Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

A gasp tumbled from her luscious lips, her eyes widening as her gaze swept across Logan’s and his cousins’ faces. “Y-you love me?”

Logan furrowed his brows together. He was a fan of action rather than words, but he knew enough about women to realize Zora needed that vocal confirmation. “Of course we do,” he growled. “Loved you from the moment we found you.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers.

“I love you with all my heart.”

Her eyes watered as they locked with his. “You mean it, don’t you?”

Heath, not one to be left out, took hold of Zora’s arm and gently pulled her from Logan’s grasp. “These words aren’t spoken lightly, Zora. We love you. You’re our onida, our mate and to us that means forever. If we don’t say it often, it’s because what we feel for you goes beyond just a simple word.

What we have is so fierce and so deep, once we claimed you, you bonded to us. We are all one. And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit it too. Did you think once our time together at our little getaway was through, we’d be over?”

“I wasn’t sure what to think,” she answered. “I really didn’t want to think beyond these past weeks with you because for once, I wanted to let go and enjoy being free.”

“So how do you feel now, Zora?” Gavin asked softly.

“I… ”

She wanted to say the words but she couldn’t get them out.

The last time she’d told a man she loved him, he’d used it as a weapon. Deep down she knew her bears’ feelings were sincere, but the fear still ran deep.

“Zora, do you trust us?” Heath gently demanded.

Even though fear kept her from saying the thing she most wanted to, she was able to nod. She did trust them and knew they wouldn’t hurt her the way Dale had. They were right, she at least owed them some explanation as to why she’d grown distant toward them the past couple days. It wasn’t to hurt them, it was a defense mechanism for her.

With a heavy sigh, she pulled away from the comfort of Heath’s arms. “I think you guys need to have a seat.” She gestured to the kitchen table.

Once her men, she chuckled at how easily that phrase popped in her mind, were seated, she sat down too. Zora took a moment to figure out where to begin. Thankfully Gavin, Logan and Heath were patient and remained silent, not pressing her until she was ready to speak.

She hesitated a moment to take a deep breath. “I’ve told you guys about my childhood, right?”

Each man nodded silently and then waited for her to continue.

“My parents weren’t the affectionate types. I don’t ever remember being held or comforted by them or even receiving a kind word when I did something right. I can’t even recall them being affectionate with each other. It’s like there was a huge void in our family. Our house was absent of life. I can’t quite put it into words, but something was definitely missing.

I felt it from the time I realized how much I needed their love.

So that was on top of them being extremely strict with me.

Besides that, I’d get the feeling my father hated me. He’d stare at me sometimes when he didn’t think I noticed, and there was such dislike in that look, I would stay in my room when I could.

“They were glad to see the back of me when I went off to school. As you can imagine, I basically lost my mind with all the freedom I suddenly had. I was away from my parents’

censure and I drank and experimented with drugs, and… I’m not proud to admit it, but basically I hooked up with a lot of different guys because that kind of attention was new to me. It wasn’t until I had a one-night stand with a guy who battered my reputation that I realized those guys didn’t care about me.

They were just using me. I’d nearly thrown away a great opportunity I’d been given because I was trying to make up for all the things I’d missed out on when I was in high school.” She paused to catch her breath and to gauge their reaction to what she’d just revealed.

Zora was relieved to see