Later, she went outside into the fresh spring air and took a deep breath. Everything was coming together so well. It had been dry all day and the rain from the day before hadn’t saturated the field too much to till it up. Avery got onto the tractor, turned it on, and drove out into her fields.
The smell of the earth that she plowed was so invigorating it made her smile from ear to ear. She watched the dark soil turning over behind her as she drove the tractor back and forth over her acreage.
There was nothing more satisfying than watching the dark soil turn over on the ground. When she had plowed everything up, she went back over it again with a rake that smoothed out the fields. Tomorrow, she would call the horse ranch and ask them to deliver several tons of compost to spread over her fields before she planted them with clover.
She intended to keep most of her fields in cover crops for the first year to intensify the fertility for years to come. Her grannie had left her a tidy sum. A good portion of it had gone into the down payment on the farm, but she still had plenty to live on if she lived sparingly and planned accordingly. The profits from her farming this year would be small. She already knew that. But she also knew that she could get by until next year when she had larger, more expensive crops to sell.
When she was done plowing the field, she went back inside to check on her little chickens. They seemed as happy as ever in their little box, chirping away. She picked up the receiver of the ancient rotary phone and dialed the number the clerk at the feed store had given her for the horse ranch.
“Hello?” a gravelly voice greeted.
“Is this the Double R horse ranch?”
“Yes, it is. What can I help you with?”
“I need to buy five tons of compost. Could you deliver that to the old Randolph place tomorrow?”
“Absolutely,” he said.
After arranging a time and a price, Avery got off the phone. She was starving and needed something to eat. After making herself a turkey sandwich for lunch, she ate it up in no time flat, then decided to take a hike out in the hills. She had been dying to explore the forest ever since she had arrived yesterday. With so much accomplished already, she felt she should give herself a reward.
She put on a pair of rubber boots and a rain jacket just in case and took the white plastic bucket with her as she walked. The underbrush at the edge of her property was thick, but she could tell that the forest beyond was crisscrossed with animal trails. She pushed through the tall weeds and into the lush forest. Massive ferns blanketed the hillside below the trees that dripped with moss and lichen.
The sight and scent of the forest was as enchanting as any forest she’d ever been to. Avery gripped a pair of pruning shears in her right hand and her bucket in her left. She was looking for a couple of different things and didn’t know which she would come across.
The narrow animal trail up the hillside was a difficult climb. Finally, she came to a patch of nettle, already tall and rich green. Careful to avoid the stinging parts, she snipped a few stems and threw them into her bucket. She would harvest the leaves later and dry them. They were full of nutrients and great in smoothies.
What she really wanted to find were the orange chanterelles that were fairly abundant in this region. Not only could she sell them at the farmer’s market, she could eat them herself.
Looking in the little nooks and crannies where chanterelles liked to grow, she didn’t notice the pair of blue eyes staring at her from across the ravine and up the hill. She spotted the ruffled orange head of the chanterelle and squatted down in the damp soil.
After carefully pulling the mushroom from the earth, she brushed it off and placed it in her bucket. When she rose, she spotted the eyes peering at her from across the forest.
When she realized they were attached to a magnificent gray wolf, she stumbled backwards in shock. Avery knew quite a bit about the forest and wildlife. One thing she knew for sure was that if you ran from a predator, the predator would follow you. The wolf didn’t move. It simply stood there, staring at her calmly as she tried to regain her composure.
She blinked at it several times, trying to understand what it was doing. A wolf in the Oregon forest was not a common occurrence. There were a few packs still in Oregon, but she had never seen a single one in her entire life. Usually, they traveled in packs. This one appeared to be on its own.
Something about it made her feel at ease. She could have just as easily panicked and started to freak out when faced with an apex predator staring her down in the forest beside her home. But instead, she felt her heartbeat slow down. That warm fuzzy feeling she had in her stomach and chest that morning bloomed again all around her.
The wolf moved its head and fixed its blue eyes on her. Not only was she calm as could be, she felt a whirling sense of love and adoration flowing all around her. Growing up in a town whose slogan was “Keep Portland Weird,” the experience with the wolf on the hillside was probably the weirdest of her life. She couldn’t understand it, but at least she wasn’t freaking out. In fact, she felt damn good.
She smiled and reached out her hand to the wolf. He was at least fifty yards away and couldn’t touch her hand without walking down the hill and across the ravine and back up to her. But something in her told her to reach out to him. He seemed to nod to her slowly and then, without warning, he turned around and galloped into the underbrush.
Avery felt a sinking sense of disappointment as he disappeared. Really, she should be relieved. A dangerous animal had been staring at her and was now gone. But instead of relief, she felt lonely. She wanted him to come back.
None of this made any sense. Avery picked up her bucket and her pruning shears and turned around, headed for home. These strange sensations and feelings were unexplainable. The only way to make sense of it was to tell herself that she was just really tired and needed to rest. She had been doing hard manual labor for two days straight. Maybe this was what happened when she pushed herself too hard. She started falling in love with dangerous woodland creatures for no apparent reason. It was as good an explanation as any.
