Page 40 of Knot Her Mountain Men

By the time we were dishing up, her stomach growling was louder than her purring, and Bear managed to extract her enough that he could feed her while she was buried under the mountain of blankets.

After an hour or so of her accepting bites like a baby bird, her instincts had calmed down enough to let her emerge from the nest. She tied my flannel around her waist, leaving her arms bare and the fabric stretched just enough over her chest to make it slightly see-through in the right light. I picked out patterns in her freckles when she sat next to me in front of the fire.

“We’re going out today?”

“If you’re feeling up to it. The weather is supposed to hold for a few more hours.”

“More snow tonight?”

“A few inches, yeah.”

“Town isn’t close enough to use the snowmobiles to get to, right?” she asked.

“Not safely, no. We’d have taken you already if we could. Our last set of guests got a bit rowdy and a lot of them were relatively new to snowmobiles. Combine that with some trails that had hidden trees down under the snow, and it was a recipe for disaster. Had to drag them back to the lodge one at a time and people did a lot more hiking than they intended.”

“Did they pay for the damages?” Morgan asked.

“They’re just kids and don’t have anywhere near the money it would cost. Insurance should cover it, but it’ll be a pain in the ass to get everything into town for replacement parts.”

“What if there was a medical emergency in the meantime?”

“The risk is kind of assumed when you live in remote areas.” I shrugged. “An emergency would need to get you all the way to Great Falls, and someone would have to get dragged on a sled for about seventy-five miles to access care in that case.”

Our omega pursed her lips. “Rural infrastructure really needs an overhaul.”

“The fewer people that live in an area, the less attention it usually gets,” I replied. “It’s often left to the people themselves to figure out how to help their communities.”

“On happier topics,” said Maverick as he stood at the window, “our fox is visiting.”

Morgan hopped up and pressed herself against the glass. “Oh, it’s so cute. They’re so fluffy this time of year.”

“Want to go out and get some photos?” I asked.

“Absolutely.”

I led her over to the two cameras I had ready and waiting.

She perked up, lifting the white one with the telephoto lens. “You have the same one I do.”

“Then you won’t even need a lesson on how to use it.”

“I don’t know about that. Your composition is pretty fucking awesome.”

I preened at her praise. “Let’s get you bundled up.”

Morgan did the cutest happy dance as she cradled the camera to her chest and practically skipped off toward the garage.

Kit laid a hand on my shoulder, his smile full of mischief. “How’s the alpha crush on her going?”

I let out a bitter laugh, despite hope burning hot in my chest. “Debilitating.”

“It’s so beautiful.” The familiarity of lying in the snow, the camera set up in front of me and a gorgeous animal in my sight, had all of my instincts settling. The fox sat in a sunbeam, its red fur lit up like a living flame.

“You give it a run for its money,” Ryder replied, sending a ripple of oddly delighted self-consciousness through me. I wasn’t used to being perceived so much. Doubly so by people I didn’t actually mind looking at me.

On the rare occasions I craved the companionship of other people, I always dressed plainly so I could fade into the background of my friend group. It wasn’t easy to do with my hair, but I tried. Now I was surrounded by alphas who couldn’t seem to get enough of looking at me, and instead of provoking a bone-deep unease, the attention gave me little flutters in my stomach.

“Hardly,” I scoffed, deflecting the compliment.

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