Chapter Text
Felicity huffed as the tent pole she had just erected fell to the ground. She had been trying for over an hour to get her “home away from home” put together, but so far, she was not having any luck. Whose idea was it for her to get away for a while and go camping? Camping is fun they said. Camping will let you clear your head they said. Oh yeah, it had been her friend Rose’s idea. Rose, who was not only smart but had hiked the Pacific Coast Trail, by herself for 3 months. She wanted to kill Rose.
Felicity wiped the sweat from her brow and stood with her hands on her hips looking down at the tangled mess of tent and poles. As smart as she was, and she was smart, a certified genius to be exact, tent poles confounded her.
She looked at the fire she had made, a smile of pride curving her pink coated lips. The campfire had been easy. Matches worked wonders. Of course, the scratches on her legs and the red bumps where she had to swat a bug away on her arm when she was gathering wood were a nuisance.
Felicity looked at her campsite with a sigh. This was going to be her home for at least the next few days. Her ex-boyfriend Gabe was on a rampage trying to find her. He wasn’t abusive, but he wanted something from her. Something she could not give him. So, she had to hide. For now.
Felicity glanced out over the fields that lay before her beneath the hill she had chosen for her camp. The sun was just setting, and the sounds of the crickets and frogs were slowly filling the air. She had to admit, that this was nice. It was quiet, secluded and the air was just cool enough that she could place a blanket around her shoulders and be warm. Her only neighbors were the horses quietly grazing in the fields below her. Someone obviously had a ranch nearby.
She thought back over the past few weeks. Gabe had been pressuring her to marry him. She couldn’t figure out why, but he was not taking no for an answer. Their relationship had been great in the beginning. No strings and he had been nice and sweet. There had been no pressure and Felicity had liked that. Why? Because she was not ready for a physical relationship with anyone and Gabe had been ok with that. It should have struck Felicity as odd. Men who agreed to no sex were rare. She wasn’t a virgin or a prude, but she was selective about who she slept with and so she had been cautious.
Now that she looked back on it, she should have been more suspicious. He had been acting weird for the past month and it had sent up a red flag for her. She caught him a little over a week ago cheating on her with a girl that worked at a local bar they frequented. No wonder he had been ok with no sex. He was getting it from someone else. Of course, when she caught him, he had immediately come up with excuses. He claimed he was drunk and didn’t know what he was doing. As if that made his cheating any better. Then it had escalated, and he had shown up at her door professing his love, begging for her forgiveness and asking for her hand in marriage. God that was strange.
Why had she gotten involved with Gabe in the first place? She knew it was a mistake. Her friends told her it was a mistake. That he was a man whore, but she had not listened. Now here she was, sitting by a campfire, alone. The answer was not something she liked to admit but it was simple. She had been lonely.
She had watched as her friends all met someone and fell in love. Felicity wanted that too. She wanted someone she could come home to at night, sit on the couch and tell about her day. She wanted her one true love. Her happy ending. That had not been Gabe.
Felicity huddled under her blanket as she glanced around her camp site. She was not a country girl by any means. She had grown up in Vegas and went to school in Boston. The most time she had ever spent outdoors was at a Taylor Swift concert while they waited in line for tickets. Rose had dragged her to that too. Her father had left her and her mother when she was only 7, and he had been more into computers than pitching tents.
Felicity grabbed her sleeping bag and rolled it out on the ground. She was tired of messing with the tent and it was getting too dark for her to see to put it up. She could deal with it tomorrow. For tonight, she just wanted to rest. She crawled inside and settled down as her eyes grew heavy. The sounds around her were a natural lullaby willing her to sleep.
Hearing a twig crack her eyes flew open. It sounded like someone or something was walking nearby, and her heart started racing. She heard the sound grow closer and froze as her eyes tried to adjust to the dim light. She looked over her shoulder and a scream escaped from her lungs before she could stop it.
Standing 10 feet away was the biggest black wolf she had ever seen.
