Page 125 of Cross To Bear

“I have to. I got roped into doing face painting for kids, because apparently that’s the same as tattooing.” Bjorn shook his head. “They’ve just finished building the new shifter school—”

“Shifter school?” I set the cinnamon shaker down. “What’s a shifter school?”

“Something I fucking wish we had growing up.”

Crash sauntered in fresh from the shower then stuck his finger in the bowl of icing, only to get smacked on the hand with Hawk’s wooden spoon.

“There was some incident with two of the boys at a local school,” Razor said as he poured himself a coffee. “Fuck knows how they covered that shit up, but news died down about it. One of the local sleuth’s mates is a teacher, so she’s taking over running a purpose built facility. It has spaces for young shifters to decompress if they’re feeling on edge.” He shot me a sidelong look. “It’s a volatile time.”

“Young, dumb and full of cum plus fur or scales.” Crash shook his head sharply. “Not a good combination.”

“A few of the less…. disreputable MCs will be making an appearance,” Bjorn said. “The whole day is a charity event to try and raise more money for schoolbooks or whatever.”

“Don’t you get them for a dollar at Kmart?” Crash asked.

“Textbooks, dumb arse,” Hawk said.

“So I thought we could go.” Bjorn looked around the kitchen. “All of us. We’re a sleuth now and while Razor did a very good job of advertising his mated status to everyone who goes to the bar, this would be our first official community event as a mated pack.”

“He’ll have you signing up for the PTA in seconds.” Razor winked at me. “He might look like a fucking biker, but really he just wants to be a suburban dad. You look in his wardrobe and you’re gonna find cargo shorts and a pair of New Balance shoes.”

“Cargo shorts are practical,” Bjorn said with a huff. “You have lots of pockets to carry all your shit.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

Everyone turned to face me and I just shrugged in the face of their collective gaze.

“Let’s do it. We didn’t have anything on today, so let’s go.”

Why would I baulk at this? It was for charity, and if I was going to become a member of this community, I needed to start getting to know people. Jesse never bothered with these sorts of things, which made me assume that his parents wouldn’t either…

It was a perfect summer day as we walked across the neatly clipped oval. Banners and balloons were put up everywhere, and the local top 40 radio station was blaring out through speakers, but the first person to greet us was Kara. Bjorn’s cousin came running up, only to fling her arms around his legs.

“Bjorn! Where’s Jesse? Did he come with you guys? Mum said he’s not coming, but he has to!”

He picked the little girl up and set her on his hip, and fuck me, if that didn’t punch me right in the ovaries. My other mates all looked at me with sly smiles. I shot them a dark look, right as Bjorn broke the news to her.

“Jesse’s away for work right now, Chook, but he’ll come back for Christmas, I’m sure.”

Her brow creased as she looked around the lot of us, as if she needed to verify this information herself, when her focus landed on me.

“Why are you here with Jesse’s girlfriend?”

“That’s Maddie, and she’s not Jesse’s girlfriend anymore. She hasn’t been for a while. Maddie’s our fated mate and she accepted the bond. She belongs to our sleuth now.”

I wasn’t sure how a seven-year-old would react to that news, but wriggling to get down, then running off without a word, just a look over her shoulder wasn’t it.

“Well, that should make sure news gets around,” Razor mused. “She’ll go and tell your aunty…”

Who’d tell everyone else.

That became apparent as soon as we entered the gathering.

“Soo… I’m used to people stopping and staring in human spaces, but anyone else picking up a vibe?” Crash asked.

“Busy bodies.”

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