Carnival of Hearts: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (13 page)

Max got to his feet, tugging up his jeans as Kat climbed hastily into hers. He located his shirt and pulled it on over his head, tossing hers over to her as he turned in a circle, trying to pinpoint where the scent of his pack was coming from. He didn’t have to search for long, because in short order, a pair of wolves came prowling between the trees, golden eyes flashing in the darkness.

He recognized them quickly enough, Theresa and Sam, two of the sentinels. So of course they found them first. All the same, Max planted himself firmly between them and Kat, who was scrambling to her feet, tugging the hem of her shirt down over her stomach. She was staring wide-eyed at the wolves.

“This is Kat,” Max told them. “She is not to be harmed. We’re coming home.”

Sam growled and then the two turned, heading back into the forest. Max grabbed Kat by the hand and towed her along, following after them. Max knew the way, but it was wiser to let the wolves lead them into the camp so that the other sentinels didn’t think Kat was a threat.

The wolves were at the cabin, though the pack claimed all the terrain below the mountain. There were several campsites and safe houses, one clearing full of trailers, but Greta, Thomas’s alpha female, preferred the cabin. It was in a little clearing, and as they walked out of the tree line, the wolves started to gather, curious. Greta was sitting on the cabin’s porch in her woman skin, sipping at a glass of wine. She was a beautiful woman, in her late thirties, all long legs and blond hair, illuminated by the amber light from the lamp on the porch. She got to her feet when she saw Max approaching with Kat by his side, and came down the porch steps to meet them, wonder in her bright blue eyes.

“Max,” she said. “You made it home. Who is this?”

“This is Kat,” he told her, squeezing the girl’s hand. “She saved me. I want her to stay with us.”

Greta frowned a little, looking at Kat. “But she’s human.”

“I was raised by shifters,” Kat said.

Greta arched an eyebrow. She sniffed at Kat. Then she blinked, eyes widening a little, and looked right at Max. “What have you done?”

“She wanted to escape the carnival as much as I did,” Max said. “I love her, Greta.”

The cabin’s door opened and Thomas walked onto the porch. The pack alpha was scowling, his craggy face contorted with frustration. “They’ll come for her.”

“They’ll come anyway,” Max argued. “They were already planning to, I heard them. They’re going to attack in retaliation.”

“But maybe we can stop it,” Kat said, letting go of Max’s hand. “Why do you have to fight? They’re a traveling carnival, they were always planning to move on. They don’t want your territory. There doesn’t have to be any fighting!”

Thomas looked at Greta. The two spent a long moment gazing at each other, some silent conversation happening between them that Max could not fathom. The other wolves in the pack had gathered around them in front of the porch now, some in their wolf skins and some in their human skins. All of them were trying to sniff at Kat, some more subtle about it than others, and she backed up against Max when one of the bigger wolves got too close. He put an arm around her waist and bared his teeth at the wolf, who backed right up.

Finally, Thomas looked at Max again.

“You must take her to mate,” he told him.

Max felt his heart do a flip-flop in his chest, dread piling into his belly. “But—”

Thomas shook his head. “That is the only way. Then the carnival will have no claim to her.”

“But she’s human, Thomas,” Max said, shaking his head. “She can’t—”

Greta cut him off. “Let her go, or perform the ritual, Max.”

“I don’t understand,” Kat said, looking up at him. “A mating ritual? What?”

Greta explained, “He must mark you as his mate, child. It is mystical and binding, a bond that cannot be broken. Then you will be one of the pack.”

“But no human has ever survived the marking,” Max murmured, wincing.

Greta held out a hand in gesture to Kat. “She was raised by shifters. If anyone can survive it, she can. If you want her enough to take the risk.”

“I
love
her,” Max growled at her.

“Then you will mark her,” Thomas said simply.

“If I do this marking thing,” Kat interrupted, “will you agree not to fight the carnival?”

Thomas frowned. “If they attack us, we will defend ourselves.”

“They won’t attack if you let me handle it,” Kat insisted. “So just agree to it. Agree that you won’t fight them if I do this marking thing.”

