by T. S. Joyce
There she was. There was his girl.
When she turned to hug Kurt, he rested his forehead against hers and remembered the words she’d uttered just before she was going to end everything. “Ten, I love you, too. And I have another wish.”
“Okay,” she murmured.
Kurt whispered so softly against her ear, “I wish for you to finally have a last name, and I wish for it to be mine.”
He could see the chills lift on her arms, and she held onto him so tight, her tears staining his chest.
“Are you okay?” he murmured. God let her be okay.
“I don’t know how you do that,” she said.
“Do what?”
“Take me from my saddest moment to my happiest moment with just a few words. I like you,” she croaked out cutely. “And you make me like me too. And I want a last name. I want yours.”
Kurt swallowed a few times to try and slow his own emotions, and nuzzled his face against hers. And his purring was back. And when he heard the second little purr, coming from his son, who was all cuddled up against him and Ten, he couldn’t help his mushy smile.
Colt pretended to gag. “I wish for that trashcan punch. I’m traumatized.” He stood and helped Karis up, draped his arm over his mate’s shoulder, and led her toward the fire. “I’m the Warmaker, and who is making wars? Not me! It’s Ten who’s stirring up all the shit. Little outlaw squirrel…”
Kurt couldn’t make out what he was still saying over Ten’s giggles. God, he breathed for that sound. Trig and Ava, Trina and Cooper, followed them away, and now it was just Kurt and Ten and Gunner—his little family in his arms.
They were okay.
They were safe.
They would be happy because he would make sure of it.
No matter what came their way now, everything was going to be all right because they were together.
Sitting here in the middle of the clearing, listening to the voices of his Clan and his friends, with the two most important people in his arms, clinging to him like he was their world, too, he was struck by the path his life had taken.
He wasn’t supposed to be here for this moment, but because of his tenacious and determined mate, he’d been spared. He’d been saved.
And from here on, he wouldn’t waste a second of his life. He would spend it making sure his little family…his little world…was happy.
Epilogue
“I don’t understand where they all came from,” Ava said in an awed voice.
Ten was just as stunned at the hundred head of cattle and one very feisty bull that were milling about the yard. Sure, some of them were the Two Claws Ranch cattle, but where had the rest come from?
“Maybe they all jumped the fence, and we need to return them to a neighbor,” Ten said.
Kurt was standing beside her, legs splayed on the front porch of Trig’s cabin, his arms crossed over his chest, and a deep frown furrowing his brow under his cowboy hat. “I haven’t seen that bull around here before.”
Indeed, the white and black mottled monster was a bit of a show-stopper.
Trig was up on Harley, corralling said bull at the moment, while the rest of them were standing on the front porch watching that big old cowboy get charged time and time again.
“Is it just me, or is that bull a bit of an asshole?” Kurt muttered.
Colt snorted. “He’ll fit right in around here.”
Ten laughed and bumped shoulders with Karis, who was holding the small swell of her belly. The cub was growing good. Her friend’s shape was one of the many changes around here.
Ten now had a last name for the first time in her life. It was Kurt’s name, and she even wore a silver band with a little diamond on her finger when she wasn’t close to a Change. She stayed human most of the time now. And she was comfortable in her own skin. Happy with herself and her progress. Oh sure, she still had so much to learn, but she was having fun adjusting to her new life.
Gunner had celebrated a birthday and was now seven whole years old. The New Darby Clan was doing good under Kurt, and he seemed so much steadier with those bonds. Trail rides were gaining traction and earning income for the ranch. She even helped with them now and got to keep a cut of the profit each ride. No one called her Origin or Genie or Tenlee anymore. Just Ten. She was just her. She was enough, and that was a pretty special feeling.
In the middle of the herd, Trig yanked a rope from around the bull’s neck and kicked Harley to dash out of the way of the bull’s charge just in time.
Trotting toward them, Trig lifted the loop of rope and frowned at a pouch at the bottom of it. “I think this is for you,” he said as he approached the porch.
“For me?” Ten asked, stepping off the stairs and reaching for it.
Harley tried to bite her as usual, but she shoved his head to the side and snatched the rope fast. The pouch had a picture of a crow.
She pulled a letter from the pouch and read it out loud.
“Dear Ten, you and your friends and Clan won’t have any more trouble from me or my people. I made mistakes with you, and it took watching you almost take your own life for me to realize I was wrong. I used to look at you and think you were nothing more than an Origin. That being an Origin was your only value. And maybe that’s what attracted my animal to you, I don’t know. And I don’t know how I’m going to break that bond, but I’m sure as hell gonna try. This is my peace offering. No olive branch for you. Instead, you get walking, mooing hamburgers. I was gonna get you something just for you, but you’re different than most people. You don’t want things for you. You like making the people you care about happy. I heard about the Warmaker and Hairpin Trigger going savage-grizzly and thinning out their own herd. I won’t say what I think about that… Meh, fuck it, yes I will. They’re idiots, ha. But they’re your idiots, so who am I to judge? Anyway, maybe now you won’t be so stressed about saving that ranch. Good luck with everything, Ten. From Ramsey and Red Dead Mayhem.”
