by Andrea Allen
She tiptoed out of the room and into the kitchen where she put a kettle on to the stove and grabbed a basket from a hook by the door as she decided she would do her chores as best she could in her best dress. She wanted to be ready the moment she saw Will approaching so she didn’t care if she had to wear it all day.
They’d come a long way since she’d had to leave the past beyond. Will had been true to his word and the moment they’d found a town of their liking where they could find a fresh start, he became a ranch hand, working harder than anyone else to get as much money as he could. Nearly two years ago they’d heard of an elderly couple who was looking to sell their farm so they live closer to their grandchildren. It was a perfect situation. There was already a house, barns and so much land that they’d have no problem having cattle. The former owners were even gracious enough to let Will and Lucy keep the livestock they had. Now it was a thriving ranch of their own that several ranch hands that worked under Will. He was living his dream and Lucy was happy for him.
Lucy had always thought her dream was to teach, but after everything she’d been through with Will, her dream had merely been to survive and to love without resolve. As soon as they were settled in their new town, even before they bought the ranch, they were married. It was a quiet nearly secretive ceremony with a few of Will’s new buddies as witnesses, but Lucy wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“We may not have met under conventional circumstances,” Lucy explained to the pastor. “Maybe our love story isn’t the one people want to read about in books, but I am glad it happened. I believe it happened for a reason.”
Lucy thought about fate and divine intervention often as she did her chores around the farm. In a strange way, She had Richard Polk to thank for all of this. If he hadn’t tried to kill Will the first time, she would still be living in the boarding house, having the same monotonous routine before she finally went to bed each night.
She fed the chickens, horses and other animals before she collected eggs and began to head back inside the house. It was then that Lucy noticed a speck on the horizon and her heart felt like it was in her throat. Will and the new cattle he just purchased hundreds of miles away were almost home.
Lucy’s cheeks hurt as she dashed inside, her smile was so large it probably looked ridiculous. The tea kettle was whistling as she shut the door and she placed it on an unused spot as she called. “Margaret, are you awake?”
When she heard no reply, she went into the room and tried to rouse the young child that was sleeping in a trundle bed next to the bed that Will and her shared. Too small to climb the stairs up to the loft where she would eventually sleep, Lucy had been happy for her company while Will had been away.
Margaret was almost four and she was a toddling copy of her father. She was passionate and lively and Lucy couldn’t wait to watch her grow. Her sandy brown locks fell across her face as Lucy brushed them away from her face. “My love, your father is home.”
Her eyes flicked open at the words. “Daddy!? Where, where?”
Lucy laughed as she attempted to dress the child. “I saw him at the very. He might be close enough that you can wave and he can see you.” Before she had a chance to say another word or finish fastening the buttons of her dress the girl was dashing from the room, the door to the outside banging loudly against the wall as she threw it open.
Lucy smiled as she walked over to the cradle where their son, John, was wiggling around looking at the ceiling. He was only eight months old and Lucy wasn’t sure who he was more like yet. He had her eyes but the rest was still a mystery that she couldn’t wait to discover. “Well, I suppose you would like to see you father too, wouldn’t you?” She wrapped him in a blanket before she made her way outside.
Will was locking the new cattle in their paddock by the time she made it outside and Margaret stood as close as it was safe while she watched her father do his work. The ranch hands helped collect the horses and bring them back in the barn and the moment the gate was shut and locked, Margaret ran across the space that separated her from Will.
“Daddy!” she screamed delighted.
“How is my girl?” Will asked. “Did you take good care of your mother?” He picked her up and the child nuzzled into him as he made his way over to Lucy. He placed a kiss on John’s head before he kissed his wife on the lips. “It’s good to see you.”
“Likewise,” Lucy answered before she ushered him inside. “Let me tell you everything that has happened since you’ve been away.
So much had changed in five years. She was a wife, a mother and a ranch owner. If Lucy had known what was coming for her five years ago, she would have never believed that she would be anything other than a teacher who lived in a boarding house. When she was a child, it had seemed strange that Will never felt like her brother, but now she understood. It was so she’d have this moment. It was so her life would be complete.
THE END
Bonus 22 of 30
Love Deep in the Forest
Description
Emily, an ambitious late twenty-something BBW is looking forward to an extended summer vacation on the East Coast at her family's remote suburban home. She expects a month or two of rest and relaxation while she runs her cupcake business remotely. But after a chance encounter with a mysterious man, she realizes that this summer vacation will be unlike any she's ever experienced before.
Colin, the leader of an ancient werewolf clan, is young and handsome but also deeply scarred. He's lost all trust in the world around him and spends most of his time deep in the forest
But if he intends to continue leading the clan, he will have to give up his isolated life. He has three months to either find a mate or one will be chosen for him. The thought of being forced to live with another person terrifies him. But his perspective on love, women and marriage will change completely when he locks eyes with a kind-hearted, gentle human woman.
