My Ex-Military Mountain Man

I never expected to meet a man more wounded than the eagle I came to save.

Jack Mercer has spent five years in self-imposed isolation, building his wildlife sanctuary in the remote Cedar Falls mountains far from the battlefields that left him scarred inside and out. As a veterinarian called in for an emergency consultation, I’m supposed to focus on the injured golden eagle, complete my forty-eight hour assignment, and leave this brooding ex-Special Forces operative to his solitude.
But beneath his guarded exterior and short responses, I glimpse something extraordinary—a man who pours his military training into giving broken creatures a second chance. His world has no room for connections, no space for vulnerability, no place for someone like me.

The longer we work side by side, the more I see through his defenses—cracks in his armor that get a little wider every time he looks at me. He’ll cave. And when he does, I’ll make sure he never puts those walls back up.