Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7) by Erin D. Andrews

Author:Erin D. Andrews [D. Andrews, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: bear shifter, Paranormal romance
Publisher: Erin D. Andrews
Published: 2017-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Book 3: Shifter’s Hope

Chapter One

Life Without Him

The flames that chewed through my bed and all my clothes, also ate up the last photo I had of Boris. It was from our first home. The two of us were playing in the forest. We weren’t allowed in the playground with the humans, so our mom would take us to the woods and say, “No humans here! Go climb the trees and dig in the ground. Come home after you’ve had an adventure.”

I always loved how she would do that, take a place made for shifters and turn it into something special. As if our place in the world wasn’t slowly closing in on us. As if we were safe and happy, free from the threat of humans everywhere.

Boris was wonderful at finding some made-up little treasure. He would hold up a long stick and cry out, “I’ve found the lost wand of the old wizards!” Then we would spend the rest of the afternoon casting spells on one another, pretending to be frozen in place and hiding from the imaginary enemy, completely forgetting about the real one.

That first home was my favorite. I probably only feel that way because I was so small at the time. I remember the cheap, formica, kitchen table; the old, ratty couch, where we would fall asleep watching the same three movies every Sunday; the little patch of grass in the front. We felt like royalty in that house. Most of the shifters we knew lived in dilapidated apartments where neighbors could do something called “keep an eye” on their, supposedly, wild neighbors. That phrase always evoked bizarre images for me – a single eyeball resting on top of a person’s head and looking in all directions to see what he or she was actually up to all day.

I don’t remember how my parents got that little place with the grass and the forest within walking distance. That was back when there was something of a forest. It was all little scrubby trees and brown grass, but we loved it all the same. It must have been a beautiful forest back when a lot more people were around. I once heard that there were even groups of humans dedicated to caring for the trees and the animals. It must have been a beautiful time.

We were forced to move several times. I only cried the first time when I had to say goodbye to that soft, beautiful land where I had played for so many hours. Boris jabbed me in the arm when my tears fell.

“Don’t be sad. They’re watching you.”

“Who?” I sniffed.

“Them.” I looked to see a group of tall men in black vests and shiny black helmets. Why would they be watching me? One of them had some kind of black object in his hand. It wasn’t until later that I would learn those black instruments were designed to shock shifters into behaving. I would be tased many times throughout my life, and every time it took me by surprise just how much it hurt.

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