Though Zeke came to the nature reserve once a month, he knew remarkably little about the area surrounding it. True enough, he could guess that it was a rural area, but that wasn’t exactly an enormous leap of logic.
Suffice to say, as he bolted through the trees and did his best to stay out of Richard’s line of sight, he didn’t actually have any idea where he was going. He would be able to find his way back easily enough, of that there was no doubt, but for all he knew he might go bumbling right over the edge of a cliff, assuming there were any cliffs in the area.
…Or he might go bumbling right onto private property, as the case was just then, as the trees eventually gave way to farmland with sheep and cows moseying around in the distance. They lifted their heads from their grazing to watch Zeke with alarm as he kept on running through the grass. Of course, it wasn’t long before the dogs spotted him and set to barking, and they only got all the louder as Richard barreled out of the woods behind him. If he even noticed the change in scenery, there was no indication, and he only slowed slightly once it was readily apparent that Charlie was not actually with Zeke anymore, as there were no longer any sort of trees or underbrush to block the view.
There was a farmer. Of course, there was; it was a farm. The farmer, however, had a gun and did not appreciate what to him were simply two predators on his property. To him it was likely the most obvious conclusion that the two enormous bears were a risk to his livestock, so Zeke really couldn’t blame him when the first shot rang out. It struck nothing, but Zeke put on another burst of speed regardless.
He angled himself back towards the tree line, intending to boomerang back around into the woods again. It would be safer that way, and if nothing else, Richard knew that Charlie was somewhere in the woods and would likely be heading back in her direction soon enough. Determination had always been something of a skill of his, though it was rather frequently mistaken as sheer stubbornness.
The second shot came as a surprise. Not because Zeke hadn’t expected the farmer to keep shooting, but because it actually found its target. Zeke stumbled to a halt in surprise when he heard Richard make the strangest noise behind him. Standing just at the tree line, he turned, peering cautiously back at his cousin as he toppled to the ground, blood streaming from one of his shoulders.
For a moment, Zeke dithered, debating running back to offer some sort of help, though he wasn’t actually sure what he could offer just then. Either way, though he couldn’t say he would weep for the loss, he had never wanted anyone to get shot; he had never actually wanted anyone dead.
Richard struggled back to his feet and hobbled a few steps before another shot rang out. There was a spray of blood and other matter as the bullet found its home in Richard’s skull, and his body dropped lifelessly to the grass.
Zeke turned and bolted into the woods as quickly as he could. There was quite literally nothing left that he could do, and lingering would do nothing more than get him shot as well. Considering he had a fiancée to get back to and a wedding to attend in the near future, that was rather low on his list of things to do.
What a strange thought, though. Richard was dead. Arguably because of his own malevolence. Zeke couldn’t help but think of the farmer as some sort of manifestation of karma. If Richard had simply butted out and left well enough alone, his brains wouldn’t be splattered over some pasture at the ass end of nowhere.
Even so, it wasn’t a particularly cheering thought and Zeke did his best to turn his thoughts to more pleasant, much more distracting matters as he kept on running. All of the sprinting meant he was about ready to sleep for a week, but Charlie had to be getting worried and he didn’t want to leave her alone for too long, especially given that he wasn’t sure what else, if anything, might be lurking in the woods as well.
Soon enough he would find Charlie again, and then he could take a break. And then he could explain what had happened.
What a night it had turned out to be.
*
The underbrush rustled loudly, branches snapping emphatically enough to give away the size of the creature coming closer. Charlie curled up into a tighter ball until she heard a placid grunt, and she finally started to crawl back out. A line of tension across her shoulders that she hadn’t even noticed began to unknot and relax as she saw Zeke staring back at her.
With a sigh, he flopped down onto the ground, dust and leaves and bits of grass rushing up around him. Charlie coughed and waved a hand in front of her face before she shuffled forward to lean against his side.
“You can’t actually explain shit about what just happened until you change back,” she acknowledged, caught somewhere between glum and amused. Zeke made a low, grumbling noise and shrugged, his ears slicking back against his head as he did.
The thought was sort of funny, in a strange way. Not funny enough to keep Charlie from checking the time on her phone roughly every three minutes, but it was sort of darkly amusing.
Whatever had happened, it had apparently worn Zeke out, as he fell asleep right there, content to nap the rest of the night away until he could change back to his human shape. That, at least, seemed pretty telling in one regard; if Richard were still a threat then Zeke wouldn’t allow himself to fall asleep. So whatever had happened, it had removed Richard from the picture.
Charlie sighed out a slow, relieved breath.
