Chapter 8
I drifted in and out. Morgan and I lay on couch cushions they put in front of the fire, and they alternated hot and cold packs on my back to help the muscles relax and reduce swelling. Between the painkillers and huffing Morgan’s maple syrup and black tea scent, I was on cloud fucking nine.
Life in the mountains didn’t come with a lot of softness, and it certainly didn’t come with omegas who were willing to lie on the floor with me, purring to help my body stay calm during the start of my recovery. I couldn’t keep her down here forever, but I didn’t want to let her go.
Each time I shifted, her scent got sweeter, which only made me want her even closer. I knew she was my scent match, a truth I felt in every cell, but she wouldn’t know that in return until my last dose of injectable scent blockers wore off. Would she get closer, maybe fall asleep in my arms, or brush her lips over mine if she knew?
Having no scent made hunting easier, but it was biting me in the ass now. I had to hope my blockers would wear off before she left us. She seemed determined to, and I didn’t blame her for that. She didn’t know us. Not everyone adapted easily to the plan fate had for them, and getting snowed in wasn’t the best opportunity for us to show her what life could be like out here. It was hard to experience the peace the forest brought when you were trapped inside and asshole trees were falling on you. This wasn’t the first time I’d been hit by a tree, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. At least it had been a branch and not the trunk. I always figured I would die out here when my time came, but I wasn’t keen on it being quite this early. Thirty-four was a little young to perish by a timber-induced death.
This place was more home than anywhere else I had ever been. I wanted Morgan to love it, not only because she was our scent match, but also because it seemed like she needed a little peace in her life. I was still fucking flabbergasted that someone had left her in the woods. Abandoning anyone like that was a dick move of the highest level, but abandoning an omega? All bets were off. I didn’t often wish ill on people, but in this guy’s case, I would make an exception.
Pumpkin came to join us at some point, falling asleep with her head on Morgan’s other shoulder.
“How are you feeling?” Morgan asked me, her voice still a little raspy.
I blinked slowly, taking in her gray eyes and sweet freckles. “I’ve felt worse.”
“Was it the snow that brought it down?”
“Probably. The temperature has been fluctuating a lot so the snow got pretty heavy and the winds out there fuck stuff up pretty fast.”
“We’ll cut a few trees down when the weather calms,” said Ryder, sitting by my head. “Give us a bigger perimeter.”
“If trees would stay where they’re supposed to, they wouldn’t have to come down.” Morgan sighed and shifted marginally closer.
“The forest is rarely that cooperative.” Ryder leaned back against the couch, watching the two of us. “Getting bored of babysitting him yet?”
“Hey!” I squawked.
“Kit told me I have to relax, so I’m trying to be good until I get too restless. Having a job to do makes it easier to sit still.”
“I would offer to put on a movie, but the tree fucked up some of the solar panels so we’ll be on a generator until the snow is cleared.”
“I’ll survive,” Morgan insisted.
“Do you like card games, little fox?” Kit asked, coming into view.
“Love them. Pick something I can participate in without seeing what’s in play.”
Everyone gathered around the fire. Kit shuffled and dealt the cards for crazy eights countdown. I wasn’t playing, but I could watch Morgan easily. Bear held up the top card on the pile for her each time it came around to her turn. They played for hours, interrupted every so often for snacks. Morgan’s purr didn’t last the entire time, but she kept it up enough that I was paying more attention to her than to the ache in my body.
Funnily enough, this was very reminiscent of the life I’d always hoped to have. Minus the injuries, of course. My high school English teacher always said life was meant to be a B movie. If things were like a blockbuster all the time, you would only get exhausted, in the same way that you might stop appreciating the good things in your life if you never had any comparison. Life was meant to be composed of quiet moments and small pleasures with bursts of amazing and terrible so we kept perspective. Snuggling up to my omega by firelight while my pack played cards was one of the many quiet moments I had always envisioned.
I had given up hope that we would find an omega. Maybe I’d gotten too comfortable out here. In fairness, I hadn’t been actively searching. If fate wanted us to find our scent match at a specific time, I couldn’t do a damn thing I could do to speed up the process.
Now that she was here, I wanted to keep her. I wasn’t in any condition to successfully woo her, but if the others could do a decent job, then I could work on it when I felt less like something a cat coughed up.
Pumpkin sneezed and Morgan jolted. “Oh god. It’s all over my face.”
I chuckled and picked up my discarded T-shirt, using it to wipe the Pumpkin sneeze off her. “You were in the splash zone.”
Bear adjusted Pumpkin to the other side of him and our dog rested her chin on his thigh.
“I’ll forgive her because she helped save my life,” Morgan replied, giving her cheeks an extra wipe-down with her hand.
“Do you like dogs, sweetheart?” I asked.
“I love them, but I’ve never had one that lived inside. My family wasn’t big on pets, but we did have a couple of livestock guardians. They stayed with the animals, though, and they didn’t really like people very much so I never got to cuddle them.”