Max had never heard anyone talk to Thomas that way. But then, he supposed, Kat was the daughter of an alpha herself, and must have been used to the presence that came with such a figure. He was proud of her, he realized, and in awe of her. She was so much stronger than he could have anticipated. And he felt humbled that she wanted to do the ritual, to risk her life to be with him and save her family at the same time. He was ashamed that he’d ever thought her weak simply for being human. That was a mistake he would never make again.

“If you are sure that you can handle it,” Thomas said slowly, eventually.

Kat nodded. “I can.”

Thomas folded his arms across his chest, exhaling a deep sigh through his nose. “Fine. It’s a deal.”

Greta extended a hand to Kat. “Come along. Let’s get you cleaned up.” She looked at Max. “You will perform the ritual at dawn.”

Kat glanced at Max and, when he nodded, she took Greta’s hand. Greta led her up the porch steps and into the house, and Max watched her go, tension humming through him.

Thomas stood where he was, and Max could feel his eyes on him, burning.

“I wasn’t going to come back for you,” the alpha finally told him.

Max shrugged. “I figured you wouldn’t. I hoped you might, but I knew it was a long shot. I got caught. I didn’t deserve to be rescued.”

“You seem to have rescued yourself.”

“She rescued me, Thomas.”

He looked at his alpha, who was frowning again. “If she doesn’t survive the mark, we will destroy the carnival.”

Max nodded. “I understand.”

“Go prepare yourself.”

Max stood and looked at the cabin for another lingering moment, then turned to go find himself a place to bathe and some fresh clothes. And to spend some time reconciling his heart and his mind and the wolf that inhabited both, before he had to accept that he might kill the woman he loved in a few hours’ time.

Greta took Kat to the back rooms of the cabin, where she could shower and change. Kat found the female wolf somewhat captivating to watch, with her tall grace and liquid movements. She was reminded of the way her father moved, all powerful limbs and relaxed elegance. A knot had formed in her heart when she thought of her father now, and of having to tell him what she had done, what she was going to do, if she lived through doing it.

“He must bite you,” Greta was explaining to her after Kat had taken a shower. Greta was perched on the edge of the bed in the little back bedroom, watching Kat get dressed. Kat found it slightly uncomfortable, but when the woman made no move to leave, she decided that it wasn’t worth it to insult her over modesty.

“
Bite
me?” Kat asked.

Greta nodded. “He must bite you, and you must bite him, in the midst of intercourse.”

Kat felt her face heat up. “Oh.”

“The pack will observe.”

And then Kat blushed positively scarlet. She could feel it right up to her ears. “You mean you’re going to
watch
us have sex?”

Greta arched an eyebrow. “Human girl, if you survive the marking, you will have to learn to shed some of those tender sensibilities. Rutting is a way of life for us. When desire strikes, we fulfill it, no matter who is around.”

“Oh.” Kat had struggled into a borrowed sundress and Greta rose to her feet, arriving behind her to zip up the back of the dress.

“No one will interfere,” she promised Kat softly. “Only observe. And if you survive, you will not have to lay yourself down for any wolf but Max. Likewise, he will never rut with another she-wolf. Only you.”

Kat looked at Greta in the mirror hanging on the wall across from them. “Did Thomas mark you?”

Greta smirked. “No. I have never allowed him to mark me.”

“Aren’t you his…mate?”

“No, I am the female alpha of this pack. We are equals but I have never consented to be his marked mate. I retain my independence this way.” Greta stepped back from her. “You and Max will rut like wolves, and you will bite each other. If the mark holds, you will be safe. If the mark does not hold, Max may very well shift and rip you to pieces.”

Kat swallowed against a knot that had suddenly formed in her throat. “He won’t hurt me.”

“He may not be able to stop himself.”

“He
won’t
hurt me,” Kat insisted.

Greta’s mouth softened into a sympathetic smile. “For your sake, I hope he doesn’t. Some men are better at controlling the beast inside them than others.”

“You sound like my father.” Kat sighed.

Greta shrugged and went to the bedroom door. “Your father might be a wise man, then. Get some rest. One of the wolves will fetch you when it’s time.”

