Protecting his Mountain Bride

by Skye Tisdale

  I shook my head. “Nah. Somebody’s got to stay and make sure the roof stays on.”

  Her face dropped. “What? No! You can’t stay here! It’s too dangerous.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I muttered.

  “You don’t know that,” she argued, crossing her arms. “I’m not leaving without you. I’m going to stand right here until you come to your senses and realize how stupid you’re being.”

  “Just go, Jennifer.”

  “No. Not without you.”

  I looked at her angrily and tossed the dishrag into the sink. Everyone else had fled the moment the clock struck 9 PM. Why couldn’t she do the same? She was too stubborn for her own damn good, that’s why, and right now it was grating on my nerves. “How many times do I have to tell you no?” I snapped. “Get out of here and leave me be!”

  She froze and scrunched up her face. It only lasted for a moment, but that was long enough for the guilt to take hold.

  “Fine,” she spat back. “You’ll never change your mind anyway. The least you can do is take care of Phoebe while you’re up here.” She walked up to the door and yanked it open angrily, turning back just to glare at me. “And don’t get yourself killed.“

  The walls rattled as she slammed the door shut. I sighed and wished that she hadn’t pushed so hard… But it was really my fault. I never should have snapped at her like that, like a stray dog biting the hand that tried to feed it. It was fucking pathetic. I knew that the only reason she was so insistent was because she cared about me—but that was just the thing. I never asked her to care about me. I never even wanted her to. All I wanted was to be left alone, but a lot of people took issue with that for some fucking reason.

  Nobody around meant nobody for me to be responsible for. Nobody to protect. Nobody to disappoint—except for myself. And if being an asshole to people was the only way to make them stay away, then so be it. I could be the biggest asshole in the whole fucking world.

  There was an open bottle of whiskey on the counter that I hadn’t cleaned away yet. I reached for it an poured myself a shot, and then another, and another... Days like these I found myself thinking about the past. I was such a damn fool back then, thinking I could save the whole world as long as I set my mind to it. Seeing as I already knew how to handle a rifle thanks to a childhood spent hunting, joining the military felt like a natural choice. And freedom wasn’t such a bad cause to fight for, was it?

  I slammed my cup down on the counter angrily. What a fucking load of crap. The only thing we freed was money out of the pockets of innocent civilians.

  I’d been too blind to see it. Too full of myself. When Captain said he saw something special in me, I believed him simply because I wanted to believe him. It was true that I was a decent shot—better than anyone in my platoon, in fact—but anything beyond that was just my ego talking. Of course, the real reason Captain liked me was because he saw me for what I really was: young and stupid. A greenhorn. If only I’d seen the warning signs…

  A sudden flash of orange fur caught my eye, and my memories dissolved like dust in the wind. I found myself sitting face–to–face with the bar cat, Phoebe, who watched me silently. He’d grown a lot. I still remembered how small and scrawny he’d been the day the kitchen crew found him digging through the dumpsters out back. I told them he could stay. I wasn’t heartless. Then, Jennifer named him Phoebe—because apparently, he “just looked like a Phoebe!“—and by the time we realized we actually had a boy cat on our hands, it was already too late. The name had stuck.

  “What do you want?” I asked him curtly. I had never cared much for cats, not even as a boy, but at least Phoebe earned his keep. To his credit, I hadn’t seen a single mouse or spider since he joined the crew.

  Phoebe rubbed up against my arm and meowed loudly.

  “Oh, don’t beg,” I grumbled. “You’re fat enough as it is. I’ll refill your bowl before I leave, but then you’re on your own until Monday. All right?”

