My Knotty Mountain Men (Snow Valley Omegas #1)

Chapter 1

Violet

Pressing the video button beside Jenny’s name, I only have to wait two rings before her face pops up on the screen. “Hey, bitch! Where are you?”

“Snow Valley. I’m at the local grocery store, picking some stuff up so I can stock the cabin. It’s still a half hour away. What the hell do you girls want me to get for food?”

I slowly scan the shelves, grabbing things that look good.

“Doesn’t matter to me. You know we’re not picky.” She narrows her eyes. “But you better get healthy shit, Letty. None of that junk.” It’s like she can read my mind.

Dropping the box of cookies into the cart, I roll my eyes at my Alpha friend. She’s not my Alpha, but she’s my best friend and can’t help but make sure I’m taken care of. I stopped trying to tell her she didn’t have to a long time ago because she wouldn’t hear it.

“You’re no fun,” I tease, sticking my tongue out.

She chuckles. “Oh, trust me, this trip is going to be amazing. Christmas in that awesome cabin, skiing, a week of drinking with my best girls, I can’t wait!”

“Same!” I grin. “But really, what the hell do I get for all of you?”

“Just buy whatever it takes to make your favorite meals, but enough for four people. We will eat whatever you like.”

“Fine, but don’t complain to me if we’re eating every version of chicken you can think of.” I grin playfully, wiggling my eyebrows.

She groans. “Letty, if you keep eating chicken for every meal, you’re going to turn into one.”

“Sorry?” I ask before I start clucking like a chicken. “I don’t know what you mean.” I cluck a few more times.

“You’re impossible.” She chuckles. “Go, be safe. See you in a few days.”

“Byeeeee.” I hang up, shoving my phone into my pocket. I continue down the aisle, and after a few seconds, I’m lost in my own head.

This trip is meant to be a single-girls-get-away with my best friends. I flew in from Southern California to Colorado a few days early to get the cabin ready before the others arrived.

We’re all teachers at Calling Wood University and are ready for a much-needed vacation.

Jenny is an Alpha, the leader of our little friend group. She mostly teaches Alphas and has been constantly complaining about how she needs to get away from all the Alpha energy.

Jenna is a Beta guard. She’s only able to come on this trip because she’s in between Omegas right now.

Rylee is an Omega, she teaches art.

And I run the heat program at the school and am in charge of everything Omega related.

We all need this vacation for our own reasons. But the one thing we all have in common is that we’re single.

I’m a twenty-eight-year-old single Omega... who presented but never went through a heat, not once in the past seven years.

I’ve done everything from joining the single-pack program to meeting packs online. But nothing has been the right fit. Most of the Alphas have been wonderful, but they weren’t for me. As time went on, no one could find an answer as to why I’ve never gone into heat, so my doctors and therapist chalked it up as a result to me repressing the trauma from my past.

My parents passed away when I was eighteen. As devastating as that was, I still have no idea why it would cause me to miss my heats.

Lost in my own mind, I don’t see the man coming around the corner until I crash my cart into him.

“Shit, sorry!” I rush out, pulling my cart back.

The man chuckles, running a hand through his golden brown locks as he holds my cart steady with the other hand.

“It’s fine. I shouldn’t round the corner so tight. It’s my fault.”

His blue eyes lift to mine, and I’m momentarily stunned. He’s a Beta, I can smell that much. He’s cute—really cute—with his boyish smile with floppy brown hair covering his forehead.

I blush, cursing the fact that I’m an Omega at this moment because even though I don’t have heats, everything else Omega about me works just fine. Including how often slick inconveniences me, like it is in this exact moment. Damn, Omega hormones.

And, of course, I’m not wearing my scent-blocking panties, so Beta-boy is getting a good whiff of my pheromones.

To prove my point, his eyes widen, and his nostrils flare. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was an Alpha right now.

“Sorry,” I say quickly, moving my cart around him and speed-walking my way to the other end of the store.

When he’s out of view, I take a moment to breathe. What has gotten into me? I don’t react easily to a pretty face anymore. But damn, his face was really pretty.

Get a hold of yourself, Letty. Stop thinking about men. This is a single-girls trip. No boys allowed.

Not that men ever really got in my way. I kind of gave up a few years ago, putting all my time and attention into my work.

Taking a look at my cart, I groan, seeing that it’s all just random things. I can’t make a meal out of any of this.

