Page 45 of Grin and Bear It

“Would’ve what?” Mads asked the question with deathly certainty, staring at my sleuth mate. “What would’ve they done? Belted you? Flogged you within an inch of your life? We know, Cole.” Not Uncle Cole, I noted that. “You tell us all the time. Maybe it’s time you stopped talking about it. Maybe it’s time you fucking followed through for once.”

“You little—”

“Enough!”

Nash’s voice rang out across our backyard and the neighbours’ alike, creating a strange kind of calm. One punctuated by Knox’s rapid breaths, then his moans.

“Knox and Maddox are ours.” Fuck, I’d been waiting for Nash to say something like this, the truth of his words throbbing there in his tone. “They are our sleuthmates and, no matter what happened tonight, they need us.”

Ty walked up to Mads and ignored his protest, tugging the boy close until he went limp, putting shaking arms around his uncle’s ribs.

“This is scary as fuck,” Ty said, “but we’ll get through this. All of us will get through this together.”

And that’s when we finally started actually acting like a sleuth, not just labelling ourselves as such. The five of us surrounded Knox, each of us starting a low hum in our chests.

“Knox, I know you’re close, mate, but not now, not yet,” Nash said, his voice corded with worry.

“You come out of this and I’ll let you win next time we play one on one,” I told him, a small snort going around the circle.

“I won’t.” Ty smiled down at the boy caught between bear and man. “You gotta earn that shit, kid. But you can’t take the crown until you beat me. You don’t stay in skin? You won’t get that chance.”

Then we all looked at Cole.

He swallowed hard, his blue eyes becoming ice chips and, as I saw his mouth twist, I wondered, not for the first time, if he was gonna do something really fucking stupid. But he didn’t.

“This isn’t what your ma woulda wanted, bud,” he said, the tenderness in his tone sitting strangely in his rough voice. “This isn’t the way. Your bear is coming, but not now, not while you’ve got no control over him. Just take a deep breath and let him settle back down.”

“Please.” Maddox stepped forward then, hands outstretched, even as we muttered warnings. He stepped up to his brother then crouched down at his level to talk to him. “We were gonna take fur together, remember? Together, Knox. Don’t do this now. I’m not ready. Knox—”

Maddox’s twin leapt forward, stumbling into his brother’s arms, and Mads held him tight, his eyes finally closing in relief. Tears slipped free of his eyes and then his twin’s, the two of them sobbing finally as we stepped closer.

Me and Ty, we edged in, ready to take over if needed. Nash, he just looked stricken, seeing the chaos that was unfolding but not sure what to do. And Cole? For a moment I saw beneath the mask, a flash of white hot fear, quickly smothered, before a familiar grumpy expression replaced it. He shook his head and stomped off, back inside the house.

“So what do we do?” Nash asked in hushed tones, looking at me, then Ty.

“Same thing we’d do if any of us got fall down drunk,” Ty replied. “We’re gonna need to keep an eye on Knox overnight. He should be fine, his bear’ll burn off the alcohol faster than any regular teenager could, but still.”

“We’ll take shifts,” I said, with a nod.

“And tomorrow?” Nash’s voice sounded thin and anaemic.

“Tomorrow we get all the details and try to work a way out of this shit, because this can’t happen again,” I said.

Chapter23

Nash

When I woke up the next morning, I remembered why it was always so tempting to roll over and go back to sleep. But this time I didn’t. I got out of bed, my eye sockets feeling like they were filled with sand, and then fell into the same rituals my dads used to use when I came home drunk.

A lot of Australian teenage rituals seemed to focus on alcohol. Getting seriously fucked up was a rite of passage in some ways, even if it wasn’t a welcome one. Regardless, I looked in the fridge, rounded up bacon, eggs and sausages, then took it all outside to the BBQ and went to work on a greasy cook-up. The morning air was crisp and clear, helping me feel more awake, even if I was shivering slightly, but I cracked eggs and laid out strips of bacon, set sausages out in a long line and even sliced up some potatoes to go with it. And before too long, just like my dads had, the smell of it brought all the boys out of their rooms.

“Damn, that looks good.” Ty rubbed his hands together as he eyed the spread. “I’ll make some toast and squeeze up some orange juice.”

“Yeah, that’d be good, mate,” I said, smiling as I turned the snags over and then started to shift the bacon.

“Homemade brekky?” Cole croaked, stretching as he walked outside. “Fuck, yeah.” He moved closer, rubbing his hand through my hair. “Who’s my best bitch?”

“Get some plates and cutlery, dickhead, and make sure the boys are awake.” I stared into his eyes for a second. “Family meeting this morning.”

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