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 fucking 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.
Harrison grinned down at her with that easy smile he always had ready. “I have a surprise for you.”
“We have a surprise for you,” Bash called from the newly mowed weeds in the front yard.
She waved at Bash, Clinton, Kirk, and Mason. “What’s going on?”
“Come on, kitty,” Harrison said, offering his hand.
Baffled, she smiled at them before shoving her feet into a pair of flip-flops and followed Harrison across the porch and down the stairs where Bash pulled her scrapbook from behind his back.
“Oh, my gosh, you guys are not supposed to see this!” She yanked it away and clutched it to her chest as her cheeks blazed with embarrassment. Showing Harrison her secret self had been one thing, but the rest of them? Nope, nope, nope.
“Your cheeks are the color of cherries,” Bash said. Remorseless oaf.
“Don’t freak out. Just look at the modifications we did,” Harrison murmured.
Her mortification was bottomless, but at their goading, her curiosity won out. Carefully, she opened to the cover page. Her homemade house cat with the glued-on black stripes was gone, and in its place was a white tiger with bloody claws, standing over a limp, yellow grizzly bear.
“I did that one,” Bash said, pointing.
Audrey giggled and then flipped through the pages they hadn’t altered to the end. There was a new full spread on a blue wilderness background. Across the top read Boarlander Second in big bubble letters, and right under that was a picture of her in the middle of the five guys. They’d taken it when they’d visited her at Moosey’s one day, and she was in her work shirt, grinning from ear-to-ear. Bash had bunny ears behind her head, and Harrison’s cheek rested against her temple. Kirk and Mason were making goofy faces, and Clinton looked grumpy and was flipping off the camera.
It was perfect.
Beside that was a picture of 1010 with the sun setting behind the mountains in the background. There was a giant cartoon arrow pointing to the trailer that read, You belong here. Along the bottom, there were three bear cutouts—a chestnut one, a black one, and a yellow one. Following behind were a gorilla, a white tiger, and a pig. And just above that, there was a question formed with newspaper letters in different shapes, fonts, and sizes. Will you pledge as a Boarlander? Below that were two boxes with a yes and a no written beside them.
Audrey clasped her hand over her mouth and waited until she could compose her face before she looked up at Harrison. She’d dreamed of being officially pledged as a Boarlander since the day she’d fought Clinton.
“Really?” she asked on a hopeful breath.
Lifting his chin proudly, Harrison said, “Everyone who wants to induct Audrey into the crew, say aye.”
The ayes were immediate and unanimous. She closed the scrapbook and hugged it to her chest. They’d done this, her crew. They’d given her a memento of the best day of her life so far. This was them accepting all of her and securing her place in this park with them for always.
Harrison hooked his finger under her chin and kissed her gently. “What do you say, kitty? You want to be a Boarlander?”
Laughing thickly, she looked at the others, then back to her mate. With a nod, she whispered, “Yes. The answer was always yes.”
Harrison hugged her up tight, and she closed her eyes against the bright sun above. She’d lived her entire life on the outside, unable to connect, unable to reveal herself, but that all seemed so long ago now. Her dad had told her once he wanted her to find a place where she felt like she fit. Well, this was it, in an old trailer park nestled deep within Damon’s mountains, among a crew of lumberjack shifters, with the man who protected her heart.
Finally, finally, she belonged.
Up Next In This Series
Boarlander Bash Bear
Coming February 2016
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Want More of These Characters?
Read T. S. Joyce’s bestselling Gray Back Bears series.
Entire series, available now.
Gray Back Bad Bear (Book 1)
Gray Back Alpha Bear (Book 2)
Gray Back Ghost Bear (Book 3)
Gray Back Broken Bear (Book 4)
Lowlander Silverback (Book 5)
Other Series by T. S. Joyce
Saw Bears
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Woodsman Werebear (Book 6)
Lumberman Werebear (Book 7)
Fire Bears
Bear My Soul (Book 1)
Bear the Burn (Book 2)
Bear the Heat (Book 3)
Bears Fur Hire
Husband Fur Hire (Book 1)
Bear Fur Hire (Book 2)
Mate Fur Hire (Book 3)
Wolf Fur Hire (Book 4)
Dawson Fur Hire (Book 5)
Chance Fur Hire (Book 6)
Bear Valley Shifters
The Witness and the Bear (Book 1)
Devoted to the Bear (Book 2)
Return to the Bear (Book 3)
Betray the Bear (Book 4)
Redeem the Bear (Book 5)
Bear Valley Valentine (Valentine’s Day Novella)
Hells Canyon Shifters
Call of the Bear (Book 1)
Fealty of the Bear (Book 2)
Avenge the Bear (Book 3)
Claim the Bear (Book 4)
Heart of the Bear (Book 5)
Wolf Brides
Wolf Bride (Book 1)
Red Snow Bride (Book 2)
Dawson Bride (Book 3)
Standalone Shifter Romance
Coveted by the Bear
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Standalone Contemporary Romance
Shelter Me Home
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About the Author
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. Hungry alpha males are her calling card, and the wilder th
e men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. Experienced at handling an alpha male of her own, she lives in a tiny town, outside of a tiny city, and devotes her life to writing big stories. Foodie, bear whisperer, ninja, thief of tiny bottles of awesome smelling hotel shampoo, nap connoisseur, movie fanatic, and zombie slayer, and most of this bio is true.
Bear Shifters? Check
Smoldering Alpha Hotness? Double Check
Sexy Scenes? Fasten up your girdles, ladies and gents, it’s gonna to be a wild ride.
For more information about T. S. Joyce and her work, visit her website here.
Contents
For More of These Characters
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Epilogue
Up Next In This Series
New Release Newsletter Sign-Up
Want More of These Characters?
Other Series by T. S. Joyce
Fire Bears
Bears Fur Hire
Bear Valley Shifters
Hells Canyon Shifters
Wolf Brides
Standalone Shifter Romance
Standalone Contemporary Romance
About the Author
T. S. Joyce, Boarlander Boss Bear
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