Backstage at the Freak Show (Harem of Freaks #7) - Crystal Ash Page 0,50

easy day, but these were my favorite. Just a day and a movie with my family.

“I love you,” I whispered, giving Raz an abrupt kiss.

His surprise turned into pure elation. “I love you, Hunter.” He grabbed my chin and pulled me into another kiss. “I love our kids and our family.”

“Where’s my kiss?” Connor grumbled jokingly from his end of the couch.

“Walking through the door in a half-hour,” Raz laughed, nuzzling my cheek. “You can’t handle a dragon, Con.”

“You’re probably right,” Connor laughed in response.

With that, we started rousing the kids for bed in anticipation of our wife coming home.

17

MIRIAM

“Night, girls!” I waved to Jeanie and Mel in the car.

“You gonna be alright, Mir?” Jeanie frowned out the passenger window.

“Fine,” I assured her. I was a little tipsy but I really was fine.

I actually liked walking through the woods myself. The trees, the ground, and all the hidden critters seemed to tickle my shaman abilities. It wasn’t silence but like a wordless conversation with nature that gave me peace. The cottage I shared with Colt and Gabe was under a quarter mile away, anyway.

“I can walk with you,” Mel offered.

“And walk back by yourself?” I shook my head. “Trust me, girl. I’m good.”

The other shaman didn’t look convinced. “Well, text me as soon as you’re home.”

“Aye-aye.” I did a clumsy salute that morphed into a wave as I headed into the wilderness.

The sounds of night insects, owls, and my own shoes crunching over the ground was comforting. These late night walks through the woods used to calm me. But tonight, now that girl time was over, nothing could calm my racing thoughts about Tak.

I looked again at my phone with no calls or messages, the questions running through my head. Did he change his mind about wanting to be with me? And if so, why wouldn’t he tell me? He promised to always be honest.

“You’re my heart, Miriam,” he told me with that sexy growl and possessive kiss right before he left. I could still feel his teeth on my skin, how passionately he fucked me on our last night together.

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