Chapter 126: Branded by Lust Prologue

The cold Montana wind blew across the desolate landscape. The area was dotted with giant Ponderosa pines and the peaks of the many mountain ranges that made up the rugged Continental Divide glistened in the sun. In the summer, grasses grew fragrantly in prairies between the mountains, the green softening the harshness of the land. But in the winter it was a cruel setting, covered with snow that piled in deeper and deeper drifts.

The area was sparsely populated-miniscule towns, often with a population of less than a thousand, with just a few widely scattered larger cities. The people ranched either sheep or cattle and a few other hardier souls provided support for those industries. Nearly a third of the state was national forest, protected by government regulations with hunting severely regulated.