Free Big Bad Bear by Terry Bolryder Page A

lowered the shirt, gazing at her calmly.
    She stomped a foot. “I don’t care how macho you military men think you are. Someone needs to disinfect that thing or he’s going to get an infection.”
    Ares and Zeus looked at each other in puzzlement, and Ares sighed. “All right. But I’ll do it when you’re out of the room. Zeus here doesn’t want you to see it.”
    “Why, because you think I can’t handle it? I want to help.”
    Zeus’s calm blue eyes met hers. “Carly. Please.”
    She was angry. Angry that he was hurt, angry that he was keeping her away when all of this was because of her and she desperately felt like she needed to do something for him in return. Angry at being closed off by the two large men. Angry that Ares knew all of Zeus’s secrets and she was barely scratching his surface. Seeing how he fought in the clearing before he went down, she was certain his whole life had been about war until he came to Bearstone Village.
    But now wasn’t the time to talk about it, and she would respect his need for privacy. Whatever the reason.
    “All right,” she said. “But call me back when you’re done.” In the meantime, she’d go find a quiet place to sit and try not to think about the man she was coming to love running into a hailstorm of bullets and limping away bleeding and hurting.

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    W hen Carly was gone , Ares grabbed wipes from a first aid kit to clean the mostly healed wound. “That was risky, you know,” he said, looking into Zeus’s eyes as he wiped away the blood. “You should have waited for me to come over,” Ares said.
    “It was too late,” Zeus replied. “They would have breached the house. I had to protect Carly.” He let Ares put a bandage over the area, just so Carly would be convinced he was fine, and then pulled his shirt down and let out a harsh breath.
    “You want to change?” Ares asked. “Or want to go over it now? I want to know everything that happened, from the perimeter breach to when I showed up and everyone was down.”
    Zeus sighed. “Damn, I’m tired. I haven’t taken on that many men in a long time, amateur or not.”
    Ares’s lips quirked in a smile. “Looks like a dozen men are still no match for our Zeus.”
    “More than a dozen,” Zeus said, and the two men shared a cocky grin that most people would never understand. But Zeus had protected what was his. That’s all that mattered.
    “So what were you doing that you didn’t notice the initial perimeter breach?”
    Zeus felt blood rush into his neck and avoided Ares’s piercing gaze. The other man’s green eyes were unnervingly adept at reading between the lines. “Ah, hell,” he said. “It wasn’t very late. I just didn’t hear the initial beep on my phone. Even if I had, the result would have been the same.”
    A slow grin spread over Ares’s face, and Zeus gave him a shove. “Stop thinking about it,” he said, and Ares raised his hands in surrender.
    “All right, boss, not thinking about it,” he said.
    “What are you not thinking about?” Carly asked, appearing in the doorway.
    “Nothing,” Ares said, stretching out on the couch as Zeus settled back into his chair.
    He was proud of how she’d handled the situation. She’d stayed out of danger but been ready and waiting for him. Worried for him. She’d feared for his safety, not only her own. And she’d been fiercely protective when she thought he was wounded.
    It was all he could ask for in a mate. His bear had chosen wisely.
    His bear had also kicked ass.
    Zeus gave Ares all the info he could while trying not to look at Carly as she sat on the couch a little ways from Ares. She was so perfect, her brown hair mussed and fluffy, but so soft, her whiskey eyes glittering with emotion as they relived the event. Her rosy lips were pursed as she listened to their thoughts on the matter.
    He wanted to just pick her up and take her back to the bedroom and cuddle her until he convinced the animal inside him she was okay. But he