Surprise flickers across my sister’s face, then softens into recognition. She bows her head. “Yes, Kendra.”
Meekah’s tail wraps around Zaki’s waist and they start walking. He leans toward her, his voice dropping. “Let me tell you how wonderful the Pridebound Games are this year compared to those wolf shifters. Absolutely pathetic. Their footwork alone is an embarrassment.”
Zaki lets out a sound that is almost a laugh. “The wolf shifters are clueless and undisciplined. They run off too much emotion. It is why they lose so easily.”
The sound of Zaki’s laugh reaches me from halfway across the market, and my Bouda and I both exhale.
I look at Kendra. She is smiling, watching them go. “I think I’m beginning to really like Wintermoon,” she says.
I smile at her. She turns and starts walking back to the store, and I follow. Inside, I grab the bags from the counter before her hands can reach them. She leans in and presses a kiss against my arm, and we walk out together.
At the SUV, I open the rear door and set her things on the seat. She climbs into the driver’s side and starts the engine. “Will you ride with me?”
I look at the vehicle. My body still remembers four days of pressing my back against a door just to feel air, and the thought of sitting inside another metal box makes me cringe. But I do not want her to feel rejected.
“I’m not commanding you, Kojo.” Her voice is easy, unbothered. “Would you rather run behind me instead?”
I nod, and the relief must show on my face because she grins. “Okay. I’ll watch you from the mirror.”
“I will follow behind you.” She rolls the window down as I close the door. The vehicle backs up, then pauses, and she leans toward the window. “Wait. Amir said you could run for hours.” She frowns slightly, turning it over. “You don’t get tired?”
I bow my head to her, and she mutters “annoying” at the gesture, but the grin breaks through.
“The Bouda can run sixty miles per hour for up to eight hours at a time. This is how we tire out our prey when we hunt. We chase them until they have nothing left.”
She stares at me. “That’s insane, Kojo.” She laughs, pulls out of the parking spot, and turns the vehicle onto the road.
I break into a run. My bare feet hit the wet road and my furnace compensates within a second, heat rolling off my skin in the evening air. The SUV moves ahead at a pace that would be a sprint for a human and a warmup for a Bouda, and I settle into stride behind her. She checks the mirror every fifteen seconds.
The spa building passes on my left.That facility reminds me of the congregating halls for the women in our village,my Bouda says.Our queen may use it for her meetings when the clan grows.Then, after a pause:This is a good time for her to meet me. She has been asking. She is ready, Alemayehu.
He is right.
The community lands come into view as the road curves between the pines. The snow has melted from the paths but clings to the rooftops in patches, and the late afternoon light turns everything gold and gray. I slow my pace and drift off the road into the treeline, watching her taillights through the trunks.
“Okay,” I say, and my voice comes out rough. “I am nervous. What if she---“
She cannot build trust if she cannot see all of us. She accepted the man. She has not yet accepted the beast.
I nod and surrender the reins. The shift takes me the way it always does, bones cracking, my body curving and compressing until it is no longer mine. My Bouda stretches into his full form, his paws hitting the wet ground, the last patches of snow melting on contact. The world restructures itself around a nose that can separate a hundred scents in a single breath.
Kendra pulls in front of the cabin and cuts the engine. She steps out quickly, looking around the clearing with the alertness she carries when she cannot see me. The pull. She feels my absence before she identifies it.
My Bouda lets out a low cackle, a signaling frequency, soft enough to travel without startling. She yelps. Her head turns toward the trees and her body stiffens, feet planted. The sky is going from gold to gray.
She does not run.
He steps out of the treeline slowly, one paw at a time, his ridge held flat against his back, the equivalent of empty hands, and lowers his body into a sitting position on the wet earth. She looks directly into his eyes.
“Kojo?” Her voice comes out quiet, and my Bouda dips his head in a slow nod. She steps toward him, her eyes alight with wonder, and crouches down with her hand extended, fingers trembling, reaching toward his snout but stopping short.
Call her to us, Alemayehu.My Bouda lowers his head and lets out a soft cackle, a frequency tuned to the mate bond itself. Kendra gasps as her body moves forward without her permission, startled that his voice could do that.
He lifts his head just enough for her fingertips to brush over his snout. The contact is electric. She drops to her knees and tears well in her eyes, and the expression on her face is a woman who has found something she did not know she was searching for.
“You’re beautiful,” she whispers, and my Bouda presses closer and drags his tongue across her chin. She laughs through the tears and wraps her arms around his neck, her face buried in his fur.
“I can’t believe you’re mine,” she says.
And she is ours.
