The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 407

Avery’s POV

Fiona was standing about ten feet away with a small basket hooked over one arm, looking at me like a deer in headlights.

I straightened up slowly, my harvested plants already tucked into my basket. I held her gaze while I tugged the gloves off.

“Are you the one who snipped off those plants?” I asked.

“What plants?”

I inclined my head toward the basket. Fiona sighed and moved the cloth aside. I saw only a small sandwich wrapped in plastic film, an apple, and a can of one of those zero-calorie seltzer drinks that were popular in the human lands.

“Having a picnic?”

She nodded and moved the cloth back over top. “Yes. I’m not on Evergreen soil, you know. I’m allowed to be here.”

“I know,” I said, “and I wasn’t telling you you had to leave. I was just leaving myself, actually.”

Fiona kept staring at me. I went to walk away, but before I could make it ten steps, she called out, “Avery.”

I knew I shouldn’t, but I stopped anyway. As if a small part of me was curious to hear what she had to say next. The last time I had talked to her… well, it hadn’t ended well.

I glanced at her over my shoulder but didn’t turn fully. “What?”

“I owe you an apology,” she said.

I didn’t respond to that, although it took me by surprise.

“What I said to you that night was unnecessary. Everything. The comments about your instincts. The implications I made in the car.”

Even if she did mean it, I wasn’t about to take that chance.

“I appreciate that,” I said simply.

Fiona opened her mouth like she had more to say.

“Take care of yourself,” I said, and walked back up the creek bank the way I came.

I didn’t look back. I could feel her standing there watching me, but I kept moving, stepping over the roots and the wet patches of ground and stopping occasionally to pick other plants until the sound of the water faded behind me and the trees thinned out near the garden edge.

I returned Melissa’s gloves to the trunk, kept the basket, and headed straight for the greenhouse.

Sebastian had a small working greenhouse at the back of the property that was used for seedlings and other out-of-season things. This time of year, it wasn’t being used for much. It was warm and smelled like damp soil and fertilizer, and there was a long wooden worktable running down the center that was perfect for what I needed. I cleared one end of it, set out my tools, and got to work.