Zaki starts to argue but the black smoke erupts in the front room before she can finish, and she hisses and her ridge spikes higher, her hand reaching for the knife while Kojo gets to his feet and positions himself between me and the dissipating cloud. I lean around him. I already know who it is.
The smoke fades and Kade is standing there, her long blonde hair braided, her sheriff’s shirt stretched across her shoulders, and Leah is beside her, her dark brown hair loose around her face, her tan skin carrying a warmth. They are holding hands, Leah’s free hand resting on Kade’s forearm, her thumb tracing small circles on her wrist.
There’s a sudden knock at the door and Zaki hisses at it. Kade narrows her eyes and say calm down, then walks over to the door and opens it.
A man steps in that I have not seen before, tall with brown skin and sharp features. He wears an immaculate black suit, and on his wrist sits a device that is not a watch, a smooth metallic surface with no visible buttons.
Zaki’s ridge spikes. She inhales once through her nose, cataloging the new scent, and her lip curls. “Another vampire,” she says.
“This is Amari.” Kade pulls out a chair at the table and drops into it like she’s making herself comfortable, and Leah settles into the chair beside her. “He’s the Sire of Medina Shadow Coven runs the technology infrastructure for Wintermoon. Amari, this is Kendra, the new Bouda matriarch, and you already know Kojo and Zaki.”
Amari dips his head to me. “It is an honor to meet you, Kendra. Kade has told me about your background in software engineering.” Something wakes up inside me that has beensleeping since Detroit. “You run the tech here?” I ask, and his mouth curves.
“I built most of it.” He says it without arrogance. “The technology center at the academy, the projection systems, the AI integration for the instructors, the security infrastructure for the border, the adaptive learning programs for the shifter children.” His eyes light up when he talks about it, the same way mine used to light up when I talked about code architecture at my old job, and I recognize a fellow nerd the instant I see one.
“What stack are you running?” I ask, and the room shifts around us, nobody else in the cabin speaking this language.
Amari’s eyebrows lift and his mouth curves with genuine surprise. “Custom framework, built from the ground up to accommodate supernatural processing speeds, so the architecture had to account for input rates that would crash any human-designed system within seconds. The coding terminals adapt to the user’s species, a dragon shifter processes information differently than a wolf, their cognitive mapping is spatial rather than linear, so the interface restructures itself in real time.”
“You’re running adaptive UX tied to biometric input?” My voice has gone up half an octave and I don’t care, this is exactly the system I was designing before I got laid off, responsive interfaces that adjust to user behavior patterns, except mine were for human HR platforms and not supernatural species. “The species variable alone would make the branching logic twelve times more complex than anything I was working with.”
“Twelve times is the conservative estimate,” Amari says, and we grin at each other at the exact same moment.
Kojo shifts beside me, his posture changing, his shoulders drawing back, his ridge pressing harder against the torn fabric of his shirt. I put my hand on his arm and squeeze once, and his shoulders ease down a fraction.
“The center needs someone to run it.” Kade watches me. “Amari built the infrastructure but he has his hands full with security and his own family. We need someone who understands the technology and can manage the day-to-day operations.”
The silence that follows lands somewhere deep in me. I look at Kade and then at Amari and the word forming in my head is yes, but I hold it until I am sure I am choosing this for myself and not just reaching for the first thing that feels familiar.
Kojo and Zaki exchange a look behind me and I don’t turn around but I hear Zaki’s ridge spike, the blades clicking upright, and I hear Kojo’s shift a fraction of a second later. They don’t say a word and their ridges are doing all the talking.
“Before we get to that,” Kade continues, “there are a few things you need to know.” She shifts in her chair and Leah settles against her side, her hand resting on Kade’s thigh, and neither of them seems to notice or care that every person in the kitchen is watching them. Zaki stares at the hand on the thigh with open disgust. Kojo looks at the ceiling. Amari just sighs.
Kade looks at Kojo and her voice warms. “Aiden is doing well. Andrew is handling the mate bond with more patience than I thought he had in him.” She pauses and Leah grabs Kade’s hand.
“They’ve worked out a compromise. Andrew loves Thirst Trap, he has never wanted to live on Wintermoon full time, and Aiden’s journalism takes him outside the territory anyway. They will travel together three to four months out of the year while Aiden documents shifter communities, and the rest of the time they will run Thirst Trap together.” Leah glances at Kade with a smile. “Kade and I will manage the bar while they are traveling. We didn’t mind filling in at all.”
“We did not mind at all,” Kade repeats, and how she says it makes Zaki hiss under her breath and go back to the stove.
Kade refocuses on Kojo. “You will see your friend again. Leah and I will make sure of it.”
Kojo goes quiet. His jaw works once with the muscle jumping, and then he nods. “Thank you,” he says.
“Also.” Kade’s voice shifts from warm to business. “Amari has news you all need to hear.”
Amari straightens and the playful tech energy drops from his face entirely. “Brookstone and Blackburn Enterprises. I have been tracking their operations for many years, and they have multiple divisions, most of them operating under shell companies, their reach extending further than any of us initially realized.” He looks at Zaki and his voice goes flat. “They were involved in the attack on your village.”
Zaki’s ridge locks at full height and doesn’t move, her hands curling into fists on the counter with her claws extending. Kojo is very still beside me.
“The Bouda DNA they harvested from the raid is being used in experimental programs designed to replicate supernatural abilities in human subjects.” Amari’s voice is controlled but I can hear the anger beneath the calm. “They have not succeeded yet, but they are closer than they should be, and the facility housing the research is one of several I have been working to identify.”
“I can show you everything at the center.” Amari straightens. “The data, the facility locations, the corporate structure. I wanted you to hear it here first, not in a room full of screens.”
Zaki looks at Kojo.
“We are Bouda.” Zaki’s voice is cold and flat and steady with an edge beneath it that makes every other voice in the room go silent. “We do not attack the front gate. We make the front gate forget it exists.”
Kojo nods and I watch the trickster surface behind his eyes for the first time since I met him, that old cleverness his Bouda carries, and I understand a truth about this species that I did not understand before. The Bouda did not survive a thousand years by being the strongest or the fastest but by being the smartest,and the people who destroyed their village are about to learn what that means
“Let’s go see the center,” I say, already on my feet, but Zaki steps between me and the door before I can take a second step, planting herself there with her arms folded and her ridge at full height and her eyes locked on mine.
“You will eat first.” Her voice leaves no room for negotiation and her gaze drops to my stomach for half a second before returning to my face. “You are possibly carrying the future queen of the Bouda, and she will not enter the world malnourished because her mother skipped breakfast.”
My face burns and Amari presses his lips together and studies the ceiling and Kade snorts and Leah covers her mouth and Kojo’s ridge shifts behind me in a sound that fills the kitchen, every blade agreeing with his sister at the same time. I sit back down at the table, and Zaki returns to the counter and picks up her knife.