Page 5 of Knot Her Mountain Men

“See? I’m good enough to hold your camera and be your little camping bitch, but not good enough for you to let me get my dick wet.” He huffed. “Omegas are supposed to be sluts, but your legs are like fucking Fort Knox. What do I have to do to get in there, Morg?”

Alarm bells screamed in my head, my omega instincts sending panic surging through my body.

Get out. Now!

“You don’t have todoanything. I don’t want to sleep with you.”

“Why? What’s so terrible about me that you can’t give me what you owe me for putting up with your bullshit all these years?”

I ground my teeth together, suppressing a whine that wanted to escape. I didn’t want him to know I was afraid, not when I wasn’t confident he would back down because of it. “Let’s get some sleep. We can go home in the morning.”

He paused, staring down at me like I was the dirt beneath his shoe. “I don’t know why you think it’s funny to mess with my head like this, but I’ve been more than patient. I’m done playing this game.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant, and I didn’t want to risk asking. “I’m going to go for a walk while you take some time to cool down.” I hopped up, hastily pulling on my snowsuit and shoving my feet into my boots.

He grabbed my arms, holding tight enough to bruise. “Justonce. Come on, it’s not like I’m some troll. I’ll make it fun for you.”

I swallowed hard, cringing away from him. “Brandon, let me go. I don’t want to.”

Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

He shoved me hard and I went ass over feet, almost crashing into the stove. “Go fuck yourself, Morg. You can’t stay out there forever.”

I scrambled out of the tent, heart pounding, and hid behind a tree, leaning up against it to do up my boots properly and secure my snowsuit against the icy wind of the night. I patted my pockets for my phone before cussing myself out for having left it in the tent.

Realistically, it would be impossible for me to stay out here all night, but I didn’t want to go back inside while he was making himself a threat. Where had all those opinions about omegas come from? He’d never saidanythinglike that around me before. If he had, I never would have invited him camping. That was probably why he’d kept quiet about it.

I had always tried to besoclear. Every time he brought it up, I told him I wasn’t interested in a romantic relationship, but that I valued his friendship and would be happy to continue it. How was that stringing him along? If I’d kicked him to the curb, I wouldn’t have had any friends at all. I knew they’d choose him over me—everyone always chose someone else—and maybe his attraction to me was the only reason they’d kept me at all over the years…

It wasn’t just Brandon. Not a single alpha I knew tempted me. The thought of being with any of them, of ever having a heat and risking a pregnancy that would trap me in our small town forever…I’d rather lie down and die on the mountainside.

I walked until I couldn’t see camp anymore and then sat down in a snow drift. I hadn’t grabbed my snowshoes, and sinking in to my knees with every step slowed my progress. Tears slipped down my cheeks and I buried my face in my mittens so they didn’t freeze on my face. What the fuck was I supposed to do? I couldn’t give him what he wanted and the last thing I could cope with was him trying to take it because I was an easy target out here. My best bet was probably to wait him out, and hopefully by the time I was forced back inside, he’d be in a better mood. At sunrise we could head back and end this apparent farce of a friendship for good.

The day caught up with me, exhaustion weighing me down. I drifted in and out of sleep leaning against a huge pine tree. When my fingertips started to go numb, I pulled my aching body back to standing. I didn’t want to think about what was awaiting me back at camp. I was definitely not taking my snowsuit off no matter how hot it was in the tent. The extra layers were armor.

I half walked, half crawled my way back up the trail and came upon our campsite partially dismantled with Brandon throwing things. The tent was down and the stove kicked over, charred wood scattered across the snow.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“You don’t want to be out here with me? Fine. I’m not putting up with your goddamn bullshit for another minute.”

“Brandon, it’s almost sunset. It’s a four-hour walk out of here. You can’t just leave.”

He growled. “Watch me.”

“Can we please talk?”

“You open your mouth one more time and I’m going to fill it the way I should’ve been doing all these years.”

I clamped my lips together and backed up.

He shoved everything haphazardly onto the sleds and I watched in silence, too freaked out to say a word. It would be pitch black well before we got anywhere near where the truck was parked, and that was assuming we didn’t get lost on the way. It had been snowing lightly since we’d arrived so our trail was already obscured. I wouldn’t have any choice but to follow him since he’d ripped down the tent. I couldn’t stay out here alone with no shelter.

Brandon set off at a quick pace, not even packing everything or waiting for me to get my sled hitched up.

My snowshoes were nowhere to be found and Brandon was already disappearing down the trail.

“Hey! Wait!” I clambered after him, sinking up to my knees with every step. “Fuck.”

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