Page 99 of Bearly Hanging On

“I think there will be no more bear shifters being pushed our way, brother.” I slapped my hand on his back. “I made clear that my dads can either get with the program or get the fuck out of my life.”

“You did?” Mack slung an arm around my shoulder and then steered me towards the car. “I woulda paid good money to see the old fellas’ faces when you dropped that bomb. Hey, Harper.” She looked up, meeting our collective gaze. “How about we get you girls home? Kieran’s got some news to share.”

“Not home.” Daria flushed, as if embarrassed to butt in. That bruise on her face gave her every right. It should not have happened on our watch. “Sorry, Harp, but I’m not going back to that place. Not after…” She swallowed hard. “I’m gonna go stay at my mum’s, OK? I’ll get you my half of the rent.”

“No, you won’t.” All the joy seemed to leech out of Harper. “Don’t worry about money, your stuff, anything. We’ll pack all your gear up and bring it around to your mum’s. It’s the least…” I was moving forward when I heard her voice crack. “It’s the least I can do.”

“We can do,” I amended. “Whatever you want or need, Daria. We’ll make sure it gets done.”

She nodded, lips pursing, looking way too pale.

“Just to Mum’s, please.”

I turned to find my own mother standing there.

“So you told your fathers off?” I went to explain, but she just smiled, pressing her car keys into my palm. “About time really. They are too hidebound, the lot of them.” She nodded to the car. “A sleuth isn’t a group of shifters of the same species. It’s a group of people that care for each other, will stand by the others when the world burns. That’s what I raised you to do. The dangers your sleuth faced are done with for now. Just be there with them, making sure nothing else touches them.”

Her arms went wide, then wrapped around me as I gave her a hug.

“You got it, Mum.”

“Good boy.” She wiped at her eyes. “Now, go and look after those girls.”

For once, what my family wanted and what my heart needed were the same damn thing, and so we piled into the car and drove off.

Chapter 42

Harper

Everyone was safe. The bad guy was dead. The cops had been fobbed off with some shifter bullshit that never would’ve worked if we were all human. Life was good, right? Right? But as we pulled up outside Daria’s place, that’s not how it felt.

“So…” I’d never head her voice shake like that. My hand shot out, grabbing hers and giving it a squeeze. “You got me home in one piece.”

“Daria—”

She cut me off with a shake of her head.

“I should get inside. Mum, Dad, they’re gonna lose their shit when they find out what happened.”

“And if they need to blast someone…” I tried to smile and failed utterly. Some deep part of me wanted to reanimate Dax, then kill him all over again, this time slower for what he did to my friend. “Send them to me. It’s my fault.”

“No—”

“Dar, it is.” I didn’t cry when Dax took me, nor when he squeezed my arms so hard I was pretty sure there werefingerprints left on my bones. Not even when I shot the fuck. I was fine, just fine, until I said this. “I should’ve been there.”

“Then we’d both be sitting in some renovated mine shaft,” she said, “hoping that those skeezes kept their weird pee-pees in their pants.”

“I should’ve warned you that you were in danger,” I ground out. “Called, messaged, sent a carrier pigeon or something. This is my?—”

She slapped a hand over my mouth and then leaned forward. Her eyes were just as shiny as mine, red with unshed tears.

“That Dax, Max, whatever the fuck his name was, this was all on him.” I saw her stiffen, then turn to face the front of the car where Mack was riding shotgun. “You better not have any other psycho family members lying in wait for my bestie, or I’ll take her back to the hardware store and look for a different pack of shifters.”

“No family left to speak of.” Mack cited that grim fact with something like relief. “Harper’s safe with me.” His eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down. “At least until we get home.”

“Why?” I looked around the car, but Kieran’s expression was carefully blank. “Why? What happens when we get home?”

“Harper’s gonna get it. Harper’s gonna get it.”

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