When she left, Kat felt profoundly alone. Greta had also told her that Max would not be able to see her before the ritual. He would have to prepare himself, alone. Kat sat down on the bed and the great dread of it all started finally crushing her. She didn’t want to take any of it back, but she found herself wishing desperately that her father was there. It was the first time in her life, she realized, that she felt completely unsafe. And the only person who ever made her feel utterly, always safe was D’Orfeo.

She knew that she loved Max, but she wondered if he could ever provide that sense of home and safety for her, or if this choice she was making would take that away from her forever, along with her home and her family. She had to believe that it was worth it. That their love was going to be more powerful than that sense of loss. But at that thought, she balked. No; their love was perfect and amazing and powerful, but she would not be made to
choose
between Max and her family. She would make them all understand, make them all accept it. She would be the alpha of her own life.

This determination saw her through the subsequent hours alone in that little bedroom. She closed her eyes and spent the time imagining her life with Max, and remembering her life with the carnival, clutching them both and the strength those thoughts gave her in her heart. She also decided that the
normal
life that she’d spent so much time wanting would never be hers, and she was fine with that. Kat was not built for normal, and she realized that she’d been longing for something that would not have made her happy. Max and the wolf pack, their beauty and power and strength; she wanted to be a part of it all. She wanted to be like her father and Greta and Max, but herself. She could save herself and Max and her family, and she would never let herself feel helpless or trapped again.

By the time she heard a soft scratching at the bedroom door, she felt an incredible sense of calm about it all. She had faith in herself and in Max, and in the universe. This would not be the end for them, and Max wouldn’t hurt her. He would control himself; he wouldn’t hurt her. She opened the bedroom door and there was a tawny-colored wolf waiting patiently on the other side. The wolf turned, leading her forth from the cabin, outside into the clearing where the first kiss of dawn was only just glinting gold across the tops of the forest trees that surrounded them. The sky was a bruise of purple and gray and tangerine, and Kat breathed the air in deeply.

Max was waiting for her in the middle of the clearing, encircled by the pack in their various states of skin and fur. He was completely nude. He looked at her, and all she could think of was what he’d said to her just the other morning.

Morning makes you beautiful
. Morning made him beautiful too. Bronze skin and roping muscles from his head to his toes, he was the single most gorgeous man she’d ever laid eyes on. She was pretty sure she couldn’t even
imagine
a more beautiful man. She wanted to glide her hands all over him, and suddenly the terror of making love to him in front of the pack began to recede from her mind. Perhaps Greta was right. Perhaps desire ought to take precedence over modesty.

She smiled at Max and he smiled tiredly back. They could do this. Together, they could survive this. When she got close, he took her hands, reeling her in against his chest. The pack formed a ring around them, Greta and Thomas among them. Max gave her hands a squeeze and then lifted his, cradling her face in his fingers, and brought her eyes up to meet his.

“Don’t look at them, look at me,” he murmured.

She couldn’t help another smile. “Trust me, you’re the best-looking thing here.”

He laughed, and kissed her. “You’re sure you want this?”

“Positive.”

He nodded. “Greta told you what to do?”

Her smile faded. “I have to bite you.”

“In the moment that I bite you,” Max confirmed. “As hard as you can. You have to draw blood.”

“I will,” she assured him. “I can do this.”

“
We
can do this.” He kissed her again, slower, and though it was only a few hours since the first time they’d made love, Kat felt that familiar heat glow through her at the touch of his lips to hers. Yes, she could spend the rest of her life learning and loving this man. She knew it for absolute certain now.

As he kissed her, his hands found her waist and he urged her down to her knees, sinking along with her until they were kneeling in the grass in the middle of the pack’s circle. He urged her arms around his neck and then reached up beneath the skirt of her little dress, tugging her underpants down her thighs as he kissed her throat and she held on to him. She started to tilt backwards towards the grass, but he caught her with a slight shake of his head, and then gently turned her around until her back was against his chest.

From this position, she found herself looking right at Thomas and Greta. She flushed, something thrilling about the realization that they were staring at them, watching them intently, as Max pressed himself, already hard, into her buttocks and then lifted the hem of her dress towards her hips. He kissed the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder.

“Ignore them,” he whispered.

