“Come with me,” Zeke said as he took hold of her hand and led her toward the door.

She looked back over her shoulder and at all of the books and history in the room with them. She was in the presence of greatness, the whole past of the town and its origins was archived right there, deep inside The Nowhere Bar.

Zeke opened the door and left, taking her with him. She slipped her hand fully into his and they entwined their fingers. Before he reached for the key and used his spare hand to lock the door behind them.

“Never tell anyone in town about that room,” he whispered. “We can’t risk the bears learning it is here. It is part of the key we need to help our future.”

Esme nodded. She didn’t know yet who she could trust and who she should fear. However, if what Zeke was telling her was all true, then surely, soon the bears and the wolves would have to put their differences aside and come together…

He walked to the end of the corridor and opened the door that led them into the main body of the bar. Esme’s eyes looked up to the ceiling and at all the rows of balconies that circled above them in-between. The building was so big and cavernous. It was like it was the wolves’ headquarters hidden in plain sight from the rest of the town.

Zeke raised his hand and waved, and Esme realized that Blu, Scar, and River were sitting at the bar where she and Stacey had worked the previous two evenings.

They all turned to look at them over their shoulders, and then they passed a look between them that told Esme all she needed to know.

They could see she had changed.

They could see that Zeke had imprinted on her, and now she was his for life.

“Esme,” River said as he tipped his head forward.

She smiled at them all in turn and squeezed Zeke’s hand tightly in hers.

“She knows,” Zeke confirmed to them all. “And we are together.”

Blu and Scar both got to their feet and came closer to them. Blu slapped Zeke on the arm and pulled him into a big hug, and Scar swept up Esme and kissed her on the cheek.

“You have no idea how long we have waited for you, Esme,” he said. “You have become the stuff of legends.”

“And you have no idea how hard its been trying to act normal,” River laughed from behind them as he lit a cigarette. “We all tried to convince Zeke to come and find you years ago… But he always had faith in fate. He knew you would return.”

Esme looked back to Zeke and he shrugged his shoulders.

“I just knew,” he said.

Esme smiled.

She walked over to him and let him wrap his arm around her shoulder and pull her in close to him. His skin was warm and comforting, and she felt so safe with him. She knew she would never leave his side again.

“Who wants a drink?” Blu said as he climbed over the top of the bar and opened up the refrigerators. Zeke looked down at Esme but she shook her head.

“You go for it,” she smiled. “But I don’t know, something is just telling me not to.”

Zeke kissed her hand and let his lips linger on her knuckles. She didn’t want him to let go, and it was as if he read her mind, because instead of dropping her hand, he wrapped it up in his and kept it tight in his fist.

“I better get going,” River said as he pulled on a leather jacket and headed toward the front door. “Enjoy your celebrations, everyone,” he winked as he kicked the door open with his big boot and disappeared out into the sunlight.

Blu and Scar looked back at Esme and Zeke and they all seemed to not know what to do next.

Blu opened his mouth wide into a yawn, and Esme was sure she heard a growl escape his lips. She felt herself step back a little in panic, but then she had to check herself and readjust. Zeke was holding her hand, all of this was going to be okay.

“Do you want to see?” Zeke asked as he looked down at her mischievously.

She didn’t have to ask him to know what he was talking about, and she could see the menace in Blu’s and Scar’s eyes too. The energy in the room was becoming hot and fervid, and Blu was arching his back and more growls were coming from his direction. Esme watched him, he still looked exactly like a man, but it was clear another force was taking him over.

“Will I be safe?” she asked Zeke, who was also beginning to change in demeanor.

“Of course,” he said. “I would never put you at risk. And you’re one of us now.” He touched her face softly and kissed her again on the lips.

She trusted him, whole and true, and so she stepped away from them all and made her way toward the back of the room, where she sat in one of the booths, so she could watch what was about to unfold.

The three men began to circle each other, as if they were drumming up some energy and force that couldn’t be seen. Even though it was invisible to the naked eye, Esme could feel it. She could feel it running right through her veins and it made her heart beat faster and her brain ache with possibility.