Chapter 1
Colin
“Brother, don't you think it's time that you finally found a mate?”
I gritted my teeth and gripped both sides of the chair. I hated hearing those words. And it seemed like everyone in my life— my brother, my mother, the members of my clan—kept repeating them. A mate.
My brother continued, “If you don't do it soon, you know what’s going to happen, right?”
“What?” I said angrily. “People are going to start talking, is that it? They're going to start whispering about me?”
“I assure you that they are already doing that.”
I spun around in the chair, quickly stood up and glared at him. “What?”
My younger brother, Jacob, was accustomed to my sometimes fiery temper. He hardly reacted, except for shaking his head and smiling with his eyes.
I hated that look. He was always so cool, always so damn cool. At times like this, I couldn't help but wonder why my father had chosen me to take over the clan.
“Let them talk,” I said, turning my back to him. “What do I care?”
“It's obvious that you do care. And that's a good thing.”
I crossed my arms tightly against my chest and gazed out the window at my ten-acre compound. This is where I felt safe. It was where I felt at peace with the world and far removed from it. A woman? A mate? Those things would only bring a man trouble. Especially a man like myself.
I could feel hairs beginning to sprout on my body, could feel my teeth beginning to grow longer and sharper. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, desperately trying to calm myself. I didn't want to shift, to transform out of my human body into my animal shape.
Jacob placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“Colin,” he said. “It is not my intention to upset you. But these are serious matters. Very serious.”
After taking several deep breaths, I felt the hair beginning to retreat back into my pores and my teeth returning to their normal human sharpness and length.
“I know,” I said, “but this isn't the time.”
<
br /> “That's what you've been saying for the last five years. At a certain point, you must make the leap. You must be brave.”
I turned around and stared at him. “You're questioning my bravery?” My lips quivered with rage. But he remained icy cool. Damn him!
“I know you have great bravery. More than I will ever have. That’s why father felt so sure that you would make the better leader out of the two of us. But I think that you're afraid of opening up to a woman.”
“And what do you get when you do open up to them?” I snapped back. “You see what I'm still dealing with.”
He smiled and shook his head.
“You must have really done a number on her in the bedroom.”
I frowned and turned away, disgusted. At this point, I hated even bringing up her name, hated the fact that she was a member of the clan and would be around me forever. That thought alone was enough to turn me off from women.
“All she's brought me is drama and trouble,” I said. “Why do I need that? Father was right to isolate himself from the world.”
“No. He was wrong.”
“No! He was right! I said, putting both my hands on his shoulders and peering deeply into his eyes. “He knew how cold and cruel the world was out there. He knew that you couldn’t trust anybody. He knew how difficult it was to trust people in the clan, let alone human beings. He knew that. He was right!”
“No, no,” he said calmly with a tinge of sadness in his voice. “He didn’t really believe all that stuff. He just never got over the hurt of Sadie’s…”
“Don't say that name,” I said. “Don't say the name.”
I turned away from him with my head in my hands. My baby sister. Kidnapped, tortured and killed. The memory ripped me in two.
Jacob walked to the other side of the room.
I had no trouble picking up on his energy. He felt bad for having upset me, felt bad for having brought up Sadie. We hardly ever spoke her name. The memories were too painful—like daggers being plunged into our chests, ripped out and plunged in again. Our family, our clan, nothing had ever been the same.
A war had ensued. We won. We had taken many of our enemies’ lives. We had enjoyed the adrenaline rush of bloodlust, enjoyed seeing our enemies suffer slowly and die disgracefully. But when it was over, the emptiness and the pain of a family member taken away far too soon, returned.
“As I was saying,” Jacob said. “There will be consequences if you don't marry by the end of the summer.”
“Consequences? I can handle people talking about me. I can handle stupid rumors.”
“If you don't find your own mate, one will be chosen for you by the clan.”
Those words knocked the wind out of me. The clan would decide on my behalf? A forced marriage?
“Haven’t we progressed beyond that? Forcing a leader to take a wife?”
“You know as well as I do that this is the way the clan has been run for the last seven centuries. It's part of the reason why we've been able to survive and continue our strong bloodline. It's part of the reason why we have been able to spread across the world, despite the intense hostility and hatred that so many carry for us. Our blood has persisted. You know that as well as I do.”
I let my head drop into my hands. There was nothing to argue. He was right. There were expectations and obligations that came along with being the clan leader. But it was still so hard for me to imagine being forced into a relationship with someone, forced to share my life, forced to open up my home to someone. All in the name of tradition and protocol.
I was supposed to be the most powerful person in the clan. But if I had no power over my own life, couldn't decide who I wanted to spend my life with, or if I wanted to spend my life with someone at all, what was this power worth?
