“Yes!” Aries grinned manically at Nix before looking over at Gem. “It’s time to shift!”
“Shift?” Gem repeated.
Aries kept smiling.
Dawning appeared on Gem’s face. “No.”
“Yes!” Aries said.
“Oh! Yes, yes, yes!” Nix jumped up and started to dance around.
“No,” Gem said again.
Their mom clapped her hands. “It’s tradition.”
“Tradition,” Aries insisted.
* * * * *
Gem
“I’m not doing it!” Gem said firmly. Every year he got dragged into thistraditionand it was bullshit.
“You have to!” Aries said.
“We can’t do it without you,” Nix added.
They could. They could totally do it without him.
“I’ll get everything set up!” their mom said.
Gem groaned. This was so unfair. One time. He’d been talked into this silly little thing one time when they’d been about thirteen and now it would never stop.
Aries grabbed his hand and started to drag Gem away.
“Where are you going?” Vin asked.
“You’re going to want to sit for this,” Nix replied. “It’s going to be amazing.”
Vin shrugged before strolling over to the couch.
“But—” Gem tried.
Nix pushed Gem from behind as Aries continued to tug on his hand.
“I don’t want to!” Gem said again.
“Quit your bitching,” Nix told him. “You knew this would happen.”
“No.” Gem had hoped it wouldn’t. If anyone ever found out about this, Gem would die of embarrassment. “You can’t want your men to see you like this.”
“What are you talking about?” Aries asked. “Vin thinks I’m adorable shifted.”
“I shift all the time with Evan,” Nix said. “He loves giving me chin scratches. Especially when he’s reading and I’m taking a nap. It’s fun.”
“You know damn well that’s not what I meant.” Complaining wasn’t going to do him any good. Gem wasn’t getting out of this.
Their mom came running around the corner. “I have everything set out. Hurry, shift! Shift!”
