Page 44 of Grin and Bear It

“What’re you doing here…?”

That low growl, part bear, part boy, was a familiar one but I didn’t like hearing it.

“Bad drunk it is,” I muttered to myself. “Knox, we’ve gotta go home.”

“Not going home with you.” He went to push me away, then swayed so violently I was forced to catch him. “Not my home.”

“Yeah, it is.” I hauled him upright. “You wouldn’t be this fucking pissed if it wasn’t.”

“Gonna live with… Pa.”

I winced at the stink of his breath, at the fucking state of him and then nodded slowly.

“If that’s really what you want, you know we’ll help you do that. But right now? Right now, you’re fucked up and hurting, and I hate to see it, Knox.”

He stared at me some more, wanting to maintain the rage that burned inside him, but I’d dealt with drunk dickheads often enough to know the drill. Thank fuck Maddox hadn’t rung Cole, because then Knox would’ve got the fight he was itching for.

Instead, he got me. I just held onto him.

Those brows creased and a look of utter hopelessness crossed the boy’s face, exactly what he’d been trying to keep down by drinking. He’d been trying to wash away the pain, not realising it only made it worse. His eyes shone in the moonlight, glistening more and more until he blinked and one tear fell free.

His hand slapped it away, and his brain caught up with the fact that he was showing those dreaded emotions. Then he slapped me away. And, as his mouth formed an ugly grimace, there they were. Fangs where there should’ve been teeth, and I could see fur rippling over his skin.

“Fuck. Knox!”

Growing up in the shifter community was hard for a young guy. There was your first adolescence, where your body shot up and your voice started switching from squeaky to deep. Then there was the waiting game, when you found out whether or not you carried enough shifter genetics to find your bear. But when you did? A boy was like a ticking time bomb, becoming more and more volatile, until he shifted into a massive furry fucking bear, a species not even found in this country. As soon as I saw the fur, I scooped him up, ignoring his protests, and hightailed it out of the backyard, shoving him into the backseat of my car when I got to it.

“What the—?” Maddox started to say.

“Knox might be on the cusp of his first shift,” I snapped, jumping into the driver’s seat then throwing the car into gear, hurtling down the street. We were close by, only a couple of streets over, but that didn’t stop me from punching in Tyson’s number.

“What’s going on?” he asked in a groggy voice.

“Knox is drunk and maybe gonna shift,” I said as I took the corner at speed, the wheels screeching. Knox made a similar sound, his fingers raking at his shirt.

“What? But he’s only fucking fifteen!”

“I’m well aware. I’m about ten seconds away from the house. Get everyone up and out into the backyard.”

“What’s happening to him?” Mads asked, as we prised his brother out of the car. As soon as he was standing up, Knox lashed out, and I shoved Maddox aside. He wasn’t close to his first change, so he couldn’t yet pull on a bear’s strength to protect himself, but I could. I stepped in front of Knox, catching one fist, then the other, in my hands as he swung wildly.

“Knox…” I said from between gritted teeth. “Mate, I know you’re in there.”

“Nooo…!”

Shit, his voice was more of a growl. And where we lived was on the very outskirts of the unofficial bear shifter sector of the city, so there would be witnesses if I didn’t move my arse. I threw Knox over my shoulder, feeling the score of his claws down my back, as I carried him into our backyard.

“What’s going on?” Mads asked, his eyes flicking from me to Knox. “Is he taking fur?”

“He might,” I said. “We want to stop it if we can. He’s managed to get himself as pissed as a newt on that whisky, and a drunk bear rampaging through this city is not going to go well for any of us.”

“What the fuck…?” Tyson said, as he flung the back door open, his heels skidding on the deck when he saw us, before he threw himself over the railing.

“What happened?” Nash asked, then turned on Maddox. “Where the hell have you two been? I told you that you were grounded.”

“Not the time,” I ground out as I dumped Knox on the grass. I watched him plant his hands and feet, assuming the position all shifters took the first time. “We need to keep him calm and contained.”

“So, when is the bloody time?” Cole snapped. “The kid stinks like fucking Scotch. If I’d come home like this, my dads—”

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