"Are you sure you wouldn't want me to at least come to you? I could make great speed and reach you...", Beast said as she shook her head. "No... we... that dark magician... he would know.", Perla reluctantly said as he nodded.
Beast whispered lovingly, "I'll always wait for you, my Perla...even if I miss having you in my arms in our bed, wanting to see Carlo smile and laugh while he hugs you good morning, and experiencing fatherhood at last...Did you really want to dance with me, to ask me that day?".
Perla looked at him before remembering that she was chatting with Jiminy that day, and she whispered, "Yes...And I...I really wanted to tell you how much you mean to me...how I feel...I should have said it sooner before all this happened...but I was holding back, I suppose...I thought I didn't want to pressure you, to mess up...I messed up on mistakes in the past...But you were never a mistake to me...I was scared I'd be your mistake...even if my feelings grew and grew for you...".
"Please, Perla... you don't need to apologize for anything... we'll... you just get home, we'll be together again and then we'll say everything that needs to be said to each other.", Beast told her.
Perla sighed deeply, "I feel like I want to tell you so badly right now, but I'm scared the dark magician would find out...", and Beast kissed her on the forehead, "Oh, Perla...Me too...You have no idea how much that means to me...But right now...this...this is what you wanted...a dance together...and that makes me happy, and it makes you happy, right?", smiling reassuringly, even if his heart is skipping a beat in joy to hear her say that, and hearing his primal side roar in affirmation.
Tears swell in Perla's eyes, smiling happily, "Oh, Adam...Yes, this is more than I've dreamed of...", and Beast rumbled tenderly, "Let's enjoy it while we can.", with a gesture as he spun her around, and she followed his lead eagerly, enjoying their sophisticated yet romantic dance.
This lasted for 30 minutes before Perla gave a moan of pain, and Beast asked in concern, "Perla?", and Perla chuckled, "I think I have to wake up back in the cave...Labor's starting...Will you join me soon?".
Beast replied, "Couldn't miss it for the world, Perla...Go, I'll see you soon as I get out of the ballroom before anyone else notices...", with a smile, and Perla stroked his cheek with her human hand, whispering, "Soon, I'll be human again, both of us, Adam...but for now while I got it still, here's something you missed so long.", before leaning up and kissed him on the lips, her human lips against his beast lips.
Beast purred softly, kissing her back, and Perla chuckled wryly, "See you soon, Adam.", before vanishing back into the shell of her beast form, waking up, breathing deeply as she felt the contractions, and looked down at her cubs who's now sleeping after a full meal.
She walked on all fours, gently picking each cub by the scruff, to put them in the nursery alcove, as they were deep asleep, and smiled as the cubs snuggled into each other, licking them lovingly on their backs, and then went back to the main cavern, to fix up the nest better with some new things she picked up during the hunt earlier.
30 minutes later, the contractions picked up faster, and Perla took deep breaths, moaning in pain, as Beast appeared into view, looking at Perla, looking apologetic, "Sorry, was almost caught by Lumiere and Fifi.", as he joined her, nuzzling her and stroking her back as he looked around, "Where's the other cubs?".
"Safe and deeply asleep in the nursery alcove to your left behind you.", Perla replied, and then glanced with a smirk, "You're lucky that Lumiere is too much of a flirt with Fifi to notice you.".
"I really wish sometimes they weren't cursed... they wrongfully got punished because of me.", Beast sighed as Perla smiled.
"Don't worry... I have a feeling all that will be solved soon...", Perla told him as he nodded, "You don't know how right you are...".
Perla nuzzled him, kissing him on the cheek, breathing deeply, moaning and gasping in pain as the contractions came through her, "No matter how many times I have gone through this, it still hurts...".
Beast replied, "I know...But you got this, Perla...We're going to be parents again.", kissing her on the temple, and Perla smiled before moaning in pain, taking deep breaths, instinctively checking on her vagina for the next 30 minutes before the water bag broke.
"Easy, Perla! This is it! Breathe and push!", Beast encouraged, and Perla took deep breaths, grunting and pushing as she cried out in pain, as the contractions became stronger.
She labored for another 30 minutes before she loudly cried out in pain, feeling not stretched out enough, "Adam, something's different! Take a look, please!", and Beast nodded, going around, ignoring his primal side roaring at him to reclaim her as the scent of Perla hit him, and took a close look.
"I see something trying to crown! I think it's a big cub!", Beast replied as it was a bit hard to tell with the fur around the vagina, and Perla groaned, "I knew one of those two had a bigger appetite! Use your paw to stretch me out!".
"You sure this will work?", Adam asked as Perla nodded. "It's either that or letting me really suffer...", she told him as he quickly agreed and moved to work.
Perla moaned and groaned in both pain and pleasure as contractions came through her and the rush of pleasure shooting through her as she felt Beast's paw gently yet quickly massage and stretch her out.