Making sure to pay better attention, I go back through the aisles slowly, making sure to get a good look at everything they have.

By the time I make it to the checkout, my cart is packed high. “Wow,” the young girl at the cash register comments. “That’s a lot.” She laughs.

“It is.” I laugh back. “Girls’ trip.”

It takes a good five minutes for me to unload everything, get it rung up, bagged, and back in my cart. Only not everything fits anymore. With everything in bags now, the cart is packed weird.

“Need help?” I look up to see the man from before.

“Sorry, what?”

“With your bags.” He gives me an amused look, pointing to the last two bags on the counter.

“Oh, no. I’m okay,” I say, moving to grab my bags. I stupidly let the man watch me struggle to hold the bags while pushing the cart all the way to the exit before one of the bags breaks.

My eyes close, and I die of embarrassment.

“Will you please let me help?” he asks, and I sigh in defeat, nodding.

He picks up the items that dropped and piles them in his arms. “Thank you,” I mumble as he walks out the door.

“No problem. Which car is yours?” he asks as we step outside.

I shiver, the cold winter air hitting me immediately. “The red Jeep.” I point to my rental car.

He’s nice enough to help me pack everything into the back. “I’m Nolan, by the way,” he says, holding out his hand once we close the door.

“Violet.” I take his hand, giving it a good shake.

“Violet,” he repeats, more to himself. He doesn’t let go of my hand, both of us just locked into the other’s gaze. The wind blows, and the faintest smell of cinnamon buns hits my nose. I shiver, a whimper breaking free from my throat. Nolan’s eyes widen at the sound.

“I gotta go. Thanks again.” I rush the words out, my voice strained as I scramble away to process what the fuck that was.

“You’re welcome,” he calls out. I quickly get into the Jeep and start it up.

As I pull out, Nolan stands there and watches, an unreadable expression on his face.

Deciding to leave the cute stranger behind me, I focus on getting to the cabin. It’s about a half-hour drive up the mountain with a crap-ton of twisty curves. I hate every moment of it and am glad I have everything we need for the next week because I’m not making this drive again.

We had the snowmobiles we rented delivered yesterday, ready to take us to the ski resort on the other side of the mountain, so no Jeep on narrow roads is needed.

Thankfully, there hasn’t been a big snowstorm here yet. The roads have been plowed, so the drive isn’t too bad, weather-wise.

I don’t relax until I pull onto the cabin’s long driveway.

The closer I get, the more my stomach churns. I haven’t been here in years, way before my parents passed away.

The moment the cabin comes into view, I lose it. My foot slams on the brakes as a sob breaks free.

The walls inside of me that have held every emotion regarding the tragic accident at bay come crashing down.

A part of me hates that I’m an Omega. Because if I didn’t present, my parents would still be alive. I’m the reason they died.

My parents were here, celebrating their twenty-year wedding anniversary, when they got the call from me. I was sobbing, afraid, and confused. I woke up covered in slick with a bad fever.

We didn’t expect me to be an Omega because both my parents were Betas, and their parents, too. We hadn’t had an Omega in our family for a very long time.

None of us were fully prepared. I stupidly didn’t pay much attention to anything that wasn’t Beta related in high school because I was so damn sure that’s what I was going to be.

But, boy, was I wrong.

Mom did her best to calm me down and called my grandma. Grandma came to stay with me to make sure I wasn’t alone, but Mom didn’t like the idea of not being there when her daughter was in need.

So she convinced my dad to cut their trip short even though they had been hit with a pretty bad storm earlier that morning. We didn’t hear from them, thinking they were on their way back to us, but then we got a call from the Snow Valley Police. They told us they found my parents’ car in a ditch. A year-round resident was passing by and found them.

My whole world came crashing down. I lived with the guilt of their death for years. No matter what help my grandma got me, I never stopped thinking they were dead because of me.

With my forehead on the steering wheel, I cry until I have no more tears left in me. Once I stop, I take a few deep breaths and wipe my eyes with the sleeves of my coat.

They left me the cabin and a very large inheritance in their will. They once loved this place, and I did too. We would come here every summer when I was little. I have so many memories here. So, I’ve been paying people to keep this cabin in good shape.

I grab my purse and dig inside for the keys. Fisting them in my hand, I open the Jeep’s door and step out.

The snow crunches under my boots as I close the door.

Time to take a step into the past and face it. I can’t live in fear forever, can I?