*
The night passed slowly. Charlie felt relatively safe in wandering, though. Not far, of course. After everything that had happened that night, she was content to stay within a stone’s throw of Zeke. But with what she had managed to intuit about the danger being more or less gone, she was content to meander through the immediate area.
Richard hadn’t come back, so clearly, they hadn’t simply made peace with each other. Not that Charlie had expected them to, and she wouldn’t have believed it for an instant if they tried to say they had. Frankly, she didn’t think Richard was capable of making peace with anyone once he decided he wanted something.
She supposed the most likely outcome was that Zeke had simply scared him off again. Richard was tenacious, but he had proven that he wasn’t above running from a fight that he knew he couldn’t win.
She supposed there wasn’t much of a point in speculating, though. Zeke would explain whatever had happened to Richard in due time. Until then, she plucked a few wild flowers and tried to weave them together into a chain, only to realize that it was harder than it looked. She discarded the ruined attempt and settled beside the creek with the last few flowers, sitting at the top of the ravine as she absentmindedly plucked the petals from the flowers and tossed them into the water, watching the small splashes of color float away.
The night was quiet after that.
*
Eventually, once Zeke woke up again, snorting himself awake as if something had startled him, he heaved himself to his feet and began to lumber his way back towards the car, Charlie following along behind him. She supposed it would make sense for him to be able to feel whenever he was going to be able to change back soon. The sun was peeking up over the horizon, and by the time they retraced their steps of the night before and made it back to the car, the sun was well above the horizon line, painting the sky in gold and pink and red.
Zeke heaved out a sigh, shook himself briskly, and transformed. He shook his head briefly, ran a hand through his hair, and began pulling his clothes out of the back seat of the car.
As he dressed, Charlie guessed, “So, Richard’s not a problem anymore, I’m assuming.”
“Right,” Zeke agreed, pulling his boxer briefs up. His tone was slightly peculiar, as if he was trying to decide how he felt about the matter but couldn’t quite get there.
…So maybe Richard hadn’t simply decided to check out and try again another day, if whatever had happened had actually shaken Zeke.
“What, did you chase him off a cliff or something?” Charlie wondered dryly, cocking her weight to one side and leaning against the car.
“I accidentally led him onto private property,” Zeke returned as he stepped into his pants and tugged them up. “The farmer that owned that stretch of property objected to our presence with a shotgun.”
Charlie’s eyebrows flew towards her hairline. “He got shot?” she asked incredulously, her voice pitching up half an octave as she asked.
“By an angry farmer. Twice, actually, though I would assume only the second shot was really fatal.” Zeke’s voice was slightly muffled by the end as he pulled his shirt over his head.
Charlie stared at him blankly for a moment before she finally admitted, “You know, I couldn’t have called that one.” Not that she could say she minded. Callous, maybe, considering Richard was a member of Zeke’s family, but she couldn’t say she was going to shed any tears over his loss.
“Not exactly how I saw the night ending, either,” Zeke conceded, absentmindedly straightening his clothes before he stepped into his shoes. “Though I suppose I knew things with Richard weren’t likely to end well.”
“Bit of a difference between ‘not ending well’ and ‘shot by an uninvolved third party,’” Charlie pointed out, rubbing the back of her head with one hand. After a moment, she wondered slowly, “So, what are we going to tell your parents?”
Zeke was silent for a time, his expression distant as he thought. After a few moments, he decided slowly, “A modified form of the truth. They won’t exactly be surprised to hear that we frequented the same woods on full moons; it’s not like it’s wildly implausible. And they know I’ve always been calmer and less willing to fight even in bear form, so I doubt they would find it hard to believe if I say that Richard picked a fight. It got out of hand, and while I was trying to get away to put some space between us, we accidentally blundered onto private property.”
“Are they going to expect you to be all broken up about the loss?” Charlie wondered as she pulled the car keys from her pocket and passed them idly from one hand to the other.
Zeke snorted. “Doubtful. They’ll expect me to be uncomfortable about watching him get shot, but that’s about it, and I won’t exactly need to fake that.” He held out an expectant hand towards the car keys.
“Fuck that,” Charlie scoffed, holding them close to her chest. “You look like you’re going to fall over. I didn’t survive several bear attacks just to die because you drove us into a tree.” Lacking a car of her own didn’t mean she didn’t know how to drive, after all. It just meant she was unwilling to pay for the car and the gas and the insurance on top of everything else she had needed to pay for already.
Zeke held his hands up in surrender without even bothering to argue. Just as expected, he was asleep almost as soon as he was in the passenger seat, and he stayed that way for the entire drive.
And Charlie had maybe a bit too much fun gunning the engine on the unobserved back roads, but what Zeke didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt him, and letting the wind whip through her hair as she sped along was a good way to clear her mind. Or at least that was the excuse she was going with.