She felt her breath begin to thicken, her heart begin to pound. He cupped her breasts through the bodice of her dress, squeezing lightly, and she let her eyes close and tilted her head back against his chest as he massaged her. The straps of her dress fell off her shoulders and he peeled the bodice down, exposing her breasts to the morning air and the eyes of the pack.

His thumbs brushed her nipples and she shuddered against him, reaching back to get her hands on his hips. He kissed her neck, the top of her spine, and slid a hand between her thighs, then up and into the folds of her sex, one fingertip coaxing in a circle against her clit. She gasped. Her thighs began to tremble and he held her to him with one arm as he pushed his fingers inside her, seeking the slick heart of her desire.

She tried not to think of all the eyes upon them, but when she let out a moan of pleasure, she couldn’t help but look, and there they were. Some of the wolves had been inspired to engage each other for their own pleasure. Thomas was standing behind Greta in a similar position, his one hand toying with her breast, and she smiled, enjoying it. This display amped up the pleasure that Kat was taking from Max’s fingers. She came in an instant, hard, and arched back against him with a soft groan.

As she recovered, he bent her forward till her hands met the grass, settling himself behind her. She could feel his cock brushing between her thighs and she gulped down breaths, trembling and ready, her head a cloud of need and pleasure. All around the circle now, the pack was joining in their desires. A few of them had shifted from fur to skin and lay in the grass gyrating atop each other; a few of them were still in wolf shape, one on top of another, fucking like the animals they partly were. Thomas had moved on from Greta, who still stood watching them. The alpha was instead suckling now at the tit of a dark-haired she-wolf nearby, who squealed and writhed against him.

Watching it all flooded Kat with an erotic excitement she’d never felt before. She knew that soon Max would have to control himself, but she found that she could barely control
herself
, and she reached down between her own thighs to pleasure her clit with her fingertips as Max brushed the head of his cock against her entrance. Words were coming out of her mouth, pleas, soft gushing words that begged him to fuck her, to be inside her. One of the humping wolves gave out a long howl, and Max thrust himself deep inside Kat from behind, bucking his hips to hers to lance his hard cock as far into her as he could go.

She cried out in pleasure and bowed her head to the grass, pushing her hips back against his as he withdrew and plunged in again, his hand on the small of her back. She continued to circle her clit with her fingertips as he began thrusting apace, and she thought the mounting ecstasy might drive her mad. She opened her eyes, and to one side of them, the dark-haired wolf had climbed atop Thomas and was bouncing on his cock, her head thrown back, face contorted in delicious need. To the other side, Greta was still watching them closely. Kat closed her eyes again as Max drove into her more urgently, and had to gasp again as another orgasm tore through her. She flattened her hands on the grass and tried to hold on through it, Max’s pace never slowing, and every slide of his cock into her brought on another aftershock.

She knew when it was time, could sense it because she could feel the rising desperation of Max’s lust. Just before he came, she felt him bend over her, and then his hands were on her sides and he bent his head to her throat. She cried out as he sank his teeth into her flesh, the pain of it tangling with the pleasure of the moment, crystallizing it in her mind.

She opened her eyes and there was Greta, shouting at her. Shouting for her to turn and bite Max back. She felt spent, exhausted and satisfied, but she marshaled her strength and shoved herself up from the grass. She turned in Max’s arms, even as he tilted his head back to howl at the sky, his lips stained red with her blood. And she bit him, as hard as she could, as his howl turned into a scream of rage and pain. She bit him and she clenched down until she could taste his blood, coppery and warm, on her tongue. Then she let go and found herself collapsing backwards towards the ground as the magic of the mark blazed between them, struggling to take hold.

Max caught her before she hit the ground. Kat could feel that the mark had latched onto them, that it linked them, and she smiled as Max lifted her into his arms.

“It worked,” she whispered. “You’re mine.”

“Yes,” he replied, sitting down on the grass with her in his lap. He started righting her dress and smiled back at her. “I’m yours.”

Kat wanted nothing more than to curl up against Max’s chest then and pass out for a while. She was content and warm and satisfied, and their love had been sealed. Unbreakable. But as she closed her eyes, she heard Greta shouting again. But she was shouting something altogether different this time.

“Attack! It’s the carnival! We’re under attack!”