"It would," Orfeo says. "That would definitely help, we can't imprint twice."

"And Mary's good at answering questions like 'will these two people get along?' I've asked her that kind of thing before."

"She must be useful for your fitting people thing."

"Usually I can figure it out myself, but yeah, she is."

"I'm not sure what age she'd start rounding people up," he muses. "People in La Push and Volterra can often wait until they're sixteen or seventeen before they run into a vampire and activate - Cody alone isn't enough to do it unless he's trying - but the Empire pack hangs around them enough that we're generally floofing for the first time at twelve or thirteen. People that young can and do imprint but it weirds some folks out. It's bad enough when the imprint herself is a little girl, but at least the magic is smart enough to back the hell off for a few years on anything gross when that happens. When the wolf's twelve, it is not."

"Well, I don't think anyone's going to convince Mary to point a twelve-year-old at that kind of situation."

"If she doesn't, he might go into town for groceries with his mom and imprint on the cashier," Orfeo points out. "I'm not making that up, that's what happened to Benny."

"That sounds awkward."

"It was. It really, really was."

"I'll ask Mary, anyway. We'll see what she says."

Orfeo nods. "I don't suppose she could see who's at risk of having that happen to them before deciding how to steer them?"

"Maybe. Risks are another thing she's good at."

"Useful."

"Extremely."

"Where am I going to live? Pre-Mars, I mean," Orfeo wonders.

"In New York, with me," she says. "I'm not sure of details yet. Any preferences I should know about?"

"In most of the capitals I live in a little house, like this, with Elena and Tristan and Chiara," he shrugs. "I like that. I've been to New York and it had more people than I could count and all the coziness of a hole in the ground. Do you live by yourself? Are you home much? Jake just follows the Princess around all the time, but I don't know if that's compatible with whatever you had in mind."

"I don't think I could feasibly have you follow me around all the time," she says. "A lot of it, though. Yes, I live by myself, and my apartment does not rate high on the coziness scale. My aunt's house does, though. Maybe we'll see if you like it there. How much I am home is wildly variable."

"It won't matter that much to me where we are as long as you're usually around and you like it," shrugs Orfeo. "I could probably produce specific comments after seeing the place, if you want them."

"Specific comments would definitely be appreciated."

Bella walks back into the room with a tray of pancakes and some plates and forks and knives. "Carrot-cake pancakes," she says. "How are you guys doing?"

"Those look tasty," says Libby.

"I'm going to eat about two-thirds of those if you let me," Orfeo says. "We're talking about practical stuff for when I move. Going pretty okay."

"I'm hungry. Bella, do you mind if I duplicate your pancakes?"

"Do it while they're hot," Bella says, serving herself a small stack and drizzling cream cheese icing over them.