Free Nailed (Black Mountain Bears Book 3) by Ophelia Bell, Amelie Hunt

most beautiful thing she’d ever heard in her life. She clung to his thick shoulders and sobbed in gratitude.

Chapter Seven
    A idan knew he was in trouble the second the drenched young woman uttered the words, “Thank you” in his ear. The hoarse, breathy voice held a deeper plea, and he became acutely aware of the true reason why she’d done such a reckless thing.
    But she was still terrified, her heart thumping so hard he could hear it even over the din he’d lived with daily for the past week since arriving at Gaia’s Falls.
    He lifted her into his arms, cradling her gently as he carried her over to the low bed he’d crafted his first day here out of fallen trees and dried grass, covered with his unrolled bedding.
    “Are you hurt?” he asked when he laid her down.
    She shook her head and coughed, then pressed a hand to her lower abdomen, wincing.
    Gaia sure had a wicked fucking sense of humor, didn’t she? He’d spent the last week up here, communing with his goddess and hoping for a little enlightenment. Of course she’d see fit to send him a young she-bear in the middle of her estrous. At first when he’d seen her with the pair of males, he was sure they were a mated trio, but then the two males had gone off together, leaving her behind, something no mated male would ever do.
    “What’s your name?” he asked. He grabbed another blanket and crouched down before her, wrapping it around her wet shoulders.
    She finally raised her eyes and met his gaze. A jolt of recognition shot through him. He’d seen those big brown eyes before, only a week earlier. They’d been in the face of a male who gazed at his Autumn with such unabashed love it left Aidan feeling inferior.
    Jade Stonetree.
    “Jade,” she said and gave him a little smile, her cheeks flushing prettily. “I guess that’ll teach me to turn the pulse setting on high?”
    “Ha!” Aidan blurted. “Yeah, a waterfall is sexy from afar, but pretty damn dangerous up close. I’m Aidan . . . ” He started to add “Sundance,” but cut himself off. He wasn’t a Sundance anymore. He wasn’t anything anymore. He frowned and stared down at his hands.
    She glanced around his little hideaway, then back at him. “You’re too good-looking to be a crazy hermit living on a mountain. Why are you here?”
    “Maybe I am a crazy hermit,” he said, smiling. She was sweet and blunt, which he liked, but if she were a true Stonetree, she was likely impulsive and stubborn, too.
    Suddenly her curious expression was split with a grimace and she let out a gasp, doubling over.
    “I think I’m in trouble,” she said through her teeth. “I know we just met, but . . . oh, God, I didn’t know it would be this bad. Why does it have to hurt so much?”
    Aidan cursed to himself and to his cock, which had decided to wake right up the second he caught a whiff of her fertile aroma. He placed a finger beneath her chin and urged her to look at him.
    “Tell me where the males you were with went. I can bring them here for you.”
    She let out a soft groan and shook her head. “Not them, please. I don’t want to do this to them.”
    “But it’s their job , Jade. And the fools should have never left you alone.”
    “They’re not fools. They want me too much, and I pretty much told them I don’t want them. They didn’t know this would happen.”
    Her voice quavered and her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Sweat broke out on her upper lip.
    Aidan pressed the back of his fingers to her forehead and cursed aloud at the nearly searing heat of her.
    “Please help me. You can, can’t you? It has to be a male and you seem . . . older. Like you’ve done this before.”
    He nodded, pushing away the memory of how very recently he had done it, in fact. He could still taste Autumn on his tongue.
    “Tell me what you need,” he said. He knew the answer already—there was absolutely no question about what she needed, but he said it out of a sense of propriety