3
Bright and early the next morning, a big truck arrived hauling her sweet, sweet compost. She hurried out to meet the driver with a big smile on her face. When he got out of the truck and greeted her, she recognized his voice from the phone the day before.
“Avery Miller?” he said.
“That’s me. Looks like you’ve got my compost. I’m so excited. The stuff is like black gold to me.”
“That’s what they all say,” he said.
Avery giggled at that and told him where to empty the dump truck near her fields. When he was done dumping the compost, he drove back to the front of the house to settle up the bill.
“I’m surprised anybody moved out here to the Randolph farm. It’s been vacant for a long time. The family that used to own this place was strange. Didn’t mingle much with local town folk.”
“What happened to the Randolph family?”
“They just up and left one day. There’s been rumors that this place is haunted ever since.”
“Haunted? What makes people say that?”
“Strange things happen around here. Mostly, I think it’s just rumor. Nothing to take seriously. That wasn’t what I needed to warn you about. There have been sightings of a wolf wandering around these parts lately. Something raided my chicken coop a while back. I know it was that wolf. Next time I see that bugger, I’m going to fill its backside with birdshot.”
“You can’t do that. Wolves are endangered in Oregon.”
“I’m not going to have some predator messing around my ranch. My horses are more valuable than any wolf, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Please don’t.”
“I can tell you’re a city girl. Maybe you don’t understand how dangerous these animals really are.”
Avery was getting a little bit tired of these old men underestimating her and thinking she didn’t know anything. She was tempted to tell him off. S
he had actually seen the wolf the day before in the forest and would never imagine hurting it. In fact, she wanted to get to know it better, strange as that sounded to her own mind.
“Color me warned,” she said sarcastically.
He just squinted at her and gave her a strange look. Avery had to stifle a giggle at his expression. He had no idea what she was talking about. The look on his face was too humorous. She handed him a check with a smile, and he said his farewells.
“You better get yourself a shotgun,” the rancher said, climbing into his dump truck.
“Sure thing,” she said, winking her eye as she made a little gunshot motion with her hand.
He just shook his head and closed the door before turning around and driving away.
Avery wondered if she would have to have these uncomfortable interactions with old white men for the rest of her life. She had to admit to herself, the prospect was a little depressing. But Avery had been proving herself to people who disagreed with her for a long time. Her own family treated her the same way, why not some strangers in a strange town?
As long as she kept herself centered and continued to believe in herself, she knew that everything would turn out just fine. She was living her dream. What could possibly be better than that? She had been working toward it for years and had finally achieved it. Even when you get what you want, there are always some things that come along with it that you don’t. She learned that lesson a long time ago.
Now, with the compost delivered, she could spread it out on her fields and plant her red clover seed. She went out to the tractor that was parked beside the field and began to drag the compost into the soil. When the rich compost was all incorporated into the dark earth of her fields, she opened the thirty-pound bag of red clover seed and began to spread it liberally over the ground.
All five acres would be covered in her red clover cover crop. The roots grow down into the soil and filled it with nitrogen. When she was ready, she would till under portions of clover to add to the earth’s fertility. These were the kinds of methods that were implemented by farmers for many hundreds of years and rarely used anymore in industrial agriculture. Every time she used these old methods, she felt connected to all the farmers who had come before her.
On a quarter of an acre, not planted with clover, she would plant lettuce, kale, and spinach. These would be quick, easy crops that she could grow and bring to market before the rest of the land was prepared.
After she had put down the compost and the clover seed, it was too late in the day to build the raised beds she needed to plant her lettuce seed. It had been a long day, and she was starving. As the sun set over the green hillside, she made her way back into the house and took off her rubber boots.
The little chicks in their cardboard box under the light in the corner of her kitchen counter chirped happily. She looked at them, smiling to herself. Her heart swelled with affection and a strange sense of longing. Her experiences over the last several days had been interesting, to say the least.
First, she had a dream of a strange man who she knew was the love of her life. Then, she saw a lone gray wolf on the hillside that gave her the same feeling.
If Avery hadn’t had a lifetime of emotional and psychological stability, she would think she was cracking up. It was best to just ignore the weird feelings and get on with the work she’d come out here to do. Maybe in a year or two, she’d find a boyfriend to come live with her and help her on the farm. For now, she was a one-woman show, and she was fine with that.
Unfortunately, her emotions were all over the place lately. The feeling of love and longing in her chest was making her a little bit lonely. What was the good of feeling in love if you didn’t have anybody to be in love with?
After Avery had her dinner and made sure the chicks had fresh water, she got into bed and went to sleep. She should have slept heavily, considering her fatigue. Instead, her sleep was full of dreams. Strange, strange dreams.