This lasted for 10 minutes before Beast replied, "Okay, try again, breathe and push!", and Perla took deep breaths, pushed as she grunted, crying out in pain, and Beast shouted, "Yes, it's coming through!", before moving on to hold her paw as she panted, heaving as she clenched her other paws into the nest, taking a deep breath, and pushed, roaring out in pain as the membrane of the baby slides through her vagina, and with a pop, Perla felt the baby leave her, and instinctively moved to rip the membrane away, licking and eating the afterbirth.
A loud, hearty squealing wail was heard, and Perla's breath caught in shock, "Adam, I think my sort of confession did something...", and Beast was confused, gently walking over, and his eyes widened.
Right before them is a cubbish hybrid of a human baby with beast features and senses, almost like a mix of Beast and Perla, yet deaf and blind to the world, belly crawling and having a mix of whimpering cries.
"Do you...?", Beast whispered as she smiled. "Maybe they'll be human after all.", Perla teared up; things would be so much easier if they all became human when things were finally said and done.
Beast exhaled, looking at the unique baby, as Perla nuzzled and held the little one closer, and he can then smell that it's male. He looked back at the nursery alcove, peering in, and saw that his older children are the same as before, all cubs.
He then rested his head on Perla's shoulder as he saw his new son make it to the teats, suckling immediately into one, gulping, "The others are still cubs...I guess it's timing of sorts...He's really hungry, huh?", with an amused smile.
"Should have known...He had a big appetite compared to the others...He's perfect...", Perla whispered in awe and amazement as she cried happily, seeing the tuft of hair that's light auburn, with the features of fur being a dark brown on the rest of him, and the skin silvers throughout his body is a warm tan...
Beast whispered, "He got my human hair, and your skin tone...I think you must figure out how to keep him warm during traveling...especially with autumn coming...We can't risk him getting a chill or worse despite the patches of fur on him already...".
Perla nuzzled and kissed him, "Don't worry, I'm smart, and the other cubs will be surprised, alright, but I think it will help them see that we are supposed to be human...", and Beast nodded, "True...If that's not motivation to get home, I don't know what is...So, what are we naming him? I already named Jolene, and Eli in a way.".
"Theodore...he surprised us like a gift...", Perla thoughtfully replied, and smiled, "Teddy for short...", as she lovingly licked her new son.
"He might not like that name growing up...", Beast chuckled as Perla smiled, "Well, he'll just have to learn to live with his mother calling him that.".
Beast smiled wryly, "Well, I can't argue there...After all, you gave birth to him, not me...", kissing Perla on the lips, "You did great...Now we have one last child...", wondering if the timing of the travel like he said, and the breaking of the spell when they reunite, is she going to be pregnant a bit more longer if the last child is still developing as a human baby?
Perla chuckled warmly, "And we have our children at last to raise...One thing for sure, I'd have to pack on anti-pregnancy herbs when I get back to your arms...", nuzzling him deeply, and Beast heard his primal side bemoan at the news, but gave in as the litter is definitely enough, but still, it's snarling at him to reclaim her...telling him that he's not entirely solid, and with Perla still pregnant but in prime state, it should be fine...
Beast rumbled deeply, "I can deal with that, my pearl, but right now, you smell so good...Let me take you...I can't hold back any longer...I don't want to wait almost two more weeks before having you in my arms again...", nibbling on her ears.
"Are you serious?", Perla whispered. "I mean... I just gave birth and all...", she reminded him as Beast groaned, "I know, I know, not a good idea, especially so soon... maybe a week or so even with one more... but... it's just so hard to wait when you're so close!".
Perla raised an eyebrow, exhaling, glancing at the nursery alcove, blinking in slight surprise to see a glimpse of a compass hiding, and then glanced at her new son, blind and deaf for some time until they open.
"Well, are you willing to wait a bit longer for me if I pleasure you? And maybe, pleasure me around the breasts?", Perla suggested, and Beast growled lowly, "You're always so amazing with your compromises...", taking down his trousers halfway down, freeing his tight, big rod.
Perla slightly twisted around, but still enough to allow Teddy to keep suckling at his teat of his mama's milk, and her breasts bounced around from gravity as she took Beast's rod into her new mouth upside down, and Beast groaned loudly in pleasure, growling in surprise, leaning down, moving himself deeper into her mouth a bit more as he took a breast in his jaw, with his other paw playing with her other breast.
"Oh, I really needed this...", Beast groaned. "Don't get me wrong, Juliet's been helping, but... it's just not really the same without you...". Perla took him out of her mouth as she chuckled, "Juliet, I'm sure, is trying her best... but yeah... I think I'm the only one who can do this perfectly.".