Zeke snarled and bared his teeth, and so did Blu and Scar... and then, one by one, they all began to run faster and faster in their circle, a whirlwind forming around them as they pounded the ground and growled with deafening howls.

Esme covered her ears and her mouth was gaping open as the three of them thundered around the room, hurtling themselves forward and ripping and pulling at their clothes as they started to shift.

There was a mass of snarling teeth, growls, and dark, dark fur… all of them were growing in size and they were so powerful Esme barely dared watch. When the screams and the noise from the circle they had been creating had subsided, she peered through the cracks in her eyes to see them all standing there.

Three majestic wolves.

Zeke was right at the front of them, and her heart almost exploded from her chest.

There he was…

The wolf she remembered.

He was jet black, massive beyond belief, and with green, green eyes.

She sat there with her hand clamped over her heart and her mouth gaping open.

“Wow,” she whispered as she looked on at them all.

Blu and Scar started to snap and play with each other, and Esme laughed as she watched them run off toward the front of the room and up the stairs. They bounded around the balconies and jumped between them high up in the room, almost on the ceiling, and Esme clapped her hands together and laughed.

“This is incredible,” she said as she looked back to Zeke.

He was sitting there with his head cocked to the side, but this time, he was the big, black wolf. Esme reached her hand forward and beckoned him to her, and Zeke slowly rose to his feet and started to approach her. 

In her mind, she could see how they had been almost twenty years before. She remembered how she had stood at the foot of the rock, and how the wolf had come forward to meet her. She mimicked the actions she had done that day, and she held out her hand and let him sniff it before she rubbed him behind the ears and stoked his soft, incredible fur.

“Zeke,” she whispered, as a tear sprung to the corner of her eye.

Her whole life had been waiting for this moment, and now that she was there, she never wanted it to end.

High up above, Blu and Scar still roamed around the bar and jumped between the balconies as they chased each other and snapped and growled.

Zeke bared his teeth when he looked up in their direction, and Esme could feel his power, but she wasn’t afraid. She knew that if he wanted to, he could dive on her and rip her to shreds at a moment’s notice. But she felt his love for her, and she could feel their deepened bond, and she knew he would never do anything to hurt her.

She smiled at him and ran her hands right down his back, feeling his fur and incredible muscles beneath.

Zeke nuzzled into her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and breathed him in. He didn’t smell like a wolf or man, he just smelled like him, and it was a scent she had come to love.

Zeke howled lowly and then he began to back away. Esme sat back down in the booth and watched as he rose up on his hind legs and his whole body juddered as the fur began to split open and his shape began to change.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, his skin began to reappear and his face and features came back to him. The wolf was hidden once again inside him, and Zeke the man had returned.

Esme got to her feet and ran forward. She had to be with him.

He was naked and in her arms, and his skin was red hot and on fire. He was panting and he looked dewy and shiny and full of magic.

“You can always be yourself in front of me,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I am not afraid. I love you for who you are.”

Zeke held her tightly and stroked her hair.

“I know, babe,” he said. “And I love you too.”

 

Blu and Scar came back down to the bottom floor once they had shifted back and changed into a pair of robes.

“A hazard of tearing your clothes off each time you want to have a bit of fun,” Zeke said as he looked down at Esme with amusement. “That’s why we have so many clothes kicking around the place.”

“Ahh like the scarf and gloves?” she asked with a wink.

Zeke nodded his head and raised his eyebrows.

Blu sat down at the bar and Scar leaned against it with his arms crossed over his waist.

“I take it you guys are staying here all day and night?” Zeke asked.

Blu nodded with a mischievous smile.

“Sure,” he said. “We’re here to oversee everything. You two get out of here…” He let the statement hang in the air around them and Esme tried not to blush.

She knew what she wanted to do, and she could only assume Zeke felt exactly the same and that Blu and Scar knew it too.

She looked up at him.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and an old leather jacket he found behind the bar.

“Come on,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind her and kissed her on the neck. “I’m taking you home.”

He flipped the bird at Blu and Scar as they wolf whistled toward them, and Esme laughed as he kicked the door open and pulled her out into the daylight.