The Cougar's Bargain Read Online Free PDF Page A

fuller lives. For a while, Sean and Hank hadn’t been able to tell which woman was meant to be whose, beyond the fact that Ellery was obviously Mason’s. It had seemed logical that Hank be the one charged with gentling Hannah because he was probably the most hard-ass of the Foye brothers. Miles had a more cheerful disposition, and was more tolerant of Sean’s stupid jokes. But, when it came to Hannah and Miles, the
obvious
choices weren’t the right ones.
    If Miles was right for Hank, then it followed that Hannah was right for Sean. Damned if he knew how, though.
    Seeing as how the goddess lived in town, he had one mind to just ask her himself … as soon as he got out of his basement.
    He lay back and entwined his fingers behind his head. “Well. I’m sorry, anyway. I’m sorry for being so scared of losing myself to a curse that I kidnapped you. I’m sorry from cutting you off from your work and your family. I’m even sorry you got turned against your will, because none of us wanted that for
any
of you. We didn’t want mates at all. Not yet.”
    “Well, now you’ve got them.” She said it so quietly, that if he hadn’t had a Cougar’s hearing, he might not have been able to make out the words.
    “Yeah, we’ve got them. But you don’t have to stay. You didn’t have to accept me. You know that, right?”
    “Mm-hmm.” She ground her teeth and stared at anything but him.
    A growl started rattling in his chest, but he breathed through it and tried to keep the beast at bay. His prideful inner cougar half didn’t like being an afterthought, even if he had known something didn’t seem quite right about her coming around. He didn’t like to think there was truth to it.
    “I can’t go home, anyway,” she added. “Not like this.”
    “You could go. No one would know. Make some excuse. People believe what they want.”
    “You want me to go?”
    He shrugged and let his gaze rove between the tiles of the drop ceiling. He’d finished the basement years ago to rent out to his mother’s ranch hands for extra cash, but lately, he hadn’t wanted to be bothered playing the landlord game. He had too much shit on his plate as it was.
    “You don’t have to be here to be my mate,” he said. “I don’t have to see you. You don’t have to see me. I appreciate you bringing me out of the curse—I
swear
I do, even if I don’t understand why you did it—but if you want to go, I’m not going to hold you back.”
    He’d only ever have one mate. He’d never be able to have Cougar kids with anyone but her, but at the moment, he couldn’t muster up enough give-a-damn to see the problem in it.
    “Fine,” she said.
    “Cool.”
    Maybe he didn’t need to complete her life the way his brothers did for their mates.
    Maybe her job was already done. And his, too.

CHAPTER THREE
    The moment Hannah heard keys jiggling on the other side of the basement door, she was on her feet and vaulting herself up the staircase. Being in the same room with Sean—regardless of the fact it was over four hundred square feet—sparked anxiety in her she hadn’t known since she was a child. She’d been camping with her father and brothers near Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. There’d been reports of bears spotted in the area, but her father had insisted the chance of them getting up close and personal with a black bear was slim.
    He’d been wrong.
    She’d been alone at the tent as her father and brothers showered, and bears approached from two sides. She’d been too scared to even scream, but fortunately, they just sniffed around and made off with some unsecured food—ignoring her as if she wasn’t worth the energy they’d need to digest her.
    It had taken her fifteen years to reclaim her enjoyment of nature, and she still hadn’t told Ellery and Miles the real reason she’d wanted to go camping with them. She’d suggested the U.S. states camping bucket list, saying that visiting fifty different campgrounds would be an