A Bear Temptation

| Epilogue |

Katze knew where he was, he had left Our Wood in the morning thinking she was sleeping. She had let him go knowing Zeke needed space. A lot had happened for him to process but it had been all day and she was getting anxious.

As she walked towards him she stopped for a second taking in his broken form. He kneeled before his parents’ memorial just staring at it, she knew he had been here for hours.

"Zeke." She whispered. His shoulders tensed telling her he heard her voice. He didn't turn, he just remained in that spot.

Walking over to him she placed her hands on those strong shoulders. He seemed to relax below her touch. She stared at the memorial with him, feeling his pain like it was her own.

“This is all my fault, Wolff told me to keep an eye on him. I should have known.” Zeke admitted his defeat clear in those words.            

“There was no way to know, that was the whole point. Serena had the perfect plan.”

“She is always one step ahead of us.”                                                       

“Well now she doesn’t have an inside man, so it’s going to be a lot harder for her.” She mused.

“I can’t lose anyone else Katze.” Zeke admitted. “I won’t survive it.”

“I don’t think any of us would, but we need to go into this knowing the risks we are taking. It’s all or nothing.”

Katze stared at the memorial photographs smiling at the beautiful colourful flowers surrounding them. She hoped she didn’t have to sit in front of many more of these because it would surely break the Clan to pieces.

“Do you know what hurts the most?” Katze stated as she sat down beside Zeke resting her head on his shoulder.

“What?”

“I can understand why Deon done it. When Serena gave me the option to kill Wolff to keep you and Calla a part of me was tempted, she made it seem like the only way. You are my family, and I would have done anything to keep you, but I knew if I killed Wolff, it would break you.” She admitted.

“I understand why he done it, I really do but we were his family too, we would have helped him. I could have helped him.”

“I know.” Katze agreed. “But Deon is also a victim in this, Serena took his family and used his love for them to make him betray us, something I know he didn’t want to do. I saw it in his eyes, he was ashamed. He may have helped Serena, but we need to remember that he was put in a difficult situation and if it came down to it, would we have acted differently in his shoes?”

“My wise mate.” Zeke chuckled.

“I think this baby is turning me wise.” She remarked with an answering snort from him.

“We are bringing a baby into a war.” Zeke sighed. “Whatever happens in the future promise me you keep Calla and the baby safe.”

She nodded; her mothering instincts were strong. She could feel them growing as the baby did, the animal hibernating in her skin to make sure it protected their little bundle.

“This baby is going to be the luckiest alive, it’s coming into a family so loyal with a Dad who is going to be the best one alive.” Katze leaned over kissing his stubbly cheek.

“My father was the best alive but if I can be half the Dad he was then our baby is a lucky little person.”

“Your father would be proud of you and our baby will grow up knowing just how special his Granda and Granma were.”

“I hope so.” Zeke whispered.

They fell to silence as the dark clouds started to cover the sky. Looking up at them Katze sighed wishing that she could end this all and make everything better, but the reality was there wasn’t an easy fix. This was something they had to do together, something that could only be done together.

“Our main priority is taking Serena down; once she falls her followers will, most of them don’t really want to fight. The only question I have is who is going to be in charge if we manage to pull this off? This world still needs a leader, without one we are in danger.” Katze asked with a frown.

“We will cross that bridge when we come to it Panther, one step at a time.” He chuckled.

“I love you Zeke.”

“I love you too Katze, you have given me so much and I will be forever grateful. You saved me.”

“No, you saved me.”

“I guess we saved each other.” He stated them both knowing the words were completely true. It was a beautiful thing finding your mate, but it was even more special when they were this perfect.

As the rain started to fall, its coldness a welcomed distraction to the aching uncertainty they felt for their future Katze smiled as Zeke took her hand kissing her fingers.

There was no guarantee of tomorrow but for now they had each other and in that moment that was more than enough.