***
Oliver walked through the front door of his home and took his boots off in the hall. His shirt and jeans were dusty from the days work he had done, and he was bone tired. He placed his hat on the rack on the wall and walked into the living room noticing his son’s things strewn about the room. He sighed as he noticed a book bag and shoes and called for his son.
“Lucas! Get in here and pick your stuff up off the floor.”
Oliver grimaced at the mess as his housekeeper and sometimes nanny, Raisa, entered from the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel. She shook her head as she looked at the book bag and shoes.
“That boy is a whirlwind Mr. Oliver. I tell him when he comes home to put up his things, but he doesn’t listen.” Raisa’s Russian accent was thick as she clucked her tongue and started to grab his son’s shoes.
“Leave them their Raisa. Lucas needs to learn to take care of his things. He won’t always have someone walking along behind him to pick up after him.”
Raisa smiled. “He is a lot like you were as a boy Mr. Oliver.”
Oliver lifted an eyebrow. “Was I this bad?”
Raisa placed the hand towel she as holding in the hem of her apron and winked at him. “You were worse.”
She walked back into the kitchen to finish dinner as Oliver chuckled. He had known Raisa since he was a kid. She had worked for his parents when they were alive, and his Dad had run the ranch. They had died just over 5 years ago in a car accident and based on how his son was acting up, it still was affecting him.
Oliver felt the phone in his pocket buzz and looking down he saw a text from his ranch foreman, Tommy. Tommy had been his best friend since they were kids and he had been working on the ranch almost as long. His father had been an abusive prick and Tommy had spent all his time at QC Ranch. It was his second home and Oliver’s parents had been like his own.
Tommy: Storms possible tonight. We need to check the fence on the south pasture. Can you do that for me? I am elbow deep in horse shit.
Elbow deep in horse shit was code for, I am mucking the stables.
Oliver: On my way.
Oliver walked over and pulled his boots back on, grabbing his hat from the wall hook. He walked into the kitchen and the smell made his stomach rumble. However, the food would have to wait.
“Raisa, I need to ride over and check the fencing on the south pasture. Will you make sure that Lukas picks up his things before he eats his dinner?”
“Yes, Mr. Oliver. Do not worry. I will make sure Mr. Lukas gathers his things.”
“Thank you. I am going to take Dakota with me. We have been having some coyote sightings in that area.”
He smiled at her and then walked out the back door. His grinned as his black wolf hybrid Dakota bounded up to him and danced around his feet. She loved the ranch and loved walking the fences even more.
“Come on girl. We have some fencing to check.”
Oliver made his way to the stables that sat behind the sprawling QC main house. QC Ranch was over 1,000-acres and one of the biggest ranches in the area. It had been passed down to his father and when Robert died it had passed to Oliver. He hoped to give it to Lukas one day, but his kid had no interest lately in working. He preferred being holed up in his room on his computer. Oliver knew he needed to address that and find out why, but things had been just too busy lately. He needed to make time to do that soon.
Opening the stall door Oliver’s horse Nero gently nudged him as Oliver grabbed his bit from the wall and slipped it into his mouth. He adjusted it comfortably before leading Nero out of the stall to put on the saddle. Nero was a beautiful black and white spotted Appaloosa and Oliver had fallen in love with the horse as soon as he saw it. He placed the blanket and saddle over the horses back before tightening the straps and then leading her outside. He grabbed his shotgun as he passed and placed it in the holder on his saddle.
Dakota raced around barking, excited and ready to run, making Oliver laugh.
“Are you being impatient Dakota?”
Oliver patted Nero’s neck and then swung up into the saddle. He settled his black cowboy hat on his head and then took off toward the south. His eyes scanned his property as he rode, and he started to settle into the rhythm of the ride. There was nothing he loved more than being on his horse.
Dakota ran along in front of him chasing rabbits and squirrels that they met along the way. Despite being a wolf hybrid Dakota was a good dog and even though she was big and looked intimidating, she had never killed anything. She just loved the chase.