  Phoebe meowed, jumped down onto my lap and began to knead at my thighs. It might have been pleasant, if it wasn’t for his sharp claws piercing through my trousers and scratching my skin. After a moment he stopped and curled up into a ball—right there on my lap. I chuckled to myself and ran my fingers through his soft fur. When I scratched him behind the ears, he began to purr. He always did…

  I was still petting Phoebe when I heard a car pull up in the parking lot outside. I turned my head and looked out the window, guilty but annoyed. I thought it might be Jennifer again; that she would’ve changed her mind and returned to physically drag me down the side of the mountain. But it wasn’t her. Just some stranger in a beat–up car. I turned my head. Just another city–slicker looking for adventure, I thought. Well, they won’t find any here. I’m closed.

  I had half a mind to just walk out the back door and leave them there, but the situation with Jennifer had me feeling down already, and I could only handle so much guilt in one evening. The least I could do was check on them. Maybe it was my lucky day, and they’d already be gone by the time I got there.

  I put on my jacket and grabbed the half–empty bottle of whiskey from the counter before going to refill Phoebe’s food dish, just like I’d promised. He followed me the entire way to the stock room and back, weaving in and out of my legs and nearly tripping me several times. When I tried to leave, he put his paw on my leg and looked up at me pitifully. Then, he let out the longest, saddest meow that I had ever heard.

  Damn it. I knelt, set the whiskey bottle down and scooped up Phoebe instead. “Fine,” I sighed. “You win, cat. I’m taking you with me—but you better not cause any trouble. All right?”

  Phoebe purred, which I took to mean he understood. I opened the front door and shot one last look over my shoulder at the bottle I was leaving behind. I’d been planning to spend the rest of the evening finishing that bottle by myself, but obviously plans had changed…

  I just hoped I wouldn’t regret changing them.

  ***

  CHAPTER 3

  MORGAN

  My parents used to tell me that only lunatics and hillbillies live on Rodite Mountain. I thought they were being judgemental. But being up here in the pitch black, where the trees looked half–dead and ready to snap from the weight of the snow, and the wind was howling so loud I could barely hear myself think, I was starting to think they’d been right all along. I couldn’t imagine anyone living here out of their own free will.

  Night had fallen. I wanted to keep driving, just to put as much distance between myself and David as possible, but my gas tank was nearly empty, and the last thing I wanted was to get stuck on the side of the road in this frozen hellscape. I pulled over at the first building I came across, which was an old bar. It was worn, and I certainly didn’t drink, but I was relieved just to see some trace of other life up here.

  Only… there wasn’t any. There were tracks in the snow outside, but there weren’t actually any cars in the lot, and all the lights in the building were turned off. It was closed.

  Just as I was staring in through the dark windows and wondering what to do next, the car’s engine began to sputter and spit from a lack of gas. Then, it died. I looked around frantically for something that could help me—a gas station, a pay phone, or a person walking their dog—but there was nothing. The whole mountain was completely barren. Why did I ever think coming up here was a good idea?!

  Tears began streaming down my cheeks. Driving up the mountain’s narrow roads had been easy, because I’d been working with a goal in mind, but now I was lost and could feel myself begin to panic. I couldn’t stay where I was, but I couldn’t keep going either. The inside of the car was already so cold that I could see my own breath, and it was only going to get colder…

  I was starting to think I might actually die out here.

  “Oh, God…“ I sobbed. “If you’re out there, please help me. Send me your strength, because I have none. I can’t make it through this alone.”

  Praying didn’t m
ake me feel any better. If anything, it made me feel vulnerable and exposed—but that didn’t matter much when there was nobody around to see. I was all alone. I had to deal with all this completely by myself, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I hadn’t even figured out exactly what happened down at the hotel—or if it even happened at all. It seemed… unbelievable. If it wasn’t for the tears in my dress, I might not have believed it myself.

  Reliving what happened at the hotel caused my stomach to revolt. I rolled down the car window and leaned outside, forcefully dry–heaving into the frozen air. Nothing came up. Puking couldn’t relieve me of this sickness that I felt…

  Suddenly I heard footsteps crunching in the snow nearby. They were loud, but still barely audible over the howling wind. I looked up and saw a man walking through the darkness and making his way towards me. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest, not just because he seemed to come out of nowhere, but because I somehow convinced myself that he was David. He wasn’t, though. They didn’t even look alike.