*
That afternoon, they invited Zeke’s parents up to the penthouse to explain the situation—or at least the modified situation—to them. Zeke was fairly convincing as he explained it, considering he was genuinely uncomfortable about having watched Richard get shot in the head. His father seemed to accept it without any questions and excused himself to the balcony.
Maybe he was grieving. Maybe he was attempting to figure out what to do with everything that had been Richard’s. Maybe his thoughts were elsewhere entirely. Charlie caught a glimpse of his expression and he was as stone faced as ever, and after that she gave up on wondering over it.
Carol, however, pulled Charlie aside, leading her into the elevator and then down to the lobby on the ground floor.
“That’s not all of what happened,” she stated simply, her arms folded over her chest. “There’s something you two are keeping from us.” She didn’t actually ask any questions. She made no further accusations. She just looked at Charlie expectantly.
Charlie fidgeted uncomfortably, her hands twisting slightly in the bottom hem of her shirt as she shifted back and forth from one foot to the other. Eventually, she explained slowly, “That was more or less what happened. We just… left out Richard’s motivations for starting a fight to begin with.”
After all, did Zeke’s parents really need to know? They had seemed fond of Richard. Was there any sense in tainting that when it wasn’t going to change the actual outcome? It seemed like it would be… mean, for lack of a better word. Like they were trying to ruin Zeke’s parents’ memories of Richard purely because they hadn’t liked him and they didn’t want anyone else to like him even retrospectively. It felt petty. And frankly, Charlie would rather save up all of her pettiness for rubbing her wedding in her father’s face. She didn’t want to start aiming it at people that she didn’t actually have any problems with.
If there was a right or a wrong way to handle the situation, then Charlie wasn’t sure. Ordinarily she was content to acknowledge that she didn’t have all of the answers and most likely never would, but just then, she would have appreciated a little clairvoyance. She shifted back and forth and picked at one of her cuticles.
At least she had sort of been honest. That was better than nothing, right?
Carol hummed, low and thoughtful, until she finally mused, “I have my suspicions about what actually happened.” She shook her head slightly and sighed, her hands falling to her sides once again. “I know Richard. Considering that, I’m fairly sure I know what happened, so I suppose I can just rely on intuition and let you keep your secrets, if you’re that determined to.”
Charlie sighed out a relieved breath and offered Carol a tiny smile, though she offered no verbal thanks. It seemed a bit unnecessary just then.
They headed back up to the penthouse after that, before Zeke could start fretting about where they went. Fretting was something he was good at, and his father was most likely still not proving himself an adequate distraction. Not that Charlie could blame him, given the news they had just given him.
*
Richard’s funeral was a small affair. Closed casket, because there was no body. The Croasdells weren’t saying that, of course; Charlie was pretty sure the excuse they were going with was that it had been a car accident and he had been so mangled in the mess that an open casket would be unsightly.
Charlie smiled politely through the whole thing, and she was unendingly grateful that no one tried to talk to her. No one there really knew her, after all. They talked to Zeke, of course, but Charlie was ignored, by and large, and that was perfectly fine with her. She didn’t think she really had it in her to pretend to be sad. As it was, Zeke only managed to seem politely dissatisfied.
Charlie did, at least, manage some honest words of comfort for Carol. She liked Zeke’s mother, and as much as Charlie didn’t like Richard, his loss did pain Mrs. Croasdell and that fact brought Charlie no joy.
Zeke and Charlie were there just long enough for their presence to be noted, and they left again as soon as it was polite to do so. No one questioned it. Maybe they assumed Zeke didn’t care. Maybe they assumed Zeke and Richard had been close and Zeke needed some privacy. Maybe the other attendees didn’t care to ponder it. Charlie wasn’t going to pretend she knew how the upper class thought.
*
The gloom of the funeral didn’t get to linger long. Though it was days later, it seemed like Charlie blinked and suddenly her wedding day was upon her.
For the most part, Charlie was kept away from Zeke for most of the day, as if seeing her even without her wedding dress was going to jinx everything. She supposed it wasn’t quite worth it to argue, though, and as it was, she felt a bit like her brain was going to explode out of her ears.
…In a good way, of course. It was all just a lot to wrap her mind around, the idea that she was actually going to be married. To a were-bear. No, she still hadn’t entirely gotten over that detail.
She was essentially abducted that morning, after she was awake just long enough to determine that Zeke had already been carted off, and to shower, comb her hair, brush her teeth, and get dressed.
