Page 115 of Grin and Bear It

But that wouldn’t be enough, they both knew it. They were teetering on the edge of making yet another shitty decision and Maddox felt powerless to stop his brother, right as Knox felt unable to run away from this impulse.

“What do you want on your pizza?” Knox called out to the group, fishing out his phone. He was met by a deafening chorus of replies and that was when Maddox turned away.

He had no appetite, not now and when he walked down to his room to find a couple making out on his bed, he let out a little snarl of frustration, something feeling like it was being violated.

“Out!” he growled, the two kids pulling apart, then relaxing when they saw him.

“Look, chill—” the dude started to say.

“Get the fuck off my bed and out of my room.” Maddox pointed imperiously at the door, feeling stronger, more in control, even if just for a minute. Fur prickled across his arm though, the sensation dragging his focus away from them, forcing it down, his hands into his pocket, as the two of them did as he commanded.

“Sure, fine, whatever,” the guy said, taking his girl’s hand and dragging her out the door. “Maybe there’s somewhere upstairs we can go, baby.”

No, that’s what Maddox wanted to say, but any attempt was instantly drowned out by the thumping sounds of music coming pouring out of the speakers at top volume. Upstairs was a sacred place that had been set aside for his uncles’ hypothetical mate, when they’d built the place, and was now waiting for Miss to decide if she wanted to move in, ready to be customised to her liking. Not a place for teenagers to get their rocks off, rolling around on a bed made for her, them. But as he watched more people stream upstairs, Maddox did the only thing he could, slamming his door shut and locking it. He sat down slowly on his bed, able to smell the artificial smell of the girl’s perfume and the guy’s body odour as he sucked in a breath.

So he wasn’t there to witness the kids from his school going through the cupboards looking for alcohol when Knox went outside to grab the pizza when it arrived. Maddox didn’t see the frustration on the older students’ faces when they didn’t find any bottles of spirits or cans of beer in the fridge. He didn’t see their focus shift to outside, first to the fridge that sat on the deck, used to hold drinks and meat when the family held BBQs, then past that to Cole’s studio.

“What the fuck is that?” Jimmy asked, looking at the wooden building, spying the lock on the door.

“That’s Cole’s painting studio,” Declan replied, anxious to get the older boy’s approval.

“Artist studio?” A slow smile spread across Jimmy’s lips. “Artists always have good weed. Let’s break in.”

“What? No, shit, we can’t…” Declan stammered out, instantly regretting it when Jimmy shot him a hard look.

“What’s the matter?” one of Jimmy’s buddies asked him. “Scared?”

“It’s locked.” Declan pointed that out with a fatalistic air.

“Not if we can find a pair of bolt cutters.” Jimmy’s eyes raked over the house, looking for clues. “The twins’ uncles are tradies, right?”

“Right,” his buddies agreed.

“Well, they’d have to have a pair in the garage, right?”

“Look, the pizza will be here in a minute,” Declan bargained. “Let’s go inside for a feed and…”

Nothing he said had any impact, the older boys swarming towards the garage like sharks. They opened the door and flicked the lights on, stopping in the doorway when they caught sight of it.

“Whoa…”

Declan had never seen Jimmy lose his cool demeanour before, but he did now, circling Cole’s car in awe. He reached out tentatively, stroking a hand down the sleek lines of the side panel.

“Where’s the keys for this beauty?” he asked in reverent tones. “We could take it out for a spin.”

“No!” Declan blinked, the bear roaring that out as much as the boy, getting the attention of everyone in the garage. This was a step way too far, even he knew that. Cole’s love for this car was well known throughout the bear shifter community and any damage to it would make the bullshit they’d pulled with his dad’s Scotch collection pale into insignificance. He was already skating on thin ice. His parents thought he’d just gone around to Knox’s for dinner, not an open house party. “Here.” Declan snatched a pair of bolt cutters off the wall and tossed them to the nearest guy. “Use them to open the studio.”

That wasn’t a great solution either, but they could blame that on thieves or something, Declan’s young brain posited. Better the studio that the car.

How wrong he was.

He watched the older boys snap the lock with a growing sense of trepidation. No adult locked a room away unless they were sure they didn’t want kids in there. Maybe Cole was hiding something really personal in the studio, and Declan had just handed the boys the means to invade that.

In the end it was so much worse.

“Ohh, fuck!”

Jimmy and the older boys clustered around the easel, chortling with the kind of shocked elation that was never a good sign. Declan crept closer, like a hero in a horror movie, sure he was going to hate what he saw, but unable to look away.

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