To prove our commitment to each other as brothers, we each got a Tundra Wolf tattoo etched in the same place on our shoulders on our sixteenth birthdays. The Tundra stood for loyalty, family, and protection. Wolves were also pack animals, and we were a pack, with our true leader being Bethany ‘Ma’ Sawyer.
We were a tight unit, and then along came Harper. Talk about a cat amongst the pigeons.
I knew her appearance had something to do with Phoenix, but I didn’t know the details, and he wasn’t a sharer by any means. Harper Radcliffe broke Ma’s one main rule of only caring for boys. She’d explained many times to Nix that the foster agency would not consider placing a teenage girl in a house with four teenage boys, but somehow, she’d done it.
And Nix had been forever grateful, for the first few weeks anyway.
He and Harper had lived with the same family when they were younger, and I imagined they must have been closeonce. From the reception she gave him on her first day at the house, you would never have believed that.
Ma had taken Harper on as a foster during the summer, and she and Nix werealreadyat each other’s throats. Nix had promised Ma it would get better and that he’d do hisbest to try and get her to settle. Funny really, considering he seemed hell bent on doing his best to piss her off.
But Ma said she would hang in there. It was the first time Ma had fostered a female, and even though she hid it, I knew she was enjoying female company, even though Harper could be prickly.
And that was one of the many cool things about Ma: she listened, likereallylistened. We were all given a voice and had someone who cared about our opinions and didn’t shoot us down with their tongue or fists. We mattered.
Through her guidance and love, I had found myself again, well, most of me.
There was still a darkness at the back of my mind. A place where my monster lurked when things got tough, but I was getting there.
My therapist explained that these things took time and could not be forced. Dr Friedkin spoke shit most of the time, but I had to see him weekly, it was part of a court agreement to keep me out of juvie. A place I had visited a couple of times when I first came to live with Ma. I was good at stealing cars, so sue me. I used to love going joyriding with my friend Tommo until I went straight. When I look back at what I put Ma through, ashamed doesn’t touch the sides.
And now that I had semi-straightened myself out, I was the alpha.
I looked out for the family; my brothers turned to me for direction, and that’s what they got. We all had each other’s backs. We got on each other’s tits from time to time, but that’s what siblings do.
In a nutshell, we were as thick as thieves and unbreakable.
My eyes roamed over the lady I called mother. Ma was tall for a woman, and her brown hair was now greying. Her skin also showed signs of age, but her hazel eyes still shone with shrewd intelligence. Ma would be seventy at the end of the year, and we were already planning something big to celebrate.
Bethany Sawyer had been caring for unwanted and unfortunate kids for years, having never had any children of her own. Ma had also never been in a long-term relationship. My brothers and I had always found that unbelievable. Reed said it was because she had stored all her love up for those who needed her the most. Namely, kids like us.
If I hadn’t met Ma, I had no doubts that I would be on a different track in life. And believe me when I say it would not have been a good one.
“About time,” Phoenix said beneath his breath as the front door slammed shut.
I glanced at the empty seat. The noise signalled that Harper was home. As I said, she’d only lived with us for a few weeks, but to me, she was already my sister. The others were getting there, slowly, and as for Nix? Well, I’m not sure how to describe that car crash.
“Ms Sawyer?” Harper shouted. She wasn’t comfortable calling her Bethany or Ma just yet, and it pissed off Phoenix like there was no tomorrow. I found it amusing to watch. Nix had a great sense of humor and was the funniest of all my brothers, yet with Harper, the dude lost the ability to channel his wit. We all knew they had a past, but if you built the courage to broach the subject, you had bigger balls than most of us. And of course, Ma couldn’t break the confidence of Harper’s backstory.
Being the industrious nosy fucker I was, I’d Googled the name Radcliffe and had found some stuff. There was an old news article about a rich scumbag accountant who set fire to his house after becoming bankrupt. He’d then turned a shotgun on himself. His entire estate perished with his wife, their pets and a stable of horses, but his daughter had survived. Her name was Hailey Radcliffe, but there were no pictures of her. I still wondered if she and Harper were the same girl.
As Harper’s high-pitched voice filtered into the room, the big man himself grunted. He’d been in a mood all afternoon after that lame-ass fight with Storm in the lunch room. Harper being late for supper had also added to that. I could see from the set of his shoulders that he was ready to go head-to-head.
We all knew it too, exchanging looks as Phoenix buttered his bread roll with too much force. He appeared to be rubbing butterthroughit rather than on it.
“Through here, Harper honey,” Ma said, placing a pile of plates close to Reed sitting opposite me. Ma always took the head of the table and why not, she was our leader—the woman who hadsavedall our sorry asses.
Phoenix sat on the other side of Reed, and Micah was next to me. This left a space at the other end of the table opposite Ma, free for Harper.
“Hey,” Harper said as she breezed into the room. The girl was like a whirlwind most days. She was a cute redhead with freckles all over her face and body. Harper was always covered up with oversized hoodies and baggy jeans.
Micah was checking his cell under the table as Ma gave him a light tap on the back of his head, a signal for him to put it away and help serve up.
“Have you been to the bowling alley again?” Ma said with a smile as Harper dropped down into an empty seat.
“Yep. I got distracted, and the time ran away from me.”
And within the space of a heartbeat, Nix was on her case.