Twenty minutes later as he neared the south pasture, the sun starting to set, Oliver started to assess the fencing. He rode slowly, his eyes taking in every detail as he looked for any weak posts or loose boards. QC Ranch had nice wooden fencing all along its boundaries, but the wood had to be checked constantly. Rain could cause it to rot and there were even times when animals would break a board or two trying to get through. Normally his ranch hands handled the fencing but Tommy knew Oliver loved to get his hands dirty and he loved to just ride.
His eyes focused on the fencing, Oliver did not notice when Dakota took off like a shot up the hill ahead. She paused and tilted her head as she looked at the person wrapped up in a sleeping bag by a small fire. Dakota was used to people, but she was protective and would sometimes growl at strangers. She didn’t growl at the person, she just stared.
Oliver heard a blood curdling scream and he immediately kicked Nero into gear. He raced up the hill and slid to halt as he saw a strange woman, wrapped in a sleeping bag, huddled by a small fire, staring wide eyed at Dakota.
She had big eyes hidden behind black frames and blonde hair that he knew would like amazing in the moonlight. He needed to stop that thought immediately. No matter how beautiful she looked she was trespassing on his property.
He leaned an arm on the pummel of his saddle and adjusted his hat. “Are you lost?”
Felicity’s eyes flew to meet his but then went right back to the huge wolf that was not sitting staring at her curiously.
“Umm, no. I was trying to sleep. However, there is a massive wolf that is staring at me and he looks like he wants to make me his next meal. Please tell me you have a gun hidden somewhere on your person, because if you don’t, we are going to end up like Little Red Riding Hood and I for one would like to avoid that particular scenario.”
“He is a she. Dakota heel.” Oliver’s gravely voice range out with authority and Felicity watched in fascination as the huge wolf trotted over and sat down by the horse. “Her name is Dakota and she is a wolf hybrid. She won’t harm you. Well unless I tell her to.”
Felicity’s eyes narrowed as she finally got a good look at her rescuer with the bad sense of humor. He was obviously tall because his horse was massive. He had to be over six feet tall. He had a black cowboy hat on his head that was well worn, a blue and white plaid shirt over a chest that looked well-muscled from manual labor. His blue jeans were faded and dusty and covered what she could only describe as a pair of the nicest thighs she had ever seen on a man. His boots were dirty and worn as well, but what caught her attention was his face. The man was gorgeous. She could not see the color of his eyes due to the light, but the angles and planes of his face were sheer perfection. He had nice full lips and her eyes lingered there for a moment before she met his gaze.
“Now that you have looked your fill, do you want to tell me what you are doing camping on my land?”
Felicity looked at him and frowned. “Your land? This is public property.”
Oliver pointed to some fencing that was about 50 feet to her left. “Anything beyond that fence is my property.”
Felicity fought to get out of her sleeping bag letting it fall to the ground. What the hell was he talking about? There was no private property sign back there and there had been a natural opening in the fence.
Oliver’s lips twitched as the tiny blonde stomped out of her sleeping bag like it had offended her. It got caught on her arm, and she threw it to the ground. He almost grinned as he noted her attire. Ok, she was a city girl. She was wearing a pink and white flannel shirt with beige kaki shorts, thick white socks and a brand-new pair of hiking boots. The boots always gave the city slickers away.
He watched in amusement as she walked about 10 steps squinting her eyes toward the fence where he had pointed.
“There is no sign there.”
“I don’t need a sign. Anyone from this area knows this is my land by the wooden fence that I use.”
Felicity turned back around and placed her hands on her hips. Arrogant prick.
“And what about those that are not from this area. It might be helpful to post a private property sign for those of us, not in the know.” She said the last four words sarcastically and then gritted her teeth. The bastard had the nerve to grin.
“Well ma’am. Now that you know. I suggest you pack up your things and move along. Dakota might not be dangerous, but we have had some coyote sightings in these parts. I would hate for someone as beautiful as you to become coyote food.”
Oliver turned Nero around, ready to head back home when he heard her voice squeak out.
“Are you just going to leave me here?”
He turned and looked at her. “Since you are leaving my land you are not my problem anymore.”
