He looked up at her with those blue eyes that seemed to see into her soul. His wound bled but he was happy to see her anyway.
“I was shot,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Who shot you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I need you to help me.”
“You need to go to a doctor,” she said. Avery didn’t know anything about treating a gunshot wound. But she did have some medicinal herbs and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide around her kitchen. He pulled off his bloody shirt, revealing a chest rippled with muscles and covered with symbolic tattoos.
Several birdshot wounds dug into his shoulder. She found a pair of sharp tweezers and covered them with hydrogen peroxide before pulling the birdshot out of his arm, one pebble at a time. She dropped the little pieces of metal into a steel bowl and set it on the table in front of her when she was done.
“I feel better already,” he said.
She covered the wound with peroxide and prepared a poultice of medicinal herbs to apply to his wounds. She made the poultice with some water and white clay and applied it to his arm before tying it off with a bandage.
“Who are you?” she asked in a whisper.
“I am your mate,” he said softly. “I am very tired. Healing this wound is taxing my reserves. May I share your bed tonight?”
The same feeling of deep connection and intertwining passion filled her body and mind and she couldn’t say no to him. She wanted him to share her bed and she wanted him to share her life.
She stood and nodded for him to follow her. They went into the bedroom and she turned down her blankets before he took off his pants and she removed her rope. In their underthings, they crawled into the bed and held each other in a soft embrace.
In the darkness, with the sound of crickets and frogs outside, Avery listened to his heart beating, strong and solid below her cheek.
“What is your name?” she asked him.
He ran his hand over her hair and down her back, softly cupping her behind in his hand. He kissed her forehead softly.
“My name is Lucien.”
“Lucien. I’m Avery,” she started. “Now that we know each other’s names, I think you should know, I’m carrying your child.”
He pulled her closer and nuzzled her cheek.
“I know, my beloved. I am more pleased than you could ever imagine,” he said.
Avery breathed out a sweet sigh and sunk deeper into his chest. They slept together in the warm embrace, drifting between waking and dreams. When the dawn light stretched over her eyelids, Avery opened them to find that Lucien was gone. A silent tear slid down her cheek. She didn’t know how she would live without him now.
7
Continuing her normal routine after Lucien’s second disappearance proved to be difficult for Avery. She fell into a minor depression and had a hard time getting herself to do the work she needed to do. Finally, the harsh edges of her disappointment smoothed out and she was able to get back to business.
If she spent all of her time pining away for Lucien, it would only drive her crazy. Instead, she had something to keep her occupied, and it wasn’t a small thing either. Running her farm was everything she had ever wanted in her life. With or without the man of her dreams, she would continue with her work.
But knowing that she carried Lucien’s baby inside her womb made it difficult to not think about him.
Somewhere at the bottom of her heart, she knew he would eventually come back to her. He was her soulmate, the love of her life, and the man of her dreams. In Avery’s reality, there was no way that he could not come back to her. Things just didn’t work out that way. He had to come back. She wouldn’t let herself believe for a moment that she would raise her baby alone.
The days moved on into weeks and her crops began to grow. Soon, they were ready for market. Avery had already begun to notice the changes in her body over the many weeks between planting and her first harvest. No one on the outside could see it yet, but she’d felt the budding of new life inside her.
She missed Lucien more with each passing day. Part of her wished she could confide in someone, but not even Valerie would understand this. She did have to go see a doctor soon, no matter what.
Avery booked an appointment with a doctor in Portland for the day after the farmer’s market. The day before the market, Avery packed up her freshly harvested lettuce, spinach, and salad greens. Early in the dark morning, with the mist still heavy on the roads, she started the long drive to Portland.
Over the hours, she listened to her mp3 player, missing the conveniences of civilization. When she got to town, she set up her tent and prepared her greens. They looked great and she was proud of them. She’d worked hard to get all her certifications and licenses. Here she was, selling at her first farmer’s market in downtown Portland.
It was all a dream come true.
For her to have accomplished what she had was pretty phenomenal in the small farming community around Oregon. Grannie’s gift to her had made it all possible. Otherwise, she would still be trying to save up the money to invest in the land.
She’d been able to get an ideal spot, even as rural as it was. Most of the interns she’d worked with at Valerie’s farm had gone back to working normal jobs.
Avery was so grateful for her property, she wished she had someone to share it with. She wished she had someone to share anything with. She’d only seen Lucien a few times in person. As connected as they were, he wasn’t there for her now. Whatever was keeping him away, she knew she could forgive him in the end. Her connection to him was just too strong to deny. She needed to be with him again. Nothing had ever felt so good or so right.
The first customers to the farmer’s market began to filter in. A steady stream of customers flowed through the booth. Every type of person you could imagine strolled the aisles. She recognized a few hipsters from her college and waved hello.
Two young men with beards and tattoos walked over to her, smiling. She remembered one was an art student who was a friend of a friend and the other was in her forest ecology class. The two men had already purchased a bag of hazelnuts and a package of local cheese between them.
