Page 51 of Backstage at the Freak Show
Tak was an Amarok shifter, an enormous wolf-like creature from Inuit legend. Unlike normal wolves, they were solitary animals. He’d never had a pack, or any kind of community. I always wondered when he left if he preferred it that way. If sharing me, if having a steady partner, was just not in the nature of someone who spent so much time alone.
“Maybe, but why would he lie?” I asked the dark forest. “Why would he make promises only to break them?”
I didn’t.
Startled, I whipped around, despite the voice coming from inside my head. Gray and black fur looked silver in the moonlight, covering a wolf the size of an elephant stalking toward me.
“Tak?” I gasped, briefly wondering if it was my drinking that caused my eyes to play tricks on me. But mojitos didn’t make me hallucinate voices in my head.
His shoulders pushed trees aside as he came closer, his massive body blocking out the moonlight. A black nose the size of my face dipped low, his pale blue eye and dark eye both full of sorrow in his wolf face.
I’m sorry I let you down, Miriam.The massive wolf lowered to his belly, head resting on paws the size of car tires.Will you let me explain?
Seeing him in his animal form was always incredible. He looked like a creature from a fairy tale. But I knew animal forms were also a type of shield for shifters. It created a barrier, keeping them from dealing with more human issues.
“Shift to human, please,” I said, trying to keep my voice firm. I would hear him out, but his disappearance had hurt me. “And talk to me, man to woman, please.”
He hesitated only a moment before his form shrank down, fur disappearing into human skin, snout and paws becoming a human jaw and hands.
I clenched my fists at my sides, fighting the urge to run to him and bury my face in that broad chest. Tak’s silky black hair was loose, falling over his shoulders instead of his usual topknot. His almond-shaped eyes were crinkled, strong brow furrowed in concern.
“You wanted to explain.” I crossed my arms. “So explain.”
“I was captured,” he said softly. “By humans.”
The shock was clear on my face. “You?How?”
Amarok were skilled hunters, known in Inuit legends to have humans as their preferred prey. I knew Tak had eaten his fair share of them.
“They had a shaman with them,” he frowned. “He used his magic to lure me into a trap. They took all of my belongings, so I couldn’t call you. I’m so sorry, my heart.”
“Tak.” All restraint gone, I ran to him, my hands flying to his face. “Did they hurt you?”
“Not badly.”
Up close, I could better see the pain etched in his face, the fatigue from running all the way from Alaska to Georgia.
“Where?” I demanded.
“It really isn’t bad, just—”
“Fucking tell me where!”
He sighed, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he lifted his shirt. Bruises and burns marked him from the abdomen up to his chest.
“It was mostly injections,” he said, wincing slightly when I touched him. “Experimental drugs. I’m sore, but I’ll be fine.”
“We have to tell Mel.” I stood on tiptoes, reaching to wrap my arms around his neck as I buried my face in his shoulder. “She and her guys escaped from people like this. They—”
“They’re gone, my heart,” Tak said sadly. “I had barely escaped when they set their own lab on fire. They destroyed the evidence and will lay low until they can resurface.” He slid both large arms around my back. “It’s the nature of being out as a shifter. They’ll keep coming after people like me. Like Colt, Gabe, and Mel’s guys.”
“Then you need to stay with me.” I brought my hands to his face and pressed our foreheads together. “No more trips back to Alaska.” I felt like a wilted flower at his silence in response. “Unless you don’t want to be here?”
“My heart,” Tak growled, caressing up my spine. “With you is the only place I want to be.” His fingers wound through my hair. “This was my last trip back. I didn’t get everything settled that I wanted to but,” he shrugged. “None of it matters anyway. What matters is this.”
His lips slid over mine with gentle pressure, far gentler than what I wanted. “Taqqiq,” I whispered his full name against his lips. “If you don’t kiss me like you mean it, your furry ass is welcome to return to the frozen north.”
He laughed, deep and rumbling through his chest, then crashed his lips to mine, tongue invading my mouth and stealing my air.