Felicity didn’t know quite what to do or where to go. This man was kicking her out of her camp site, and she had no clue where to go from here. She just knew she could not go home. Not yet.
“Ummm, Mr.? Can you at least tell me where to go? I need a camp site for a few days.” Her voice sounded vulnerable and she hated it, but she had no choice but to ask for this man’s help.
Oliver sighed and slid down off his horse. He turned and approached her, and he saw her visibly draw in a breath when he stopped in front of her.
“What’s your name?”
He had blue eyes. Some of the bluest eyes she had ever seen.
“Felicity.” She held out her hand to him. It was the polite thing to do.
“Oliver. Oliver Queen.” He shook her hand and their hands lingered together. She noted he had warm, callused hands before she gently pulled hers away. “Have you ever been camping before Felicity?”
“Of course, why?” She tried to act non-chalant as she spit out that lie.
Oliver’s lips twitched. “Well the first giveaway was the tent.” He nodded to the pile of tent and poles that laid to the side of the fire. “The second was the boots. They are brand new.”
Felicity’s face flushed a soft shade of pink. Ok, the man was not only good looking, but he was perceptive. “Ok, no I have never been camping before. But I am smart. It can’t be that hard. If you can just point me in the direction of a camp site that is not on your property, I would really appreciate it.”
Oliver studied her for a moment. She was beautiful but she was also running from something. An abusive husband maybe? A bad break up. He sighed as he thought of what he was about to do. He knew he shouldn’t get involved, that she was not his problem, but these woods would eat her alive if she was left to her own devices.
“How long were you planning on camping?” He placed a hand on his hip and adjusted his hat.
“Just for a few days. I have some things going on at home and I just wanted to get away.”
“You married?” Why had he asked her that? It was none of his business. Stay focused Queen.
She frowned. “No, why?”
“Listen, I get needing to get away for a while. But these woods are no joke. If you don’t get bitten by a snake or a spider the coyotes and bobcats will devour a little thing like you.”
She pursed her lips at him, but he continued.
“I have a guest house that is not being used. You are welcome to stay there for a few days.”
Shit, well now he was committed. So much for not getting involved.
She straightened in surprise. “Really?”
“Yes. It’s behind the main house and hasn’t been used in a few years. But it is clean, and it has a bed.”
Felicity’s heart took flight. A comfortable bed? But what was the catch? There had to be a catch. Oliver could see the hesitation in her eyes. She was a female alone in a strange place. He understood why she was worried.
“Listen it is just me, my son our housekeeper and my foreman. Our ranch hands stay on the other side of the property. No one will bother you.”
“Are you sure, because I don’t want to be a nuisance.”
Oliver turned and walked to the campfire, kicking dirt over it to put it out. He then made his way to his horse and effortlessly pulled himself up into the saddle. “You’re already a nuisance. But the offer still stands.”
Felicity glanced around her camp site. “How will I get my things to the house?”
“Leave them here and I will have one of my men come and get them in the morning.” He held out his hand to her and when she just stared, he wiggled his fingers at her, beckoning her forward.
Her eyes grew wide. “Uh, what?”
“Come on. It’s too far to walk.”
“You want me to ride that thing?”
“Well no. You will be riding behind me. I will be driving.”
Felicity licked her lips and she noticed his eyes flicker down to before moving back to her eyes. “I’ve never ridden a horse before. Is it safe?”
“Safer than walking. It’s a 30-minute ride back to the house and I would hate for you to step on a snake on the trail.”
Felicity glanced down and shifted on her feet. Snakes? Shit.
She slowly approached him and took his hand. He swung her up behind him like she weighed nothing at all.
“Place your arms around my waist.”
Felicity slid her arms around his waist, her hands coming to rest on abs that were defined and hard as a rock. Oliver ignored how good she felt behind him, and he whistled to Dakota as he turned Nero toward the fence.
“Felicity?”
“Hmmm?”
“Hold on to me tight.”
Felicity shivered at his words and then screamed as Oliver grinned to himself, kicked the horse’s flank and Nero took off.