Page 88 of The Grizzly Situation
Gavin swiped at him, slamming a paw into Benjy’s face. It snapped his head to the left, but his body didn’t move at all. Now Gavin had an enraged Benjy, Chaim, and Brent surrounding him. The boys dropped back and were guarding me, it seemed.What happened next shocked the crap out of me. Doors flew open and in strolled eight more bears, all lining up behind Brent. This was Amelia with the household staff!
Brent shifted, standing nude, and stared his father down.
“You have no authority here,” he said coldly. He glanced back at the others. “You can shift back.”
Then Amelia and the staff returned to their human form. Now, I’m not a prude, but there was way too much skin on display. Brent had said shifters were unconcerned with nudity, but me? Yeah, I could feel my cheeks heating as I tried to look somewhere there wasn’t a wall of flesh. “Why are you defending him?” he demanded. “He has a human here, and a male who claims to be his mate!”
“Because he is,” Amelia bellowed. “He’s been good for Mr. Lockhart and their sons.”
My heart thudded when she called them ‘our’ sons. Old man Lockhart? He had a different reaction. His face went white and he was shaking with what I could only assume was anger.
“Sons?”
Brent sneered. “That’s right. This is what your hatred cost you.” He gestured at the boys. “These are our sons. They could have been your grandsons if you’d been a less shitty person. They were created from the love I shared with my first mate, Jenna. She died, Dad. While the boys were in the room with her. My wife died, and my family wasn’t here to help us through it.” He sneered. “No, that’s wrong. The sleuth, myrealfamily, did help us, it was you. And that was okay. I didn’t want you here. These boys? They’re artists. Actors. Singers. Things you hate. They love with their whole hearts. They call Uly Momma, because he shares a similar smell with Jenna, but their love for him is so fierce, it dwarfs any you’d ever be able to show them. You told the sleuth for decades there was no such thing as mates. You turned our mistrust of wolves into outright hate that willtake years to wipe away. You’ve never done one thing for your people.”
I pulled the boys closer and watched as Brent chastised the old man. His gaze flicked from Chaim to Benjy, then from Brent to me. His nostrils flared and I realized something. Or thought I did.
“Brent?”
He turned and smiled at me. “Yeah, baby?”
“He knows.”
“What?”
“Your dad. He knows mates are real. It’s clear on his face. You rattled him with the admission of me and Jenna being your mates, but his expression tells me he knew about them.”
His head twisted back toward his father. “You knew?” he demanded.
“He did, cub,” Chaim said, as he stroked a hand over Benjy’s nape. “Benjy and I were forbidden from telling you. Us leaving was one of the conditions he set to keep Benjy safe. He didn’t want us toinfectthe sleuth.”
“Because they’re gay?” Brent snarled. “All of this is because you’re homophobic?”
“It’s not natural!” Gavin shouted. “I knew they’d already infected you. I could see it. You were so goddamn pathetic. You should have crushed Peter Small.”
Brent squeezed his hands into fists. “I was eight fucking years old! He was sixteen.”
He sneered, and that expression pissed me off. “That’s no excuse for not being strong.”
Brent scrubbed a hand over his face, then stood ramrod straight. “No. You arenotputting this on me. I was a child. You were—are—a shitty father. I couldn’t wait to get you out of Bear Mountain. I never wanted to see you again.”
“We will kill you if we have to,” Amelia said, her normally cheery voice dark and angry. “Very few in the town would welcome your return and would fight you at every step. Mr. Lockhart has been the best thing this town has ever seen. He’s good, kind, fierce, loyal. All those things you will never understand.”
“Why don’t you just go?” Brent asked, his tone weary. “It’s obvious you’re here alone.”
“Louis wanted me to come back and fix the sleuth.”
“Fix us?” Brent barked. “We’re more successful now than we ever have been. If he wants so badly to work with you, you’re welcome to take him as you leave. However, you will not be staying. Time for you to go back to Texas and this time, stay there. Come back again and I will designate you as a hostile and we will react as such.”
He seemed rattled. “I am your father, and youwillshow me the respect I deserve.”
Brent chuckled. It was dry and dusty, like someone who hadn’t laughed in years, even though I knew better. “Trust me, I have. The fact you’re not laying dead on our floor? That, I think, shows you all the respect you’ll get here. Way more than you showed any of our people. I’m not going to knock how you ran the sleuth. That isn’t for me to decide. If the people want to follow you, that’s up to them and I won’t take that choice from them. However, I will say you had no business having a family. None whatsoever. I will never understand what mom saw in you. I get why she left, though. Why she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—be a part of the madness you were spreading.”
I had thought Brent’s mom had died. Apparently not.
“This man—thishuman—isn’t your mate. Mates aren’t real! Stop falling for that garbage. Your mother tried to tell me I was her mate. Said I smelled like fallen leaves and that first hint of snow. What bullshit lies she told me before she left us.”
And then I understood. “You unbelievable bastard,” I snapped. “That woman? Shewasyour mate more than likely. She would have stood by your side forever, if you had been a decent person. I can only imagine how much it must have hurt her to leave her home. From the man she loved more than life itself.”
