Page 12 of Knot Her Mountain Men

“Is that how Bear found you?”

She shook her head.

Pumpkin sat at their heels, staring at me like she could psychically will me to give her a treat. She could. I fetched one out of the cabinet and she took her chew to go lie down by the fire.

“Pumpkin found her,” Bear signed.

“I’m not surprised. She’s the best girl so of course she would be a pro at impromptu search and rescue.”

I grabbed a handful of containers of tea from the cabinet and set them on the counter for Morgan to choose from.

“The licorice mint one will probably help your throat the most, but not everyone likes the taste.”

“I can suffer,” she replied. “It’s not that bad.”

I kind of liked her crackly voice, but it did make me curious what she sounded like when she wasn’t fresh off a near-death experience.

I filled the cup with boiling water and let the tea steep, adding a generous spoonful of honey for extra soothing properties. Bear and I got her situated on the couch in front of the fire with her cup of tea and I wrangled together something more substantial for her. I didn’t want to waste gas for the stove if we might be going into a power outage, so I dumped a couple of servings of last night’s stew into a camp pot and brought it into the living room where I could set it on the metal rack in the fireplace. I’d gotten damn good at cooking like this, not that reheating stew was anything special.

“If you’d like a bath or shower, I’m going to have to insist you do that relatively soon. Storms make everything out here pretty unreliable. Next best option if you wait too long is heating a soup pot of water next to this and you can scrub yourself down with a cloth.”

“A shower would be amazing.” She sipped at the tea, fingers curled around the cup like her time outdoors had sunk all the way into her bones.

“I’ll get everything ready for you after you eat,” I promised.

I wasn’t sure how she would react to Ryder and Maverick. She already looked a bit overwhelmed, and the charred edge of her scent hadn’t muted yet. Unsurprising, given everything she had been through.

Bear inhaled his food when I dished it up, but Morgan picked at hers more carefully. Her lips were chapped and the skin on her cheeks was bright red. I surreptitiously licked my own lips, relieved they weren’t in rough condition. Not that I expected her to feel them anytime soon, but I wanted to be ready if the opportunity presented itself.

Morgan sighed.

“What’s wrong, little fox?”

“I feel like I could sleep for a year. I don’t know how I’m gonna get through the effort of a shower.” She winced and took another sip.

“We could help you.”

Her pupils dilated, but she didn’t speak right away.

“Stay in your clothes,” I suggested. “The hair is the most work, so you can sit fully dressed and I’ll wash it for you. I imagine the clothes could do with a rinse anyway if you were out there for a while. You can wash your body yourself and I’ll bring you some fresh clothes to put on after.”

“I guess that works.”

The moment she finished eating, I scooped her off the couch so she didn’t have to expend any additional energy. We had no shortage of bathrooms in the lodge but I took her upstairs to mine. I’d cleaned it recently so everything was sparkling, and I had the added advantage of owning toiletries that wouldn’t ruin her beautiful hair with the hard water.

Bear followed after us, even though I was sure he was itching to wash up himself. He stayed by the door to keep watch, not because he didn’t trust me, but more than likely just so Morgan might be more comfortable since he was the only one of us she knew.Knewwas being generous, too. Still, a savior was a savior, even if they were a stranger.

She curled her knees up to her chest when I set her into the bath, and she tipped her head back with a soft hum so I could take the hand attachment to soak the strands.

I had never considered that shampooing someone could be an erotic act, but the sounds she made as I scrubbed her scalp forced me to get on my knees and hide my reaction against the side of the tub. This was an act of trust, and I wasn’t going to take it for granted, but I couldn’t help my body’s response to it either.

“Two other alphas live here,” I told her. “I don’t want you to get overwhelmed, but this is their home so you’ll definitely see them around.”

“That’s okay. Are they nice?”

“They’re part of my pack, so yes. A little rough, but not unkind.” I squeezed the water from her hair and applied a generous helping of conditioner before rinsing off her clothing. “I can give these a proper wash if you’d like.”

“I don’t have anything else to wear, so I suppose that’s the only option.” She grimaced. “I hate that it hurts to talk.”

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