Page 12 of Laid Bear

Chapter Five

Zora wasn’t interested in going back into the cabin with Heath and Gavin until she got some answers. However, after some cajoling on their part she gave in, feeling mentally and physically exhausted. When she was guided inside, she was both relieved and disappointed to discover Logan nowhere in sight. She assumed he was upstairs taking a shower. Whatever the reason, it was probably best he wasn’t around. It was bad enough dealing with her unexplained attraction to Heath and Gavin, she didn’t trust herself to be around all three of them at once. There was no telling how she’d react.

“Have a seat.” Heath directed her to the couch.

With a heavy sigh, Zora plopped down. “Okay, I’m here. So spill it. And I’d rather you two didn’t beat around the bush. My patience is about as thin as it can get.”

“Of course, but first,” Gavin began, but Zora held up her hand again.

“No! There is no first, just tell me what it is you’re hiding from me. Since you guys are practically keeping me hostage, I believe I deserve the truth.”

“She’s right,” Heath agreed. “My cousin means well. It’s the bedside manner thing. He’s trained to be compassionate. Not saying it’s not an admirable trait, but sometimes it takes him a little longer to get things out. So here it is, straight with no chaser. You are our mate.”

She barely suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “Mate? Seriously? That’s what you wanted to tell me? That I’m your mate? Do you guys realize how nutty you sound? That’s something a caveman would say. Do you think—” Zora stopped in the middle of her rant when she saw the stone-like expressions on their faces. “Wait a minute you said, our mate. As in the two of you?” she asked incredulously.

“No, as in the three of us. You belong to me, Gavin and Logan. But the flip side of the coin is that we belong to you as much as you do to us.”

“Gee, that’s reassuring.” She snorted.

Heath’s lips tightened. “You asked for the courtesy of hearing it straight, well, you’ve got it. So if you want to hear the rest, I’d suggest you sit back and listen without interruption.”

The underlying command in his voice should have raised her hackles, instead she sat back in her seat. On some level her mind screamed, obey, though she didn’t understand why.

“Okay, go ahead,” she replied more meekly than she was comfortable with.

After Dale, she’d promised herself to never become a doormat for any man, yet here she was with a practical stranger, taking orders as if he had the right to give them. It was bad enough she felt this heat within her body when she was near these men—a heat she couldn’t explain. The tingling in her pussy made Zora clamp her knees tightly together to temper the fire starting to rage. She crossed her arms over her chest to hide the hardening of her nipples as Heath continued the explanation.

What he told her was a story so fantastical she had only two options: believe him or run screaming because these men were obviously off their rockers. Kelowna? Bear shifters? Onida? She was descended from a race of people whose DNA was spliced with a race of sentient bears? None of it should have made any sense, but strangely it did.

“I bet all your life you’ve felt restrained, different in a way that has nothing to do with your circumstances. You may have felt like an outsider. Even when you sought out relationships with other men, you may have felt something on the surface, but no man has ever touched your heart that deeply. Perhaps you even thought you were in love at one point, but it wasn’t real, and deep down you know you’ve never met anyone who’s touched you in a way where you couldn’t live without them. No one has made you feel like you couldn’t breathe when they weren’t around.”

No one had ever made her heart skip a beat the way it did when she was in the presence of these men. What she thought she had with Dale had never come close to the warring emotions inside of her now. And it scared the hell out of her.

This couldn’t be. They had to be using some Jedi mind trick on her. There’s no way what Heath said was true, even when her head and heart told her it was.

Zora stood up abruptly and turned her back to Gavin and Heath, not wanting either man to see the turmoil she felt. She was scared and confused, yet the need to be close to them was overwhelming. Zora closed her eyes tightly to hold back tears threatening to fall.

Heath moved until he was behind her, his warm breath on her neck. Without even turning around, she knew it was him and not Gavin. Another odd thing that didn’t make sense.

She stiffened when he gently placed his hands on her shoulder. “Please don’t,” she begged, knowing the longer he touched her, the more likely she was to succumb to the pull she felt for him.

“Zora, honey, tell us what you’re thinking.” Heath gently massaged her tense muscles.

She opened her mouth to reply but no sound came out. She didn’t know what to say.

His grip tightened on her arms. “Zora, answer me.”

The tears she’d fought to keep at bay seeped through her half-cast lids. Her body began to shake from emotion. Heath exerted enough strength to turn her until she faced him. Zora kept her head lowered, embarrassed to be seen like this. She wasn’t one prone to outbursts of tears. She could only shake her head, silently pleading for space.

He brushed a tear off her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Sweetheart, please tell us what’s the matter.”

“Everything,” she finally whispered.

Gavin rushed across the room with determined strides to stand next to them. “Sweetheart, I know this is all overwhelming, but I think you realize we’re telling the truth.”

“This is all just so unbelievable,” she whispered.

“How do you think you were able to heal so fast? When I found you, I had to pry the side of the door off the car to get you out. You had several broken bones. There’s no way you would have been able to walk away from that without something beyond your realm of belief,” Gavin pointed out.

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