17. Annabella #2
A girl appeared in the doorway. Maybe eighteen, electric blue hair, carrying two brown shopping bags. Behind her, a boy of about eight practically vibrated with energy.
“Amara! Ben!” Wally’s whole posture changed. “Tell me you got everything on the list. Everything. My entire baking reputation hinges on the next thirty seconds.”
“Yes,” Amara said, swinging the bags onto the counter. “All of it. Even the thing you circled three times and wrote ‘DO NOT FORGET’ next to in red pen.”
“The special chocolate chips!” Ben announced at a volume that could have carried across the compound.
“Benjamin.” Amara looked like she was considering fratricide. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“Oh.” His face fell for exactly one second. Then he stage-whispered to the entire kitchen: “Sorry. I forgot it was a secret surprise. But it’s okay because everyone looks like they need cookies anyway.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Ben’s gaze landed on Zeke and Mina with open, uncomplicated curiosity.
“Are you Annabella’s friends? Do you like cookies?
Can I show you ’round? There’s this tree behind the Bottley that has a branch that’s the perfect shape for sitting, and Mrs. Johan, she runs one of the stores, and her cookies are good but not as good as Wally’s but she lets you try cookie samples if you look sad enough—”
“I’m very good at looking sad,” Zeke said. “Especially when cookies are involved.”
“I’m coming too.” Mina pushed back from the table. Her tone was casual, but I saw the way she scanned the room first. She wanted out of this kitchen. Needed air, needed space, needed to map this town on her own terms.
She looked at me. “Wanna come?”
“I don’t think I’m up to a wander just yet. Rain check.”
She hesitated. Her eyes flicked to Sam, still leaning against the doorframe, then back to me, one eyebrow lifting a fraction. Our silent shorthand: Is he a problem? Do you need me to stay?
I gave a tiny shake of my head. Go.
She held my gaze a beat longer than necessary—making sure, always making sure—then nodded. “Okay. But if you need anything—”
“I’ll yell really loud.”
They filed out. Ben’s chatter already filling the yard, Zeke asking about soil conditions, Amara and Mina falling into step together.
The kitchen felt different with fewer people in it.
The air changed. Or maybe I just noticed what had been there all along.
Without Mina’s sharp focus and Zeke’s gentle warmth filling the space between us, there was nothing to buffer whatever this thing was.
Sam’s scent settled around me like something I could lean into if I let myself.
I didn’t let myself.
Wally started unpacking the shopping bags, humming under his breath.
Thomas excused himself to check on something in the med room, pressing his hand briefly to Wally’s lower back as he passed.
Wally didn’t pause his humming, but he leaned into the touch for half a second; an automatic, unconscious gesture.
I looked away. “I’m tired. I think I’m gonna go lie down.”
“I’ll walk you up.”
“Sam—”
“Just to make sure you don’t take a header down the stairs.” His voice was light, but his eyes weren’t. “Then I’ll leave. I promise.”
I didn’t have the energy to fight about it. And the truth was, I didn’t want to.
We took the stairs slowly. He stayed close enough that I could feel the warmth of him at my shoulder, but didn’t touch me, didn’t steer me, didn’t do any of the things that would have given me an excuse to push back.
I realized then that I was being hunted by Sam. That he intended to make me his, and would be patient about breaking down my walls.
My wolf stirred. Not in warning, but in recognition. Something low and warm uncurled at the base of my spine, spreading heat through my belly, up into my chest, and for one treacherous second, I wanted to lean into him. Just let my shoulder find his and stay there.
I didn’t. Obviously.
But my body had made its vote very clear, and it was not aligned with my brain’s position on the matter.
Well, fuck.
At the door to my room, I stopped.
“Thank you,” I said. “For getting them out. For bringing us here.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that.”
“Yeah, I do.” I made myself meet his eyes, even though looking at Sam Shaw straight on felt like staring into something too bright. “You didn’t have to risk everything for people who were hurting your Council. But you did. So… thank you.”
He was quiet for a moment. Something unguarded moved across his face. Not the Felix charm, not the Council mask. Something he let me see on purpose.
“Get some rest, Moonbeam.” His voice was rough at the edges. “I’ll be here when you wake up. And before you tell me that’s not necessary, I know. I’ll be here anyway.”
Moonbeam. I still didn’t know what to do with that name. Didn’t know what to do with the way it made something in me yearn to be near him. Didn’t know what to do with any of it.
So I nodded, went inside, and closed the door between us.
I managed to kick my shoes off before the mattress swallowed me whole. Through the window, the afternoon filtered in gold and soft, and I could hear them in the distance: Ben’s excited chatter rising above the tree-line, Zeke’s warm laugh, Mina’s voice sharp and sure about something.
My crew was alive. We’d survived Adarcan. We were in a town where a witch could live openly, and an eight-year-old with zero volume control was leading my people on a cookie tour of the neighborhood, and nobody seemed to think any of that was strange.
Tomorrow, I’d start figuring out what came next.
But right now, for the first time since I’d been taken, my wolf settled. Not content, she was too wary for that, and so was I. But quiet. Watching. Willing, maybe, to see what happened next.
I let my eyes close, and I slept.