Page 56 of Grin and Bear It

“For fuck’s sake, Holly–” Natalie sighed.

“Taking four bear shifter dicks like a good little girl.”

There was a beat of silence after Holly’s words when all I could hear was my pulse rushing in my ears, and then my voice rose to a pitch I rarely managed, even when dealing with the most unruly classes.

“Bear shifter dicks?”

Heads snapped around in my direction but everyone, everywhere, in the whole backyard went perfectly quiet, as though the world itself was holding its breath. Then I got my next words out. “Did you say bear dicks?”

Chapter27

“Bear…. dicks…”

As the words left my lips, they sounded elongated, distorted, turning into syllables that didn't make sense. I took a slow step backwards, still staring at Holly. Then I took another step back as I turned my head towards Natalie and the men near her. Another step backwards and I swung my head towards Dale and Colleen. I could see everyone’s mouths moving, all talking at once but there was a rushing noise in my ears that was blocking it out. My brain couldn’t take it, couldn’t decipher what anyone was saying. I couldn’t take in anything beyond what Holly had said. And she was either proposing something illegal and highly dangerous, attempting sex with actual bears, or she meant something totally… impossible. But then, as my mind whirled, a slew of seemingly disparate details started to come together.

I stared wildly around the yard, my gaze swinging back and forth between the groups. It was only now, when everyone at the gathering was looking so intently at me, that I noticed how many of the men had the same shade of unusually pale ice-blue eyes, and that the rest of them had eyes that were the same, strange golden-brown colour. And I realised that I was familiar with those eyes, though in different faces, with softer looks. But these strangers all watched me with the implacable gaze of a predator. As I backed away, some of the men jumped to their feet, tracking me. That was what got my flight reaction pumping. Where the world had been in slow motion before, it suddenly sped up, and now I could hear the shouts and cries, feel my heart pounding. as I turned and legged it, out of the yard, down the drive and away from them all.

I ran blindly. Down the street, then veering off down another. I felt the rhythmic pulse of my phone ringing in my back pocket, but I wasn’t going to stop to answer it. I couldn’t. I didn’t have words, feelings, thoughts, other than just one: run. Run until it all made sense. Run until I got somewhere safe… I ducked down another street, feeling my breath burning in my lungs and my heart skittering way too fast and I knew I had to slow down. As I reduced my pace to a jog, I started to become more aware of my surroundings. Movement and shouts came from in front of a house further down the street, just before a curve in the road. My heart skipped a beat before I realised it was just a group of guys playing basketball and I looked down at the road beneath my feet as I kept jogging, trying to calm my heart rate and get enough oxygen into my lungs. As I got closer to where the road curved off to the left, the basketball game drew my attention again, and I darted a look down a long driveway beside a very nice house. One boy had just got the basketball past his opponent and was passing it off to his team-mate, a boy who looked just like him. My brain tripped up when I recognised Knox and Maddox. My feet slowed to a stop and I just stood there in the middle of the road. I watched the twin with the ball evade interception to get it through the hoop. As I watched the two boys high five each other and laugh, I felt a flash of warmth at seeing them with smiles on their faces. Then I realised who the twins were playing against; recognised the two guys with their backs to me. Nash and Tyson. And adrenaline hit my system like an electric shock.

They sensed my presence way too fast, both men lifting their heads and scenting the air with their noses as they turned around. And who does that? It was like I was seeing them with a whole new awareness as the two men turned my way and started to walk over.

In literature, people were sometimes described as moving with an animal-like grace and right now I got a masterclass in what that looked like. Nash and Tyson came closer at an unhurried pace. But I felt none of their calm, with my eyes widening, heart thumping, muscles tensing, like I would if I came face to face with a real bear.

Bear.

The word reverberated around and around in my head, getting louder and louder until it muffled out the sound of my name when Tyson shouted it out, and I took off again, running past their house and around the bend in the road. I was pissed off at myself for neglecting cardio, my body aching, well past its limits, but I pushed on.

“Yo, Ellie!” Tyson called, his voice sounding like it was getting louder, closer. “El!”

I’d known running was never going to work but it had been the only response I could make. I didn’t know where I was going nor these streets, and that became even more obvious when I realised the street I had taken was actually a court. My feet scudded to a halt as I looked at the dead end in front of me.

“Ellie…” I spun around. Tyson walked forward towards me, arms outstretched, all those perfect muscles on display because he was just wearing a pair of loose basketball shorts. Those golden eyes burned brighter, a strange expression on his face. Regret and worry and need and desire and a whole lot more that I couldn’t, wouldn’t decipher. “Tell me what’s wrong. You’re running scared and—”

“No.” I shook my head. “No!”

He stopped where he was when I threw my hands out and he nodded slowly.

“You can run up my street any time you like, girl, but not looking like something’s happened.” His eyes scanned my body. “Not smelling like you do, I’m gonna ask what’s wrong. What’s happened?”

“You happened!” I stabbed the air with my finger as my voice cracked and then, to my horror, I felt my eyes prick with tears. “You said you wanted to fix everything and…”

“And?” He prompted me in the even, ‘be reasonable’ tone men seemed to always use with women.

But he wasn’t a man.

Nash jogged up, the twins in tow, and I scanned their faces, looking for evidence that I wasn’t going mad. What I was about to say was enough to get me carted off to the psych ward, but the lack of laughter at Holly’s words, the accompanying horror that I’d heard what she said, it gave credence to a theory I still had no business entertaining.

“And you’re bears?”

I couldn’t even make a statement of it, waiting for the four of them to burst out laughing or, worse, to look at me like I was insane.

But that’s not what happened.

They all looked at each other, their expressions growing sombre. And when they looked back at me, it wasn’t with ridicule, but with a strange kind of sadness that tugged at my heart, right before I steeled it against them.

“How the fuck—?”

“We’ll answer all of your questions,” Nash said, taking a single step forward. He nodded when he saw me flinch. “Here if we have to, but I dunno about you, but I’d prefer to have this conversation in private.” He shifted sideways, gesturing down the road to his house. “You can come and have a drink and catch your breath—”

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