Adrian felt a wave of overwhelming relief and happiness. He looked down at Emma, who was still sitting rigidly in his lap, watching the scene with a complex, unreadable expression. He leaned close, his lips near her pointed ear.

"It's okay," he whispered, his voice for her alone. "I know this isn't easy for you. There's no need to worry. I'm well aware you always show you care in different ways."

He felt her small, green body tremble slightly against his. Then, slowly, she turned her head to look at him. The usual defiance and cunning in her emerald eyes were gone, replaced by a soft, hesitant warmth. It was a look he had never seen on her before. A small, genuine smile touched her lips, so fleeting he would have missed it if he hadn't been watching so closely.

Adrian was caught off guard by the sheer vulnerability of it. His own smile widened, and he reached up, gently patting her head.

For once, she didn't do anything weird nor fiendish. She just closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, a quiet, contented sigh escaping her.

In the warm, fire-lit cottage, surrounded by his monstrous new family and his wonderfully accepting mother, Adrian felt, for the first time in a long time, a sense of peace.

The steady, constant sound of an axe splitting wood echoed from the backyard. Inside the warm cottage, Grey, Snow, and Emma were clustered at the small kitchen window, watching Adrian work. He wore his fur coat but even then, the chill looked like it had gotten even colder than before, which was shown by his breath pluming far more vividly in the cold air with each swing as he broke the logs for their fire. Snow leaned onto the window, using her arms to support her chin while she watched him with a dreamy expression.

In her mind's eye, the snowy yard was nowhere to be seen; in its place was a warm summer day. Adrian wasn't wearing a coat or a tunic. His top bare, his skin glistening with sweat under the sun as he worked, the muscles in his back and arms flexing with each powerful motion. A tiny sigh escaped her lips, her eyes turning even more infatuated.

'I could watch him all day,' she thought, a warm flush spreading through her face. She mentally pictured bringing him a cool drink, her fingers brushing against his warm skin.

'Wouldn't that be a dream come true?' Snow said to herself but she soon realised that her thoughts were going a bit farther than necessary, so she gave herself a little shake to calm herself lest she wouldn't be able to hold herself back any longer. The vision dissolved back into the reality of the frosty windowpane. The sight of him working hard made her heart ache a bit, especially with how cold it was outside.

She turned away from the window, her expression now one of genuine concern. "Mother-in-law, are you sure we shouldn't help him? It looks like he's having a hard time out there. Couldn't the three of us offer him some aid to speed up the process?"

Melissa, who was sorting through a basket of root vegetables at the wooden counter, smiled and shook her head. "That's his responsibility, dear. A man needs to provide for his household. In a way, it gives him purpose." She then gestured around the cosy, herb-scented kitchen.

"Our work is right here. When a man comes in from a hard day's work, nothing lifts his spirits like a warm meal waiting for him." She picked up a knife and began deftly peeling a potato.

"In fact, since you're all here, it's the perfect time for me to teach you how to cook properly. Learning how to make your first dish should help the three of you fit into your roles." She paused and gave them a knowing wink. "They say the easiest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, you know."

The effect of her words was immediate and profound.

Emma, who had been watching Adrian with a detached curiosity, turned fully away from the window. Her emerald eyes, usually sharp with mischief, now held a spark of intense, focused interest.

She couldn't help but imagine Adrian bowing before her after enjoying her delicious cooking. A goofy smile couldn't help blooming on her soft lips.

Grey's normally neutral expression softened into one of deep understanding. In her mind, she began imagining Adrian praising her for preparing a scrumptious meal for him.

"G-Good girl," Grey mumbled beneath her breath, a light smile on her face.

She looked at the pot of water heating over the fire with newfound interest. Not only her, but the others also felt interested in their mother-in-law's actions as she grabbed the cooking equipment.

Snow's eyes lit up. 'Mother-in-law is absolutely right,' she thought to herself, a determined smile spreading across her face.

'If I'm able to show darling how good I am at taking care of him, he's sure to love me even more.' Just thinking about it made her excited and eager to give cooking a try.

Just then, a firm knock sounded at the front door.

Melissa, her hands covered in potato peelings, looked up. "Emma, dear, would you be an angel and see who that is?"

Emma raised a brow but gave a light nod right after. She then walked out of the kitchen and toward the front of the cottage.

*******

Outside, Leo shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his breath misting in the cold air. He'd asked around the village, and several people had mentioned seeing Adrian return with three strange girls. Could they be from my people? he wondered, a flicker of hope in his chest. Did they find him first, thinking he was with me? He patted down his fur coat, hoping for his conjectures to be true.

The door opened, interrupting his thoughts. He started to speak.

"Good day, I'm—" but the words died in his throat.

