Free Maggie's Wolves, Part One: A BBW Shifter Romance (Red Mountain Pack Book 1) by Cara Morgan

Chapter One
     
    She was going to die. That’s what it felt like, with her skin flushed despite the cold weather and a strange throbbing sensation in her belly. When she first started hiking toward the cabin, she’d thought it was just a cramp. But it had only gotten worse as she trudged on, and now there was no denying that something was terribly wrong. She wanted to stop and rest, but she needed to make it to shelter before the storm hit. The clouds were an ominous gray, and the air was sharp and still. She’d probably be snowed in for a few days. If the sickness didn’t pass…
    Maggie shook her head and forced herself to keep moving.
    Of course it would pass. Shifters were immune to practically every disease that afflicted normal humans. She’d never been sick a day in her life. She’d always secretly believed other people were wimps, moaning about mucus and upset stomachs. Now she felt like she should go personally apologize to every person she’d so harshly judged. Being sick sucked. It made your body achy and feverish. Left every nerve ending feeling raw and exposed. It made you restless and hungry and unbelievably horny.
    No. That couldn’t be right.
    Did humans want sex when they were sick? Maybe that was a complication peculiar to shifter anatomy. Not for the first time, she wished that her parents were still alive to ask about that kind of thing. It would be embarrassing to go to them with that question, but an awkward conversation or two would be a lot better than ignorance. She hated that there wasn’t anyone left that she could turn to when she needed help. She couldn’t even tell people what she was without worrying she’d be locked up for the rest of her life, or killed outright. This sickness was just one more thing she had to figure this out on her own. And she would. After she got to the cabin.
    The moment the moon touched the horizon, Maggie felt it in her bones and stopped walking. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see it rising behind the thick layer of clouds. She’d always know when the moon was in the sky. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, drawing strength from its presence. Her wolf stirred inside her, rising to the surface. Maggie reached for the wolf, willing the change to take her, wanting to shift even if it meant losing her gear. She’d make it to the cabin far faster if she could run on four paws.
    Nothing happened.
    Beating back a rising sense of panic, she started walking again. It had to be a side effect of the sickness. Once she was feeling better, she’d be able to shift. She probably just needed some food and a little rest.
    This side of the mountain was all rock and pine with a few hardy trees already stripped of leaves. Once she made it to the top of the ridge, she should be able to see the cabin. The tiny log structure was tucked on the opposite side of a deep, wooded gully. The ground ahead was treacherous, with lots of loose rock that could twist and turn beneath even the surest feet. Her sense of balance wasn’t particularly reliable at the moment which made breaking an ankle—or her neck—a very real possibility. 
    But she really didn’t have much of a choice. At this point, the cabin was much closer than her piece of crap, busted down car. She’d make it so long as kept her head. One foot in front of the other. She could do this. Inside the cabin, there was a stash of dry clothes and blankets she’d hauled up last year. Plenty of firewood and enough canned food to last until spring.
    Her stomach cramped with such a vicious twist that she stumbled and dropped to her knees. Rock bit into skin even through the double layers of long underwear and denim. She gritted her teeth, drawing air in shallow sips, until the pain receded enough for her to climb to her feet again.
    It felt like what she imagined the beginnings of labor might feel like, but that was impossible. Completely impossible, considering the fact that she’d never had sex. It was hard to