The man with the out of focus face was back. She could make out the outline of his body, naked and muscular in the moonlight. His strong masculine features were kissed by the moon’s glow when he came to her. His blue eyes shone as his face came into focus. In the dream, Avery felt an overwhelming sense of need. She wanted him. She wanted him to take her and kiss her and make love to her in the rich open soil of her field. She wanted their lovemaking to fertilize the earth and bring life to the land once again.
There was a shadow. A barrier that kept them apart when he came to touch her. He couldn’t close the distance between them. He reached out to her, and she reached out to him, but they could not meet. Darkness fell over the man with the glowing blue eyes, and the shadow enveloped him, hiding him away from her sight. Avery screamed in the night and woke herself up.
She sat up in bed, sweaty. Her heart pounded furiously inside her chest. She put her hand to her breast, trying to calm down. She shook her head, confused. These dreams were getting to her. Maybe it was the loneliness or fatigue or the newness of having all this responsibility, but she knew there was something definitely wrong with her.
In the morning, she resolved to call her mentor and teacher back on the farm where she had been an intern for the last year. Her mentor, Valerie Sloan, was the wisest woman that Avery knew. Not only had she single-handedly built her own organic farm where she taught students every year, but she had been instrumental in changing state laws that made it easier for young people to become organic farmers.
If anybody would understand what Avery was going through, it was Valerie Sloan.
4
Avery picked up the rotary phone and dialed Valerie’s number. She hadn’t talked to her for a few weeks and felt it was a good time for a talk. Shouldering the responsibility of a farm was new to Avery, and she needed the older woman’s advice.
The phone rang several times and an intern picked up. “Hello?” said the young woman.
“Hi. Is Valerie around? This is Avery Miller.”
“Yeah. Hold on. She’s outside.”
She heard the sound of the door opening and closing before Valerie’s voice greeted her on the other end of the line. Valerie was breathless and sounded happy.
“Hi,” she said.
“Valerie, how are things on the farm?”
“Fantastic. We just started bringing our early starts into the fields. The weather has been perfect here. How are you? Are you on your land yet?”
“I am. I moved in a few days ago. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh. What’s up?”
“Generally, things are going great. I got the fields plowed and fertilized and seeded.”
“You did that in just a few days?”
“Yes. I also had to clean the whole house on the first day so I could live here.”
“You must be exhausted,” Valerie said thoughtfully.
“I am exhausted and that’s what I wanted to talk to about. I’ve been having strange dreams, and I seem to be unnaturally attached to a wild wolf that lives in the forest behind my farm.”
“There’s a wolf behind your farm?”
“Yes. I’ve seen it. A local rancher told me that it’s been a problem for him. He also said some really strange things about the property.”
“What kind of strange things?”
“He said it was haunted.”
“All old farms are haunted,” Valerie said, laughing. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I’m not really. But strange things are happening to me. The dreams. The wolf.”
“So you’re having feelings for a wild animal?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t want the rancher to shoot it. Wolves are endangered in Oregon.”
“Just be careful out there. And take it easy on yourself.”
“I will.”
“I think you’re just a little stressed and need a day off. Stop thinking about your to-do list for a day and just do nothing. That’s my honest advice.”
“Thanks, Valer
ie.”
Avery put the phone back on the receiver and turned toward the kitchen window over the sink. She gazed out into the lush green hillsides beyond her fertile fields. She longed to go back out into the woods and explore. The little creek that came down along the outer perimeter of her land flowed from the hills and she wanted to explore along its border.
She also wanted to see the wolf again, as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself. She not only felt protective of it, she felt responsible for it.
The rancher from down the road said it had raided a chicken coop. Maybe he was hungry. Avery took the chuck steak she’d just bought at the grocery store and put it into a plastic bag. Feeding the wolf would keep him from needing to kill domesticated livestock.
She put the plastic bag in her backpack and slipped into her waterproof hiking boots and raincoat, with her backpack slung over her shoulders. Outside, the sky had cleared into a pale blue, casting soft yellow light over the rich soil of her fields. She took a deep breath of damp air, watching the daffodils sway gently in the breeze.
Valerie was right. She just needed a day off. Avery took off down the stairs and quickly strode toward the forest along the creek. Water burbled over smooth rocks. Tall grasses bent toward the water. A crow cawed overhead and a wren peeped in the bush. Avery took in the sights and sounds around her, reminding herself to be in the present moment. Everything shone more brightly from a centered place. That’s what her yoga teacher always said.
It was true. Avery was feeling much better already. Whatever the dream or her connection to the wolf meant, she had to go with it. It had something to teach her about herself. She’d always tried to live her life that way. It helped her grow as a person and to succeed when everyone believed she would fail.
When she approached the edge of the forest, where the sword ferns grew large and imposing below the hillside, she sidestepped around the giant fronds. Avoiding blackberry brambles and twisted willow branches, she found an elk and deer trail that would make the going much easier.
The Alpha's Curse (Wolf Shifter Pregnancy Romance) Page 2