Chapter 2
Emily
While my morning coffee was brewing, I walked out into my backyard. Birds were chirping and the sun was shining. It was another cool, beautiful spring day in the Northeast. I enjoyed spending some of the spring and summer months here instead of out West in the desert where I lived most of the year. I got to come home to the town I grew up in. When I was here, I mostly kept to myself. I really didn’t like running into too many people from my childhood. Besides most of the people who still lived here were the ones who didn’t make it out. They didn’t have the drive or ambition or even the curiosity to move down to the city so they continued the slow paced suburban lifestyle.
My parents spent this time of year traveling through Southern Europe, so I would have the house all to myself.
I was a city girl who had learned to love life in the desert climate of Southern California. There was no way I could have lived all year round in the suburbs. But for a few months in the spring and summer, I found my hometown to be the ideal place to rest, relax and gather my thoughts.
It was also a great place to get exercise. There were wooded trails that stretched for miles through different towns. Whenever I walked along those trails, I felt a sense of calm and tranquility, which was very difficult to find in a modern, hyper-connected world. Those hour-long walks allowed me to get away from the busy, hectic life I was used to living. It was a return to nature, a return to a more primitive way of life.
One of my favorite things about living so close to nature was the range of wild animals I would get to see rabbits, groundhogs, coyotes and deer.
Even though I had lived in cities all around the world, I had never lost my love for animals. Growing up, I always had several pets like cats, dogs, turtles, hamsters and birds. But when I came east, I would always leave my cats and dogs with friends and neighbors in my Southern California town.
This was the one drawback to coming back home. Without my animals, I often got lonely. When I got lonely I would eat and continue eating until I got completely stuffed. I would always get angry with myself after pigging out, but I always had trouble controlling my appetite. It was something that I had struggled with since my childhood. I had always been on the chubby or plump side. For most of my life, my weight had been a great cause of insecurity. But over the last few years, I had learned to appreciate my full breasts, wide hips and plump ass. I no longer thought of myself as fat.
I had come to realize that I was a Big Beautiful Woman. When I started carrying myself with more confidence, I noticed that more and more men seemed to be paying attention to me. I’d always had a pretty face, but a lot of guys had refused to date me because of my size. That had begun to change over the last few years. But as my twenty-ninth birthday approached, I was still single.
I promised myself before I came out here that I wouldn’t worry about dating or guys during the few weeks I had of rest and relaxation. There would be plenty of time for that once I went back west. For this little bit of time, I was going to focus on myself.
I lounged on the couch for a couple of hours, flipping through channels trying to find something that could hold my interest. But I finally gave up and decided that I would be much better off going outside for my walk before it got too warm.
I enjoyed walking in the morning hours because the trails were mostly empty. It was sometimes strange and awkward to run into another person in such an isolated place, especially as a single woman. It could be a creepy place, particularly as the sun started to set.
I could still remember the terrifying experience of getting lost deep in the trails as dusk began to descend. I was just a little girl at the time and I was scared out of my mind. I tripped, stumbled and screamed for help. I felt all alone and completely helpless. Every sound scared me and seemed fraught with danger.
There was a man who I would often see tramping through the trails alone with a backpack and headphones. He was mute and homeless and could often be seen walking around town. But I think he preferred to spend his days, at least, when the weather was favorable, in the dense, isolated wilderness. People around town would always say disparaging things about him. And I had been warned on numerous occasions not to even look at him,
let alone talk to him. But those warnings only served to peak my interest.
Every time our paths crossed, I made sure to say hi and smile at him. The first few times he ignored me. He probably thought I was like most of the people in town. But I wasn’t. I felt like I could relate to him. We both enjoyed the solitude, isolation and mystery of the trails. We both found sanctuary among its dense foliage, small rivers and rocky paths.
So I never really feared people when I walked those trails, but the animals back there were a different story. Nobody knew what animals lived back there. When the sun went down, there was no telling what feral creatures came out of their hiding places.
A human being could easily cross paths with the wrong predator and quickly end up becoming prey.
I walked through my backyard and onto the path. I loved the sound of the leaves and branches crunching under my feet. All the bright spring foliage dazzled and delighted me. It was a welcome change from the barren, colorless landscape of the desert.
As I walked, I pumped my arms at my sides. I always tried to work up a good sweat. I’d grown more and more comfortable with my body over the years. But what girl didn’t want to take off a few pounds here and there? After about a half an hour of walking, I stopped to take a drink of water. I sat down on a rock and slowly sipped from the ice-cold bottle. The water tasted delicious as it rolled down my throat. My whole body felt refreshed.
I heard footsteps in the distance. I turned and looked to see where they were coming from. It was a man jogging. He was too far away for me to get a clear look at his face, but I could tell that he was running with his shirt off. Just a glimpse of his nude upper torso sent waves of excitement and desire throughout my body.