“Avery Miller. Is that you? Wow, you really did get your own farm,” said the guy from her ecology class.
“I’ve got a great crop too,” she said, smiling.
“Your greens look delicious. I’ll take a head of lettuce and a bag of salad greens.”
Avery wrapped them up for him and passed him the bag as he pulled bills out of his wallet. After he paid, he and his friend promised to visit her for the rest of the season. Getting the support of her peers was so gratifying, but that didn’t keep her from almost having a heart attack when the next customer entered her stall.
“Avery? What are you doing here?” her brother said.
“Hello, Frederick,” she greeted him with distaste.
“Are these your vegetables?” he asked in bewildered disbelief.
He was wearing a windbreaker over a collared shirt and a pair of dark jeans. His perfectly cut hair, his perfectly polished skin, and his manicured nails. Her lawyer brother Frederick had always been the good child, while Avery was the slacker.
“They’re great, aren’t they?” Avery said.
“I suppose.”
He pressed his fists to his hips and chewed on his upper lip, looking back and forth at her bounty.
“You know, Mom and Dad had a right to part of grandma’s inheritance. You should have shared it with them instead of keeping it all for this project of yours.”
“Freddy, Mom and Dad have plenty of money. Plus, Grandma left them the house.”
“Do you really think this is the wisest use of that money?”
“We’ve been through this,” she said, feeling as if she might burst into tears. Her parents didn’t need the money, by any stretch of the imagination. Why did he have to stomp all over her dreams?
“Do you want to buy some spinach? Greens are good for your blood,” she said.
>
“Nice, Avery. No, I don’t need any of your spinach. I’m meeting people.”
“Well, bye,” she said with a dismissive wave.
“Avery. Really. I’m just trying to help.”
“I know. That’s the worst part.”
He made a frustrated sound at the back of his throat and turned toward the exit.
“See ya, sis,” he said, walking away.
“Wouldn’t want’a be ya,” she muttered under her breath.
Why didn’t anyone understand?
Her brother wanted her to put all her money into the stock market and get a regular job. Unless she was willing to give it to Mom and Dad. Those were the only acceptable things to do. He didn’t understand her life goal, and he didn’t care. “That’s what you do when you retire,” he’d told her once.
The rest of the day, she tried to forget about her brother. Just because he didn’t understand her didn’t mean she had to let it get her down. At the end of the day, she’d made a tidy sum and had sold all of her harvest for the week. It was a definite success for her first market and she reminded herself she should be proud of what she’d done.
The next morning, she drove to the doctor. Waiting in the waiting room with all the women’s magazines and body charts, she felt a little nervous. She hoped her baby was healthy. Her child had become a part of her dream. Over the last few months, she’d started coming up with baby names.
After her exam, her doctor sat down to talk with her.
“Your baby’s heart is exceptionally strong,” the doctor told her.
“What do you mean? Is it healthy?” she asked.
“It sounds perfectly healthy. More than healthy.”
Her child was Lucien’s baby. She had no idea what or who he was. Her experience told her he was more than a man. He was something larger than life that took courage and faith to believe in. She believed in him, and she believed in his child.
Avery left the doctor’s office with an appointment to see her baby in a sonogram. She couldn’t wait. She wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl.
Would it be Brandon or Lily?
Terrance or Fiona?
She wanted to start buying things for the nursery, but knew it was too soon.
When she got home, she decided it was time to put her young chickens into their own coops. She’d gotten attached to them, and had let them stay inside the house for too long. Now that the coop was ready and the weather had warmed, they would be more than fine.
She thought of the story the horse rancher had told her about his chickens. He’d said the wolf had raided his chicken coop. Would the wolf do that to her chickens?
Was the wolf really Lucien?
She knew Lucien would never hurt her chickens.
Nevertheless, it was time to let her babies out of the nest. She took them out to the newly constructed coop she’d made from a design she’d built before. She put a warming bulb in there just in case the chickens got cold the first few nights. The young chickens hopped onto the straw floor, looking quite happy to be in there.
She watched them for a while then closed the door. It was a secure pen, not too far from the house. As she walked out to the fields to continue her work, she thought about what the future would be like if Lucien never came back. Could she really raise this baby alone and run her farm? She didn’t know if she could.
Part of her was terrified she was going insane. Most people would not believe that any of this was true, but for Avery, it was the truest thing that had ever happened. She knew it in her heart or hearts.
Maybe it was all the fairy tales or new age books she’d read, but she believed in the magic of true love. She believed in the soul and that there was one true mate for everybody out there. Lucien made her feel it all. With him, she knew it was true. Down to her core.
That didn’t stop her from wondering if she was being reasonable, considering she couldn’t talk to anyone about it.
8
The weeks passed and Avery worked and missed her lover. She couldn’t stand waiting to see him again. Three months after the first time they’d first met, Avery swayed in front of a campfire, looking into the dark sky. Clouds unfurled around the moon, casting the world in a dusky gray glow.