  He was wearing heavy duty cargo pants and a dark Mackinaw jacket. His face was covered by a thick beard and a woolly beanie pulled all the way down to his piercing, blue eyes. I looked past him and saw his footsteps leading from the front door of the bar. Apparently, it wasn’t closed after all… When I looked back again, I finally noticed that the man was carrying an orange tabby cat, which looked perfectly content curled up in his arms. I didn’t question it. Somehow, that was the least strange thing about him…

  “Hey!” he called out to me in a deep voice. “Bar’s closed. Time to go home.”

  “I can’t,” I croaked and quickly wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand. “I can’t go home.”

  The man clicked his tongue. “It’s always the same with you people, isn’t it?” he muttered. “Well, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Don’t you see those dark clouds in the distance? A storm’s coming in. I don’t want to come back here on Monday morning and have to dig out your frozen body. So…” He gestured rudely for me to leave, like I was some kind of stray animal that walked onto his property. “Go on. Get out of here.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled timidly. He hadn’t offered to help me, and I didn’t dare to ask.

  But when the man turned to leave, I felt my heart start racing again.

  “W–wait!” I called out after him. “It’s just that… My tank’s empty.”

  The man stopped and glanced back at me. His face seemed to soften somewhat. “Bad place to run out of gas,” he said. “Real bad.”

  “I know…” I sighed and bit my lip. “Do you think you could maybe… lend me some?”

  “Well, I don’t have a siphon on me right now,” he said and scratched his beard thoughtfully. “I’ve got my truck parked right here, though. It would be a lot easier if I just gave you a ride. Where do you live?”

  “Down the mountain,” I said wearily. I didn’t dare to be more specific. What if David caught up with me and started asking questions? I knew the chances of that were small, but I just didn’t want to risk it.

  The man took a deep breath, and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was in no mood to make that kind of drive. “…Right. Well, I guess we better get going then. Before this storm rolls in and buries us both.”

  He stood waiting for me to get out of the car, but for some reason I couldn’t move. It was like my body had frozen solid. I might be crazy for driving all the way up the mountain, but I had a very good reason for it—and that reason was still down there…

  “No,” I croaked. “I can’t.”

  The man stared at me in disbelief. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? There’s a storm coming! You’re not safe up here.”

  I’m not safe down there either.

  “Thank you for the warning,” I said and turned away. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

  There was a painful silence. Instead of walking away as I had hoped, the man just stood there and stared at me. Finally, he let out a hum. “I guess whatever’s waiting for you down there must be pretty bad if you’d rather freeze to death, huh?”

  My heart skipped a beat. He was perceptive—or maybe I was just too easy to read. Either way, I felt intimidated by him. I didn’t know who to trust anymore, after what happened down at the hotel. I didn’t want to trust anyone anymore, but I didn’t have that choice. I needed help, and this man could give it to me—but he never would unless I allowed myself to trust him.

  “It’s… my fiancé,” I said. I wanted to say more, but the words got stuck in my throat. Deep down, I felt like everything was my fault. If only I wasn’t such a coward, then none of this would have happened.

  The man nodded stiffly. “Right… I think I get the picture,” he said. “Well, like I said: you can’t stay here. You can bunker with me tonight, I suppose. Unless you don’t do that sort of thing…”

  His eyes wandered down to my chest, and for a moment I thought he was staring at my cleavage. Then, I remembered the cross pendant dangling from my neck. My cheeks turned a bright cherry color. Of course, I thought. Of course he’s only looking at my necklace. What on Earth has gotten into me?!

  I cleared my throat and stepped out of the car. “Normally I wouldn’t,” I said and looked up to meet his eyes. “But there’s nothing normal about today, is there?”

  “Suppose not…” He shrugged and pulled off his glove. “Name’s Axel, by the way.”

