***
Theron stood in the street, facing off with the guard who’d just sucker punched him. Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth and his bear wanted out to do damage. But these were the Mother Bear’s guards. Killing one of them was punishable by death, and he wouldn’t leave Thames alone in the world. Not yet.
If they were going to be relieved in death, it would happen at the same damn time so one of them wasn’t left to brave things alone.
Thames was at his back, duking it out with another guard.
The two burly grizzly shifters came out of nowhere, barking and tossing their weight around for no reason. It was nothing new to be suckered by one of the clan, but this time, it was worse. Because the gemini had spent the entire morning bathing at the creek and washing their tattered clothes, trying their damnedest to look presentable for their reading. Now the guards were messing all that up, and it pissed Theo off.
The snarling male lunged at him again, catching him in the gut and sending him to the ground.
Where the dirt was.
All the dirt he’d washed off.
Damn it.
Jumping back to his feet, he decked the guard and before the bear could recover from the punch, Theron jammed his hand hard against his throat. The guard sputtered for breath, grasping at his neck with desperate fingers, but Theron only wished he’d done it hard enough to do some long term damage.
Spinning, he watched Thames send his opponent spiraling backward, and as soon as they were free, they both ran. They went the backway around the village, heading in the direction of the Clan’s gathering grounds. Breath chugging and arms pumping to eke out more speed. Just in case they were followed.
When they reached the gathering grounds, they stopped just outside the entryway.
Thames bent in half, hands braced on his knees, gasping to catch his breath.
“You think anyone saw us?” Theron asked between drags of oxygen.
“No. But it won’t matter. If they tell her we started it, she’ll take their word over ours.”
Theron shook his head, his breath finally slowing. His adrenaline, not so much.
“She sent them.”
His brother shot him a surprised look, his face morphing into a frown. “Why would she? For what reason? We’ve been good.”
“That bitch doesn’t care how good we are, Thames.”
“Shhh,” Thames hissed, head swinging around to make sure no one was listening.
Theron tried to say the next part quietly.
“She sent them to keep us from the reading. Or to embarrass us. Or kill us,” he said, with a twist of his gut. “Something. She sent them, I know.”
Why else would the guards have been waiting for them next to the dumpster when they returned from the creek? No words, no warnings. Just fists flying before they even had time to realize what was happening. And it hadn’t stopped at one or two hits. That shit kept coming until they’d both been forced to fight back. Their bears wouldn’t let them be hurt without a fight.
Thames’s frown never left his face as he wiped at the blood running down his own cheek.
“Damn it,” he muttered, looking at the stain of red on his sleeve. “I really wanted to go before them clean just this once.”
Theron sighed. “I know, brother.”
Thames shrugged like it didn’t matter, but it did.
“Let’s go. Maybe she will give us the reading before they get here. Maybe it will be fast and we’ll be out of here before anyone knows what happened.”
Theron nodded and followed his brother through the entrance.
It was a gate twice their height, made of shaved logs that were honed to a point on the ends. The walls were cinder blocks and mud built up to sixteen feet. No one entered or left without the Mother Bear’s permission.
Theron and Thames went past the entry guards and were herded into the center of the grounds with three other young-turning-adults. Theron recognized them. Two were males who often tried to pick fights with him and Thames. They’d been the cause of many punishments. He despised them, and wished they weren’t part of his Reading Day.
Avoiding their stares, he settled on the remaining young. Ava was her name, and she’d never been mean to him or Thames. She wasn’t especially pretty. Short and stalky, with feet that were disproportionately big. A snarl of red curls topped her head, and she had more freckles than not, but if he was honest, he was sort of fond of them.
Theron jerked his gaze away when she caught him staring, and stood straighter next to his brother as the Mother Bear made her entrance.
The imposing alpha female was flanked by two guards, but none taller than her. She wore a long coat of beads and fur over her flowing blue dress, but in the outdoors, with the mud and scattered leaves blowing in the wind, she didn’t appear dressed up. Maybe it was partially because of her graying waist length hair that was artfully ratted instead of combed.