⛰️ Shifter Mountain: Hearts of Stone, Book 1, Chapter 3
Oh, my.
Goodness gracious.
Sweet mercy.
Marilena was not exactly a nature girl. And yet, the second she’d seen the brochure in the hotel’s lobby, the one she’d driven to after that disaster with Cary, it was like she just knew. Like a big old neon arrow had pointed right at the glossy little thing saying, ‘go on girl, this is your destiny’.
Well, her destiny had a completely fucked sense of humor. First off, chubby chicks did not dig walking for miles in the woods, uphill for fuck’s sake, without her GPS. Yeah. Who knew? There were no cell towers in the Panther Mountains.
She should’ve known something was wrong when she’d stopped at the little mini mart before the trails began and the attendant had laughed at her when she told him which one, she was going to take.
“That’s an expert trail, miss. Takes eight hours to get to the top and then you gotta make camp. See how the dots on your map are red? Red means only hiking enthusiasts should attempt. You might wanna start with something more your speed. There, try the trail marked out in green on the other side of that map. That’s the ticket for a city girl like you.”
Next, the beady-eyed little cretin had pointed to a tiny circle marked out in green dots labeled appropriate for ages twelve and under. The jerk.
Hmmpf.
Nothing like throwing down a gauntlet to get Lena’s panties in a bunch. Determined to prove even a fluffy girl like her could make it to the top of the expert trail, set up camp for the night, and start back down in the morning, she’d purchased a one-person tent, some protein bars, and extra waters, and started at daybreak.
Eight hours came more quickly than she thought, as her frequent stops made it difficult to keep to that time. But what could she say? Her need to pee won out more often than not. Even now she did not think she was anywhere near the campsite.
But the sun was already low in the afternoon sky and Lena was hungry, cold, and tired. She decided one wooded area was as good as another, but three strikes and she was too humiliated to try again. The first area she tried to pitch her tent was against a tree where some pretty angry squirrels were preparing for the coming winter.
Little buggers thought she was trying to steal their nuts and had retaliated by crawling up her thigh and chittering like mad. Lena had dropped to the floor and rolled to get the beasties off, but dang, they sure were feisty.
The second effort had resulted in her pushing a stake through a fire ant mound beneath a pile of leaves. Again, she went running for the hills. Literally.
After another twenty minutes of walking, Lena finally tried her latest attempt. Panther Mountain was so beautiful and peaceful. She knew it was a series of mountains, but still called it in the singular as the locals did. The storekeeper hadn’t been wrong when he’d said the trail she’d chosen was for experts, but she couldn’t let the mountain beat her. And she sure as hell wasn’t about to let another man tell her what to do with her life.
Yes, she’d been foolish, but she could survive a night under the stars. This was her opportunity to spend some time alone with her thoughts. After countless hours of going through what she’d walked in on just a few days ago, Lena still felt one thing above all the betrayal and anger. Relief.
It was simple as that. Marrying Cary would have been a terrible mistake. He was the only one of her boyfriends her mother had ever liked. That alone should have been a red flag. She grinned at the thought and shook her head, searching for a clearing between the ever-thickening forest. The aches in her muscles now went all the way down to her bones. She had to rest for the night.
There’d been a few signs hanging up, claiming this section of woods was private property, but Lena saw no such details in her map. It was probably some kids playing pranks. So, she’d gone through a dense stand of tall pines and found paradise. A clearing. One that looked peaceful under the faint light from the rising moon glowing overhead.
Of course, slipping on the damp rocks hidden beneath the fallen Autumn leaves and spraining her dang ankle was not high on her list, but it happened. But what had she expected with her luck? Just when she thought all was lost, with the sky darkening and the sounds of roaming animals approaching, he showed up.
The man was a mountain himself. He was a giant, for sure. The tallest, widest human being Lena had ever seen. Her heart skipped two beats at his silent approach. For a moment, she’d thought she’d dreamed him up.
“Oh! You scared me,” she’d said.
Then after that, she damn near talked his head off. Lena babbled when she was nervous, and Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Sexy made her nervous as hell. His eyes sparkled like green emeralds, his hands were big and sure as he steadied her when she almost tumbled head over teakettle once more.
If anyone could make a fool of themselves at the most inopportune moments, it was her. So, grinning self-deprecatingly, she took his hand, grateful for the aid. He slipped a sure arm around her waist and shrugged her knapsack onto his back. Then he introduced himself.
“My name is Keeton.”
Some things were coincidence, others were hard earned through work and years of searching. Then there were those things that the universe itself seemed to drop at your feet.
Like gifts, Lena often thought.
When Keeton said his name, she felt tiny sparks of electricity flit up and down her spine. Then her ankle rolled, but before she could go down like a ton of bricks, or one large overly fluffy girl, the mountain of a man swooped her into his arms before she even touched the ground. Lena had a moment of panic.
She didn’t want him to carry her, to feel her weight so keenly. But he barely even slowed down. Walking at an unhurried pace while he held both her and her bag firmly in his firm grip. She’d never felt so small or protected before in her entire life. Maybe that was why instead of telling him to put her down, she simply wrapped her arms around his neck and held on.
“I have a cabin,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice that did funny things to her insides.
The deep tones sort of turned her into a warm pile of goo. She nodded her head, swallowing the nerves that threatened to spill out. This was crazy.
He could be an axe murderer.
Or some crazy survivalist hiding from the government.
Or a ridiculously handsome man living alone on a mountain, starved for sex, and looking to scratch his itch with a chubby chick born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Gulp.
Before she could find her voice to ask for more information, they were there.
“Oh, wow!” Lena gasped as he carried her effortlessly along the cobblestoned walkway that led to an enormous two-story log cabin style house.
“When you said cabin, I thought you meant like a one room shack in the woods,” she murmured.
“Why did you think that?” Keeton cocked his head to the side and looked curiously at her.
“Uh, I don’t know. I think I can walk,” she returned, a little embarrassed by both her supposition and the vulnerability she felt in his embrace.
It’s not an embrace, Lena.
She scolded herself often whenever her flights of fancy were bound to get her into trouble. If she started thinking of this man in terms of embraces, Lena was liable to throw herself at him.
What kind of soul searching would she accomplish then when he laughed her right out of his beautiful home?
Sigh.
The sky opened up just as he lowered her onto his covered porch, and Lena gasped, turning too quickly to see lightning crack through the suddenly black sky.
“Easy,” Keeton said, moving closer. His enormous body blocked Lena from getting wet by the raindrops that splattered on the rocks he’d used to decorate outside the cabin.
It was the perfect blend of wild and tamed. The building itself seemed more part of the landscape than she’d thought at first, and the result was beautiful.
“Come inside,” he said.
“Are you sure I won’t be intruding?”
“No,” his green eyes glowed as he spoke, and she swallowed at the pure turmoil she saw in them.
Something deep was going on with her reluctant host. An inner struggle she wasn’t sure she was supposed to see. Common courtesy demanded she go find somewhere else to wait out the storm and call for aid, but Lena didn’t have that luxury. She was stranded in the forest with no cell service, an injured ankle, and a thunderstorm raging. Keeton Grey was her only hope. And he wasn’t done answering her, she realized when the hard line of his mouth opened once more.
“In fact, I’m positive you’re intruding, Marilena Sorelli,” he growled the words. “But come inside anyway.”
