HIS MOUNTAIN OBSESSION
Read if you like—instant obsession, possessive alphas, and HEAs that hit hard.
CHAPTER 1
MELODY
I should be excited. Most women would be.
An all-inclusive luxury resort in the mountains. Fresh air, towering pines, crystal-clear lakes. And a fiancé who spared no expense for our pre-wedding getaway. Everything is perfect—except the part where I don’t believe any of it.
Liam has been in the shower for twenty minutes, steam curling beneath the bathroom door like the tension under my skin as I sit at the edge of the king-sized bed.
I declined his invitation to join him in the shower.
His phone buzzes again.
I glance toward the bathroom. Water still running.
Buzz.
Again.
My stomach twists. He never lets it out of his sight. But he left it on the nightstand this time. Careless.
I know I shouldn’t look.
I never have before. I don’t want to be that woman—paranoid, insecure, snooping through his messages.
But something in me already fucking knows.
His phone lights up with another message. I reach for it, fingers trembling.
I unlock it—his birthday, of course. Pathetic, really.
My thumb moves without thinking, straight to the messages, like I already know what I’ll find. And I do.
Somewhere deep down, I’ve always known.
This is just the moment it stops pretending to be a secret.
The most recent text is from his assistant, Laura.
Missing you. Can’t wait till that cock is all mine again.
My vision goes blurry. My ears ring.
No, no, no. I’m not fucking seeing this. The truth still hurts, even when you sense it coming.
The text thread is endless. Photos. Videos. Her in his office, splayed out on his desk, the two of them fucking.
It’s not just one woman. There are multiple threads.
My hand clamps over my mouth, fury rising in my throat.
The bathroom door creaks open, and I drop the phone like it’s dripping in poison.
Liam steps out, towel slung low on his hips, steam trailing after him.
He sees my face, the phone on the bed, and his expression flattens instantly.
“You went through my phone, Mel?”
No guilt. No shame. Just irritation.
“Are you serious right now?” My voice cracks. “That’s what you have to say?”
He shrugs, unfazed. “What did you expect to find, Mel? You and I both know this wasn’t about love.”
The room spins.
“What the hell does that even mean?”
“It means… you make sense. You’re the kind of woman a man marries when he’s ready to settle down. But fun?” His mouth curves into a sneer. “You’ve never been that, babe.”
“Wow,” I whisper. “Just wow.”
He sighs, like I’m the problem. Like I’ve made this awkward by discovering the truth.
“I didn’t mean for you to find out like this. So can we just…not turn this into a fucking thing? Let’s get through the weekend, the wedding—”
I don’t even hear the rest.
Something in me snaps. I stand and walk out of the room.
I don’t take my phone. I don’t grab my purse. I don’t even think. I just walk—barefoot, half-dressed in silk and shame—because I’d rather vanish into the woods than spend one more second breathing the same air as him.
I won’t do it. Not another second.
The hallway is quiet as I pass the other suites. I move fast, like if I stop, I’ll shatter.
I step into the elevator and ride it to the lobby, heart hammering like it’s trying to escape my chest.
I keep my head down and slip toward the side exit—away from the guests, the noise, the eyes.
Gravel bites beneath my bare feet as I move blindly toward the tree line.
They built the resort into the mountain, carving its luxury into the wilderness.
I don't think. I just start running—past the private cabins, beyond the trail markers, until the silence swallows me whole.
The air is crisp and thin, biting at my lungs as I push uphill.
It doesn’t matter that I’m not dressed for this. That I have no plan. All I have is rage and heartbreak. And the unbearable pressure of everything I thought I knew crashing down around me.
I stumble over a root and go down hard, my hands scraping against the hard ground. I don’t cry. I don’t make a sound.
He was right—I was the simple choice. The quiet girl. The one who never raised her voice, never made a scene, the one who swallowed her pain with a smile and called it love.
Not anymore.
Something inside me twists, hardens.
I push back to my feet and keep going—deeper into the woods, and farther from cruel reality.