled too, pulling her closer to him as he laid on side near her and remembered. It had been glorious. "Your hands were all over me. It felt amazing, better than it had any right to. And I was aroused by the feel of it. And I could not believe such a thing was even possible. It was such a foreign sensation to me. Had you kissed me, right there on the dance floor, I would have let you. You felt so deliciously large and formidable in my arms. I felt so delicate and utterly safe. And I replay that night over and over again in my mind. Each time, the fantasy progresses a little further." Belle leaned into Adam then. She began to shake a little, and Adam realized she was crying.

"I think I must be very wrong, somehow," she sighed. "And yet I love you so deliciously and truly. I loved you then and I love you now."

Adam did not answer her, but simply held her close, willing the strength he did not possess into the very essence of her being. She would ever be his beauty and he would ever be her beast. Right or wrong, it did not matter.