Page 29 of More Than I Can Bear

“Sorry’s not gonna cut it, buddy. We’re gonna have to go into damage control,” she said.

Chapter16

River

“Hello, darling!” Mum pulled the door open and threw her arms around me. I pulled her close, smelling floral perfume and baked goods on her as I held her: the scent of home. “We’re just sitting down to dinner. You’re staying, right?”

“Right,” I replied, having timed my visit for this reason.

Not least of all because Mum was an amazing cook and the whole house smelled of fresh bread and lamb stew, a dish all of my dads loved, but also because I needed help.

“River!” Jacko was one of my fathers and he looked up from where he stood uncorking a bottle of wine. “Haven’t seen you for a bit. Everything OK?”

“Yep,” I replied, conscious all eyes were on me.

“Come sit,” Mum said, steering me towards the dinner table. My other two dads were already seated and Nick got up to bring another plate for me.

“What’s the news, Riv?” he asked as he set a place for me. “I see that sleuthmate of yours won that medal. It’s all the blokes on the work site can talk about.”

A lot of bear shifters worked in construction across Adelaide. Adam and Kaine’s dad were builders, but a lot were like me and my dads, working for other crews.

“He did.”

I looked up as Jacko brought the stew pot over and then set it on a wooden chopping board in the centre of the table to protect the tablecloth.

“Mashed potatoes, love?” Mum asked, another pot tucked under her arm.

“Yes, please.”

“Nothing better than your Mum’s mashed spuds,” Kev, the other one of my fathers, said with a wink. “Fluffier than clouds and full of cream and butter.”

“Good food for hardworking men,” she said, dropping a hefty spoonful on my plate and started working her way around, but Kev dragged her down on his lap.

“You’ve worked the hardest,” he said in a low voice, really just meant for the two of them. He plucked the pot from her hands and deposited mash on his plate and hers, before handing it to Nick. “Get off your feet and have something to eat while our son tells us his news.”

They knew. My family didn’t bombard me the moment I walked in the door because they’d learned that it just made me shut down, but they knew. That we’d found Freya. That we were in the process of trying to win her over. But the rituals we followed meant I had to pretend they didn’t, so I started from the start.

“We’ve found her,” I told them.

“Your fated mate?” You’d think Mum would hate the idea, because she was what the rest of the bear community saw as a second choice. But if anything she was the opposite. Her hand shook like a bird’s wing as it went to her chest. “You’ve found her? Is she lovely? Of course, she is. Have you met her or just Adam? Where did you find her?”

“Love.”

Kev nestled her in closer in his arms, doing his best to soothe her with his large presence, but Mum pushed free.

“Don’t ‘love’ me,” she said, sliding into her own seat. “This is important.”

For more reasons than one. The shifter community had assumed I wouldn’t shift when I came of age, not when so many boys born of bear shifters and their fated mates didn’t. So when I’d found my bear, it’d caused a bit of a stink and then lots of questions. Would I ever be able to find a mate? People asked that over and over, other guys wary about forming a sleuth with me. But Adam being Adam, he saw that as a challenge he had to tackle head on. We’d been friends since primary school, but when we reached puberty we became a lot closer. He believed in me, in my bear, in my future, so much so he was willing to tie his life to mine. Kaine had noted this with a sigh, making clear we had a hard road ahead of us and that we needed him by our side to navigate it.

“I’ve met her and she’s…”

I let out a sigh as I surveyed the table. What did I say? That she was everything I never knew I wanted and more? I felt torn in two. If I gushed about Freya, was I shoving my mum’s face in the fact my dads would’ve felt the same about their fated mate? Was I doomed to pick either their happiness or mine?

“River.” Mum reached across the table and took my hand and despite how small it was, as always, I felt her strength. “Just tell us about her, love. We want to know about the woman in your life.”

“She’s beautiful.” I stared at the mashed potatoes on the plate, but didn’t really see them, the white expanse forming a blank canvas for me to draw her portrait on from memory. “I can’t stop fucking looking at her whenever I see her.”

“Oh lord…” Mum breathed out.

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