Yet I did. Despite my innocence in the literal sense, I had quite a vocabulary acquired from Zelda the Shifter Whisperer, a good friend of my grandmother’s and possibly a distant relative. She had a colorful way with words. A way my grandmother convinced me was fine for her and not so much for young witch ladies.
But they were fun to use. And despite her salty talk, she was one of the few of the witches who encouraged me, who told me everyone had things they were good at and one was no better than any other.
I settled back in my seat to watch the circus, as wide-eyed as a child. Even if I knew the lion was a shifter who was in full control of himself, I still gasped when he roared and lashed out a huge claw at the tamer. I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my seat when a monkey “got loose” and joined the acrobats, and nearly peed myself when a lovely one among them lost her grip and plummeted toward the dirt floor, caught just in time by her handsome acrobat partner.
It was wonderful.
And Harry, I had to remember to tell Harry how fabulous I thought he was in his terrifying attack on a clown who stepped too close. Kit stepped in between brandishing his whip, and drove Harry into a cage, just missing being torn to ribbons by the claws and fangs of the ferocious grizzly.
The show was winding down when Kit bowed out for a moment after being handed a sheet of folded paper. He read it and told the crowd he’d been called away but would be back shortly. While he was gone the clowns went into full action, driving little cars around and piling in and out of them, teasing people in the crowd, being scary and funny and generally entertaining. Unless you were scared of clowns like the little boy in the row behind me who had to be taken out when a red-nosed demon came too close and sent him into howls of terror.
But as the clowns were exiting the ring, I was watching for Kit to return, wondering what would get him to leave right in the middle of a performance. I saw a flash of the red jacket inside the door where he had exited and got excited just at the thought of seeing him again. But he wasn’t moving closer, and the crowd grew restless. I began to think something might be truly wrong. Had someone been hurt at the show or maybe even a family member? I’d gotten the impression he didn’t have much to do with his family, traveling so much, but really he hadn’t said anything.
I stood up, planning to go after him and see if he was okay. But a gasp from the crowd drew my attention back to the ring where a tiger prowled. The cat was huge, golden with cinnamon stripes just like the tiger I’d tripped over that morning. It had all happened so fast I hadn’t gotten a really good look, and by the time I got up after falling over him, he was already changing but now…now I could look my fill along with the hundreds of other people in the tent of this one-ring circus. He walked very close to the edge of the ring, within a few feet of the crowd, his huge head up, sniffing the air. He seemed so much bigger that for a moment I questioned whether it really was him. But as he approached, placing one huge paw down then the next, sending puffs of dust into the air with each step, I felt very odd.
Kind of sick to my stomach odd, but achy at the same time. Something deep inside me twisted as if trying to get out, and I grabbed the ledge and let out a cry of distress.
Kit, tiger Kit bounded up to my section and leapt the short wall separating me from the crowd to land in the seat emptied by fleeing patrons. He bumped me with his head and let out a low, warbling sound that set off a chain reaction in my already freaked-out body. I crumpled to the floor, in such pain as I had never imagined possible, screaming for Kit.
Chapter Eight
Kit
All the time I was escorting Angie to her seat, arranging for her to have snacks and then going to my dressing area, I ran things over in my head again and again. I saw no solution to the Angie problem, but I also knew that just walking away was not going to be the answer. She was my other half and I knew it just as well as my tiger did. If it was hard, then it was hard, but one way or another she was my mate.
And by the moment I entered the ring and bowed with the whip to my forehead, I’d come to a decision about how I was going to handle it. I had to at least give my family a chance to accept the choice the gods and goddesses had made for me. A fated mate, a true mate was not something a person could walk away from. So with that option off the table, I could make better choices. I could present the various options to Angie and let her have a part in the decision—funny I hadn’t thought of that before. So what if she was a witch. Her family might not be thrilled that I was a tiger although Karina seemed fine with it, had even appeared to try to make sure we spent the day together.
I announced the acts and played my part as ringmaster, but really I was biding my time and planning a very special gift for my girl. Although the Chases had asked me a thousand times, offered me a lot of money to appear as my tiger, I’d always refused. An alpha needs to keep at least a modicum of dignity, and for some reason in my mind that meant okay be a ringmaster but don’t tiger in the ring.
Tonight, I wanted her to see me there, to see the admiration I’d garner from the crowd as I prowled the ring, the biggest cat besides a liger, which was a whole different kind of cat. At seven hundred fifty pounds of fur and muscle, my alpha tiger could take on any animal it came across, if necessary. And it could protect and care for its mate even if that mate was not a tiger herself.
I guess it seemed like a great way to woo her, and my tiger whose vanity knew no bounds agreed. He approached her, making the chuffing sounds that let her know he really liked her and wanted to get to know her better. Since she had already seen me, I thought she’d probably be touched by my gift to her, maybe even hug the tiger’s neck and give the rest of the audience a treat they’d long remember. The Chases would never have a tiger again, but they’d have one tonight. I kind of hoped they were in here somewhere so they wouldn’t miss the spectacle.
