Woodcutter Werebear (Saw Bears Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her even more for feeling anything at all. But here, for reasons she couldn’t understand, she felt safe to let her demons out.
    Quietly though.
    She curled up under the soft comforter, pulled a pillow close, and held it against her face as she screamed her fury at the world. At the people she’d been born to and Roger’s unfortunate attention. For what he’d done to her. The bruises on her face and the scars that Kellen wouldn’t see, because she’d never let him witness what Roger had really done to her.
    When her throat had gone hoarse and felt lined with glass, her cries of anger turned to weeping for what Kellen had shown her. He’d given a broken girl a flower and a soda, just because he was a nice person, but he would never realize what he’d really done.
    He’d made her want.
    He’d made her need more from a pairing than a demanding mate who would hurt her in the bedroom someday. Who would strip her down to nothing but bone and marrow until she didn’t feel anything. Kellen had made her life unacceptable with a kind gesture. He’d kidnapped her, sure. But he’d done it because he honestly thought he was saving her. How could she resent him for that? Her own father hadn’t come to her rescue when she phoned him and explained the horrible things Roger called her. Roger had grabbed her arm so hard it had bruised fingerprints around the inside of her elbow for days. Dad hadn’t come. He’d told her to buck up. A mating wasn’t supposed to be easy.
    But Kellen made her think that a mating shouldn’t be this damned hard.
    That’s when her crying turned pitiful.
    Kellen. She was drawn to him, had been since she watched him pick out flowers in the grocery store, but he’d never be hers. Not even close. He hadn’t taken her because he liked her, he’d kidnapped her because he pitied her, which was the worst part of all. She’d done a fantastic job of hiding her predicament from everyone, bar her father. She’d managed to live in her own private hell, wishing something would happen to free her from the mess she’d found herself in, and when her sexy, bear-shifter knight in shining flannel swooped in there, it had been scary, liberating, and empowering.
    But he belonged to another.
    God, she was pathetic. Pining for some strange-talking man she didn’t understand who was in love with another. He was a stranger. This had to be her heart’s desperate attempt at latching on to the first man to show her kindness.
    Her tears ran dry, and she hiccupped and gasped until she couldn’t cry anymore. Her head ached, her eyes were swollen, and she probably looked like a psychotic raccoon thanks to her unfortunate decision to wear mascara this morning. But deep inside, she felt a little better. What was it about crying her eyes out that released all of that ache she’d been harboring? She should’ve felt like a weakling, but instead, she felt more clear-minded than she had in months.
    Roger wasn’t it for her.
    Her life had meaning.
    All it had taken was a few hours with a nice stranger to show her she had more value than a fertile womb and the bloodline that ran her veins. She inhaled deeply and hugged her pillow to her chest.
    But…the banishment.
    Her epiphany didn’t matter. She was utterly and unfailingly stuck in this lonely life.
    Nards, the mouse, crept across the dark wood-laminate flooring, dragging his giant testicles behind him, and she couldn’t help a tiny smile. She wasn’t alone after all. Her gaze arced after him as he sped up and disappeared under the bathroom door. Her gaze met a pair of silvery blue eyes, simmering with emotion.
    She gasped and sat up.
    Kellen was crouched on the floor, weight shifted on one leg like he’d wanted to escape but couldn’t.
    “Kellen! How long have you been there?”
    He hunched his shoulders at the shrill pitch of her voice, but dammit, that sob-fest had been meant for a pathetic party of one.
    “You were crying,” he said.
    “I know. I wanted to do