Page 62 of A Bear's Secret

Epilogue One

Sloane

One Month Later

Sloane rested her hand against her fist, leaning on the bar.

“That’s insane,” she said.

“I know,” said Charlie.

“That has to be a cover-up or something,” Sloane said. She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed them. “That’s just not something a regular person would do.”

“Honestly, I always thought Director Brown seemed kind of unstable,” Charlie said. “I sure wasn’t sorry when I stopped working for him.”

She reached into her glass and grabbed a maraschino cherry by the stem, then crunched it between her teeth.

Charlie — aka Charlotte — had once worked for the FBI. She’d also been sent on a mission to take down feral shifters, and she’d also nearly been killed in the process.

But she’d also met her mates, Daniel and Kade, and according to her, it had all worked out.

“He got fired last week,” Charlie said. “It on the news, on the ticker-thing across the bottom of the screen, you know? For a little while I was worried that they would just demote him or something. I mean, it did work, eventually.”

“He deliberately almost got two of his own people killed,” Sloane said.

“The FBI’s done way, way worse,” Charlie said. “I mean, I’m alive, James is alive, the militia wolves are in jail, and this asshole director’s out of a job and probably being brought up on charges. You want another beer?”

Sloane just nodded.

She’d decided against finishing the Pacific Crest Trail, and once she had, she was surprised that she was okay with it. Instead of feeling like she’d failed at something, she felt like she’d done a great job of hiking for two and half months, and how many people could say that?

Besides, she’s started the project with some crazy notion of getting her life together or finding herself and, well, she had.

When she walked into the ranch house at the Red Sky ranch, Austin and Trevor were arguing over something, though she couldn’t hear what it was from the front door.

“I’m home!” she shouted, and for a moment, she was thrilled at how true that felt.

She was home. It was a wolf ranch in Cascadia, sure, and not the kind of place that she’d ever thought she’d call home, but life was funny sometimes.

“We’re in here!” called Trevor.

“There’s toxic stuff below the sink,” Austin was saying. “There’s bleach, there’s drain cleaner…”

“They’re thirteen and eight, Austin, they’re not toddlers,” Trevor said. “We don’t need to childproof the cabinets. Lizzy and Tim aren’t going to drink bleach.”

Austin just sighed.

“Hi guys,” Sloane said, walking into the kitchen. She gave them both a kiss. “Still nervous about the trial run with the kids this weekend?”

“I’m not nervous about the kids,” Austin said, cracking his knuckles. “Just about the social worker, because they’re so picky.”

Trevor sighed, and then took Austin’s face in his hands.

“You’ll be great,” he said. “I know you will. Just relax.”

Austin took Trevor’s wrists in his hands.

“I just don’t want to fuck it up,” he said. “This is really important.”

---