“Are these friends of yours?” Jonas asked as Alexa and Nadya latched onto her, each of them giving her a bear hug that threatened the structural integrity of her ribs.
“Yes.” Milla nodded as she brushed the tears from her eyes. She’d wanted to see her friends more than she’d been willing to admit. She also didn’t want to have to say goodbye when they left. She’d hoped to avoid them altogether.
“Perry’s going to shit a brick when he finds out you’re here.”
“I’m sure he already knows. You guys have been on my trail since I left. I’m sure it was no accident.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Alexa grinned. “It doesn’t make me any less glad to see you. In fact—” She pursed her lips. “I have a few questions to ask.” She glanced around furtively and then leaned close to whisper, “I’ve been thinking about leaving the carnival myself.”
Would the alpha extend his gracious invitation to Alexa, as well? What would she do if he didn’t? Could she stay here knowing that one of her best friends in the world would have to move on alone?
“It’s a freeing experience,” Milla couldn’t help but add. Tilting her head, she studied her friend wondering, for the first time, if Alexa had another objective.”
Alexa hugged her again and nothing but love and sincerity rolled off the other woman. Okay. She was really thinking of leaving the carnival, but why? Had Milla started some sort of trend?
Chapter Ten
Mel got out of his truck and slammed the door. He was in a foul mood and, surprisingly, it had nothing to do with Jonas being alone with their mate.
Had he finally come to terms with what he was—what they were or was it just his reaction to the pompous ass who called himself the owner of the carnival?
From what Mel could see, each of the rides had an individual owner. Each of the food trucks did as well. What was up with the man who thought himself the be all and end all of the carnival circuit? He supposed the way the man kept talking about Milla as though he owned her, didn’t help.
The possessive bragging only served to raise the hackles of his beast. For the first time since he’d been brought over, Mel had a difficult time controlling it. It didn’t feel the same. It was as though his cat had gained strength since the last time he shifted—a lot of strength.
There was something about that Perry asshole that he just didn’t like and, whatever it was, his beast didn’t like it either. Something inside him kept ramming at the barrier in his mind that kept the leopard leashed. It battered the wall over and over, screaming to get out.
For the first time since Jonas turned him, Mel wondered if he’d lost his mind. The natural shifters here said it never happened, but how did they explain the sick counsel that had held Paradise prisoner for so many years? Mel was certain their kind went mad. They just did it on a grander scale than humans.
He knew the moment Perry saw Milla. He felt it. He could feel the other man’s elation at having found her—and his satisfaction. Whatever he thought was going on with Milla, it was certain that she didn’t return his feelings.
Mel smiled grimly at Jonas when they each flanked Milla, a wall of silent protection at her side. They said they would keep this piece of shit from her and he damn well meant to keep his word.
“Perry.” Milla either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say anything more.
“Hello, Milla.” Perry crossed his beefy arms over his chest. “I told you that you’d never be rid of us.”
No wonder she was so frightened of the man. He was huge, compared to her—and he wasn’t nice. The scent of his bad temper rolled off him like the pungent stench of body odor.
Mel glanced back and forth between the two. Had the man harmed her in some way? If he had, Mel would gladly tear him a new asshole…literally. He flexed his fingers, they ached to become claws that could rend and tear.
“It’s not the rest of them I wanted to be rid of,” she answered, thrusting her chin in the air as she stood with her mates beside her and her friends behind her.
If he wasn’t mistaken, her friends appeared as frightened and wary of the man as Milla was. Perhaps he should speak to Merrick about added protection for the carnival. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust them. He’d traveled with one for a few years before he finally decided to join the Army.
Carnies could be some of the most trustworthy people on the planet. He glanced at Perry. They could also be the scourge of a town. It just depended on the people within it.
This Perry fellow reeked of dishonesty and lies. The first thing Mel had learned to do after becoming a shifter was learn to smell a lie and the man reeked of it. That’s right, old man, you could call yourself the human lie detector, except…wait…you aren’t human anymore.
Mel shook the thought off. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t human. He was better than human now. If one wanted to be arrogant, and he rarely did these days, one could say the lot of them were some sort of super heroes, or super soldiers, at least.
They spent a good portion of their time hunting down what was left of the rogue Tudra and saving innocent women and children and giving them new identities so they could live their lives in peace if they didn’t want to return to Paradise.
Well, they could live their lives with as much peace as they could muster after being held captive, raped and forced to give birth to their captor’s offspring. Some of the women were in mental institutions, their children wards of Paradise or of the other shifter community that they now knew existed.
Fear practically boiled off Milla and her friends. The smell was nearly overpowering, giving them the scent of prey. His beast didn’t like it. He wanted his mate out of the area before the acrid smell of fear drew predators to her and threatened her life.
It was all he could do not to growl at the man.
What the hell was coming over him? He never reacted like this. Was it the el calor, or was it something entirely different? Whatever it was inside him clamoring to get out, wanted to protect Milla and it meant business.
