Chapter 16
sixteen
LIV
After a restless night spent moving back and forth between my bed, my laptop, and my gym (sometimes a mixture of two at once), during which I seriously considered just agreeing to seal a bond with Niall so he would be there to keep me company, I headed over to the orchard in the morning
Gwen had texted me a diagram so I knew when each part of it would be ready for me. I was still debating if I should forgive Jonah's favor or not, but I had time to decide, so I wasn't thinking too hard about it.
The rain fell lightly as I squinted down at my phone's screen, attempting to block the drizzle with one hand while trying to orient myself to the map Gwen had sent over, so I could find the new trees.
I'd have a better idea of how long it was going to take me after I tried growing a few of them. I was seriously crossing my fingers that it would only take me a few weeks.
When I heard the crack of a tree falling, I abandoned the map I couldn't read and jogged in the direction of the noise.
It took me five minutes to find the dozen-man construction crew, and even though two of the guys looked like they'd shit themselves at the sight of me, it only took a calm man and women on the crew a few minutes to explain where they'd started removing the trees the day before.
Apparently, there was another group in charge of planting new ones, too.
It took me half an hour to get to the outer edge of the orchard, where they'd started with the planting. I passed that crew on the way.
They marked the locations where they'd planted seeds with tiny flags, but I didn't think that would help me in the slightest.
After I spent a few minutes running through the sad, empty rows, I made it to the very back corner and sank to my knees next to the first seed. The dirt around it was soft and damp. It clung to my wet skin.
I pressed my hands to the ground, closed my eyes, and slowly sent a small amount of my energy toward the seed.
Targeted growth was a lot more challenging than just throwing a bolt of power at someone. It required an insane amount of focus and gave me headaches.
It had been a long time since I had tried to make one plant in specific grow to this extreme.
Guess it was targeted growth for me, too.
Yay.
It took me longer than I cared to admit, remembering what I'd been taught to do to the soil when I was a child being raised in a happy, lighthearted community of spring fae.
No one had expected my parents, two of the weaker, quieter fae, to produce someone as intensely strong as I was. They hadn't known what to do with me.
They'd raised me like all of the other spring fae with average power levels, and taught me to channel my extra energy into the land as we moved around, improving the plants everywhere we went.
While they'd done their best, and I loved them fiercely for it, I'd eventually gotten tired of the constant headaches and left in search of other people like me. Other ways to control my magic, too.
That had led to finding the other royals.
The entire community I left behind was killed by the humans, shortly after they found out about immortals. They'd hunted my people, and I hadn't been there to keep them safe.
I'd never been entirely free of the guilt that followed leaving them.
I could've protected them if I'd been there.
But if I'd never left to find the other royals, I wouldn't have known how.
I pushed the thoughts and memories away again.
Over twenty minutes, I sent the tree slowly and carefully through years and years of the growth that would've been natural for it. By the time I sat back on my heels and stared at it, I was panting, sweating, and nauseous.
There had to be hundreds of thousands of trees in their orchard. Maybe more.
My gaze followed the beautiful curve of the trunk, up to the individual branches and leaves and the fruit that was already budding enough to weigh those branches down.
The lump in my throat wasn't exhaustion.
It was memories.
Sadness.
Loss.
I should never have agreed to do this, but what was done was done.
I managed to repeat the process with two trees at the same time in the twenty minutes that followed, four in the twenty minutes that followed that, and ten in the twenty minutes that followed that.
An hour and a half or so into the process, I had officially grown seventeen trees.
Out of hundreds of thousands.
Seventeen.
My immortal life was going to end before I finished this, if I didn't pick up the pace.
Fortunately, I knew I would be able to.
In the next hour and a half, I managed fifty more.
And in the hour that followed, I made it through another hundred.
I was soaked with rain and sweat, and absolutely covered in dirt, by the time I took a lunch break beneath one of the trees I'd grown. I knew it was an apple tree without looking up. I could feel it.
I'd ordered a pizza to the villa an hour earlier, and texted Gwen and Jonah my location so they could send someone out with it.
I was still surprised when Gwen herself came jogging out with the pizza, and sat down next to me on the dirt as if she didn't mind ending up as filthy as I was.
I didn't have enough of my mind left to warn her that she should care, because this was freaking miserable.
She sat next to me in calm, companionable silence while I ate an entire pizza without offering her a single slice.
Afterward, I eyed the small tub of buttery garlic dip that had come with it.
I seriously considered drinking it, but shook my head.
Not today, Garlic Butter.
I couldn't let myself be that desperate.
It wasn't even real butter.
"How many calories does it take to fuel growth like this?" Gwen mused, studying the trees around us.
They looked a hell of a lot better than the trees that had been here before. Not that mine was an unbiased opinion.
"More than there were in that pizza." I eyed the garlic butter again.
Nope.
Couldn't go there.
Gwen handed me a grocery bag of premade electrolyte drinks, and I decided that I was at least a tiny bit glad I hadn't killed her.
"Your nose is bleeding, by the way," she added.
I lifted a hand to my upper lip, and felt the dried blood there.
Whatever.
I chugged one of the drinks she'd brought me, and she took the empty bottle before I could tuck it away in the bag.
When she didn't leave with the pizza box and the tempting butter, I eyed her with suspicion.
They'd already played me. What did she want now?
"Do you think Kat would be willing to let me use her branding on more businesses?
" she finally asked. "We came up with it together, but I'm sure she's filed something to maintain the rights.
I think we could make a lot of money if we expanded.
We could have The Werewolf Restaurant. The Werewolf Winery. The Werewolf Bakery."
"I think you should be asking her that question, not me. If I were her, I'd tell you to fuck off."
That was exactly what I should've said when she asked me to save her orchard.
Gwen grimaced. "Is there a good way I could approach it, or…"
"Nope."
"Right." Gwen took my pizza box. "I'll send someone out with another meal soon. Your stomach is still growling."
That seemed like a nice way to say that I'd been eye-fucking garlic butter for five minutes, but I looked down at my stomach and realized it was making sounds after all. "That would be great. Thanks."
"Of course. I really appreciate this." She gestured to the trees around us, looking at them with something in her eyes that I almost wanted to call hope.
"Why did you say yes, when Simon picked you to be the Alpha?" I asked suddenly. "You had to know he was an asshole underneath the charm. Kat even tried to warn you."
"I didn't realize he would be anywhere near as bad as he was, and I thought I could still mate with Jonah while I was the Alpha," she admitted, her gaze still on the trees.
"Before I took the mantle, I walked through this orchard and thought that surely werewolves were worth more than this, and maybe I could help get us there. "
"You were dreaming," I said, not entirely rudely.
She gave me a small smile. "Always."
She finally left, and I went back to the trees.