The Bear's Fake Bride

by Amy Star

  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, b
ut 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.