“You grew up on a farm?”
“My dads and brothers are ranchers.”
“Are you close with them?”
“Not really.”
“Any particular reason?” Kit asked.
“Because they treated me like I was never good enough. I don’t recommend being the only girl among ten brothers when they don’t like you. One of my brothers fought with them all the time about it, but it never changed. He’s the only one I still talk to.”
“Is your nice brother a rancher too?” Ryder asked.
“Kind of. Cooper runs a property with his pack a few hours from here. They do trail rides, ranch vacations, equine therapy, that kind of thing. Letting all the city slickers experience the great outdoors.”
I chuckled. “Kindred spirits with us, then.”
“Is that what you guys do?”
“This is a hunting lodge,” Kit said, “not just our house. We take people out into the forest all the time.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed. You don’t have taxidermied animals all over the place.”
“We’re not trophy hunters,” Kit explained. “We focus on sustainable practices and teach people how to feed themselves in the wild.”
“That’s so cool! I’ll definitely put it in the travel guide I’ve been hired to put together. Assuming I still have a job when all the storm chaos is over.”
“You work in tourism?” Ryder asked.
“I’m trying to. I went to school for tourism and hospitality, but most people I’ve talked to aren’t interested in anything beyond the national parks. I really want people to fall in love with everything the state has to offer.”
“That’s what happened with Ryder and me,” I said quietly. “We came out here for Yellowstone, then ran into Bear and Kit. They took us on a hunting trip, and the rest is history.”
“Where are you from originally?”
“DC.”
“I went there once with Girl Scouts. Fundraised for three years to afford it.”
“Do you still have cookie connections?” I asked. “I have a weakness for the mint ones.”
“Unfortunately not, but I think you might be able to order online now. “
“That’s dangerous information,” said Ryder. “When he got his first job, he spent his whole first paycheck on cookies.”
“I got pretty good at copycat versions. I could make some for you as a thank you,” Morgan offered.
“I’m never going to turn that down.” I nestled a little closer, and her breath caught, maple syrup filling my nose. I was relieved that even without the scent match she still reacted to me. It wasn’t what I was supposed to be thinking about right now, but the thought came anyway. My brain could only go so many directions when I was wrapped around a beautiful omega.
Everything Morgan told us had her fitting perfectly into our world. She loved so many things that we did, and if not for her drive to move to Missoula for work, she could have slotted in like she had always been here.
Growing up, I had always kind of assumed omegas were prissy little things who demanded the best the world had to offer. A lot of ones I had met only confirmed that stereotype, but after moving around I’d learned omegas were different everywhere besides the need for comfort and security. In many ways, luxury had a different definition here than where I grew up. It wasn’t pricey goods or sleek cars, but rather land and experiences. If that was what you understood a luxury to be, it made sense you would want different things. None of the people I had grown up with who had turned out to be an omega would be caught dead running around in the woods unless it was on a pair of skis.
“How often do you go winter camping?” I asked.
“I try to go a couple times a season. That probably won’t happen anymore, though. None of my friends like it, and there’s no way in hell I would ever do that with Brandon again.”
“We’re not an unreasonable distance from Missoula,” I pointed out. “You could come out here and we could go camping.”
“That’s very sweet to offer. I think I might need a bit of time before I can go back into the woods again.”
Bear grumbled but didn’t say anything.
“What do you like about winter camping?” Kit asked.
“Mostly the solitude. In the summer everywhere is crowded as hell, but way fewer people venture out in the winter. It always feels like I have the whole forest to myself.” She sighed and continued. “The forest is never truly quiet, but the snow muffles everything. It’s a completely different vibe from the summer. When I still lived on the ranch, I would go stand on the edge of the cattle field and close my eyes to get away from the chaos of home. I wouldn’t go in until I stopped feeling my fingertips.”
I had done the same thing a hundred times after moving out here. Sometimes I would bundle into my snowsuit and Ryder and I would drop into a snowbank just to lie there in the quiet. Nothing else was quite like it. Even though I had lived out here for years at this point, my body still held memories of the chaos and noise in the city.
“I think it also helped that we got more of a break in the winter,” Morgan continued. “Taking care of the animals wasn’t much work compared to the million projects during the warmer seasons and all the food preservation we did in the fall. By the time winter rolled around, I was ready to hibernate until it was over.”
“That sounds exhausting as fuck. I’d want to hibernate too.”
“It sucked.”
“I think the best part of the lodge is that you get the feeling of being in the deep woods but with a soft place to land. Some of the folks who come out here are less outdoorsy and more outside-y. They want to look at nature up close without being in it for too long.”
“I envy you guys having this place,” said Morgan. “I’ve dreamed about something like it for years.”
I shared a look with the others, but none of us were willing to point out that she could have it if she stayed with us. Once she’d been here for a few days, and hopefully after falling in love with the lodge—maybe with us, too—we could bring it up. Until then, we would do our best to show her this could be home.