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I frown. Something's off. They all look so strained. Zarek's jaw is clenched. Rhydian's smile is too wide. And Kaelen...

And then my eyes drop.

Oh.

All three of them. Every single one. Their trousers are tented out in front of them like they've each smuggled a tent pole into bed.

Oh.

I've been lying here thanking Zarek and going on about how wonderful I feel, and the whole time, they've been...

Guilt pinches at me. Helping me didn't make anything easier for them. It made it worse. Much worse. I got my relief, and they got nothing but suffering.

Then I notice their feet.

"You're barefoot," I say. "All of you. You don't have any boots on."

Rhydian pauses at the door and flashes me that crooked grin over his shoulder. "We'll survive."

"You'll get frostbite!"

"Probably not."

"You'll freeze something off!"

"Then it'll be less trouble," Rhydian says cheerfully.

And before I can say another word, Kaelen yanks open the door, the wind howls in, and the three of them walk straight out into the freezing dark.

The door slams shut behind them.

I lie there, staring at it. What kind of men walk barefoot into a mountain blizzard in the middle of the night? Rather than just asking a woman for what she hasn't offered?

Not any men I've ever known.

Silas would've taken. Half the men in my village would've taken. They'd have said my heat made it all right. They'd have said I was asking for it, just by being there.

And these three walked out into the snow instead.

Something warm curls up under my ribs. Something that feels a lot like being cherished. I don't understand it. I don't understand why three strange men are so determined to take care of me. What they get out of it. What they want.

But right now, I'm too tired to figure it out.

I curl up on my side under the heavy blankets. Their scent is everywhere, soap and spice and warm skin, wrapped all around me.

My body is quiet. My thoughts are quiet.

And sleep comes easily.

8

Elara

I wake up on the morning of the winter solstice with an arm across my waist, a leg tangled with mine, and a very warm, very large back pressed against my side.

Three men. One bed. Me in the middle.

It's been a week of this.