Boarlander Boss Bear (Boarlander Bears #1)(40)

“It’s not,” he said, and there it was again. That honest note she was learning to decipher.

Heart thumping double-time in her chest, she climbed in and buckled up. Safety first and all, and definitely not because Clinton could still drive them over a cliff at a whim.

He’d been right about getting her to Harrison sooner. Why? Because he drove like a bear out of hell and barely even slowed for the steep switchbacks. Eventually, she closed her eyes, grabbed the oh-shit bar, and hoped she survived long enough to see her man again.

Clinton pulled under the Boarland Mobile Park sign and skidded to a stop in front of Mason and Kirk, who sat in some broken-down plastic lawn chairs with matching frowns.

The second she was free of the door, she asked, “Where is he?”

“Oh, thank God,” Mason said, leaning back in his chair. “He’s in the woods. Bash went after him.”

She bolted for the trail between Kirk and Bash’s trailer.

“Audrey!” Kirk called.

“Yeah?” she yelled over her shoulder.

“It’s real good to have you back, Second.”

Skidding to a stop, she grinned at the three men who’d become so unexpectedly important to her. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called, “It feels ridiculously good to be back.”

She ran for the woods, following Harrison’s well-worn trail he’d made by checking the Boarlander border countless times in the years he’d lived here. She didn’t know how she knew, but he was at Bear Trap Falls. She could feel him, like a rope tied from her heart to his. The pain in her chest eased with every step she took toward him.

The sound of the falls was music to her ears as she pushed her legs faster and faster through the forest. And when the riverbank came into view, she slowed and then stopped at what she saw. Harrison was knelt at the edge of the gently lapping waves, his hands linked behind his head, while Bash crouched beside him, murmuring something too low for her to hear.

The air was stifling, and the scent of pain, of sadness, overwhelmed her. “Harrison,” she whispered.

Bash jerked his gaze to her and froze beside his alpha. Feature by feature, his face relaxed, and a slow smile spread his lips. Beside him, Harrison stood. His shoulders lifted with his ragged breath, and slowly, he turned a wild gaze on her. His eyes were the color of snow, but that didn’t scare her. He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

She walked, then jogged, then ran to him. He seemed shocked and barely got his arms up fast enough to catch her. Audrey was crying now, unable to contain her happiness as his hands slid gently up her back.

“Audrey?” he asked in a broken voice.

“Clinton said I can stay. We’re both staying.” She eased back and cupped his cheeks. “Harrison, I choose you.”

His chest heaved as he searched her eyes. He looked at Bash, then back at her and asked in a hoarse voice, “You talked to Clinton?”

“Yes, yes. He stopped me from leaving and asked me to stay. No more running, from Clinton or from me. You can keep us both. You can keep me.” Her voice faded to nothing as emotion tightened her throat.

“It’s true,” Clinton said from the woods where he approached Bear Trap Falls, flanked by Kirk and Mason. “A wise alpha once told me she would be good for the Boarlanders.” Clinton gave a slight smile. “And I trust him.”

“She will be,” Harrison said through a growing smile. “You’ll see.” He leaned down and kissed her.

She squeaked as Bash lifted them both up in a back-cracking hug. Her organs were on the verge of popping like water balloons, but she couldn’t find it in her to care as Bash’s booming laugh echoed through the woods.

And as she looked from Harrison’s adoring gaze to Bash’s megawatt grin to Clinton, leaning against a tree with a sad smile on his face, to Kirk with his arm thrown over Mason’s shoulder, she took stock of this moment. It was one of those life-changing ones—the end of something hard and the beginning of something great.

She was here for the beginning of the new Boarlanders, and she was going to have a front row seat watching her mate make them into the best f*cking crew in Damon’s mountains.





Epilogue




Audrey hung the painting Willa had made her on the nail she’d hammered into the wall in 1010’s living room. It still made her giggle every time she looked at the terrible picture of her and Harrison’s animals holding hands, frolicking under a rainbow in a patch of grass, flowers, and worms. Anything that made her this happy should be hung where she could see it every day.

In the last month, she’d found more happiness than she knew what to do with. Joey Dorsey had given her a raise and more hours at work, she was getting to know the regulars who came in for barbecue and bait, and she was making deep, meaningful friendships with the Gray Backs and Ashe Crew. She’d carved out a place among this rag-tag crew, and somewhere along the way, even Clinton had accepted her presence here. And little by little, the Boarlanders were working to clean up the trailer park. But most importantly, she’d fallen even deeper in love with Harrison. He didn’t patrol as much at night anymore, and when he did, Audrey Changed with him and walked the Boarlander woods beside her mate, making sure her life here, and her friends, were safe.

A knock sounded on her door, and she straightened the painting before she answered it.