Chapter One
The Lovers
Millennia in the past, in a mythic land long forgotten
She knelt in a field of lavender, the sun shining down upon her. Aveta felt as though this was what eternity should be like. A sea of beautiful flowers, warm summer wind, and the golden light of the sun touching every surface of the land. The afterlife should be this simple and beautiful.
Humming softly beneath her breath, she used her knife to cut another handful of stalks. The scent of the blooms surrounded her and brought her joy. She wanted to plant lavender next to her little stone house, but it would take over the herb garden she grew. It was too strong, too wild to be controlled. Much like the man she loved.
As she continued to harvest the herbs she used for fragrance and healing, Aveta knew he was watching her, moving closer, and she smiled. He often tried to sneak up on her, but never knew that she always sensed him. His presence only made the sweetness of the afternoon more precious.
“You make an enchanting picture,” he murmured, lying down next to her. His body crushed the flowers beneath him, releasing even more of their luxurious fragrance. He reached out and toyed with a long, curling strand of her golden hair. “In the sunlight, your hair is like a shimmering gem.”
Aveta looked over at him. “Sweet words trip too easily off your tongue. Sometimes I wonder if you truly mean them.” Though her tone was teasing, there was an underlying honesty beneath it, for she had often questioned why the favored son of the chieftain would seek her out, a widow and outcast. Though they were the same age, she often felt decades older in experience.
Alaunus leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers. When he ended the kiss, he stared into her eyes without blinking. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon. Every time I gaze upon you, it takes my breath away. I doubt that will ever change.”
Aveta smiled, her insecurities fading. “It is easy to say that now, while we are still young. Someday, I will no longer look like this.”
He tugged her hair gently. “You will always look like this to me.”
As always, Aveta could not resist him when he spoke so many lovely things and looked at her with eyes of gold and green. She closed the distance between them and kissed him, her eyes drifting shut as she lost herself in the magic they wove together.
Alaunus reached back and tugged the thin band of fabric she used to tie her hair back, cradling her head in his hands. His tongue swept into her mouth, tangling with hers.
Moaning softly, she slid her hands beneath his tunic, running her palms up his side. His skin was hot and the lean muscles of his torso rippled beneath her touch. Aveta loved to feel the flesh and bone that housed the other half of her soul. When they were like this together, she forgot the world existed.
Alaunus removed the tunic, pulling it over his head. He spread the fabric on the ground and positioned Aveta on top of it. She smiled as he lifted her hair and fanned it around her head.
Leaning over her, he slipped his hand beneath the hem of her dress. The material bunched around his wrist as his fingers traced over her knee and up her thigh.
Aveta sucked in a breath as he touched her, her entire body quaking beneath his sure fingers. “How can you make me feel this way?”
She had not meant to share that aloud, but it was too late to snatch the words from her lips.
Alaunus kissed her again, his fingers pressing inside her slowly. Then he pressed the heel of his hand to the most sensitive part of her body. When she hovered on the edge of release, he lifted his head and answered, “The goddess created you for me and me for you. Whatever you feel for me, I feel for you as well.” He watched her arch into his caress, her back curving as she reached for the promise of bliss. “And this is when you are completely mine. All other times, you keep a part of yourself hidden. But when you let pleasure overtake you, you belong to me.”
As he spoke, Alaunus pushed her over the edge. The breath caught in Aveta’s throat and her entire body convulsed as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her. She was flying, completely out of control.
Alaunus had no idea how true his words were. It was in these moments that she felt the full strength of her bond to him. Not just the connection, but also his emotions. Knowing how he felt about her made it impossible for Aveta to keep her heart closed to him.
Alaunus refused to allow her to drift back to earth. He dragged the hem of her dress up and over her head. Then she was lying among the lavender, clothed in only sunshine.
His mouth closed hotly over the tip of her breast, tugging and licking, and Aveta moaned. She trailed her fingers from his chest down to his trousers, sliding beneath the material. Alaunus groaned against her breast as she stroked him.
He pulled away from her seeking hands. “You make me feel like a boy with his first woman,” he complained, shoving his trousers down.
Aveta reached out and wrapped her fingers around his length. “Is that so bad?”
Alaunus laughed, lunging forward so that he stretched over her. She made a soft sound as his bare skin came into contact with hers. She reached between them, guiding his shaft to her entrance. He did not make her wait, merging his body with hers with a slow, single thrust. “Only if you want me to last longer than a few moments.”
She could not reply. Every time they came together, it overwhelmed her and today was no different. As Aveta gave herself over to the ecstasy his body created within her, Alaunus laced their hands together, pressing them into the fragrant blossoms above her head.
He moved inside her, and the slide of his body and his scent mingled with the lavender was intoxicating. As he pushed her closer and closer to the crest once again, Aveta wound her arms around his back and her legs around his hips, clinging to him.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I will love you forever.”
He kissed her, his own release following on the heels of hers, making him shudder. In that moment, though he didn’t speak the words, Aveta could feel what was in his heart. His love for her was as strong and deep as what she offered him.
In the heat of wild abandon, she felt it, a tiny spark of life. They had created something wonderful on this glorious afternoon, an everyday magic that men and women had been making for centuries. A new life.
