Carnival of Hearts: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (16 page)

After she left, D’Orfeo pulled his trousers on and sat heavily down at the little table in the trailer’s kitchenette. He put his head in his hands. For one brief moment there, the world had seemed perfect again. Warmth and pleasure and
Greta
in his arms, a sense of Kat nearby and the carnival quiet around them, that was his heaven. And he’d had it again, and lost it again so quickly. He’d known, he supposed, that their tryst would only be a temporary one, could only be so. He’d thought, however, that maybe time and distance would change Greta’s heart towards him. Maybe she’d see that he was a different man now, that she was a different woman. Time is a strange creature, conjured in twists and turns, and it had pulled them apart and then pushed them back together. And, god, he thought, were they good together.

The marks her fingernails had left on his back throbbed. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to push thoughts of making love to her from his mind, but he couldn’t help remembering the
last
time they’d fucked and fought in the span of hours. It had been the last time he’d ever seen her, at least until that day a year ago in the forest, when Kat had run off with the wolf Max.

Kat had been a very little girl and Lucien had only had her for a year. He was still learning what it meant to be a father, to be a parent at all, and he knew now, looking back, that he’d had a long, long way to go yet. In his early twenties, he’d been more prone to partying and fighting than parenting, and Greta had tried to tell him as much, which he had not taken well.

He’d left Kat with her three nights in a row while he and Liam and Baptiste had gone out after the big top lights dimmed, carousing through the small town they were passing through. He had come back to the carnival drunk and loud, and he’d woken Kat up when he’d come stumbling into their trailer. She’d started crying, and Greta had exploded. She’d kicked him out of the trailer and he’d slept on the grass that night.

Things had only gotten worse from there, until Lucien was sleeping in one of the tents amongst the bears every night, and Greta refused to let him into the trailer. He’d realized that not only was he perilously close to losing her, but he was close to losing his control over the carnival altogether. A disparate coordination of shifters, the carnival only worked because he could pull them all together, could align them despite their differences. Distracted, frustrated, preoccupied with Greta and her anger, he was losing his grip on the shifters around him. The carnival had only existed for a year and a half by then; without his steady, guiding hand, it would rapidly fall apart. They’d all lost their packs, dens, prides. They’d all been orphaned, abandoned or stolen. None of them could afford to be alone again.

So the next night, he’d had one of Liam’s bears look after Kat. As soon as the big top show was over, before the carnival was even closed for the night, Lucien had pushed through the crowd to the edges of the grounds where their trailers were parked and barged right in on Greta. Heedless of her temper and how she shouted, he’d pushed her to the floor of the trailer, not unlike he had this night, and made dizzyingly passionate love to her.

They’d fought and fucked, torn at each other and made each other scream with ecstasy, raged all through the trailer well into the dead of the night, and Lucien had asked to mark her in the end. They’d been mates for almost three years; it had felt like the next logical step. He’d wanted to bind her to him forever, and he knew now that in his youth, he’d thought claiming her would solve all of their problems. He’d thought it would make them happy, force them into being a family, but of course now he knew that was not how families are forged, or kept together. Greta had left him that very night, and his heart had shriveled.

Now his heart felt alive again, but he’d let her slip through his fingers all the same. If the events of the last year had taught him anything at all, it was that one cannot force people to be loyal, to love, to stay where they do not wish to stay. He’d lost Marcus, Kat and a fair amount of his pride learning those lessons. He told himself that he had not had Greta again to lose her, but some part of him felt that he had been very close. That she’d wanted to be had again, even for just a moment.

He had to put those thoughts aside now, though. He had to focus on Kat. So he didn’t get up from the table and go storming after Greta, as every bone in his body desired. No, instead he sat and tried to get a grip on himself, tried to remember not the feel of her body beneath his, but instead the sting of her slapping him in the face. But, as ever, love was stronger than pain.

It was late when Greta returned to the pack. The hunters had brought home their spoils; she could smell freshly killed meat roasting over the fire pit, and the pack itself was gathered in knots here and there, enjoying the meal. She kept her eyes on the cabin and stalked towards it through the wild grass of the clearing, acknowledging no one on her way. The last thing she needed was to get waylaid by a well-meaning pack member. She wanted to get into the cabin and rinse the Ringmaster from her skin as quickly as possible.