Other than the mooing of the cattle, there was only stunned quiet.
Breaking the silence, Kurt drawled out, “Wooooow.”
“Whatever happened to don’t trust a crow?” Colt asked. “These cows are probably all tainted.”
Trig leaned on the saddle horn on top of Harley, chewing on a piece of grass, and looked at the herd thoughtfully. “They look healthy to me.”
Kurt pulled Ten close to his side and said, “We’ve all been worrying about saving this ranch for so long, it’s strange for that stress to be lifted.”
“Don’t worry,” Trig muttered, “I’m sure Colt will fuck it up and eat the herd soon and then we can all go back to normal.”
“Me fuck it up? You ate as many cows as I did!”
Trig gave Ten a wink and turned Harley around. “Come on, boys. Let’s drive them out to the pasture and get them off the lawn.”
Colt followed him, muttering, “I got called an idiot by a crow, and now my friend and Alpha doesn’t even have faith in my ability to not eat our livelihood. Kurt! Hurry up, these cows aren’t going to moooove themselves. Get it? Moo? Mooove themselves?”
Kurt looked after Colt with a tired expression, then turned to Ten and leaned down, kissed her lips gently. It was sweet until he swatted her butt and then ruffled Gunner’s hair beside her. “I’ll be back.”
“Kurt?” she called as he jogged down the stairs.
“Yeah?” he asked, turning.
“I wish you always come back,” she said through a smile.
Kurt gave her a crooked smile. “Granted. I’ll always come back to you.”
And as Gunner slipped his little hand in Ten’s, they watched Kurt make his way after Colt to the barn.
It was a sunny day, the birds were singing, the soft breeze was lifting the ends of her wild hair. The ranch was finally safe and the war completely finished. Karis had a cub on the way, Ava was managing her bear well, and though the world knew of their existence, so far, that knowledge hadn’t hurt her people. The media circus was raging on
in the public eye, but here at the ranch, out where news was slow to reach, they’d been safe from it so far. Oh, the consequences would come, but right now was the calm before the storm, and Ten was embracing the days of peace.
She wasn’t just an Origin or an animal. She had become her most favorite self. It hadn’t been easy, but change never was. The hard parts were all worth it though, because look at this life she’d stumbled into.
Sometimes it was chaos, rocky roads, hard work, and uncertainty.
But it was also this great adventure with the people she trusted most in the world.
It was beautiful and bright, and her future was filled with hope and belonging.
She wasn’t alone anymore, and from this day forward, she never would be again.
She was part of the New Darby Clan.
She was a friend to the Two Claws Clan.
She was the happy and devoted mate of her Kurt.
And she was the keeper of her Gunner Boy.
Yes, she was an Origin, but all the other parts of herself felt so much more important.
She. Was. Ten.
And her legend started now.
Up Next from T. S. Joyce
Surprise Series Announcement
I know I said Genie’s story would be the last of this series, but I’m not ready to say goodbye to these outlaws quite yet, so…the crows will get their stories in the new Red Dead Mayhem series.
Up first is Ramsey’s story, For the Hope of a Crow
Coming April 2018
New Release Newsletter Sign-Up
For new releases, exclusive sneak peeks, and giveaways, sign up for T. S. Joyce’s Bear Shifter Romance Newsletter HERE.
More Series by T. S. Joyce
Sons of Beasts
Son of the Cursed Bear (Book 1)
Son of Kong (Book 2)
Son of the Dragon (Book 3)
Red Havoc Panthers
Red Havoc Rogue (Book 1)
Red Havoc Rebel (Book 2)
Red Havoc Bad Cat (Book 3)
Red Havoc Guardian (Book 4)
Red Havoc Bad Bear (Book 5)
Harper’s Mountains
Bloodrunner Dragon (Book 1)
Bloodrunner Bear (Book 2)
Air Ryder (Book 3)
Novak Raven (Book 4)
Blackwing Dragon (Book 5)
Kane’s Mountains
Blackwing Defender (Book 1)
Blackwing Wolf (Book 2)
Blackwing Beast (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)
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)
Gray Back Bears
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)
Last Immortal Dragon (Book 6)
More Books from this Author
Visit www.tsjoyce.com for a full reading list.
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 the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. 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.