The venue for the wedding was outdoors. There were sprawling gardens in all directions, dotted with fountains and statues. There was a trellis erected where they were to take their vows, lined in all of the flowers that Charlie had picked out. A carpet led away from the trellis, cutting the assembled chairs neatly into two halves.
Surrounding the entire set up were pillars with garlands of flowers winding up and around them and strung between each pillar, until the entire thing looked like it had been pulled out of a fairytale. It really was lovely, and Charlie almost couldn’t believe that it had been done for her. For a long moment, she simply stood and stared, taking in the sight.
Granted, Charlie only had that one moment to actually appreciate the way everything had come together before she was being hauled away by Carol, into a dressing room. Her makeup was done in shades of gold and her hair was woven elegantly and intricately on the back of her head, and then finally, it was time for her to put her dress on. Carol’s presence was something of a godsend then, as putting the dress on was definitely not a job for just one person, and Sam was occupied getting into her own dress in a different room.
It was a bit like Cirque du Soleil, all things considered, but it didn’t take too long before Charlie was properly dressed for the occasion.
Sam was already in her maid of honor dress when she breezed into the room that Charlie was getting changed in. Her dress was a simple silhouette with short, off the shoulder sleeves and a short skirt, primarily pink but with an orange sash around the middle. It was a bit more vibrant than the clothing she typically wore, but she pulled it off well all the same.
She paused just inside the doorway, staring at Charlie’s reflection as Carol finished tugging the zipper up in the back. And then Sam practically squealed and bounced in place, four-inch orange heels clacking against the floor. With her hands clasped together in front of her, she gushed, “You look amazing!”
“I hope so, considering how much this dress cost,” Charlie returned dryly, turning this way and that to admire her reflection.
“You’re not quite done yet,” Carol pointed out before she turned and strode over to the vanity against the wall, picking up a bundle of fabric off of it. When she returned to Charlie’s side, she presented the veil, the entire thing made of lace and attached to a comb that was lined in beads that were nearly the same colors as the beads on the dress.
“I don’t remember getting a veil,” Charlie remarked faintly, staring at it.
“You need something borrowed,” Carol explained simply, sliding the comb into Charlie’s hair and arranging the veil. “It’s also something old; it was my grandmother’s.” She lifted a hand, tapping her lower lip with one finger and ignoring the way Charlie was gaping at her as she thought. “The dress is something new, of course. I wish I’d thought to bring something blue with me.”
“Oh! Hold that thought!” Sam exclaimed, before she turned and scampered away, heels clacking into the distance as she left, and then clacking right back towards the room as she returned only a few minutes later.
She paraded back into the room proudly, holding a pair of dangling earrings in her hand. They were simple, teardrop shaped blue jewels wrapped in silver, and while they didn’t quite match the dress, they were pretty enough and the thought was appreciated enough that it was irrelevant. Charlie held out a hand to accept them and put them on, pushing the veil aside to do so before carefully rearranging it again.
“Well?” she wondered quietly once she was finished, holding her hands out to her sides as if to present herself to them. “How is it?”
Sam smiled, soft and fond. “You’ve never looked better,” she assured her, her voice gentle. “I’m going to go take my position. I’m pretty sure your husband-to-be is just about vibrating out of his skin, so you better hurry up.”
“On my way,” Charlie assured her, though she turned back towards the mirror one last time just to make sure everything was as it should be, until finally Carol began to herd her out the door.
Once they were outside and they could hear the pianist and the chatter of the guests, Carol took her leave from Charlie’s side to take her seat, and Charlie’s steps picked up slightly. When she made it to the end of the narrow strip of carpet that divided both sides of the audience, the chatter died down and the piano music drifted into silence, only to pick up again a moment later. It was a familiar, soothing song, almost like a lullaby, and Charlie smiled to herself and started walking once again.
Zeke was staring at her as she walked, looking utterly enraptured. In that moment, Charlie was very glad he hadn’t been allowed to see the dress before then; she wouldn’t have wanted to miss the look on his face just then, and if he had been able to see the dress before then, it would have had so much less impact.
As the song dwindled to an end, Charlie made it to the end of the carpet, standing across from Zeke under the trellis. He was still staring at her as if he had just watched her descend from the heavens.
She couldn’t say she minded the attention.
*
“Ezekiel Croasdell, do you take Charlemagne Harrison to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
Zeke slipped a ring—platinum with a band of rose gold around the middle—around Charlie’s finger, and the justice of the peace turned towards her.
“Charlemagne Harrison, do you take Ezekiel Croasdell to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do.”
She slipped the matching ring around Zeke’s finger in turn.
“Then I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
When he kissed her, both hands cupping her face, it was as if the entire rest of the world ceased existing for just a little while. And it was perfect.
