Free Mountain Men II: Primal Hunger by Mandy Monroe

whatever. They had
gone to great lengths to make her feel beautiful and treasured.
Shouldn’t it have been apparent that something was horribly wrong
if these men wanted someone like her? She would have resisted,
knowing they weren’t for her. Tears welled in her eyes.
    She kept reminding herself this
situation was always meant to be temporary, but couldn’t help a
seed of hope planted in her heart that maybe it was something real
this time. She had fallen hard for these men in the short time they
were together and felt like leaving would be like leaving a big
chunk of her heart behind.
    As tears spilled over, Maura wiped
them away quickly. It had to be this way. What other answer was
there? Their lives were here and her life was somewhere else, at
least what she called a life.
    Thinking about returning home to
her house all alone and sleeping in an empty bed night after night
after becoming used to sleeping sandwiched between these two
beautiful men broke her heart all over again.
    Bain could hear her uneven
breathing and could smell the salt of her tears. Every hitched
breath she tried to hide from them on the hike home lashed across
his heart like a whip. His heart was being flayed open seeing her
so hurt. They should have told her everything when they talked
about mating. He just thought it would be too much at once and now
it was possibly too late.
    Bain frowned and pushed that
thought from his mind. He simply couldn’t accept that. He searched
his mind for something, anything to say to ease her suffering but
came up blank. She would think he was lying if he told her he loved
her at this point. But he did.
    She was more than he had ever hoped
to find in a mate. Her courage and strength made his look paltry in
comparison. Maura had endured so much but managed to retain so much
beauty in her soul and refused to let others jade her. There were
many in her life that had made her feel worthless and it had
damaged her self esteem, but she could still see so much beauty in
people, it awed him.
    All too soon they arrived at the
door to her cabin.
    When trying to enter, she stopped
them.
    “ I need to be alone.”
    Bain’s heart cracked just a little
further seeing the pain and confusion on her face. He wished he
could restart all of this and do so many things differently. Gavin
looked equally as pained as he felt and he knew they were all in
for a rough night.
    His heart dropped to his stomach
when her door clicked shut and they both heard her stifled sob
coming from the other side of the door. Both men trudged silently
back to their office. Gavin called the police station to report the
incident. The sheriff promised to come out that evening to take
statements from everyone and took Seth’s information to be on the
lookout.
    Gavin pulled out a bottle of
whiskey and gestured to Bain. He nodded miserably and downed his
dram in one swallow. Bain welcomed the whiskey burn down his throat
and lifted his cup indicating a desire for a refill which Gavin was
happy to oblige. Gavin was the first to speak up.
    “ She’ll be ok. She just needs time
to adjust.”
    Bain grunted and tossed back
another glass of whiskey. His chest was tight at the thought of her
leaving. Maura had become an essential element to his life in such
a short time. He simply couldn’t imagine a future without her. He
would be crushed under the weight of his sorrow. Holding his glass
out, he didn’t even pause once it was filled to toss it down his
throat. He wanted to drown the dread that this was more than she
could accept.
    It was a miracle that she had felt
the mate pull to both of them and that he and Gavin were co-mating
the same woman happily. They couldn’t believe their luck. Fate had
truly chosen well for them. They made a perfect trio. His instincts
to protect and provide for his mate was appeased in that he trusted
Gavin implicitly to care for her to the utmost of his ability with
him and in the case of his absence. If anything happened to him