“Greta!”

It was Kat. Greta didn’t slow her pace, but she did look over and nod as the girl caught up to her. “Hello, Kat.”

“Did you go to the carnival?” Kat asked excitedly. “Did you see my father?”

“I did.”

“How is he?”

“He’s well. You can go see him tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait! Is he pleased? About the baby? Is he excited?” Kat bounced along beside her, dark hair a wild halo around her face, skin glowing in the firelight.

Greta smiled, the expression frail. “Of course he’s pleased. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it. It’s going to be wonderful, Kat.”

“Will you come back with me tomorrow?” she asked. “Back to the carnival?”

“No, I don’t think so. Anyway, I’m tired, so I’m going in to shower and lie down. I’ll talk to you more about it all tomorrow, all right?”

“Okay.” Kat nodded, dropping back. “Okay, thanks. Oh, Thomas was looking for you…”

Which Greta realized even as Kat said it, because there was Thomas standing on the cabin’s porch, hands clasped behind his back, looking right at them. Greta’s stomach did a somersault. The alpha’s dark green eyes were piercing, blazing in his scarred face, framed by the fall of his long brown hair. He was a tall, imposing figure where he stood between her and the cabin’s front door. There would be no getting past him tonight. Greta gave Kat’s shoulder a pat and left her standing in the clearing, walking with her chin up to the porch and up the steps, meeting Thomas’s eyes as she came to a stop in front of him.

He sniffed the air, his expression blackening, and snarled at her.

“You were with him,” he accused, voice low between them. “You bitch, you
mated
with him, didn’t you? I can smell him all over you.”

“Get out of the way, Thomas.”

“Greta, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Move.”

They looked into each other’s eyes, the struggle for dominance palpable between them, and Greta refused to back down. There had been a time when a fight like this one would never have happened between them. When she’d first joined the pack, when he’d accepted her as his female equivalent, they had been of a single mind, sharing their determination to carve out territory for the pack, to build a safe home for the wolves of West Virginia.

But in the years since they’d accomplished that, as the pack thrived, Greta had discovered that she and Thomas were not equals at all. He was shortsighted and predictable. She liked a little adventure. He demanded unquestionable authority; Greta liked to see a little spunk. Thomas, in short, had been the man she’d thought she ought to be with, but by now she had determined that he was not a man she could ever truly love. Up until they’d encountered Lucien again, she’d managed to mostly ignore that knowledge. Now it flared up inside her, and it was the thing that drove them apart, that had her keeping him at a distance. Not, she supposed, that she’d ever truly let him get that close to begin with.

When he didn’t move, she pushed past him and opened the door to the little cabin, walking in. He growled and followed on her heels, his rage plain even in his movements.

“You can’t walk away from me like that,” he barked.

She turned on him in the living room. “And you can’t tell me what, or
who
, to do!”

“You’re my
mate
!”

“In name only!” She threw up her hands. “You
mate
with whatever she-wolf takes your fancy in a night, Thomas. I am your
mate
insofar as I am also alpha of this pack, and you cannot and will not overpower me or make decisions for me!”

“It’s bad enough that Max has taken that
girl
and marked her, now you soil the pack by rutting with that freak!”

“I will rut with whoever I like,” Greta hissed. “And you have no say over it.”

“I
should
have a say over it!” Thomas bellowed.

Greta felt the wolf in her heart howl with rage, and she bared her teeth at Thomas, right before he lunged at her. She tried to duck out of the way, but he got his hands on her arms and slammed her back against the living room wall. Her heart began to pound in her chest when she realized that she couldn’t break free of his grip. Thomas snarled and bared his teeth close to her throat, and she tried to shove him back but wasn’t strong enough.

“Get off me!” she cried.

“I should mark you myself right here,” Thomas said. “Put an end to this.”

“You can’t,” she gasped. “You can’t mark me without consent! It won’t mean anything and you know it. The magic won’t take!”

