Rose Cooper, a soap maker, returns back home to Bozeman, MT after her abusive captor died of a stroke. Jake “Bear” Cooper, a successful rancher, is the love of life devoted husband. She still wears her wedding band and engagement ring, a rose gold band with a 2 carat Montana sapphire. It was his granny’s ring. She has freckles spattered across her nose and shoulders and dimples. She has rose gold pink highlights to her long curly hair, an act of independence against her controlling mother. Her eyes are deep green. Her sister, Maggie, a tattoo artist, is highly loyal to her and her dreams and is her fiercest protector behind Bear. She owns her soap shop, and a 1966 International Scout, it is painted turquoise. She has several tattoos, a bumblebee in flight on her right forearm. It represents resiliency. A red, blooming rose on her inside left wrist. The last one, on her left hip, is a bear paw, holding a rosebud, it is the size of his fist. Rosebud is her nickname from Bear. Her shop’s has been operating since she left, run by her best friends Liam & Chloe. Her shop, Petal & Suds, is very popular and she makes a decent living.. Jake is the oldest of 5 siblings, all present in this story, and Bear is dominant by nature, especially with Rose in bed. She loves submitting to him. She calls Bear when she’s finally able to get to a phone when David dies. She’d been trapped, no phone, no internet, no truck keys, no way to contact Bear. Her captor had a stroke fucking an escort. Rose wouldn’t allow him to touch her. She found out 5 weeks ago that she’s pregnant with Bear’s twins. She is three months pregnant.

Chapter 1: Midnight Reckoning

The CD player had scratched that line into his soul for weeks now. In case you missed it, I’m still your man. Bear’s bare chest heaved against the steering wheel, the dawn light doing nothing to warm the hollow ache in his ribs. His phone vibrated on the passenger seat, cutting through Jordan Davis’s voice, and the caller ID—My Rosebud—sent a lightning bolt of pure adrenaline through his system.

He answered before the first ring finished. “Rose?”

A shaky breath, then her voice, so small it shattered him. “The cabin… in Billings. He’s… he’s on the floor. I have his phone.”

He was already turning the key, the truck roaring to life. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Just… come. Please.”

The drive was a blur of speed limits he ignored and a call to Brody, his voice a growled command to meet him there. He drove shirtless, having ripped it off in a fit of sleepless frustration an hour before, the cool April air whipping through the open window. When his headlights finally caught the grimy, weathered outline of the hunting cabin, he didn’t brake; he slammed the truck into park and was already moving, his boot connecting with the door until the wood splintered.

She stood in a slash of moonlight, clutching a small, white piece of paper. His eyes, wide and desperate, scanned her—the dust in her rose-gold curls, the new shadows under her freckles, the protective curve of her hand over the slight swell beneath her thin sweater. Then his gaze locked onto the fresh, black lines on her hip, visible through her torn leggings: a bear paw, exactly the size of his fist clutching a rosebud.

His calloused hands framed her face, his thumbs brushing away the tear tracks. “Rose.”

Her green eyes held his, a grenade of truth in her grip. “They’re yours, Bear,” she choked out, her voice fraying. “I fought him every single day to keep them safe.” Her knees buckled then, and she collapsed against his chest, the sonogram crumpling between them. He caught her, his arms wrapping around the small, fierce world of her, feeling the real, living swell of their children against his skin for the first time. “Twelve weeks,” she whispered into his neck. “Conceived on my birthday.”

A low sound tore from his throat, part grief, part fury, all love. He lifted her gently, cradling her against his bare chest, and carried her out of the shadows into the gray dawn.