Boarlander Boss Bear (Boarlander Bears #1)(6)

Fantastic.

“I came to talk to Harrison,” she said in a voice that sounded tired, even to herself.

“Girl!” someone yelled from one of the trailers, startling her.

The tires in the doorway of the nearest trailer toppled over, and a giant, behemoth of a man scrambled over the make-shift door he’d just gladiator-kicked down. “Oh, my God, there’s a girl. In the park!” He jammed a finger at Clinton. “I swear if you screw this up for me, I’ll bleed you, Gray Back.”

“Don’t call me that!” Clinton yelled. “And she ain’t even here for you, Bash. She’s here for Harrison.”

The dark-haired titan with the bright green eyes pointed both index fingers at her with a big grin on his face. “I’m gonna make you pizza rolls. You want wine? I have, like, six boxes of wine. Don’t leave!” He turned to rush back inside, but spun at the door. Pressing his hand to his chest, he arched his dark eyebrows and slowed down. “I’m Sebastian, but everyone calls me Bash. I’m gonna feed you now.” He kicked a wayward tire out of the way and disappeared into his trailer.

“I’m Audrey!” she called after him.

“Nice to meet you, Audrey!” Bash called in a muffled voice.

“Where is the rest of your crew?” she asked Clinton.

Clinton gave her a feral smile. “I chased ’em off.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned against the front of her Jeep. “You won’t be chasing me off. I’m only here to sort out what happened with Harrison, and then I’ll be headed back to Texas.”

“I love Texas,” Bash called from inside of his trailer.

“I don’t,” Clinton muttered, crossing his arms.

“Have you ever been there?”

“No.”

Bash wrestled his kitchen window open. “I’ve been three times. Pretty girls, big hair, and southern manners. I bet you say ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ and help old ladies across the street and shit.”

“Uuuh, yes, but I don’t think that’s just a Texas thing. I think that’s a decent person thing.”

“Right.” Bash smiled vacantly, then disappeared into the dark kitchen.

“Sooo,” she drawled out. “Where’s Harrison?”

“Everyone says I’m the f*cked-up bear who belongs in the Gray Backs,” Clinton said, angling his head. “But maybe I’m the normal one.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Harrison is patrolling the boundaries of Boarlander property. Do you want to know why?”

“Sure.”

“Because he don’t sleep. He don’t feel safe. His bear won’t settle unless—”

“Clinton!” Harrison barked out from the tree line between two trailers. “Stop talking. Now.” He was clad in only a low-slung pair of jeans with holes at the knees. As pretty as his eyes were right now, all bright and the color of a summer sky, that wasn’t what held her attention. He had the face of an angel, yes, but his body had been mangled. His entire torso was rippling with muscle and covered in scars, both from claws and what looked like about a dozen bullet holes. She took a step closer to the door of her Jeep.

“You know the rules, alpha,” Clinton gritted out. “No girls in the—”

Harrison opened his mouth and roared so loud it shook the ground beneath her feet. It was horrifying to hear such a feral noise from a man.

Clinton stood and chucked the sign into the woods like a Frisbee. “I challenge you for alpha.”

“You just challenged me yesterday, *!” Harrison bellowed.

“You’re failing to uphold your own damned rules. That’s weak, Harrison. Change!”

Harrison hooked his hands on his hips and glared at Audrey. He let off a long sigh that tapered into a terrifying snarl. “Get in your car and leave.”

“I have something to talk to you about.”

Clinton was stripping out of his eighties-style clothes and grumbling about how, “I have to do everything around here.”

Harrison scrubbed his hand down his face, and his eyes blazed even brighter. “Lady—”

“Audrey.”

Another growl. “Audrey. This is no place for you, and we have nothing to say to each other.” His attention flickered to her Jeep, then to her face, then he frowned at the back window, which was still rolled halfway down. “What did you do to your seats?”

She grimaced and wished she’d remembered to roll her windows back up when she’d stopped. The real story was she’d Changed accidentally in her ride and shredded the seats in her fury at being trapped. “An animal got in there,” she murmured, sticking as close to the truth as she could.

Clinton was stripping out of his pants now, and when he was through, he angled his face from side to side, stretching his neck, or popping it perhaps. He bounced around, punching at the air.

“Again?” Bash asked from the open doorway where he held a red plastic cup of what smelled like un-fine wine. “Clinton, he’s bested you three times this week.”

“I’m like the little engine that could,” Clinton growled, eyes on his alpha.

Bash shook his head. “Audrey, you should take cover.” He sounded so disappointed, so sad.