Every creature deserves someone who'll fight for them.

Even the ones who don't believe they're worth saving.

I run a sanctuary for animals that came to me broken. Horses, dogs, goats — creatures that got used up and thrown away. I understand them. I'm good with broken things.

People are harder.

Then Brianne Hall walks into my barn with six troubled teenagers and a look in her eyes that says she's been fighting her whole life for kids who remind her of herself. She's fierce and warm and she doesn't stop when I try to push her back to the boundary I set.

She sees me. All of it. The scars I keep covered. The name I say like a prayer. The boy I couldn't save before I knew how to save anyone.

And instead of running—she stays.

But Brianne has wounds she hasn't shown anyone. When I find them, everything changes. She's spent her whole life caring for everyone who needs her.

It's her turn.

Sheltered by the Mountain Man is a steamy standalone mountain romance featuring a gentle giant former Army medic who heals animals because humans got too heavy, a fierce social worker who became the advocate she never had, and a sanctuary where two people who've given everything finally learn to receive. No cheating. No cliffhanger. Guaranteed HEA.