“I love doing things for you, my mate. We can go back out to the kitchen and sit at the table if you wish.”
“I think that’s a good idea. There’s no place to sit in here except for the bed.”
Raven picked up the tray and carried it back to the kitchen table, setting the plate of scrambled eggs and silverware on the table along with a cup of coffee. “Go ahead and sit down. I’m just going to grab a cup of coffee, and I’ll join you.”
I took a bite, not knowing what to expect, but they were good. “Mm. These are good. I didn’t know you could cook, too.”
He sat down across from me and grinned. “I can do a whole lot of things you don’t know about yet,” he teased, taking a sip of his coffeeand watching me as though I were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Is this thing really over with Jenkins and his horde?” I ask between bites.
“They’re gone for good. In a matter of days, they will be shipped off-world to the prison planet. The displaced ranchers have all left and returned to their farms.” He paused. “And I didn’t have a chance to tell you I have been made Protector of the Medicine Bow region. I contacted the Enclave to send an adviser to help Brislow residents form a new government.”
“With Jenkins gone, there shouldn’t be that much for you to do here,” I said.
“Maybe not as a law enforcer, but there’s more than enough to keep me busy. First on the agenda, I'd like to build a house of our own. Zach said we could build it here on the ranch, or if you’d rather, we can find a vacant property to build our home on.”
“I think you read my mind. I remember thinking, as we missed so much of our alone time, I wish we had our own house. But I don’t think we should go elsewhere. We have over two thousand acres here, and we barely use thirty anymore because we haveto do everything by hand,” I told him.
“Not for much longer. We can acquire a machine that can perform both planting and harvesting, and we can install a small, modular reactor to power the town and the surrounding ranches, bringing back some conveniences to the community.
“I came here to be your mate and help you manage your ranch so that we can build a future for the family we will have someday when we’re ready. With Jenkins and his crew gone, we can now concentrate on our future.”
By then, I had nearly finished eating, but my heart was as full as my stomach. Raven turned out to be everything I had dreamed of in a mate. I wanted nothing more than to build a life with him and have a family. Now that he’d rid our town of the criminal element, we could begin looking toward the future.
“What chores do we still have left?” I asked, getting up from the table and carrying my plate and cup to the sink to wash them.”
Raven got up from his chair and followed me with his cup. “I did the chores while you were sleeping because Zach and Grace were busy with the baby and catching up on their rest.” He set his cup in the sink as I began washing my plate. “When you finish, let’s go outside and take a look around to see where we might like to build our house,” he added.
Raven
It was a gorgeous day for a walk. Although not too hot, the sun shone brightly in the blue sky overhead. We walked the sprawling fields, scouting for the perfect spot to build our home. Ultimately, Hannah chose our site, a place where she wanted the house to be nestled between a stand of tall pines on a gentle slope overlooking the sprawling, overgrown fields. It was only a few hundred yards from the original family home, but it would give both our families the privacy we needed and keep us close enough to visit when we wanted to.
We loved the view of the mountains in the distance, their jagged peaks softened by the haze of early morning light. “Right here,” Hannah said with certainty, her hand holding my arm. “This is where I want to live with you.”
“Then here it is.” I grinned and took her into my arms to celebrate with a kiss. I knew just the kind of house we could build that would last and blend in perfectly with the environment. But my thoughts quickly turned to breeding as one kiss led to another. Then we were making love in the grass where our house wouldstand. We were so happy and devoted to each other that we couldn’t resist kissing and touching every chance we got.
“I’ll see how soon they can send a team to get started. Once they begin, it should only take a few days to complete, as most of the process is automated,” I told her as we still lay entwined naked in the grass. We would have a house of our own, but home from the beginning was where we could be together.
Three weeks later, the team arrived from Chicago to build our house. The team consisted of two humans, six androids, and one massive piece of machinery. We had picked the floor plan from an online catalog. The builders brought a large inflatable mold and then covered it with the framework of steel rods over which they poured aerated concrete. They completed the house in four days, but we couldn’t move in because we had no furniture, not even a bed.
Hannah had thought she wanted to wait until the house was finished to choose how to furnish it. Since there were few factories out west, we ordered our new furniture to be shipped in from a factory in Chicago.
Most of my job entailed checking in on the various ranchers and towns to ensure everyone was doing okay. The assignment suited mewell because it kept me with Hannah, and I could be home every night. The ranchers and the townsfolk were grateful for my intervention against Jenkins, especially those displaced by him. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when I reported a few weeks later that the Federation had transported them all to Penta Prison.
With that threat gone, they could rebuild their lives without fear. They held an election a month later and elected Tom Barrows mayor. The Enclave sent an adviser, Miriam Henry, who assisted them in nominating and electing a town council and establishing their charter.
I stopped by to see Koha’vek and Ava a few days after moving into our house. They had settled into their secluded life and seemed contented with their relationship. Since the Mesaarkan was living on Earth covertly, I helped him out with supplies when they needed them. I didn’t know how things would turn out for them, but I decided that I would not be the one to reveal his presence.
The war was over, and Koha’vek’s presence was no longer causing harm to anyone. I thanked him for his help with Jenkins’s gang that day. I saw no reason to separate him from the woman he loved. I was stillresearching how best to help them.
My friends from the team in Gretchen would all think I had gone soft, and maybe I had, in a way. I liked to believe that it was because I had found my own true love in Hannah.
I almost lost her when Jenkins took her. I did not wish to inflict such pain on another human. In time, I hoped perhaps Koha’vek and Ava could live here openly in peace.
We moved into the house well before the end of summer. It was a sturdy one-story structure with a wide front porch facing the mountains. We had built extra rooms in anticipation of having a family someday.
The night after we moved in, Hannah and I stood on the porch wrapped in each other’s arms as we looked out over the land. The air was crisp, and the sky was glimmering with stars.
