“I want to, but I have rehearsals scheduled all day. I’ll take a raincheck though,” Lila says, standing up and stretching.
“What time do rehearsals start?” Maxsim also stands, pulling me to my feet and looking to Ghosie, who has basically become Lila’s assistant ringmaster, keeping track of her schedule for her.
“You have about an hour and a half,” he says, looking at the digital clock on the wall.
“Perfect. Lila will meet you there.” My alpha grabs my hand and hers and drags us through the suite to our room.
Lila stumbles but quickly rights herself. “What are you doing?” she sputters as the door opens and he drags us inside.
“Our omega needs us. Get naked,” he growls, and although her eyes widen, she waves a hand. She’s naked in an instant, and our loincloths are gone.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” A sly smile crosses her lips. “Present for us, omega.”
I whine with need and do as they demand.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ghosie
“So the schedule will be Cas’s group, followed by Magenta and Susie and their new double act.” Lila is looking over her notes from rehearsals. I tick off each act against my own list. I love that I have fallen into the role of Lila’s personal assistant. It feeds my need for order, and I’m able to contribute to this family. I don’t have any skills that can translate into an act or magic that will assist, like Xavier and Zeydan, or medical training like Link. I do have some combat experience, but that’s more of the smash and grab style instead of trained military skill like Brannock and Saxon, so it makes me happy that I can contribute in this way.
Poor Lila was looking slightly overwhelmed, and she took on the job that is usually done by the three Adams brothers. Together, we make a great team.
“Then the lightning cats. Minx seemed to fit in well. They are a much more cohesive unit now that Natalia is gone.” She jumped down into the ring and rehearsed with them, practicing with the whip that she didn’t really need. All of them obeyed hervocal commands, but there needed to be a little showmanship in there, so she cracked it, and Maxsim was unruly and disobedient.
I could see her giggle the whole time he was pretending to be ferocious. Anyone else in the ring probably would have run off, terrified, but she just gave him a scruff on the mane and spanked him on the butt as he turned his back to her. Echo is still performing with them for now, but I’m sure that will change once he gets closer to giving birth. He’s starting to show more in the belly, and all I want to do is reach out and rub my hand over it, but I don’t want to upset his alpha, so I keep my hands to myself.
There’s silence, and I realize Lila is waiting for me to respond. “Oh, sorry, I was thinking about the act. Yes, she did fit in well, and the act was good,” I assure her, because I have a feeling she’s worried about her own performance.
She taps a finger against her lip. “I feel like we need to change it up a bit. The cats have been with the circus for a few seasons now, so the rest of the galaxy has seen them, but I don’t know how to make it fresh.”
We’re quiet for a moment as we both rack our brains for something, but I have nothing, and it seems she doesn’t either. “Don’t stress, we can work something out.” I reach over and pat her leg. The palm of my paw doesn’t have any hair, so it’s safe for me to touch her like this. She told me that once her grandmother gets her powers back, she will ask her to fix us or, if that doesn’t help, then once she has Vivax’s power, she will reverse the curse on the carevasta bears. I live for the day when I can touch my mate without it causing all-consuming lust. I’m sure our whole race will benefit from the change as well.
“Okay, so after the cats are the Nenghe. I was thinking that Oruck could go after them,” I suggest. The new acts haven’trehearsed yet, but I think it would be the perfect place to put the rock man.
“Yes, I agree.” Lila nods her head, and I tick off two more acts on my list.
I ended up canceling the rest of the auditions before we left Skarr. It upset some of the talent that turned up to try out, but we were happy with the three we hired the first day, and when Lila told me about Phillip and Fiona training the steggies, and that she was going to let them add them to the show, four new acts were enough, not to mention now that the Vilaxians and Aquilians have all returned in some capacity, the show probably would have run too long if we hired more.
“Okay then, so what’s next?” Lila looks to me, and I frown.
“Well, the Aquilians were scheduled to talk to us about their performance. It’s obviously going to need to be reworked now that there is a different contingency of Aquilians. You vetoed Hali and Typhoon being in the show, didn’t you?” I ask, looking at my mate, and she nods her head.
“Yes. Nixie tried to push for it, saying Aquilians matured quickly, but Nikos and I stood firm. They are too freaking young. I’m not sure what she was thinking.”
“Oh, I bet she was trying to get back in your good books after blowing you off while Nik was pregnant,” I reply, not hiding the anger in my voice. I’m pissed that this female hurt both Lila and Nik.
“That’s not the way to do it,” she says dryly. “I mean, in my mind, I know she was stuck between choosing to protect her people or us, but in my heart, I’m still hurt. I won’t stop her from having a relationship with our babies or Nik, but I am going to be cautious going forward. I should have known better. I’ve never trusted as quickly as I did when I joined the circus. You would have thought I’d learned from Dylan’s betrayal.”
Even though I wasn’t around when she was attacked by her former friend, I still know the story, and he better pray we never run into each other in a dark corner of space. I may not be military trained, and I don’t really enjoy it, but I have no problems getting my hands dirty.
“So where are they?” Lila looks around the circus dome. It’s just us and the crew needed to set up. We sent a schedule with rehearsal times to each of the acts, and so far, they have all turned up on time. Caspian’s act rehearsed, wanting to allow Malik and Titus a chance to perform. Both of them are going to swap in and out with Caspian and Tirrian if they are needed elsewhere. It went well, and there was lots of laughter and joking, and I could feel some of the tension drain out of Lila as it progressed.
It was the same with Magenta and Susie. They have developed a stunning display that is elegant and death defying. Lila gasped and stood up at one stage, worried for her friends as they fell what seemed like a long way, the silks unraveling, but it was all part of the show, and they were caught mere inches from the floor. The girls giggled and teased her, and she flipped them both off but muttered to me that she was happy they were getting along so well.
“I’m not sure. Hang on, I’ll try to reach Nik.” I grab the tablet off the chair beside me and open the screen. Each of us have one, and it has all of our direct links on the home screen. I push the icon for Nikos—a stylized warrior merman that he said made him look fierce. The sound of it ringing echoes through the empty dome, but he doesn’t pick up. “That’s strange. It should have gone to his watch if he isn’t in reach of his tablet.”
She purses her lips. “Maybe they are in the Aquilian habitat and lost track of time.”
