Page 93 of Knot Her Mountain Men

“There’s a marker up there.” She pointed about twenty feet up to the orange triangular sign on the fir tree next to us. “And there’s a lot more dormant raspberries growing around the lodge, but they’re getting more sparse as we go. You guys put those in, right?”

“We did. Part of a whole food forest network about a mile out in every direction with the exception of the other side of the road.” The marker was a little faded and would probably have to be replaced soon, but for now it served its purpose. Replacing all of them would be a project over the whole summer.

She jogged past me, up to the top of one of the multitude of hills on the property. “How do you get anything done? I’d wanna be out here all day.”

“Most of our projects are outdoors, so in fairness we do spend most of our time out here.”

Morgan lifted her face to a beam of sunlight sneaking through the tree branches, her smile making her look practically ethereal. “How often do you guys go around the property?”

“Depends on how busy we are, but we try to get most of it covered every couple months. Keeping the trails clear is part of business, and there’s always poachers slipping onto our land. Bear has collected so many illegal traps over the years.”

“So step carefully?”

I joined her in the sunbeam, wrapping my arm around her waist. “You have to do that anyway. I don’t want you to twist an ankle out here.”

Pumpkin sprinted over, apparently done investigating whatever she had been fixated on earlier on the trail. She knew this area well, and while we didn’t like her to be outside alone too long because of the predators around here, she always found her way back to us quickly.

“Hey there, beautiful girl.” Morgan dropped down to accept some Pumpkin kisses. “You smell like you rolled in something questionable.”

Pumpkin merely looked at her with adoration, tongue lolling out and tail wagging.

“We’ll give her a bath before she comes inside. You ready to head back?”

“Sure.”

“You’re in charge of getting us home.”

“You trust me with that?” She tilted her head, looking adorably akin to Pumpkin when she was trying to figure something out.

“I won’t let us get lost out here,” I promised. “It’s good practice for you.”

We set off, Morgan pausing every so often as we came to a fork in the trails, blessedly selecting the correct one each time after assessing the surroundings. Going in reverse and seeing all of the markers backward made navigation more difficult, but she had enough experience with it on her own that I wasn’t worried. When she lost track of the direction above the trail, she used our footprints in the mud to choose her way, and eventually we emerged back at the lodge, my omega practically vibrating with excitement.

“Fuck yes! I did it!” She turned and leapt toward me, catching me in a kiss as I wrapped my arms around her. “Thank you for taking me out. I feel ten times better getting to know the area and knowing I can find my way home.”

Home.

We all kept hoping she would view the lodge as that, but had been trying not to push the idea. Even the nest had to be pitched as temporary accommodation so she didn’t get twitchy. I wasn’t going to point out that she had called the lodge home and make her think about it, but it didn’t go unnoticed.

“What’s so exciting?” Bear signed as he approached us, Pumpkin rushing to jump on him.

I whispered his question to Morgan and she wiggled out of my arms to hug him too.

“We went three miles out,” I told him.

“And I led us back.” Morgan beamed.

Bear signed out congratulations with a broad smile, leaning to pet Pumpkin when she flopped on her back asking for belly rubs.

I was more than a little jealous that he shared the bond with her, that he was able to feel how thrilled she had been after successfully navigating the forest. She wasn’t going to bond anyone else unless she was staying here permanently. I had to be patient no matter how much I wanted to share that with her.

“Come on, you little gremlin,” I said to Pumpkin. “Let’s go wash off whatever you rolled in.”

I got Pumpkin scrubbed up and hosed down while Morgan basked in the sunshine like a contented lizard, Bear at her side. Maverick had reminded her to put on sunscreen before heading out, and a good thing too because the overcast sky from when we started had opened up halfway through our walk and she probably would’ve looked like a lobster otherwise.

She and Bear helped me wrestle Pumpkin to get her dry after her impromptu shower.

“I know, baby,” Morgan cooed as Pumpkin barked her displeasure. “Life is so hard when the people you love most in the world are washing away all that hard-earned stink. Criminal. Yes, absolutely, we all deserve jail for one thousand years.”

---