*
Spending an entire afternoon and evening dancing in a dress with a noticeable train was not exactly Charlie’s idea of fun. Once wedding pictures were taken, Charlie and Sam disappeared into a changing room again so Sam could help get Charlie out of her wedding dress and into a considerably more convenient dress. Like her wedding dress, it had its own lacy, off the shoulder sleeves and considerably more modest embroidery, but the skirt hardly came to her mid-thighs. It was a dress she could dance in with no issues, thankfully, and when she emerged from the changing room it was to immediately drag Zeke onto the dance floor for their first dance.
Slow dancing had never been one of Charlie’s talents, considering she had never particularly had a reason to learn in the past, but Zeke never made her feel clumsy, and for that, she was grateful.
It was after the first dance that they were both mobbed by relations, as Charlie’s siblings bounded towards them, flanked by spouses and children. Introductions were made hastily, as Charlie took a deep breath and began rattling off names, pointing to first her five siblings—Maxine, Alexander, Jason, Phoebe, and Patricia—and then their spouses—Jonathan, Caroline, Rose, Harry, and William—and finally the dozen children crowded around—Lizzie, Billy, Robby, Danni, Marcus, Henry, Penelope, Marcia, Connor, Cassie, Kelly, and Haley—and somehow, she managed to get every name out in one breath before she had to pause.
Though Maxine and Jason seemed a bit peevish at Charlie’s sudden boost in status, by and large they all seemed content to gush over the wedding and the dress and the flowers, and Charlie was content to be the center of attention for the time being.
And of course, both Charlie and Zeke were dragged onto the dance floor by a series of children, and even after that, Zeke had to entertain Charlie’s sisters. They needed a chance to suss him out, after all. Charlie had… slightly forgotten that no one in her family had actually met him before the wedding. Granted, everything had been a bit hectic, so she supposed she was free to wave the matter off; no one could really blame her for getting distracted, even if she had no plans on telling any of them the full story.
It was good to see them again, though Charlie got the impression that after the wedding was past they would all go right back to only seeing each other on special occasions. She couldn’t say she minded too terribly much, though; letting her family worm into her life too far promised nothing but complication in the future. “Arm’s length,” as she had found, was a perfectly good place to keep them.
And besides, they weren’t actually why her family was at the wedding. Sure, it was nice to see them, but Charlie had invited them with a purpose in mind.
It was when her siblings, siblings-in-law, nieces, and nephews scattered to enjoy the party that her father finally made his presence known.
Maxwell Harrison was a tall, weedy man built like he had been assembled from straws and spare parts, so everything about him looked as if he wasn’t quite put together properly. His skin was a shade or two paler than Charlie’s and his hair was an oddly flat shade of brown, rather matching his eyes. The best that could be said for his face was that it was rather face-shaped; he had never really stood out for anything in the past and Charlie was grateful every day that her mother’s genetics had been the more dominant force, at least in her case.
He greeted Zeke with a sharp eye and a handshake that seemed perfunctory, and Charlie beamed as if she had been given the greatest gift in the world when Zeke remarked blandly, “Oh, Charlie’s hardly said a word about you.” She was positive her father was grinding his teeth to keep a polite smile on his face after that.
It was no surprise whatsoever when he turned towards Charlie to wonder, “Charlemagne, can I talk to you for a minute? Father to daughter.”
Looking as bored as she could manage, she agreed, waving Zeke towards where his mother had been trying to get his attention for the past ten minutes. Ignoring the arm her father offered her, Charlie folded her arms over her chest and led the way to a secluded area of the garden, where a fountain drowned out most of the noise of the party.
She didn’t give him a chance to say anything. She simply held up a hand, preemptively silencing him. “I will give you,” she began, eyes sparkling as his expression began to turn hopeful, “exactly as much money as you gave me once I moved out.”
His expression crumbled into outrage. “I’m your dad,” he tried to protest, but he cut himself off at Charlie’s sharp bark of laughter.
“Is that supposed to mean something?” she wondered, her tone as sugary sweet as she could manage as she laced her hands together in front of herself in a way that was almost innocent. “I mean, it certainly never meant much to you.”
Her father gaped at her for a moment, his mouth flapping like a fish’s as he tried to come up with a retort and failed, to no surprise. While he was still trying to get the gears in his head to turn, Charlie smiled blithely and informed him, “This is my party, so I should probably head back before someone starts wondering where I went. I hope you enjoy the evening.”
She turned on her heel and strode back to the crowd so she could lean against Zeke’s side. He paused in his conversation with his mother to glance down at her, wondering mildly, “Everything in order?”
“Perfectly so,” she replied.