Chapter Eleven
It took every ounce of courage Milla had to stand nose to nose with Perry and defy him. She didn’t know if she would have had it in her to do it, if not for the two men standing at her side.
The man thrived on intimidation. It was what he was doing to her now, what he had always done to her. Every instinct within her screamed for her to either submit or run. She did neither. Milla was through with him and his overbearing ways. She would stand up to this bully, here in this town, if it was the last thing she ever did.
Milla was through giving in and she was through with running. It was time to stand up to the beast. She stared at Perry. He was a beast through and through. If what she’d seen in her men’s minds really was true, and she couldn’t see how it wasn’t. After all, she’d lived through their memories with them. Perry was more of a beast than any of them ever thought of being.
She deserved a home. She deserved a life and, by god, she intended to have both—here in Paradise, if they would have her after this, or in a town just like it, if they wouldn’t. Everyone in the carnival deserved a life of their own. If traveling with the carnival was what they wanted, then so be it. They deserved to do it on their own terms, not under Perry’s thumb.
Hell, she didn’t even remember when or how Perry took over. Before, they had been a band of drifters traveling together for the common goal of survival and business. They made money. They laughed and cried together. They had been a family…once.
Now, they were stuck in it with Perry calling the shots. He forced people to stay when they wanted to leave and he took advantage of everyone. Why she seemed so important to him, she might never know and she didn’t really care. She wanted out. That was all, and it was everything.
She thought back. When had they agreed to take Perry on as their leader? When he’d first joined, he was a nobody compared to the some of the others. All of them had certain gifts. Powers or mutations that made it d
ifficult for them to live a normal life in a normal town. That was why they had originally decided to travel together. It wasn’t so they could hold the special people of the world hostage, the way Perry did. When Perry first joined, he had been nothing but big and mean.
Milla looked him up and down. He hadn’t changed much in the last ten years.
Perry’s brow furrowed as he glanced around. He was attempting to look concerned. After all, the men flanking him were just as big and strong as he was and he was outnumbered. He didn’t know about their secret. If he did, he would find a way to exploit it. “Where’s your truck and trailer?”
Milla closed her eyes and bit her lip. She almost cried at his question. She’d dumped her truck and trailer for nothing. He hadn’t had a tracking device on it. If he had, he would have known that she’d traded them in for the SUV a few states back.
Maybe she should leave. She didn’t have the right to expose the people of this town to Perry and his ways. He wasn’t a model citizen and with the exception of a few short months several years ago, he never had been.
It was difficult to believe that, for a short time, he had been the man of her dreams. He’d been solicitous and seemed to want to please her at every turn. Milla had even begun to think that they could build a life together.
He changed again about two months after they’d been sleeping together. He became the bully again, bossing people around and using his strength to get his way.
Milla had no idea what caused the change in him. Maybe he’d never really changed at all and he’d been using her. Who knew?
“I sold them.” She crossed her arms, in the classic defensive stance. She couldn’t let him in again. She shook her head. She wouldn’t let him in again. He was a bully. He always had been and he always would be. She had to remember that.
“Why on Earth would you do that? Where do you think we’re going to live now?”
She felt Jonas and Mel stiffen, more than she saw it. They shifted their bodies closer to her and Milla relaxed a bit, thankful for their show of support.
“We aren’t going to live anywhere. I, on the other hand have decided to settle right here in Paradise. You can do whatever you want as long as it’s not within ten miles of me.” She dropped her hands to her sides and fisted them against her legs. “We are over. I wish we’d never started. But,” she added with a shrug, “everyone makes mistakes.”
How many times had she told him that very same thing? How many more times would he make her repeat it?
She glanced at the sign for the Paradise Lodge down the street and pressed her lips together. She couldn’t stay there. He would find a way to get to her there. She knew it.
“You can’t hide from me forever, you know.” He scowled down at her. “You’ll come back to me. And I won’t have to wait long.”
Milla couldn’t believe the man’s arrogance. “You’ll wait a lifetime if I have anything to say about it.”
“No.” Perry laughed. “I’ll be back in your bed before the week is out. I’m through waiting for you to come around.”
“That sounds like a threat.” Jonas stepped forward, drawing Perry’s attention. “No one threatens a woman in Paradise.”
“She’s not a woman.” Perry laughed and pointed at her. “She is a freak.”
In a move that must have surprised everyone present, Jonas struck Perry. Fast as lightning, his right fist connected with the other man’s jaw. Perry fell backward, the punch knocking him to the ground.
“You’re going to regret that, friend,” Perry said as he picked himself up off the pavement. “I’m going to sue you for everything you own.”
“Try it, you piece of shit and I’ll have this entire town on the stand insisting that you swung at me first.” Jonas glared at him. “No one insults my woman.”
“So she’s your woman now?” Perry shook his head and rubbed his jaw. “It didn’t take long, did it? That should tell you something.” He turned around and started barking orders at people before Jonas had the chance to land another punch against his jaw.
