Alpha Mountain: Hero

Prologue

PROLOGUE

FORD

Buck and I carried the empty keg between us.

Here in Sparks, there was no war. No enemy. The only chance of being killed tonight was from alcohol poisoning or getting eaten by a bear.

We were used to moving around under the cover of darkness, but that was to evade the enemy, not to cut across a field beneath a Montana black night sky.

Neither of us had been home for over sixteen months, and I’d forgotten how dark it got. No big cities anywhere nearby. No desert either. We weren’t wearing our fatigues, and we weren’t carrying multiple weapons.

“Did you hear Lee Landers is taking over his dad’s mechanic shop?” Buck asked.

“I know. The most exotic thing he’ll see of the world is the undercarriage of a sixty-seven GTO.” I took a deep breath.

Fuck, I missed that scent. The tang of pine and damp earth was as much a reminder of home as Gram and Gramps. Or the twenty or so friends from high school who had just finished off this keg, listening to music, fooling around and having fun in the back forty behind us.

“The undercarriage I want to see is that of Kenzie Michelson. She was hot in high school, but did you see her tonight? Were her t**s always that big?” Buck held up his hands to show how big he thought they were as he grinned.

“Why the hell are you helping me carry this keg when you could be helping Kenzie out of her panties?”

Our long legs ate up the distance between the party and the truck. The get-together was in the usual party spot by the creek, originally chosen so my grandparents wouldn’t know about any of the late night get-togethers. Of course, I’d been stupid to think that. They’d been pissed back in the day when they’d learned of them, but now? I was twenty-three. I’d had hair on my balls for years, but I’d also become a SEAL and gone to war. Neither of them gave a s**t if I wanted to get drunk with a few old friends. Hell, they were content I was in one piece. And home.

They were off on a trip to a nearby casino for two nights, having their own kind of good time.

“She’s not port p***y,” Buck countered, stopping when we got to the truck. He leaned against the back end. “Still, I get the feeling she wants me to be her ride out of town.”

I remembered Kenzie, big t**s and all. I’d been cautious where I stuck my d**k in high school because I had plans. Plans that didn’t involve a surprise baby and wife at eighteen. I’d wanted out of Sparks, to follow in Gramps’ footsteps in the military. So I understood where Buck was coming from. We both might be up for a fun f**k but nothing more than that.

I pulled down the tailgate and jumped into the bed. f**k, I loved this truck. I’d bought it when I was sixteen after spending the summer working at the seed and feed lugging sacks of grain, bales of hay and every other piece of heavy farming s**t. It’d helped me get into shape for basic training and eventually BUD/S.

That had been hell, but I had Buck to tell me to stop being a p***y whenever I had an inkling of quitting. Now it seemed I had to give him a pep talk to get laid or at least blow his load. There wasn’t any chance for it deployed.

“Get her to suck you off,” I told him. “She won’t get pregnant from that.”

There. Problem solved.

“Think we’ll ever fit back in here?” Buck wondered, glancing around, Kenzie forgotten. The only thing visible in the dark was the backside of the house and a hint of Gramps’ workshop beyond.

“Who the hell knows. I didn’t survive drown-proofing to plant wheat and drive a f*****g tractor for a living.”

“Do you miss it?” Buck c****d his head with the usual tilt.

The back stoop light cast a glow across his face. His blond hair was cut military short. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, but he still couldn’t grow a damn beard. Not even a mustache. An inch taller than me, Buck was leaner. He was a faster swimmer, but I had him in hand-to-hand combat. Not that anyone from around here understood anything about what our lives entailed. What we endured, so they could f**k beside a bonfire.

“Sparks?” I ran my hand over the back of my neck. It was late August and summer was still hanging on. Barely. The air was cool, and this was Montana. We had another week to go before we were due back in San Diego, but the chance for the weather to turn was always a possibility this far north and at this higher altitude. “I miss snow.”

Buck sighed. “I don’t think I can ever go on a beach vacation. s**t, I hate sand.”

I had to laugh. Afghanistan was hot as hell and a f*****g sandbox. That s**t got everywhere. In places I never thought possible.

“I got this,” I told him. “I can carry the keg by myself. Go have fun with Kenzie.” I had no intention of c**k blocking my best friend. We were on f*****g leave. Our commanding officers expected us to unwind and f**k.

“What about you?” he asked.

I lifted the keg from the tub, ice sloshing, and sat it in the bed beside me. “What about me?”

“There any p***y around here you want to tap?”

Yeah, there definitely was. Indigo. Buck’s sister. His smart, gorgeous, barely eighteen sister. The one who’d followed us around when she’d been a kid. Who’d done s**t all to get her big brother’s attention. When we left for boot camp, she’d been thirteen. But now?

Holy f**k. Indi wasn’t a little kid any longer. She was a beauty. Blonde hair down her back that she no longer wore in two braids. A toned, curvy body with full, high t**s. An ass that could probably crack walnuts. Smart and funny and familiar in that coming-home sort of way. How did I know all this?

The Buchanans had had me over for dinner a few nights ago, and there she was. All tanned skin. Full lips. Bold blue eyes that tracked my every move.

I’d gotten one look at her, and my d**k had gone instantly hard.

For Buck’s little sister.

He’d seen the way I’d stared. Maybe a second too long because he gave me a look. An I’m going to cut your d**k off and feed it to you before you even know what happened glare.

I’d never dealt with the bro code before because, hell, I didn’t lust after jailbait. But Indi wasn’t little or a girl any longer. She was perfect.

Perfectly off-limits.

So I answered my best friend the only way I could so as not to lose my d**k. “Nah.”

He tipped his head toward the house. “You sure?”

I glanced that way and saw a lacy white bra dangling from the screen door handle.

He grinned. “I don’t need to speak five languages to understand that’s for you.”

I hopped down from the bed, my boots hitting the dirt of the driveway. I pulled the keg onto the tailgate, then slid it toward him.

“Here. I’ll go see what’s going on inside.”

I was fine with one-night stands. In fact, that was the only kind of s*x I had. It wasn’t like a SEAL led the nine-to-five lifestyle. Girlfriends and wives didn’t know when their men would come walking through the door. Or if they would ever again.

I knew the chances of survival being in the military, especially being a SEAL. I took it on voluntarily. Even my grandparents understood the risks since Gramps had been in Vietnam. But I wasn’t putting a woman through that fuckery. It wasn’t fair to her.

The bra on the screen door? Whoever it belonged to was in my house. Uninvited. Even if she was—very obviously—requesting s*x. I didn’t like being surprised. Ambushed, even with p***y. Because I’d been trained to stay alive. To watch out for s**t like this.

But this wasn’t war, and the woman not wearing a bra? She sure as hell wasn’t my enemy. Since my d**k was also on vacation, it got hard at what was being offered.

Buck slapped me on the back. “Have fun.”

He hoisted the dripping keg up onto his shoulder and hoofed it back toward the bonfire. He disappeared into the darkness, and I went to snag the bra off the door. Based on the size of the cups, the woman who’d discarded it had a nice handful. Perfect.

I went into the familiar kitchen. The house was quiet, only the light over the stove was on. After peeking into the family room and finding it empty, I went up the back steps to my bedroom. A sliver of light seeped out from beneath the closed door. I took a second to adjust my now-hard d**k before turning the doorknob.

Holy f*****g hell.

It was Indi, and she was naked.

In my bed.

“Hey, Ford.”