⛰️ Shifter Mountain: Hearts of Stone, Book 1, Chapter 1

Fated Mates, Sassy Heroine, Shifter Romance, Loner Hero, Fighting His Attraction, Damsel in Distress

What the actual fuck?

Lena sat behind the wheel of her SUV in the now filthy wedding dress she’d so lovingly bought in utter and complete shock.

Was this real life?

Like, did that actually just happen?

She looked up and squinted at the bright headlights from the oncoming traffic, trying desperately to shield her vision from their halogen glares. What the hell was she doing sitting outside with her trunk full of her still-packed suitcases and garbage bags of clothing and other random doohickeys and knick-knacks she grabbed before hightailing it out of there? Most of her furniture and things were still in storage.

Thank God for small favors, she thought. But seriously. How the hell had she wound up here? She retraced her steps in her mind and was no closer to an answer. After all, she did everything right. She’d started a business and was finally making a profit. Lena had found the right sort of guy and even gotten him to propose.

Cary was a lawyer. Smart as a whip and a real smooth talker. She’d agreed to go out with him immediately, flattered as she was by the tall, slender blond’s attentions. Hell, she’d even given up carbs for the fucker. He’d insisted her weight was a negative reflection on him, and he was up for partner. Had to make a good impression.

After he’d proposed and laid out his plans to “fix” her, Marilena had simply smiled and agreed. Her mother told her for years she was too chubby to appeal to any man. At the time, Lena had simply ignored her. She’d always relied on her brains and optimism to get her through the tough times, but the truth was she’d always been a bigger girl.

She was a chef, for fuck’s sake. Food was a lot like life. It could be vibrant and fun, but there were consequences. Such as those to her hips and belly from a love of all things chocolate.

Sigh.

Still, she tried. For Cary and for her mother. Yes, Marilena loved blending cuisines from all over the world to create tempting and tasty treats her customers loved for their parties and events. She worked damn hard at it too, despite her mother’s criticisms. For some reason, her trim parent thought fat equaled lazy.

But Lena was not lazy. She’d even agreed to Cary’s demands to work out five times a week, despite not losing a single pound over the last few months of killing herself. She enjoyed exercise, chub and all, but honestly, she preferred nature walks to spin class.

“I don’t have time to go hiking with you,” Cary said every time she brought it up.

“Okay, dear,” was her only reply.

And yet, it wasn’t enough. Nothing she did or sacrificed was enough for the golden fiancé she’d been so proud to bring home to her disbelieving mother. That same parent who’d refused to let her come home tonight, insisting she apologize to that scoundrel.

“Try to work things out, Lena. Who else is gonna want you?”

Imagine that? Lena apologizing for Cary sticking his dick in another woman. Ha! That would be the day. Her mind wandered to the events that led to her pulling up at the Oasis Beachside Resort down in Maccon City.

The Jersey shore town had been her home away from home during college. She’d always felt good there. Accepted. Even lusted after by the many handsome locals. And that was something out of the ordinary for all her experience during her years in culinary school in Connecticut. But back to her reality as of a few hours ago.

Marilena Sorelli walked into the apartment she shared with her fiancé on her tiptoes. She was so excited to surprise Cary. Switching her flight to the redeye, just so she could show him the incredible gown she’d bought while she was away, had taken most of her savings, but it was worth it.

Her fiancé was overly concerned about her weight. Especially with their upcoming nuptials, and she really couldn’t blame him. Lena was a size sixteen on a good day, but try as she might, there were some things she could not lose. Like her thick thighs, big butt, and larger than average breasts. Go figure she’d go for a guy who wanted runway model thin in his significant other.

But he’d asked her to marry him, so she must mean something to him. Right? She was determined to make Cary happy. Luckily, the Las Vegas Foodie Con she’d attended, hoping to learn how to expand her catering business, was also home to a famous plus-size designer whose gowns were to die for.

She was so lucky to run into Ava Marrow in the lobby of her hotel. The vivacious woman had agreed to see her last minute, claiming she had the perfect dress for Lena’s figure. And boy, did she ever!