“I’m sick and tired of
sharing
this pack with you.” Thomas’s grip on her tightened painfully. “Either you consent to mate with me and take the mark, or I’ll have you expelled from the pack.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I can do as I like!” He slammed her against the wall again, her head bouncing, sharp pain ringing through her skull. “It’s my pack!”

“You’re a shitty alpha, Thomas,” she croaked, dizzy with the ache in her head now. She started to slump in his hands, and heard him snarl again, felt the heat of his breath as his face came close to hers again, his teeth dangerously near her throat. He couldn’t. He
couldn’t
mark her without consent. That was the point of the marking ceremony, the whole point of the mark itself and the mystical nature of it. It would not take hold on the unwilling.

The cabin door slammed open, then, and Max came into the living room, Kat right behind him.

“Thomas, what are you doing?” he demanded.

When Thomas let go of her, Greta dropped to her knees on her floor. He took a step back from her, scowling at Max.

“She is no longer an alpha of this pack,” Thomas announced. “I renounce her.”

Kat hurried to Greta’s side. Greta felt the girl’s arm encircle her shoulders, and she lifted her head, glaring up at Thomas.

“You can’t renounce me,” she said. “I challenge you for dominance.”

She saw Max’s eyes widen, his expression going slack with surprise. Thomas’s head whipped around, his eyes fierce as he looked down at her. And then he smiled, ice cold.

“You think you can defeat me in a fight for dominance, Greta? Well, I accept.” He shot a warning look at Max and prowled towards the door. “You should check your priorities, pup. Don’t put yourself on the losing side of this fight. For your child’s sake.”

Max didn’t say anything, just watched him go. When Thomas was gone, Greta let her shoulders slump a little as Max approached them.

“You can’t stay here,” he said to her. “It isn’t safe.”

“I know.” Greta sighed.

“Why not?” Kat asked. “She’s still the alpha. She hasn’t lost the challenge yet.”

“Thomas doesn’t care about that,” Max said softly. “He’ll try to kill her before the fight just to avoid it. She has to leave.”

Greta nodded, dread twisting in her stomach, and started to her feet. She let Kat help her, but then gently nudged her arm away. Her head was still pounding but she was strong.

“We should go to the carnival,” Kat said. “I’ll go with you.”

Greta grimaced. “I don’t want to go to the carnival.”

“It’s the best place,” Max said, nodding to Kat. “It’s safe, protected. The Ringmaster won’t let any wolf get to you. Go there, take shelter. I’ll arrange the fight with Thomas so that he can’t use deceit.”

“If I run, the rest of the pack will think me weak,” Greta murmured.

“I’ll make sure they know what happened here,” Max promised her. “I’ll tell them that Thomas gave you no choice. And it doesn’t matter. As long as you defeat him in the dominance fight, it doesn’t matter what they think. Greta, the pack loves you.”

“Love is fickle,” Greta muttered. But she nodded, looking between them, and eventually she took Kat’s arm. “Come on. It’s late. If we’re going to go, we need to go now.”

Max nodded. “I’ll make sure no one follows you. Kat…” He reached over and brushed his fingertips along Kat’s cheek, then leaned in and stole a kiss. “I love you, be safe.”

“I will, Max,” Kat said, smiling.

They ducked out through the cabin’s rear door, while Max went out onto the porch to deal with the wolves who’d drawn near, wondering about the commotion. Greta glanced back at the cabin and the pack once before focusing on the walk back to the carnival. She had not expected to be returning to the big top quite so soon, and never under such circumstances.

Her heart sank. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to defeat Thomas in the fight for dominance. She’d known it even as she’d issued the challenge. Physically, he was simply more powerful than she was, being male. She might have been stronger than any of the other she-wolves in the pack, but she hadn’t a hope of winning in a fair, physical fight against Thomas. In the day or two that it took Max and Thomas to arrange the fight, Greta was going to have to make a decision. Either she could fight and lose, and probably die, or at the very least become more or less a slave to Thomas’s whims, or she could run, and probably die, alone. And then, of course, there was Lucien. All the roads in her life, it seemed, led back to the Ringmaster.