Read Online Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) by Becca Fanning - Free Book Online Page A

her depth. She had been following a yellow route marked on the map, one of the Level 2 difficulties, to have something easy to start with. But somewhere along the way, she’d taken a right instead of a left, and now she was pretty sure she was halfway up a Level 4 hillside. And it was the hottest part of the day. The sun beat down on her head, making her hair feel like it was on fire, and she decided that she had to stop and find a hat and some water.

    Although her bag seemed to be getting heavier by the minute, she was grateful for all the supplies she’d packed. The spotty teen adviser in the Great Outdoors store back home had been very, very helpful. She’d suspected he was all too keen to help a pretty young woman for a change, instead of the grizzled forty-something men he usually had to advise. Karina glugged some water down from one of several bottles she had with her, then she threw on a ridiculous-looking hat with a floppy brim all the way around it. The look was hideous, but the relief from the sun was heavenly.  

    According to her map, she just had to get over the other side of the hill, then there’d be another crossing of the paths. There, she’d make a left, then she could get back onto her original route and find a nice grassy place to pitch up and get some much-needed rest. Karina looked up at the peak ahead, craning her neck to try and see where it ended. She heaved out a heavy sigh, put her pack back on, and trudged forward again in the heat.

    As the minutes went by, she began to make out a shape on the horizon. At the very top of the hill there was a thin-looking person with similar camping gear, sitting on a mossy rock. He was about Karina’s age with very dark skin, and he sat looking out on the view with a morose sort of expression. When Karina eventually arrived at the top of the peak, the young man was still there, and he noticed her as she set her bag down beside him.

    “If you came for the view, I’d say it’s worth it,” he remarked.

    Karina turned as he pointed beyond him, and what she saw took her breath away. The peak overlooked a low valley to its north, shaded from the midday sun and glowing with a million different hues of green. There was a glorious lake that snaked off into a river where it met the trees, and patches of those same trees popped up all around the valley to pepper it with darkness. Between these patches, lush fields of low grass and bushes sprang out. It all looked so cool and peaceful, and Karina couldn’t wait to get down there and enjoy its shade and calm.

    “Wow,” she breathed. “I actually did it. I climbed a freaking mountain.”

    Her fellow hiker gave her a grin.

    “Your first time here too?” he asked. “I’ve never done Fairhaven before. It’s a heck of a challenge. I’ve been sitting here nearly an hour trying to get my breath back. I seriously thought I was dying on the way up.”

    Karina chuckled. She approached the man and held out her hand to him.

    “Karina,” she said.

    “Bud,” he answered.

    “You know,” she continued, “if you were seriously struggling, you could have just called the ranger on that radio thingy.”

    Bud’s brows crossed in confusion.

    “Radio thingy?” he repeated.

    Karina got the little black block out of her pocket and showed it to him.

    “Sure,” she began, “it’s for first time hikers. You didn’t get one?”

    Bud shook his head, staring at the box.

    “Oh, well maybe you didn’t meet the ranger down at the hut,” Karina reasoned.

    “No, I did,” Bud added quickly, then he gave a little scowl. “You don’t forget a guy like that in a hurry. He basically inferred that I ought to go home if I didn’t know what I was doing. What an ass.”

    Well, that definitely meant he’d met Reinicke. Karina looked at the radio again puzzlingly. Why hadn’t he given one to Bud, if he was so strict on the rules? Then, as he turned it over in her hands, Karina saw a tiny printed label on the