The gown was incredible. Marilena looked fabulous in it if she said so herself. Yes, she knew it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress before the wedding, but that was just an old superstition!

Slipping inside the door, she stripped out of her travel clothes and donned the dress, hoping to catch Cary as he woke up. He was a real stickler for schedules and insisted the alarm be set for the same time every single day. Weekends too.

While she expected the chimes of the antiquated alarm clock, she did not expect the sight that greeted her when she walked into the room.

There he was. Her neat as a pin, perfectly poised, and often boring if she were being honest, fiancé. He was laying in the middle of their king-sized bed with a bucket of ice holding an empty bottle of champagne, a dish of strawberry stems, and Dawn. His stick-figure secretary.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You had food in bed?”

Lena’s shriek of outrage over the fact that he’d fed his other woman a bowl of plump strawberries in bed when he freaked out if she so much as drank water while sitting beneath the covers might have seemed irrelevant. But it was all in the details. Which was why, after she caught the two of them in flagrante delicto, she grabbed the bucket of ice and upended it over Cary’s cheating head.

A few choice words, and okay, yes, she might have tossed the bowl of strawberries at him as well while Dawn went running for cover.

“Lena! I thought you weren’t coming home ‛till this afternoon,” he yelled while she hurled strawberries, crackers, and the bottle of spray cheese the SOB had been feasting on at his head.

“I wasn’t you, big jerk!”

“Dawn and I just happened, it wasn’t planned. You are being unreasonable⁠—”

“I’m being unreasonable? You had your dick in another woman, Cary. I don’t think I’m unreasonable. Goodbye.”

“You can’t do this! What will the partners think?”

“Honestly, Cary, I don’t give two shits what they or you think. It’s over.”

She’d tossed his ring at his head, grabbed whatever she could, then left. Filling her trunk and pulling over on the side of the road to call her mother, whose only response was that Lena shouldn’t have surprised him.

Sigh.

Thank goodness the motel had a vacancy. She wiped her face as best she could, grabbed her suitcase, and checked in.

“One room, Miss Sorelli?” Joelle Flint, Manager, her nametag read, furrowed her dark eyebrows as she handed Lena her key.

She was young and sweet, Lena thought as she signed the credit card slip. The woman did not mention Lena’s current state. Or the fact she was wearing a strapless wedding dress at ten o’clock in the morning in late Autumn in New Jersey and had obviously been crying.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Lena said and sniffed softly. “Well, I mean, I just dumped my lying, cheating fiancé. My mother thinks I should apologize to him, and I hung up on her for the first time in ever. All my stuff is in storage. And I have no idea what I am going to do. But I am okay. I think.”

Her smile faltered, but that didn’t stop the young woman from coming around to the front of the desk. She took one look at Lena, then wrapped her up in a surprisingly strong and quick embrace.

“You look like you needed that,” Joelle said, and Lena couldn’t stop a sob from escaping her lips.

“Sorry,” she said, trying to stem the flow of tears that fell even faster.

“It’s okay, really. Now, I don’t recall my mother because she and my dad died when I was young, so, I really don’t know what one is supposed to act like, but I can guarantee from the way my sister Maggie raised me, that your mother sucks.”

“Ha! She does,” Lena replied, laughing through her tears.

“Look, I can tell you’re a good person, and this guy, hell, you’re better off without the rat!”

“Thank you. Truth is, I feel kind of relieved,” she whispered her secret and covered her mouth immediately.

Oh, my!

Did she really just say that?

And worse, did she mean it?

Yes. She did. Her eyes widened at the truth behind those words.

“Sister, I don’t blame you one bit,” Joelle replied, smirking as she handed Lena her key card. “Will there be anything else?”

“Yes,” Lena thought, her gaze roaming around until it landed on a stack of shiny new brochures.

“May I please have one of those pamphlets for Panther Mountains?”

“Of course. You know, there are some lovely trails there this time of year. The foliage is beautiful.”

“I bet.”

“Here you go,” Joelle said, handing her the tri-fold paper. “You’re gonna be okay, Marilena Sorelli.”

“You know, something? I think, I am.”