Backstage at the Freak Show (Harem of Freaks #7) - Crystal Ash Page 0,1

my head. “What kind of shifter was he?”

I thought for a moment, recalling all the sensations I felt while in this shifter’s consciousness. “I don’t know.”

Colt pulled back, his golden eyes quizzical as he stared at me.

“He wasn’t like any animal I’ve ever heard of before,” I said. “In some ways, he felt like a wolf. Dense fur, ran on four legs, excellent sense of smell. But he was gigantic. I mean, the adult human he killed was child-sized from his perspective.”

Colt’s brow furrowed. “A direwolf, maybe? Those supposedly went extinct but I mean, we are seeing a dragon shifter get married today.”

“He was alone,” I said. “That’s what makes me think he’s not a wolf. I didn’t get any sort of pack mentality from him. He’s definitely a solitary hunter and prefers it that way.”

“Huh,” Colt laid back in his mess of pillows, staring at the exposed wooden beams in the ceiling as he thought. “I have no idea, Mir. We can ask Arjun, maybe? Although he’s busy as fuck today.”

“Arjun doesn’t know anything that I don’t know,” I smacked Colt playfully, but my heart gave an uncomfortable twinge in my chest.

The English tiger shifter and I had an icy relationship, which was thawing but not particularly quickly. His stepfather Lhozen taught me everything I knew about becoming a shaman, a human with special abilities to communicate with and see through the eyes of shifters. In a world where humans profited off of exploiting and experimenting on shifters, we shaman were essential in protecting and guiding them in a world that treated them as sub-human.

Unfortunately, Lhozen also turned out to be a leader in a shifter-trafficking ring. All three of Mel’s shifter fiances had been captured by Lhozen’s operative at some point. Including his own stepson, Arjun, and Colt’s brother, Hunter.

Because my shaman training began shortly after Arjun’s mother died, he believed Lhozen took me in not only as an apprentice, but as a mistress. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, but there was no reasoning with a young man filled with grief.

Now, Arjun would become my brother-in-law, of sorts.

“Where’s Gabe?” I asked, lifting my head off of Colt’s chest to see that his youngest brother, and my other lover, was not in bed with us.

“Off brooding somewhere, like usual,” Colt scoffed. “Probably trying to convince himself not to attend this wedding out of principal or whatever.”

I sighed in response, dropping my ear back to the watery thud of Colt’s heartbeat. People thought dating two men was complicated. Just being with Gabe on his own was like dating ten guys. I never knew who I was going to see. And one of them was always pissed off at me.

“Don’t go looking for him,” Colt protested as I started to get up. He pulled me back down to his chest and wrapped me in a bear hug. “Let him hear what he’s missing out on.”

The sultry whisper in my ear was accompanied by his cock twitching against my thigh. Heat flooded my body as I involuntarily arched against him, his eyes dark with lust as he held me flush against his firm body.

“Colt, I need to get ready,” I half heartedly protested. “Makeup is in a couple of hours.”

“Won’t take that long,” he murmured, lips trailing my jaw. “It’s going to be a long day, I just want a taste of my woman before she’s whisked off for bridesmaid duty.”

His mouth was hot and decadent on my skin. Accented with the sharpness of his teeth, he made me shiver despite being wrapped up in warmth.

“Colt,” I sighed with a big breath of air, my resolve waning.

“Miriam,” he answered, gently sucking on my collarbone as he rolled us over lazily. His mouth claimed mine as he pressed me into the mattress, lowering his long, lean body to drape over mine. Supposedly these wolves didn’t have magic but they seemed to have me under a spell all the same.

I pushed back his hair, a rich dark brown that was almost as long as mine, and arguably prettier, as I responded to his kiss. Biting his lip playfully, I elicited a soft laugh from him as he pulled away, looking down at me adoringly.

“I thought I might have breakfast in bed,” he whispered naughtily, lips now ghosting a trail over the swells of my breasts.

“Mm, how nice for you,” I sassed back, my breath hitching as his tongue circled around one of my nipples.

“Have I ever left you unsatisfied?” His mouth lifted