“My what?”
“The Bouda will need land. A real holding. That takes time to establish.” She gives me time to take it in. “For now, this is home. It’s a mix of people here, fated humans waiting to find their match, supernaturals who’ve stepped back from their clansor covens, mated couples getting established. Everyone here is figuring something out.”
“It’s a lot,” I tell her.
“It gets less overwhelming,” Andrew says from the back seat. “Give it about a week. Everyone adjusts.”
Aiden turns from the window and faces Andrew directly. “I don’t want to keep living like I’m between things. This is my future now. I want roots. I want to build something real.”
Andrew exhales. “We’ll talk about that.”
“The hell we won’t.” Aiden’s voice is quiet, but there’s nothing soft about the intention in it.
Andrew looks out the window. Kade keeps driving.
She pulls up in front of a cabin near the far end of the village and cuts the engine. I’m out of the passenger side before she finishes telling me to wait, and I hear her call me stubborn but I’m already walking around the truck, taking it in. It’s a solid single-story log structure with a deep covered porch, two wide windows on either side of the door, both lit warm from inside. Small lights run along the porch railing. A woodpile big enough for the whole winter sits stacked and covered under a lean-to on the south side.
The air is different here. Cleaner, colder, with an undercurrent I can’t name.
Kade comes around the truck and stands beside me. “Fully furnished. TV, internet, real kitchen.”
“I need a phone,” I say. “My parents don’t know.” I stop because I genuinely don’t know how to end that sentence. My mom is going to try to reach me by morning, and when she can’t, she’ll spiral, and she won’t be wrong to spiral because what would I even say.
“We’re not big on phones here, but we have them. I’ll make sure Leah gets you one sorted.” Kade shrugs. “There’s other paperwork too, since you’re fated you’ll need to be registeredin Wintermoon’s database. But that’s not today. Today you just settle in.”
“What about clothes?”
The front door of the cabin swings open and a woman stands in the doorway with the light behind her, one arm raised in a wave, her whole face communicating warmth. She has tan skin and long wavy dark brown hair pinned up with a pen through the bun, dusted at the temples with what looks like flour. Big bright brown eyes. Her fangs show when she smiles, quick and unguarded.
“That’s my Leah,” Kade says, her voice going soft on the name --- soft enough to catch me off guard. “Right on time.”
I glance back at Andrew, who waves at the porch with an enthusiasm that is a lot for we just went through. Aiden watches him with an expression that lives in the territory between exasperation and fondness he hasn’t named yet. He finds my eye and gives me a small nod. I take a breath and start toward the steps.
“Wait.” I stop. “How will Kojo and Zaki know where to find me?”
Kade laughs, short and genuine, points straight up, and I catch them clearing the tree line, They come out of the dark above the forest with no more sound than the snow makes falling, two shapes against the white sky, and then they land in the clearing a few yards away and I feel the impact through the soles of my feet even from here. Snow kicks up in a soft cloud and settles. They stand in it, watching me, and then they start walking.
“Come on.” Kade catches my arm. “They’ll meet you inside.”
I frown at her but I go.
Leah reaches out and takes both my hands in hers the moment I clear the top step, her grip cool and certain, nothingtentative about it. Up close she smells like flour and vanilla underneath, and her eyes are steady.
“Another daughter of Wintermoon,” she says. “Welcome home.”
I don’t know what to do with “welcome home” when I’ve been on this land for approximately twenty minutes. But how she says it doesn’t leave room to argue, and I open my mouth and then close it again without finding anything.
Behind me I hear the truck door. I turn back through the open front door, out past the porch railing, toward the truck, where Kojo has stopped. I can see them in the headlights, him and Aiden, Kojo’s head bent slightly and Aiden’s hand at his shoulder. Whatever they’re saying, it’s not for me, and I look away and let them have it.
“He’s saying goodbye to Aiden.” Kade clocks what I’m doing. “Thanking him. Their journey together ends here. Everything new starts with you.”
“Oh,” I manage.
Leah moves around behind me with the speed I’m going to have to get used to, and she’s lifting my coat off my shoulders before I’ve processed that she’s moved. She carries it to the coat rack by the door, hangs it neatly, and returns with a measuring tape already in her hand, produced from her apron pocket.
“One thing I’ve learned settling women into Wintermoon,” she tells me, matter-of-fact, “is that clothing sizes run different here. Better to get your measurements now and save you the frustration later.” She doesn’t wait for me to agree. The tape goes around my shoulders, my waist, my hips, her hands quick and light, over and done in fifteen seconds. She produces a small notepad and pen from the same apron pocket and writes down a column of numbers without looking up.
Kade crosses the room and drops a kiss to Leah’s cheek. Leah goes pink under her tan skin, tilts her head into it slightlywithout pausing her writing, and Kade tucks her hands in her pockets and steps back. I smile at that.