  “Morgan,” I said and shook his hand softly. “And I just want to say: I’m really grateful for your help. You’re a good man, Axel.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that…” He grunted and looked embarrassed. He held the cat out towards me. “Here, you don’t mind holding Phoebe for a moment, do you?”

  “Not at all!” I smiled and took the cat in my arms. She felt warm as I ran my frozen fingers through her soft fur. She began to purr, and suddenly I didn’t feel so scared anymore. That almost made me want to cry again, just because I felt so relieved. I stubbornly blinked the tears away and focused on petting Phoebe. I didn’t want Axel to think I was annoying. Maybe he’d change his mind and kick me back out…

  “Here,” Axel said. “I think you need this more than I do.”

  He took off his Mackinaw jacket and draped it over my shoulders. It was already warm from him wearing it, and there was something strangely comforting about the heavy fabric weighing me down. It had a strong scent of firewood, mixed with a hint of pleasant–smelling cologne. Feeling strangely weak at the knees, I blushed and smiled up at him thankfully.

  Maybe today wasn’t all bad…

  ***

  CHAPTER 4

  AXEL

  I ploughed through the snow with my boots and created a trail for Morgan to follow in. All she had on was a knee–length dress, ankle boots and the coat that I’d given her. She wasn’t even wearing stockings. Weather like this called for proper layering, not some cute outfit! All I could do was shake my head and wonder what the hell she was thinking.

  I was dreading bringing her back to the cabin. I didn’t want some stranger invading my space. But at the same time, I couldn’t just leave her in the parking lot either. Sure, the car would’ve kept her reasonably warm for a couple of hours… until the cold began to set in. Up here, cold meant death—and I may be an asshole, but I’m not a fucking psychopath. I wasn’t about to leave an innocent girl to freeze to death.

  I mean, somebody had to protect her. I just happened to be the only one around.

  I looked back over my shoulder. She was red–cheeked and shivering, clinging to Phoebe like he was the last source of heat in the entire world. She looked paler than I remembered. We weren’t even half–way to the cabin yet, and she was already struggling… She’d never make it alive at this pace.

  “Come here,” I said. I placed one arm around her back and the other behind the bend in her knees, and then I hoisted her up. My pulse quickened at the feeling of her light body pressed against mine. Her skin was cold to the tou
ch. “We need to pick up the pace.”

  “Hey!” Morgan gasped and reached to pull her dress down where it had hiked up over her thighs. I wouldn’t even have noticed if she hadn’t pointed it out. “You can’t do that!”

  “Just did.” I shrugged and started walking. She could complain as much as she liked. I was more worried about her possibly dying of hypothermia than I was about her getting mad at me for saving her.

  She sniffed the air and furrowed her brows. “You’re drunk,” she said in a tone that reeked of disapproval.

  “I may have had a drink or two,” I confessed.

  “Just one or two?” She scrunched up her face. “Are you sure about that? Because your breath smells like you drank an entire distillery.”

  I gave her a long look. Was she actually giving me lip after I literally just saved her ass? “Would you prefer to walk then, princess?“ I asked dryly.

  She looked away sheepishly. “…No.”

  Yeah. That’s what I thought.

  With her no longer slowing us down, we made it through the woods and to the cabin before too long. Snow crunched loudly beneath my feet as I trudged the last bit across the hilly yard and up the creaky front steps. I looked at Morgan before setting her down gently on the snow–covered porch. The tip of her nose was bright pink, and her long, light–brown hair was littered with snowflakes. She didn’t look too bothered despite all that complaining earlier.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled.

  I hummed and stuck my key in the door while she glanced around the yard. There wasn’t much to see except for an endless sea of pine trees and snow—and my precious Silverado truck parked in the driveway, of course. I liked the vastness, but she didn’t look too charmed… Figures. City girl like her probably never spent a single day out in the real wilderness before. It took some getting used to.