Page 22 of Big Top Bear Raid
“What else has he done?”Mike asked, glancing between them warily.“Something serious, I’m guessing.”
“Oh, yeah,” Zion confirmed, his anger surging anew.“That bear you saw?He’s a shifter.”Seeing Mike’s brows shoot up and his jaw sag open, Zion continued, “And he’s my cousin.Acadia.I thought he was dead.”
“Damn,” Mike muttered, frowning.“How’s he getting him to cooperate?”
“Spells,” Congo told him with a growl in his voice.“Extremely painful spells.”
Mike nodded slowly, his eyebrows furrowing.“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that you know from experience.”
“Yeah,” Valentine grumbled.“First-hand experience.”A muscle ticked in his jaw as he told Mike, “We were all bespelled at the same time, but we were told Acadia had been killed before we were rescued.”
Valentine held Stone close, probably for comfort.
Zion knew he was doing the same.Only holding his mate grounded him, keeping him from doing something stupid...like tearing through the circus grounds searching for Acadia.
“So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking,” Mike began slowly, glancing around the group.“Why are you sitting here and not rescuing your cousin?”
“There’s just a few problems with that,” Congo explained, a hint of a growl in his voice.“While we are immune to magick, our mates are not.”
“No way we want them in the line of fire from a warlock,” Madagascar claimed, rubbing his hand up and down Ishmael’s arm.“Plus, we don’t know if there’s more than one.He could have a trainee or two that we don’t know about, yet.”
“The biggest factor, though, is we don’t have a way to move him,” Valentine stated with a scowl.
“Move him?”Mike appeared as confused as his tone conveyed.“If you get him away, won’t he shift?”
Shaking his head, Congo explained, “He can’t shift unless he’s ordered to by a magick-wielder or his alpha.”His expression turned pensive as he admitted, “And while I used to be his alpha, he’s been away from us for over a year and a half.I don’t know if he’d still recognize me as such, so I can’t take the risk.”
“Yeah, not like you can shove a bear into your car,” Mike murmured, nodding as he tapped his chest.“Even with a detective for an escort.”
“And if he doesn’t recognize me as his alpha any longer, we literally can’t move him,” Congo explained further.“The spells that bind him won’t let him.”
“Harsh.”Mike heaved a sigh as he rubbed his thighs.“So what are you going to do?”He glanced up as a group of people entered their section, returning to their seats.Lowering his voice, Mike told them, “I need to know what you’re going to do so I know whatI’llneed to do to cover up any paranormal aspects.”With a scoff, he muttered, “The mayor may be my friend, but he doesn’t know about your kind.”
Congo held out his hand.“Give me your phone.”
Mike slipped his hand inside his jacket, and when Zion wasn’t the only one who tensed, he stilled.Glancing around at everyone, he arched one brow.Slowly, Mike finished the move, drawing out his phone as opposed to his gun.
“Well, now,” Mike drawled as he handed over his phone.“Guess if I’d had spells cast on me, I’d be jumpy, too.”
Zion cocked his head as something occurred to him.“How were you not affected by the spells in the music?”He’d noticed every time the ringmaster had been issuing subtle commands, there’d been music playing, so it wasn’t hard to put it together.“We had to pull our mates out of it.”
Mike took back his phone as he shrugged.“Don’t know,” he admitted as he glanced at his phone’s screen.“Maybe it’s the same reason a vampire’s trancing ability doesn’t work on me.”
Maybe.
But Zion sure wondered at that.
Chapter Nine
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“IF YOU’RE GOING, THENso am I.”Wraith crossed his arms over his chest, ready to stand his ground.“End of story.”
“I don’t want to see you get hurt.”Zion sounded frustrated, and maybe even a little pained, but Wraith refused to back down.His big bear mate rubbed a hand over his bald pate.“You don’t have any immunity to magick if we get caught.”
“Then we’d better not get caught,” Wraith countered.Wanting to ease some of Zion’s unease, he slid his hands beneath the open flaps of his mate’s leather jacket and rested his palms on his chest.Looking Zion in the eye, Wraith declared, “Zion, you’re my mate.I willalwayshave your back.No matter what.”
Zion placed his hands on Wraith’s hips and squeezed lightly, the move expressing his fondness.“Okay.”Blowing out a rough breath between full, pursed lips, he nodded.Then Zion offered Wraith one of his warm smiles.“I understand.I’d act the same way.”