Beast growled deeply, "And you fit me so good with your new jaw...Don't stop...", before Perla grinned, "Yep.", before resuming to deep throat his rod, using her beastly teeth to grind against the fleshy fur as she went slowly back and forward, upside down.
Beast snarled in pleasure, sending vibrations down her breast as she groaned in pleasure as he kept rolling her breast in his jaw, with his other paw squeezing her other breast.
Perla gave out a loud moan from the pleasure she was feeling thanks to him as he kept on going. She herself was doing a good job in slowly working him towards the edge with each passing minute.
Beast groaned and moaned in pleasure as he is happy to have his Perla, as they both kept pleasuring each other, his primal side becoming both frustrated yet satisfied, willing to wait to truly reclaim his mate when they reunite for real.
This continued for another 25 minutes as it came to a crescendo, the pleasure becoming faster and faster, with loud snarls and cries of pleasure filling the cavern, with the compass at work muffling it all from the older cubs and the night creatures outside.
Perla can feel Beast getting so close to release, and she is really short doubting her compromise as she can strangely feel her primal side roaring at her for more, her senses wildly picking up on Beast's scent while she was working on him, feeling herself coming to a close as well.
Thinking furiously, Perla popped free of his rod, begging him, "Hold on a minute, Adam, please...", and Beast paused, frustratedly so tight and so close, but obeying his mate, and Perla went to gently carry the slumbering Teddy who had finished his first meal a few minutes ago as he was that hungry, putting him next to his siblings in the nursery alcove.
Perla then turned around, and looked at Beast, "I think I understand you now...I have primal instincts now...Does that happen a lot?".
"More or less...", Beast told her as he took a deep breath. "But hopefully that might all stop when we're free...", with a hopeful smile. "Free...", Perla muttered as she closed her eyes. She didn't know how much time she had left with Beast right now... but... there was something she needed to do for weeks that he had to know.
If they were ever going to move forward; they both needed to be open with things... and she had a lot that she needed to tell him.
Perla took a deep breath, snarled inwardly at her primal side to quiet down, hearing the frustration and great pleading to be taken by her mate, and looked at Beast, "Adam...Do you want to know why I haven't incessantly hated the fact that I'm cursed and all?".
Beast looked at her, and murmured, "I haven't heard you ranting off and being ashamed of your new body...I always wondered why...I assumed it's because of the fact that you were seeing how I felt, and that you were focused on surviving and watching over the cubs...".
"Yes, that's true, but the other part why I hadn't freaked out at being like you, is that I actually have experienced magic for the first time when I was a puppet boy years ago...", Perla exhaled deeply, looking down at the floor, waiting for him to react angrily or something, ready to defend her cubs from her own mate...
There was a pause for a few moments before he finally spoke, "Excuse me?". She took a deep breath as she let the floodgates open.
"Adam... I was never actually born. My father was a woodworker, and he made a wooden puppet boy... me. At first, I was just that, a puppet. But my father's desire to have a child, after losing his wife and child years prior...". She closed her eyes again, "I was brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy, the Evening Star...".
Beast exhaled, his eyes widening in shock...He and his mother used to look at the stars long ago, and his mother used to say that the Evening Star is the only star that didn't move like the other stars...
But to hear that the legend of the Evening Star about being a wishing star for people with reasonable wishes, is actually true...And a fairy...He looked into Perla's ocean blue eyes, and he knew she's telling the truth...He knew that she and most of her family came from Italy...
Beast thought he'd be angry at the mention of magic, or that Perla kept this from him, but yet witnessing her long journey of surviving and birthing the cubs, she is still coming back home...He replied deeply, "Did she give stipulations?".
Perla nodded, "Essentially, she said I needed to be brave, truthful and unselfish, and then I would be a real boy.". She took a deep breath, "Of course, that didn't exactly work out the way that we all were expecting. Papa, Geppetto, you recall... he sent me off to school. I guess we both thought, well, more him, rather than me, it was the best place I should go to do that sort of thing. But I'm afraid I was sidetracked by a charlatan pair called Honest John and Gideon...".
Beast looked at her, "Wasn't your uncle there too?", and Perla smiled, "He was, but in a different way than you thought...Jiminy was my conscience, the job given to him by the Blue Fairy, and literally in a fact that consciences are small, he was small himself, being a cricket...", seeing Beast's eyes widen again, gaping in shock, realizing that Jiminy's surname was actually literal.
Perla chuckled, "I know. That was almost the same reaction Jules and Ray had. Anyway, Jiminy really did his best to get me away from Honest John and Gideon not once, but twice, and for the first time around them, I was greatly convinced that I'd be better off to be a famous actor, thus how I knew Stromboli...".
"Ah, so that's how you knew him.", Beast nodded with an exhale, understanding why she went mama beast mode on Stromboli more than ever.