Page 38 of Fat Enemy Mate

Because what I feel feels like a betrayal of my father and everything he stood for. He spent a lifetime trying to protect me from shifters, and here I am playing house with one.

Sleeping with the enemy, quite literally.

I don't know what to do with that, so I do what I always do: keep busy. I clear the breakfast things and find the dishwasher. The cabin is quiet, and the wood stove in the front room is putting out a steady warmth, and the light coming through the windows looks warmer than it has in a long time, meaning we might have seen the last of the snow this year.

The trucks come up the track just before midday.

I hear them before I see them, and I cross to the front window in time to watch them come round the bend. Luna is driving the first one and gets out first, followed by Fern. The second truck is Skylar at the wheel with Dina in the passenger seat and the baby in a car seat in the back. They pile out laughing about something, hands full, and my stomach does a small twist, but I try to ignore it.

I open the front door before I can overthink it and run away.

Wilf is already coming round the side from whatever he’s been doing in the yard, and he sees me on the step and stops.

"Alright?" he asks.

"Yeah," I tell him.

"You need me to come in with you?" he asks.

"No, I'm fine," I tell him. "Honestly."

He nods once and goes back around to where he'd been, and I'm watching the women come up the path.

Luna gets to me first. She's got a canvas bag in each hand.

"Lara," she says. "Sorry for the invasion. I tried to keep it small, but everyone wanted to come, you know how it is."

I want to tell her that, no, I don’t know how it is, because I don’t have any women friends, but I don’t even know where to start with that.

"That was me," Dina calls from behind Skylar, who is coming up with a cake tin balanced on top of another bag. "I'm Dina, hi, sorry. I was so distracted with the baby yesterday, we didn’t get a chance to talk properly.”

"Hi," I tell her.

"You remember Skylar and Fern," Luna says breezily.

"Hi, Lara," Skylar says.

"Lara," Fern says. "Hope you don't mind me coming. I thought it might be nice to chat with another human for a bit, and Luna said you were up for visitors, so..."

"I'm glad you came," I tell her, and find I mean it because the truth is, I can’t quite get my head around humans being so welcome here, and yet, I’m struggling to find evidence that they’re not too.

I let them in, and we’re all set up in the kitchen within two minutes. I watch them take over the space in an easy way;only a group of women who already know each other can take over a room. Fern finds the coffee pot without being told. Skylar puts a huge cake tin on the counter and gets plates from one of the shelves. Dina sits down at the island and adjusts her sling so the baby is settled against her chest, and lets herself look around with the open admiration of the admittedly beautiful kitchen.

"Lara," Dina says. "You realize hardly anyone has ever been invited up here."

"Wilf said," I tell her.

"I haven’t been in Silvercreek all that long," Dina says. "But Caleb has been up here once and obviously completely undersold it. Look at this kitchen. Look at this stove."

"You're not stealing his stove, Dina," Luna says, dropping the bags on the island.

"I'm not stealing the stove," Dina replies dryly. "I'm just appreciating it. And making notes."

Skylar laughs, and Fern is busy opening cupboards and finding mugs as if she's been in this kitchen a hundred times. I sit down at the island next to Dina without really meaning to and let it happen.

"Right," Luna says, pulling things out of the bags. "Don't be polite. You keep what you want; we can take the rest back for Goodwill. I've raided my own wardrobe and Skylar's and Fern's, and there are a couple of bits from the shop in town. Sweaters. Two pairs of jeans, Fiona thinks, will fit you. Pajamas, etc., all by Skylar, and she really likes the kitsch ones."

"They're cute," Skylar says, defensive.