Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“That was my pride and joy right there. I’ve only grown one in my lifetime, but I fully intend to grow another before I leave this world.” Notalus could hear the honor in Dustin’s voice, and he should be.
“This orchid’s vegetative stage is fifteen years before it will produce a bloom. And even then, it takes a very special individual to make it flower.” Notalus sighed, fingering the miraculous image. He’d thought the Rothschild orchids that he’d gifted to humans all of those years ago had gone extinct, having no one to care for them as they should. Now they could only be found in the highest elevations of Fhomhair.
“Yes, I know. I cared for that flower as if it was my own newborn pup.” Dustin shrugged. “I suppose my plant babies are as close as I’ll ever get to having children.”
“Does that bother you?”
“Not at all.” Dustin shrugged again. “I’m just fine with my gardens. They keep me fulfilled and plenty busy. Besides, there’s more than enough pups running around here.”
Notalus turned and faced Dustin with his hands clasped behind his back. “May I ask why gardening? What is the appeal?”
Dustin eyed him with suspicion. “I think you already know what plants personally do for the heart and soul. And I doubt I have to explain to you, of all people, the benefits they have on this Earth.”
Notalus nodded slowly. “How many others here feel the way you do?”
Mixed feelings orbited Dustin’s mind. “Not many. I think most of the shifters find my obsession with farming rather strange. I mean, the hands I have are great—I couldn’t maintain all of these fields without them—but I know it’s none of their passion… merely their pack duties.”
“You are the only one willing to risk your life for them.”
“That was a fool thing I did that almost got me killed. I’m sure my alpha will have a fitting punishment for disobeying his orders.”
Notalus clenched his fist behind him as he ground his molars to keep from expressing how much he disliked the sound of anyone disciplining Dustin, but it wasn’t his place to disagree. Yet. “How long have you lived here in these mountains with the Volkov alphas?”
Dustin narrowed his eyes in thought before he answered. “Almost nine years. I was roaming around a while after I left my last pack, when I got word that the Volkovs’ lands were expanding and they needed more shifters to help them build. Needless to say, I volunteered.”
Notalus smiled, knowing now why he was so drawn to Dustin Constus Hill. Why he’d been able to hear his call for help in another realm. “And did you ever stop to wonder how you got so many different species of plants and crops to grow in such harsh mountainous conditions?”
Dustin chuckled a rich, gritty sound that made Notalus warm. “My father told me I was born with a green thumb. Just lucky in the gardening department, I guess.”
Notalus would’ve laughed at the absurdity of a so-called “green thumb” if Dustin wasn’t serious. The man had no idea who he was a descendant from. Notalus would need to return home to get the proof of his assumption, but he believed Dustin’s middle name, Constus, was translated from Consus. As in Consus, the minor Roman goddess of the grain and harvest. Notalus thought Dustin might be a great descendant of one of the most coveted goddesses from the Realm of Autumn.
Exactly the kind of man he’d been longing for for over two thousand years.
Dustin
Don’t Leave Me
Dustin didn’t know why Notalus was staring at him as if he had some juicy gossip he was dying to spill. A thin, almost unnoticeable hint of a smile curved his full lips as he continued to gaze at the picture of him with the world’s rarest orchid. One that was believed to be extinct, but not if Dustin had anything to do with it. Notalus abandoned the photo and continued around the circumference of the cabin, and Dustin began to feel a bit self-conscious at the meager possessions in his home, but he was never a man that cared much for material things. Fancy furnishings and high-tech gadgets were a waste of money and time to him. The best place to be was outside in nature, not cooped up in the house with a gadget in his hand, staring at a screen for hours.
Dustin wondered what kind of home Notalus lived in. He bet it was a far cry bigger than this place. Did Notalus even reside here in this country, on this earth? He came down from the sky, erupting through the clouds as if he owned them. Did he live in heaven? Dustin rolled his eyes. Of course not. That’s stupid. But he had to come from somewhere up there.
Dustin was done lying down like an invalid and appearing weak in front of a titan. He used every bit of strength he had to get himself upright to a seated position, but not without some considerable moans and grunts of agony.