Page 190 of Galaxy Circus Act One

I creep in and pull the covers up over his naked body. He must have kicked them off in his sleep. He doesn’t move a muscle, which shows me how truly exhausted he must have been. Since I’ve known him, he has constantly been on full alert. I’m just glad he feels comfortable enough here in our rooms to really relax.

I push his hair back from his cheek and press a kiss to it before leaving him be. I turn off the light and pull the door shut on the way out.

One more future husband accounted for. Now I just need to track down my two actual husbands.

Grabbing my access card and slipping it into my back pocket, I leave our rooms. I make sure I set the locks to keep Xavier safe before I leave and send a message to Link, telling him what I’m doing.

“Okay, be careful and have fun,” he replies.

As I walk toward the elevator, I use my watch to locate Saxon. He’s in the Vilaxian clan’s quarters. I guess he went back to try and negotiate the dissolution further. He didn’t tell me much, but he said if a clan cannot agree on terms of a dissolution, then it needs to go before a committee headed by the queen. I think what frustrates him the most is that a member of a clan finding a blood rose is usually accepted as an automatic dissolution of that sanguinista’s membership to the clan, but the two girls refuse to acknowledge that I am Saxon’s blood rose. They believe that being a non-Vilaxian is cause for me to be denied bonding. Too late, because it’s already happened. I said that to him, and he grimaced, then he told me they have ways of breaking blood rose bondings. Usually it’s only used when one is a criminal sentenced to death to save the innocent partner.

I’m not feeling really reassured about that. I understand that it’s preoccupying his mind, but it would have been nice if he’d at least given me a kiss goodbye.

Okay, three down, one to go. “Find Caspian,” I instruct my watch. The little Galaxy Circus emblem flashes while it searches for him before a map pops up on the screen. It shows Caspian at Orion’s Belt. Huh, I wonder what that is. I press a couple of buttons and bring up a glossary. Oh, it’s a bar. Why would Caspian be at a bar? I thought he was going to speak to the lightning cats and check in on his friend, Silac, and the other new shifter, Tirrian.

Well, I guess I was looking for something to do, and I haven’t been to that one yet, so I press the right level on the elevator and wait while it starts moving.

It’s on the level below the one with the restaurant and club I went to with Link. It doesn’t give much information, just says it’s a good place to grab some food and drinks with friends and maybe catch a show, so maybe it’s a cabaret lounge. Okay, I like a good performance.

When I arrive on that level and step out into the walkway, I can hear the noise of a crowd of people. Smiling in anticipation, I walk in the direction of the sound, looking forward to grabbing a drink and some food with my mate. I hear a pulsing beat, and I start to sway my hips in time with the rhythm as I walk. Sweet, maybe we can get our dance on too. Link was such a great dancer, and I bet Caspian is as well.

When I arrive at the entry to the establishment, there is a couple standing outside, making out like crazy. Neither of them is wearing many clothes. Looking around, I wonder if I should suggest they take what they are obviously moving toward somewhere private, but cheering, whistling, and clapping from inside draws my attention. Leaving them to it, I enter Orion’s Belt, but the act must have left the stage, because it’s empty. Pouting at missing out on what must have been a good show, I look around the room, trying to find Caspian amongst the crowd.

The interior is set up with a stage at the back with a catwalk that juts out into the room. Surrounding this catwalk are tables and booths. Probably about fifty percent of them have patrons in them. Down in front. directly before the catwalk, is a large booth, and that’s where I find Caspian with Silac and the new dragon. When I get closer, I can see they all have beverages in front of them, but Cas’s is still full, and he looks slightly uncomfortable.

His eyes widen when he sees me approach, and he jumps to his feet. “This isn’t what it looks like,” he blurts out.

I giggle and give him a kiss before sliding into the booth and pulling him down next to me. I’m sandwiched between him and Silac.

“It looks like you’re having a good time with your friends, and I’m okay with that.”

“Woo-hoo, hell yeah, Lila. Cas, your woman is amazing!” Silac holds up a hand to high-five me, and I return the gesture. He’s in humanoid form today, and I really want to get a good look at him, but short of bending down and peering under the table, I’m shit out of luck. Cas still has a worried little frown on his face, but I just pat his leg.

“Hi, Tirrian, how are you?” I ask the dragon who has been nothing but hostile to me. He stares at me, his dragon eyes unblinking as he crosses his arms over his broad chest. He’s not wearing a shirt, and the lights of the club make the holographic effect of his scales and skin shimmer and shine. He’s fucking stunning, with the oil slick black skin and shimmery, holographic pink scales on his wings which are tucked in tight against his back, but all that attractiveness doesn’t make the ugly attitude any better.

“I was good until you got here,” is his gruff response, and I want to say that I ignore the vitriol, but that shit hurts.

“Tirrian,” Silac scolds, but I wave him off.

“It’s okay, Silac. I get it. He’s Dylan’s cousin, and he would feel resentful of the way he got removed from the circus.”

“Because you’re a mate stealing whore and then influenced your grandpas to get rid of the competition,” he snarls and leans forward aggressively.

My mouth drops open in surprise, and Caspian stiffens next to me.

“Is that what you were told?” I ask, a little surprised that the dragon alpha would spread lies.

“I didn’t have to be told. My cousin was kicked out of the circus, and when I got here, the love of his life was shacked up with frellscum.

“Hey now, that’s enough.” Caspian slams his hands on the table and stands up. “You know nothing. I never even considered mating with Dylan. My kraken would not allow it, and I never gave him any impression that I would.”

“Not to mention Dylan was a man-whore of epic proportions. Was Cas supposed to stand around and wait while Dylan fucked anything that walked, or didn’t, on the ship?” I point out dryly.

“And he was kicked off because he attacked Lila, not because he was competition. He wouldn’t accept that my kraken made the choice. He pushed forward, mated, and bred her and took it all out of our hands. I’m just lucky that Lila was gracious enough to forgive and accept us.” Cas sits back down and grabs my hand, squeezing it. The love in his eyes is obvious when he looks at me. “When he heard this, he lost it and tried to shift and attack Lila. At no stage did Dylan ever ask me to be his mate. We hadn’t even had sex for a long time because he was happy sticking his cock into everything else. Dylan didn’t want to be tied down, and I made it perfectly clear to him that my kraken would not mate with him. My kraken is fussy, he wanted a female to bear his young, and a surrogate was not going to be a suitable replacement.”

Cas looks at Silac when he says this, and I have a feeling that maybe there was something between the two of them in the past. Silac nods with understanding in his eyes, and I make a note to ask Cas about it later when we are alone.

“Well, I’m happy for you, my friend—for both of you. We need another round of drinks to celebrate.” Silac waves a hand, looking over my shoulder for a waitress.