Avery wrapped herself in a long sweater. The warmth of the fire radiated over her bare legs. She sipped a cup of hot cocoa and watched the fire spark, melancholy for her lover. A twig snapped in the distance and Avery looked up. Out of the dim grayness walked Lucien, dressed in black.
He came to her and cupped her face in his hands. His eyes caught the firelight when he leaned in to kiss her. Avery tilted her head back, ready to surrender to his touch. She’d missed him so much. The well of love overflowed and tears flooded down her face.
“My dearest, don’t cry,” he soothed.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she said, nearly sobbing.
He kissed away her tears, one after the other, holding her face in his hands. He kissed her forehead. Avery grasped his wrists. She’d been feeling more and more aroused lately, despite her loneliness. With Lucien here, smelling of cedar and the wilderness, she couldn’t ignore the tight need inside her any longer.
“Come,” she said, taking his hand.
She led him past the flickering fire and up the front porch steps of her house.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” he said as they stepped into her living room.
“Oh?”
“You’ve improved it considerably,” he said.
She turned back to him, confused. How did he know about her house?
“Have you been here before?” she asked.
“That story is for another time. Lead on, my sweet little mate. Show me what you had in mind.”
A sly smile curved on her lips, and she pulled him onward to the bedroom. It was lit by a single lamp beside the bed and smoldering embers in the fireplace.
The hard planes of Lucien’s chest looked tantalizing under the unbuttoned collar of his black shirt. She reached up to place her hand on his bare skin, feeling the warmth under her touch.
All at once, the hunger overtook her, and she was pulling his shirt off. He helped her and threw it on the floor. She grabbed his waistband and he growled, pushing the sweater down over her shoulders. It fell to the floor around her feet. Lucien took her in his arms, lifting her off the ground to deposit her gently on the bed.
He unbuttoned his pants over her as she lay on the bed. His eyes locked on her as he pulled his pants and underwear down. His stiff cock stood proud and ready, making her hunger grow wild and demanding.
She climbed to her knees and threw the tank top over her head. Grabbing his waist, she pushed him down on the bed, his head on the pillow. She stood up and dropped her shorts and panties, stepping out of them and flinging them across the floor.
“I like this side of you,” he said, looking up at her. He lay across the bed, his muscles bulging and his cock stiff as a rod. She crawled over him and licked up the length of his shaft.
“Avery,” he growled, looking into her eyes.
He kept his gaze locked on her as she popped the head of his cock into her mouth. She closed her eyes, taking him deeper. He tasted clean and smelled of his deep forest musk. Her arousal mounted, whetting her appetite for so much more.
Lucien took her in his arms and turned her over on her back.
“I have to taste you,” he growled before leaning down to lick her.
He enveloped her sex with his mouth, tasting her with greedy noises. His tongue focused on her tightly swollen bud, teasing it towards release.
She threw her head back and let out a deep, full-body moan. Avery called out his name. Her body released with a massive gush of pent-up desire. She moaned so loudly, she wondered if her neighbors down the road could hear her. But she didn’t care. Lucien was here, and that’s all that mattered.
Lucien moved her on top of him as they kissed deeply. She was beside herself and out of her mind for him. Their kis
s, their lovemaking, their bodies writhing together, was all that mattered.
She pressed her slick opening to his hood and pushed herself down over him. His grip on her waist helped her down, further and further. Each ridge of his shaft rubbing her inner pleasure.
Her skin erupted in goosebumps as she searched for a grip on the headboard to keep herself steady. Avery’s mouth dropped open as Lucien pushed her the rest of the way down over him.
He filled her so sweetly, so completely, it was as if they had been made for each other. Her whole body went into overdrive. Her sharp, tight nipples thrust up to the ceiling, and she looked down at him with a growl.
“What makes this so right?” she asked, breathless, pushing her palms to his chest.
His eyes searched her face as if lost for words.
“You are my mate,” he said in a low whisper, running his hands up her thighs.
He moved her back and forth on his lap once before moving his hands up to her swollen breasts. His thumb ran over her tender nipples, causing a surge of electric desire to shoot through her body.
She leaned down to him, her hair falling over to one side, blocking out the lamplight. She stared at him in the shadow. Their eyes locked.
“I love you more than words,” she said.
“And I love you. You are my salvation. The promise of a new life. You are my everything, Avery Miller.”
He cupped her cheek and kissed her, sweet and full of need. He held her hips in his hands and rocked up under her, moving her in a waving rhythm as he thrust deep and hard.
He held her close to his chest, one hand at the base of her skull and the other at the base of her spine, moving her body over him, taking her on the ride of her life. She tilted her face and caught his lips, moaning into his mouth as she came again.
Her core pulsed around him. Avery pushed back, sitting up on top of him, her hands placed on his chest for support.
Their eyes met, and the connection between them radiated back and forth with a sparking energy that radiated throughout the room. She rode his wave of need, taking him as deep and hard as he wanted.