But what I didn’t expect, and nearly died of shock to see, was Angie’s reaction to my appearance. She let out a cry of distress before I even reached her and when my tiger, in a near panic at her grimace of pain leapt up into the stands, it started a mini stampede. The crowd thundered out of the tent, shrieking and hollering about wild animals on the loose.
I changed my mind about wanting the bosses here to see my triumph.
I was going to be canned.
But that didn’t matter. What did was my mate on the floor of the bleachers, writhing and crying out. I very shortly realized this was not fear but something else entirely, and when she stilled for just a second, the eyes looking up at me were not green anymore but a light blue. The blue of the white tiger.
We couldn’t breathe, my tiger and I, while our mate underwent a process almost nobody survived. Shifters usually made their first change when they were very young, growth plates still active and body malleable in most ways. By the time they reached their full growth, their forms were well used to what shifting required.
An adult, not so much. A much less-tensile adult body subjected to the bone twisting, ligament stretching, internal organ shifting, and all the other changes often just gave up partway through. Those who survived were often crippled in ways so horrible, they wished they’d died to escape the unending pain. Or their minds broke, taking them far from their families and friends into a world of their own.
Glancing around, I found the section of the tent where I hovered over my love had emptied, and I dropped to the floor to shift back so I could help her. Or at least not create more of a spectacle than I had in my arrogance. She at least liked me a whole lot. But it shredded my heart to watch her in such agony. Why hadn’t she told me she was a shifter?
Did she not know? I remembered something I’d heard when she’d been on the couch with Karina and her sore ankle. Had she said she didn’t know who her dad was?
She doubled over into a ball, moaning and crying. Her arms and legs were twisting, bones looking ready to pop through the skin at any time. She vomited water and popcorn and all the things I’d so lovingly given
her as her head began to change shape, to grow larger and sprout white hairs that were covering her skin as she grew a tail.
I wasn’t even sure she was breathing as I hovered there next to her, panicked and completely unable to help.
“What’s wrong? Where’s the escaped tiger?” Harry stood beside me, out of breath and only half dressed. Behind him stood the Chase brothers, both so red in the face, they looked about ready to stroke out.
But although I was naked and anyone should have been able to tell them that the tiger who terrified the crowds was gold and cinnamon, they were all staring down at the only tiger currently in the tent.
She was fully shifted and panting lying there next to me while I stroked her fur and murmured soothing nonsense. Her eyes, looking up at me, held wonder and confusion in equal measure. “It’s okay, Angie. It will be okay, sweetheart. You’re a tiger.” She might have figured that out by now. “A tiger just like me.”
And didn’t that totally change everything.
Of course, now that we’d found out that my mate was a tiger shifter, my streak should have no problem accepting her as their new alpha’s mate, that is if they even still wanted me as alpha. The more I thought of it, the more I worried I’d held out too long. But even if another alpha had stepped in, I could still go home.
“It wasn’t Angie who scared everyone.” I murmured, stroking her thick, full ruff. “Was it, beautiful? It was me who upset everyone and, I think, triggered your change.”
I called her, my tiger announced proudly. I brought her.
You brought her?
She did not know, so she didn’t change. But I called her and then she knew.
Ah. You woke her beast.
I woke my mate.
“Time to change back, sweetheart,” I told her, pulling my hands from all that gorgeous white softness. “Later you can be your tiger, I will be mine, and we will run free.”
“Kit, was this her first change?” Harry’s voice held awe.
“Yep, my tiger called to her. She said she didn’t know who her dad was but at least now we have a good idea what he was.”
Ernie Chase gave out a big sigh. “So you were the tiger that sent customers running and has every one of these small-town cops right outside?”
“Uh, yeah.” I watched for a moment as my mate became the lovely blonde I’d first fallen for again, breathing deep in relief that it went smoothly. If she’d made it this far, she’d be okay. But I could have lost her.
I could have lost everything.
It took some time to straighten out the whole situation, for the staff to give free tickets for other days to those who’d run out in such fear. To convince them that while they thought they had seen a tiger, it had harmed nobody and actually never been aggressive at all. And hadn’t been a tiger but the lion they’d seen earlier. It was a case of mass hysteria caused by someone yelling tiger by mistake. They showed off the lion who sat in a cage and looked tame. The local cops were very happy to accept that everyone was okay and with a warning to be more careful with our “wild animals” in the future, they left to go back to their regular duties.
After I got one of the acrobats to find her something to wear, I took my love out in the fairgrounds for something to eat, and then went to my post at the Ferris wheel to complete my tasks. No minor emergency should destroy the schedule set up by the Chase brothers and their staff. Angie was very quiet and seemed satisfied to sit by the wheel and watch the people get on and off the ride as the evening wound down.
She had a whole lot to deal with, going from a failure as a witch—in her mind—to a tiger shifter, and mate to an alpha. I’d be leaving the circus after this week, had already given my notice because finding my mate made it clear in my mind what I needed to do. As long as my streak would take me back, I would be their alpha. And as long as my mate was willing, she’d be the one at my side helping that streak run well, listening to people’s problems, planning celebrations, and doing all the things I’d seen my parents do since I was a cub.