Alaunus lifted his head and propped his weight on his elbows. Still, his weight crushed her deeper into the soft pile of blossoms beneath them, but she cared little. She loved him even more in that moment as he cradled her head in one hand.
“We are one in body, Aveta. Why will you not agree to become one in spirit as well?”
“I cannot,” she whispered, lifting a hand to his cheek.
His beautiful amber and green eyes moved over her face, searching for answers to questions he did not voice. Except one. “Why?”
“You know why,” she replied.
“No,” he argued quietly. “I know why you think it cannot be, but I have told you many times that my family will accept you. They will have no other choice.”
“And the villagers?” she asked. “The same ones who shun me when I come into town only to sneak out here when they have need of healing and guidance? If you marry me, they will never allow you to lead them.”
“Then I will not lead,” he answered simply.
“Your family expects you to marry Rhiannon.”
“I will not do that either.”
“You know it is not that simple,” she argued.
“It is.”
“Your father will not allow you to marry me. He has already been in negotiation with Rhiannon’s father,” Aveta stated.
Alaunus rolled to the side, tucking her against his body with her head resting on his shoulder. “How can I be with Rhiannon when I will be married to you?”
“Fin,” she said, using the short name his mother called him since childhood. Only those closest to him were allowed to use it. “I do not want to put myself between you and your family.”
He sat up and looked down at her, a dark expression on his face. Aveta was reminded that his ancestors were once fierce warriors, ruling lands far larger than the small village where they lived.
“Do you lie when you say you love me?” he asked.
Feeling cool despite the sun, Aveta reached for her dress.
Alaunus grasped the material and refused to release it. “Do not hide from me, Aveta. I demand your honesty.”
“You are not in a position to demand anything from me,” she argued.
“Do you lie when you say you love me?” he repeated, ignoring her efforts to take the dress from his hand.
“No! I do not lie!”
Alaunus wrapped his fingers around her wrist, drawing her closer. “I love you as well, Aveta.”
It was the first time he had spoken those words to her and Aveta’s heart soared. Though she understood his devotion to her through their connection, she often wondered if he would ever be able to bring himself to state them aloud.
But love was not always enough.
“Your family—”
He shook his head sharply, cupping the back of her head and tilting it back so he could kiss her. “When we are bound, you will be my family. You and the children we create together, goddess willing.”
Aveta remembered the spark of life she felt mere moments before. When he discovered the babe, she would not be able to deny him. If he chose, he could drag her before his father, the current chieftain, and demand her hand.
“I am afraid to lose my freedom again,” she admitted, her voice small and ashamed. Though her husband had been dead for a long while now, Aveta remembered the trapped feeling. As much as she loved Alaunus, his family would expect her to change, to behave in certain ways. So would he. Then the slow suffocation of her spirit would begin.
Alaunus laid his hand against her cheek. “I love you for all the ways you are different from other women, Aveta. I would not want to change you in any way.”
While he was sincere, she did not doubt that his mind would change in the future.
“I will consider it,” she relented, knowing it was futile. In a short time, he would know of the child they conceived and she would have no choice.
“And I will share my intentions with my family,” he replied.
“Perhaps you should wait—” Aveta began.
Once again, a fierce frown darkened his face. “No, Aveta. It is time that my father understood my sincerity when I tell him I will not be ushered into marriage with Rhiannon. I have chosen my own mate. He may not like it at first, but he will learn to accept it or you and I shall leave.”
“Fin,” she whispered, once again using the endearment in an effort to make him see reason.
But he kissed her, his hands roaming over her bare body and lighting the flame that always flared between them.
Aveta abandoned her arguments, already drowning in the sensations he evoked within her.
As the lovers embraced in the late afternoon sunlight, a pale figure with black hair watched from the shadows beneath the trees. Her eyes were as dark as her hair and blazed with rage and contempt.
Rhiannon clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms and nearly drawing blood, as she bit back the fury that whipped through her.
Alaunus, and all the power he would wield, was to be hers. She once believed that his infatuation with the little witch that lived outside the village mattered not. Now, she recognized the fallacy of her logic.
Rhiannon had assumed he would carry out his duty to his family and his village. To her. Perhaps he would have continued to see the witch after he was bound to her. There were some things a wife could overlook as long as her husband remained compliant in other ways.
She had already decided that she would allow him his lust for the outcast. Until today. After hearing his words to Aveta, Rhiannon understood that this was no diversion. His heart was involved.
And Alaunus was a man who followed his heart despite what it might cost him.
Though he would be an excellent and well-liked chieftain when his father died, Alaunus did not have the thirst for power. Which was too bad, really, for his family had been blessed by the gods. Not only with strength, beauty, and intelligence, but with magic. The ambition and will to unite the clans all over the land was hers. Rhiannon knew she could convince him that her vision for the land was best for its people. It would only take a few drops of the potion she had already perfected and regularly used on her father.
It was clear that Rhiannon had misjudged Alaunus…and the witch.
Aveta had become a problem.
As she always had, Rhiannon intended to find a way to unwind the knot Aveta created in her plans. The threads of her future may have been snarled for the moment, but she had no doubt that soon they would be woven into the smooth, rich cloth she intended her life to be.