Jonas turned and stared at Milla for a minute. She couldn’t read his expression and she wondered if he didn’t want anything to do with her now. After all, he was in his seventies and, she was sure he had antiquated values. He probably saw her as used goods now and didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Milla tried not to feel disappointed. After all, he might not actually be too young for her, but he certainly looked like he was. No wonder Perry thought her some sort of slut. She looked as though she was pulling some sort of cougar stunt. Not that she thought there was a damn thing wrong with it, if that’s what a person was in to.
“Come on,” Jonas said as he took her arm and pulled her toward her SUV. “We’re going to my house. Something tells me that he’s just waiting for you to check into the lodge. He can’t get to you in my home. You’ll be safe there.”
Sure she’d be safe from Perry, but would she be safe from Jonas and Mel? Milla slid another surreptitious glance their way. For some reason, she hoped not.
Ten minutes later, they stood on a wide walkway looking at a huge house with a wraparound porch. The white siding set off the blue of the shutters and door. The wide porch held two swings and several rocking chairs along with two chaise lounges. It looked more like it could be his grandparent’s house than a bachelor pad.
“Nice house.” She couldn’t help but stare at it. It was the kind of house she’d dreamed of owning most of her adult life. It was also the kind of house Milla knew she would never own. After all, she was just a carnival psychic. Carnies didn’t own nice places like this. If they were lucky, they would get a chance to stay in one for a couple of days. Apparently, she was lucky.
“It was my grandmother’s,” Jonas said as he strode up the front steps and opened the double front doors.
I knew it! Milla pressed her lips together and willed herself not to laugh for calling it. No wonder it looked like a grandma’s house. It was one!
“What?” Jonas asked when she stood staring at him, unable to say anything for fear of giggling.
“Nothing. It’s just that I thought it looked like it could be someone’s grandparent’s house when I first saw it. That’s all.”
Mel took her arm. “We should go inside. We don’t want your friends reporting anything back to Perry.” He stared down at her for a minute, his expression unreadable. “You didn’t say that you two were lovers.”
“First off, that is none of your business and second, I didn’t mention it because it’s not something I’m proud of. I’m not sure why I even did it. I knew he was a jerk, but somewhere along the line he became the man of my dreams and I just couldn’t stop myself.” She shrugged. “After a while, he grew tired of me, or something, and he changed again. He once again became the bully that we all knew and hated. So I left him and tried to carry on as though nothing had happened between us.”
She let Mel lead her into the house. The air conditioner was obviously set on a low temperature because goose bumps rose on her arms after they entered and her nipples hardened. It had to be the cold. The men certainly had nothing to do with it. They barely even touched her.
“How did he feel about that?” Mel asked.
Milla tilted her head and thought about that for a minute. “He seemed okay with it. In fact, he’d been seeing other women, sleeping with other women and generally acted as though I didn’t exist for the last ten years. It wasn’t until I left the carnival that he even seemed to notice that I was no longer in his bed.” She frowned. “It was weird, really.”
“Maybe he didn’t want you, but doesn’t want others to have you.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve dated and slept with at least three other men in the last ten years and he didn’t seem to mind it at all.” Milla blushed at her confession. Would they think less of her for the amount of lovers she’d had throughout the years?
“I hope you don’t—”
She licked her lips, nervous. “I know it doesn’t look good to you, but I’m not a loose woman. Really, I’m not.”
Chapter Twelve
Jonas smiled down at Milla as she stood before them, her heart on her sleeve and told them that she wasn’t one to sleep around. He couldn’t help himself. One second he was smiling down at her, the next, he had her cheeks cupped in his hands as his mouth slid over hers. He hoped she didn’t slap him again, but if she did, it would be well worth it.
Much to his surprise, she kissed him back, her arms sliding around his neck as he dropped his hands and pulled her deeper into his embrace.
She felt like heaven pressed tight against him, her lower stomach pressing against his hard cock. The warmth of her body seeped into his. Dropping his hands, he cupped the soft cheeks of her ass in his hands and squeezed. Gods, he loved a woman with an ass.
The scent of her arousal rose up and he drew her in. His cock pressed tight against his jeans and he was sure the damned thing had a mind of its own and tried to break free of the material’s restraint.
His stomach clenched as he lowered his head to her neck. Her scent wrapped around him, drawing out his beast and bringing on the heat of the el calor. He would go mad if he couldn’t have her soon. He knew this, yet he didn’t press her. He couldn’t do that to her. Not tonight. He would give her this night and possibly the next. He wanted her to feel safe in his home. He needed it on some unknown visceral level and damn it all to hell, he wanted Mel here, too.
Apparently, the gods, in their infinite wisdom, saw to pair him with that imbecile. Who was he to fight their choice in mates? Besides, if he fought the presence of one mate, he might lose the other. He didn’t want that.
Jonas had waited a lifetime to get his mate. Now that he’d found her, he had no intention of letting her go. She was perfect for him, just what he’d hoped for in a mate. He would be an idiot to do anything but thank the gods that he would finally have a family of his own.
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