I hoped she’d be in agreement because if she didn’t want the job, I had an even bigger problem.
Mate will agree. She’s an alpha, too.
A female alpha? I’ve never heard of…
Yes, an alpha.
Why was nothing ever simple in my life? Other tigers grew up and settled into their roles in the streak just fine. They had no issues with their roles in life, found their mates and raised families of happy well-adjusted cubs. I had to run away with the circus to find myself.
“Kit?” Angie’s soft voice wound around me. “The place is emptying out. Can we take our ride?”
Indeed, the midway lights were switching off as the last of the customers were leaving. I wondered what the local newspaper would have to say about today and if it would go further than that. But it would probably bring customers flooding in just in case the tiger that wasn’t a tiger appeared again.
The merry-go-round went dark, the calliope silenced, and Harry shambled up to man the controls for our ride. Angie kissed him on the cheek and whispered something in his ear, and he nodded before she climbed onto the Ferris wheel for our nighttime ride.
Chapter Nine
Angie
I couldn’t believe my daring, but nothing about today was ordinary. I was a tiger. Not an incompetent witch with a little bit of incidental magic and a green thumb. A white freaking tiger with the ability to roar and claw and run and mate. And that’s what this whole thing was about, the ride in the Ferris wheel. If I was going to live an extraordinary life, it was going to have an extraordinary start.
Kit climbed into the seat and pulled the safety bar down. He snapped it into place and Harry sent us up, up, up to the very top as before, but this time he locked it in place and left. Kit stared after him. “What is that bear doing. Is it a practical joke?”
I grinned at him. “Nope, not at all.” I slipped the T-shirt over my head, trying not to regret the loss of my favorite overall shorts and shirt. Note to self: take off clothes before shifting if you don’t want shreds. Shimmying my shorts down my legs, I faced him naked. For the second time because of course he’d seen me that way before. After I shifted. While we sat at the base of the ride, he’d shared with me something I was glad I hadn’t known while the change was going on. Adults who changed for the first time that late either died or worse. I had thought I was going to at the time; I’d never felt such pain in my life. Almost as if I was turning inside out. And truly I didn’t think I’d survive it, even if I didn’t know what was going on. I thought maybe poison or a stroke or heart attack.
But then, when it all settled down, everything had changed. The girl who’d been afraid of large shifters was one. One of the very largest and fiercest. It was hard to sit back and be wimpy at this point and what better way to prove that than to slip out from under the safety bar and straddle the lap of my mate—my tiger had been calling him that all evening, and I liked the idea anyway. We sat atop a ride billed as the largest traveling Ferris wheel in the West. What a way to make a statement. I cupped his face in my hands and bent to kiss him, but the shock on his face made me laugh. “What’s the matter, mate? Afraid of heights?”
He shook his head slowly. “When you called this a thrill ride, I had no idea.” But to his credit, instead of arguing or trying to suggest they do this later in bed, he lifted me with one arm and opened his pants with the other. “Last chance to back out.”
I mashed my lips onto his and showed him what I thought of that idea. His growl came from deep inside; mine matched it. And when he lined his dick up and thrust up to pierce me, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as my shift into tiger form. And it was followed with waves of incredible pleasure that made me tingle from head to toe. I wasn’t sure how we were working around the bar, but he seemed to be fine with it, so it wasn’t until I climbed that last peak and plummeted down into darkness that I realized he’d unfastened it entirely, and we were working without not
only, but any kind of safety whatsoever.
And I was pretty sure everyone still on the grounds, maybe as far away as the inn heard his roar when he filled me. No condom, no net…same thing. This was my mate. We were in this for the long run and that included any adorable cubs…
A few minutes later I snuggled into his side as we waited for Harry to return and let us down. “Kit?” I asked, drowsily.
“Mmm hmm?”
“Do you still want to follow the circus? Because I guess I can…”
He kissed me for a long time before lifting his head. “No, how do you feel about going to my family’s lands and being married to an alpha.”
“Is it as big a thrill as losing my virginity on a Ferris wheel?”
“Sometimes.”
“Then I’m in!”
Epilogue
Karina
I sat down at the breakfast table with Tinsley a week after sending our guests on their way. We were so excited that Zelda and some of the others were coming out for a visit, finally. Having the carnival in town had led to far too much excitement for our simple life here in the mountains. The two side gardens were planted, but Angie promised to come back as soon as she could fit it into her schedule to do the front. I’d thought it was perfectly fine, but she showed me some plans that would take it from okay to amazing.
She’d told me all about the time she came with her grandmother to visit here, years ago, and how she’d been sent out to sit all alone on the porch and be sad and itchy with poison ivy. I’d been left home that time, with a virus of magical origin, so I wasn’t here to be the other girl without magic. Funny how I hadn’t been able to do magic then, not until much later, but magical viruses had no problem attacking me.
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