The girl who stood in the doorway was petite and startlingly beautiful, with a fall of white hair and the most vivid emerald-green eyes he had ever seen.

'No... she doesn't look like one of Father's people at all,' Leo commented. 'Since when did Adrian have a younger sister?' he thought, bewildered.

He cleared his throat, recovering his composure. "Hello there. My name is Leo. Is Adrian at home?"

'Since I'm here, I might as well see him and Aunty. If I'm able to further my ties with them then convincing them to join my side when I return to the family should be far easier,' he pondered.

To his surprise, the girl didn't answer. She just stared at him for a moment before a faint, unsettling smile emerged on her lips. It wasn't a warm smile, but one that made one think of when a cat was deciding how to play with a feeble, unsuspecting mouse. An involuntary shiver ran down Leo's spine.

'What's going on... why do I feel strange all of a sudden?' Leo thought to himself.

He calmed his trembling eyes and glanced at the young woman in front of him. He couldn't help thinking that there was something about her he was missing, something awfully familiar as if he knew her from somewhere, though he was certain he'd never seen her before in his life.

After a long, silent moment, she simply gestured with a small, pale hand for him to wait outside, then began to close the door.

"Right. I'll, uh... I'll wait here then," Leo said, feeling oddly dismissed.

*****

Emma returned to the kitchen. She walked up to Melissa and began explaining to her through gestures and some wordings. She pointed to her own hair, then mimed the sun, then held her hands out to indicate a tall, broad-shouldered man.

Melissa watched, her head tilted. "A man with blonde hair. Tall... Oh! That must be Leo." She wiped her hands on her apron. "He's probably here to see Adrian about their travel plans."

"Oh, I completely forgot we haven't told the poor lad about you three. I sure hope he can accommodate all of us." She placed a hand on her chin, looking a bit distressed.

The moment the words were out of Melissa's mouth, Grey's head snapped up from the pot she was watching. As if an idea had come to mind—a way to be useful to Adrian directly—a bright, eager smile lit up her face.

"Mother, let me go get him," she said, and before anyone could react, she was hurrying out of the kitchen toward the back door.

'I can't believe I lost to a pup...'

Snow, who had been mentally cataloguing the pantry's contents, clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction. She had been a fraction of a second too slow to react, allowing Grey to grab such an opportunity—though one wouldn't call it that since she was just going to go get him. Yet to Snow it was an opportunity, since she wanted nothing more than to spend every moment of his time with him.

She shot a glare after Grey, her plans for winning Adrian over through her cooking momentarily overshadowed by the annoyance of losing this small chance to personally attend to her mate. The competition, it seemed, was fierce in every arena.

*******

"And that's the last of them," Adrian gasped for air.

A final, satisfying crack echoed through the quiet backyard as Adrian's axe split the last log.

"I can finally take a break."

He let the tool fall from his numb fingers, its head sinking into the snow beside the neat pile of firewood. His shoulders and back ached, his muscles sore from the exhausting task. If he had simply drawn some power from the girls, he wouldn't have been so tired or needed to spend so much time, but Adrian refused to do so. He didn't want to grow too reliant on them.

"Sometimes a man's gotta do some things all on his own."

Without another thought, he simply let his legs give way and flopped backward, landing in a soft, cold drift of snow with a muffled thump. His eyes stared upward toward the sky.

He lay there, his chest heaving, plumes of breath puffing toward the clouds. The physical exhaustion was one thing, but the mental quiet he suddenly felt after completing the task felt rewarding.

"I wonder what everyone else has been up to?" he wondered.

He listened, straining his ears in search of any sound coming from the house. He expected squabbling, the sound of breaking pottery, or the girls' usual animalistic sounds, but he heard no such things. Instead, his chest felt warm when he heard the faint happy murmuring of female voices from inside, coupled with his mother's warm laugh.

A slow smile spread across his chapped lips.

'Looks like the lot of them are actually getting along,' he thought, a wave of relief washing over him.

'I never thought they'd break the ice so soon. To think that Mom's actually laughing with them,' he chuckled, but

His smile faded slightly as a more pressing issue surfaced.

'Regarding the girls, I'm still not sure about our sleeping arrangements tonight.'

'I can't have the four of us sharing my bed. I'm not sure it's going to accommodate all of us.' The thought of all three of them crammed in there with him, each with their own unknown, unique, and potentially dangerous sleeping habits, sent a jolt of pure anxiety through his weary body.

Imagining the girls unconsciously reverting back to their true forms in such a tight space brought a pitiful look to his face.

'I know for a fact that there's no way I'd wake up in one piece. Or… in the same condition I fell asleep in,' he remarked in a joking manner.

His frantic thoughts were abruptly cut off as his view of the sky was suddenly blocked, not by a shadow, but by two soft, generous mounds covered in furry fabric.

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