What Happens In Schlepping Through The Alps (Spoilers)?

When I was eight months pregnant, my husband's foster sister invited me to hike a snow-covered mountain. Midway up, an avalanche hit. We were both buried. My husband rushed to the scene, but before I could utter a word, his sister accused me: "She planned this! She tricked me into coming today!" I tried desperately to explain. He didn't listen. Instead, he lashed out at me. "Sandra doesn't know any better, but you should! So what if she's blunt? Is this your petty revenge? Your pathetic life couldn't even begin to repay hers if she'd been hurt!" Then he left. Took her hand. Walked away. I screamed after him, begging him to save our baby. He didn't even glance back. Worse, he unhooked my safety harness and shoved me out of the rescue group. "Since you're so clever, find your own way down." Not long after, another avalanche hit. This time, I couldn't get back up. Three hours later, Sandra was in a car accident. She needed a blood transfusion. That's when he finally thought of me. But by then, he didn't know—I was already gone. Me, and the child I'd never hold, were still buried under the snow.

Simply because I upset my adopted younger brother, Owen White, my older sister, Quinn White, and my wife, Elaine Sinclair, banish me to a remote mountain village as punishment. Before she leaves, Elaine even gives the villagers money and instructs them to make sure I learn my lesson. From that day onward, I'm reduced to the villagers' plaything, a punching bag and a tool for their depravity. If I show even the slightest resistance, I receive even more brutal punishment and humiliation. It takes only three months for me to go from desperately fighting for survival to becoming completely numb and willingly stripping for them. Then, one day, the village chief, Martha Campbell, storms into my house. Instinctively, I take off my only tattered coat, but she snaps at me, "Put it back on! Ms. Sinclair is here to take you home." In a daze, I wrap my clothes tightly around myself, a single thought echoing in my mind. "Do I still have a home?"

That winter, the Silver Moon Pack holds its annual ski hunt. An avalanche strikes without warning, and the three of us are trapped in a lift pod. There's only one thermal suit left. My mate, Ryan Mercer, gives the thermal suit to me. I survive, but his childhood sweetheart, Eve Hurst, is buried forever beneath the endless white of the mountain. No body is ever found. However, he gazes at me with devotion and says, "Celine Bartlett, you are the love of my life." I soak in those words, believing them. But I have no idea this is the beginning of my nightmare. For the next five years, he speaks to me only with cruelty. "You killed Eve. You're a murderer!" He locks me in the basement and whips me with lashes soaked in wolfsbane. Then, he pretends to show pity and feeds me with a silver fork. When I refuse, he stabs me with silver nails across my legs, carving deep red lines into my skin. "This is what you owe her, and you will repay it!" When I ask for a reject, he stabs a silver dagger into my chest, dragging me into death with him. When I open my eyes, I find myself back on the day of the avalanche. This time, I hand the survival gear to Eve without hesitation. This time, I owe her nothing. And now, I want to see whether they will get their happy ending without me around.

On the road, I met a woman unlike anyone I had ever seen before. Her name was Janet Smith. She seemed slow and almost childlike, yet she had been wandering alone for two years without ever going home. Even with one leg crippled, she had forced herself to climb the Highveil Mountains. This time, however, she was caught in a blizzard. Injured and stranded, she could no longer make her way down. As her vision blurred and her strength slipped away, tears covered her face. She placed a pair of small handmade clay dolls in my hands. "I'm probably going to die here," she murmured. "Please give these to my adoptive brother, Chester Graham." She was clearly at death's door, yet her smile was soft and unexpectedly serene. "Tell him I've seen enough of the world. I don't love him anymore. And tell him he doesn't need to worry. I'm not so foolish now. I won't cause trouble for anyone again." Chester? At the sound of his name, I stood rooted to the spot. In Riverton City, everyone who worked at the harbor knew him, the so-called Ship King. Right before I left for the mountains, news of his engagement had been everywhere.

What's a girl to do when she finds a sexy giant bathing in the river? Sydney Who leaves their girlfriend in the woods after a fight? My now EX-boyfriend that's who. One fight, okay a BIG fight because I found out he was cheating on me while we were camping and poof! He left me in the woods. So, I start walking to town, only I get turned around and end uo at the river where I meet Axel. This guy is HUGE. With a storm rolling in I don't have much choice but to trust him since I have been walking hours AWAY from town. Axel I've lived alone for years and I've been okay with that until one day she finds me bathing at the river. She is small, cute and talks a lot. I find I don't mind it. When the storm washes out the only road into town and she is stranded with me a while longer, I am grateful for more time with her.

A fierce storm erupts on a mountain peak at 25,561 feet, trapping me in the mountain camp under heavy snow. My husband, the leader of the mountain excursion squad, ignores my desperate pleas and hands the last oxygen tank to his beloved true love. "You're a professional climber—you won't die from missing a few breaths," he snaps. "Olivia has always been frail. Without oxygen, she's done for!" I watch as the two of them lean on each other, making their way down the cliffside, and I fall into complete despair. He's already forgotten that my body hasn't been able to survive without oxygen at high altitudes since saving him two years ago.