Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(61)
Angus obviously saw nothing extraordinary in what he’d said. The man only made blunt statements, no flirtations, seductions, or floweriness. He would only ever speak the truth as he saw it.
Tamsin’s heart beat faster, and her world changed.
Ciaran stuck his head out from between the curtains. “If you need to work out the mating frenzy, it’s all right. Brina—Dante and Celene’s cub—invited me over tonight to play video games.” He slid his legs around, preparing to descend.
Angus’s face went brick red. “No. You stay here with Tamsin. I’m going patrolling.”
Without another word, just a glare at his son, Angus swung around and stomped out the door.
At least he didn’t slam it. Tamsin pulled it closed after him and locked it.
Ciaran stared down at her from his bunk. “What did I say?”
Tamsin let out a long breath. “Nothing, sweetie.” She went to him, rose on tiptoe, and gave him a tight hug. “You’re perfect. Don’t worry about your dad. He’s a growly thing.”
“Yeah.” Ciaran clung to Tamsin a long moment, his warm, small body relaxing her worries. “I’m glad you’re staying, Tamsin. Can I start calling you ‘Mom’?”
Tamsin released Ciaran and grabbed the side of his bunk to hold herself up. “Sure, if you want.”
Ciaran grinned, leaned down, and kissed her forehead, then squirmed around with the quickness of a wolf cub and jerked the curtains closed.
“Night, Mom!” he sang out.
Tamsin’s eyes flooded with tears. “Night, Ciaran.”
Monday, Dante’s workers tore down the carnival, and Angus drove the RV in the long convoy of trucks and trailers moving from San Angelo to the next gig Dante had booked at the end of the week. They’d drive Monday afternoon, spend the night in a motel, and enter the fairgrounds on Tuesday to start setting up.
Dimitri’s truck cab was now fully covered with bright red, white, and blue logos for the carnival, and was busy pulling one of the booths. Angus hadn’t recognized the cab when he’d emerged after sleeping a few hours in the RV on one of the hard benches. He’d only seen it gone and demanded to know what Dante had done with it.
Dante had grinned and pointed it out. Dimitri would shit a brick when he saw the fiery curlicues and big letters all over it—whether it was painted or the logos and decorations merely stuck on, Angus couldn’t tell. But the truck was well camouflaged, and Angus would make it up to Dimitri if he ever got the chance.
At the moment, Angus was with his cub and his mate, and that was fine with him. Ciaran rode buckled onto one of the benches—Angus wouldn’t let him lie in his bunk the whole way as he wanted to.
They kept up a sedate pace. Travelers in cars honked and waved as they passed the carnival in their brightly painted trailers, the rides on flatbed trucks. They ignored Angus, their RV being fairly ordinary. Tamsin was right—they were hidden in a crowd.
Angus had lent his muscles helping dismantle the rides and booths, most of which were already on wheels. Each booth’s sides folded up, and the whole thing was hitched to a semi, like Dimitri’s. Whatever Tamsin had been busy doing, Angus didn’t know, but she’d kept Ciaran with her and watched his son with a careful eye.
Ciaran had ceased calling her Tamsin and now called her Mom. Angus hadn’t yet figured out how he felt about that.
As she had in Dimitri’s truck, Tamsin fiddled with the RV’s radio until she found a station she liked, and she and Ciaran began singing. Her voice blended with Ciaran’s, neither of them knowing crap about staying in tune, and brightened the air. Maybe, Angus thought, just maybe, things would be all right.
Angus held on to that shred of hope through the trip down Texas highways. He saw no sign of Shifter Bureau, or Haider, or Dylan, or of any Shifter but Dante.
No sign of Shifters didn’t mean they weren’t out there. The best trackers were good at staying hidden while they stalked.
But it was easy to get caught up in the carnival’s routine. They pulled into a chain motel with an RV park to spend Monday night. The crew enjoyed a night of beds inside four walls and then Tuesday they pulled up to a field outside Wichita Falls, in north Texas, that would house the carnival this weekend. They rested for the remainder of the day, and on Wednesday morning, they started to set up.
While Angus helped with the rides, Tamsin worked on her “act.” She and Angus argued every day that she would be putting herself at risk, but she insisted no one would recognize her. When he tried to forbid her as her mate, Tamsin only looked at him doubtfully and walked away to meet up with Celene.
Angus shook his head and got back to work. He’d let her think she was getting away with it for now. When the night came for her show to start, he could lock her in the RV and let her rage at him.
On Thursday evening, they tested the rides to make sure none needed repair or were unsafe in any way. Dante insisted on several tests—if he wasn’t happy, the ride didn’t run.
“People have gotten seriously hurt or killed on park rides,” Dante had told Angus. “Not often, but never in my carnival.”
Ciaran had hit it off with Brina, it seemed, and Dante had even let his cub ride with Angus for a leg of the trip. Ciaran and Brina had played games on Brina’s tablet the whole time. Growing up without Shifter Bureau restrictions, Brina had gadgets that Ciaran wasn’t allowed.