Page 2 of The Alpha's Autumn Baby Mama (Triple L Ranch Shifters 4)

So many memories.

My home still stood. Empty and sad, in the first fingers of dawn’s light, almost calling to me, but there was nothing there for me. Not anymore. I’d heard of packs where the alpha matched people up with their mate, an old-fashioned tradition that would have been popular here I had no doubt, had anyone stuck around to let the alpha do it.

But there was nobody to match me with or for me to find myself here. If I stayed, I would never find my true mate. He was not here. How could he be? Nobody who stuck around here was single, at least now that I’d walked away.

Hours later, as I reached ten then eleven thousand feet, the chill closed in around me. This late in the fall, there would normally have been a thick layer of snow up here. Heck, we’d have had a foot or two of it frosting the ground at home. But with drought conditions sparking fire danger everywhere in the mountains of California, Nevada, and elsewhere, there was only a slight bit of it icing the very highest peaks above me.

Not that the lack raised the temperature of the air or the ground. The items I had packed did include most of my clothing, certainly all of the warm pieces, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from hypothermia if I slept out in the open. I decided to press on, reach the pass and hope to find a cave or other place to shelter. I had a few nights of this, and dying on the first one after waiting so long to make a move and start my new life sounded like a really bad idea.

I went back and forth from feeling good about my decision to wanting to run home and crawl back into my little house. Nostalgia made things better, and I knew that, but images of our little family gathered around the table on a night like this, laughter and the clank of silverware against plates providing music sure seemed pretty wonderful to me. Sometimes my brother would play his guitar, but we didn’t all sing. My mother tried to make us, but we thought it was silly.

I wish I’d sung.

I reached the pass just as the sun went into its disappearing act into the ocean to the west. On the western slope of the Sierras, we had the ocean in our sights, but the Triple L Ranch would not. This could be my last view of the Pacific for at least a while. Maybe forever.

Drama queen much?

I turned from the orange ball fanning its light over the waves, the bobbing dots of sailboats and a tanker far out to sea. Those aboard would see places I could only dream of. Having had a really minimal homeschooling education, my knowledge of where those places might be or in many cases, what they were called was laughable.

But what I did know was where the various packs in these mountains were located. A few we’d visited, and representatives of others had come to us over the years. Each seemed to have a slightly different culture from the others, and I listened carefully when we had campfires and the guests would talk about their homes.

Some were very modern and actually drove almost right up to us in cars and pickup trucks. They were usually connected to the grid, had jobs in the human world, and their kids even went to school with humans. Others lived a more off-the-grid life but still had so many conveniences, I was ashamed of how we accomplished daily tasks.

Plodding through the pass, in places narrow enough that my shoulders brushed the walls, I remembered one man who’d talked about how one of the females of their pack had run away from an arranged marriage only to marry into the Triple L hierarchy. The fellow’s outrage had touched the heart of our alpha who agreed that she should have been followed and dragged back by the hair. Forced to follow her alpha’s ruling. At that point, there had been a moment when he’d commented that he needed to find a mate for me, if not here, then somewhere. Luckily, it was too much trouble to bother, and he never mentioned it again.

Shadows filled the stone notch, becoming full darkness before I reached the other side. I needed to find somewhere to sleep, soon. Stars were dotting the sky, forming a jeweled fabric that seemed to blanket the earth. Cold beauty.

Triple L had never visited us themselves. So I only had the stories of others to make me think that it might be the paradise I sought. A place where females were respected and the alphas nurtured the talents and skills of their pack members. And where someone like me might be allowed to stay. I’d offer to do anything they wanted, for this permission.

My abilities were probably not valuable. I could cook and clean, and I’d raised chickens and other poultry for eggs and meat. I enjoyed baking when ingredients were available. And, once, when we’d gotten some wool, way back when I was a little girl, my mother taught me to weave. We carded and dyed and did all the things to create the blanket that filled too much of my pack. But I couldn’t leave it behind. Her loom had been painful enough. Standing in the corner, unused for so long, it was still her prized possession.

Beginning my first descent, I watched for any little cave or alcove that might provide shelter but found nothing, and my teeth were chattering. I could shift and be warmer but not and carry the heavy pack. So I continued down the stone face and into a stand of pinyon pines.

They were heavy with cones, a good source of pine nuts, if I’d had a way to carry them. And processing them took weeks. Perhaps there was a faster way, but I only knew the one we used at home.

At my former home.

If the goddess willed, Triple L would be my new home.

Finally giving up on finding any real shelter, I was surprised and pleased to find a broken-down shack, only held up by the saplings sprouting through its grayed-board walls. The door had fallen in, so I needed no key, and the whole thing was in too much disrepair to make considering a fire for warmth safe. Everything was tinder these days. But it would block the wind, and I dug out all my warmest garments prepared to put them on when I realized how silly that was. Instead, I found the blanket Mother and I had woven, cleared a space of as much natural debris as possible, and laid the blanket out to provide a layer of protection from the cold ground. I removed all the clothing I wore. Shivering hard now, teeth clicking together, I shifted into my fur and curled up into a tight ball.

My wolf was quiet, had been all day, even now when in ascendance. She didn’t like the idea of leaving our pack. It went against the grain to do so, against her instincts, so I didn’t press her to keep me company.

I’d never felt so alone.

Chapter Three

Levi

Maybe we should have stayed in Carson Valley.

At least we could have retreated to our individual family homes and made a fresh start. Market gardening had been a great idea, and as we’d delved into native plantings and permaculture, food forests, and all the other concepts being espoused by farmers and gardeners, we’d made real progress toward independence. Our folks had helped with the initial investment, and the loss of everything we put into the ranch was also theirs. That rankled.

The pack lands were isolated and would not provide the best options for earnings in many ways, but neither of us had the heart to remain where we were. Or to move home to our moms and dads like irresponsible teenagers on their first foray into the world.

Leaving this late in the season meant we would be lucky to have a chance to prepare any garden beds at all before the ground froze. The average winter temperature up there in the mountains was nothing like the one we’d become used to in Carson Valley. Hiking up into the foothills in the late afternoon, that fact became rapidly obvious.

“Did you have a stopping point in mind?” Owen adjusted the straps of his pack on his shoulders. “It’s getting chilly.”

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