Bonus Scenes
ATTENTION
If this is your first time reading the Galaxy Circus, I would suggest skipping this scene until you have read it in its entirety because it may contain spoilers for future books.
If you have already experienced this wild ride, then please continue.
Hopefully these new scenes add another layer of enjoyment to the experience.
Caspian
I was terrified when Lila stepped forward to take Echo’s spot in the mate claiming fight against Natalia.
How could she be so reckless and thoughtful at the same time?
I know carrying my babies is a hard concept for her to wrap her head around, but she had completely forgotten about the fact that the cats have lightning and claws that could either electrocute or eviscerate, putting her and the babies in danger.
I also understand her reasoning, and once Xavier gave the babies extra protection, I had to stand back and let her defend the omega.
Saxon is right, her new Vilaxian abilities will help her immensely, but I vibrate with tension as I watch the two of them circle each other in the arena.
Natalia doesn’t hesitate to use her lightning, but sure enough, Lila is too fast and dodges every strike.
This seems to piss Natalia off even more, and she snarls, circling Lila.
The two of them exchange words that are too quiet for my advanced senses to hear.
Natalia is looking for an opening, and Lila is not giving her one.
The crowd around the arena shouts words of encouragement, but my focus is on the two in the middle, unable to look away.
Something Natalia says makes Lila flinch, and I see her calm fade away and her eyes light up with intense anger.
“Oh, I wonder what she said,” Xavier murmurs next to me. “Lila just became livid.”
“And distracted,” Saxon grumbles as Natalia lunges at Lila, raking her claws down Lila’s arm before she can move fast enough to avoid her.
“Lila!” I shout in distress and go to move toward her, but Xavier and Saxon clamp a hand down on my arms.
“Don’t interfere. You will cause her to forfeit,” Xavier warns, but I hear the concern in his voice.
“She is fine, look.” Saxon points as Lila lifts her arm and swipes her tongue over the wound, cleaning the blood and sealing the injury with her Vilaxian saliva.
“She is smart,” he rumbles approvingly, and I scent his attraction to our mate.
This has a calming effect on my kraken, and I settle down to watch the rest of the match.
I won’t jeopardize her chance to kick this bitch’s ass and protect the omega cat, who is watching Lila like all of his wishes have come true. I know exactly how he feels.
Natalia screeches her annoyance at Lila’s abilities, and Lila shakes her head and says something we can’t hear, and all of a sudden, Natalia starts grinning like a clown.
“What the fuck?” Xavier mutters, sounding confused.
We watch as Astrea, Maxsim’s mother, gestures for Lila, who uses her Vilaxian speed to move over to her. She whispers something in Lila’s ear, but Lila doesn’t take her eyes off Natalia before she nods her response and moves swiftly back into the middle of the arena.
“I wonder what she just told her,” Saxon muses as we focus on the fight.
Natalia once again defaults to her lightning attack, but Lila dodges them before stepping forward, rotating her hips, and throwing a roundhouse kick directly to Natalia’s head, shouting something that sounds like “sleep” at her.
Natalia’s head snaps to the side, her eyes roll back in her sockets, and she drops to the ground, out cold.
There is a split second of stunned silence before the crowd goes wild.
Lila looks a little bit stunned as she stares down at the fallen female before lifting her head and glancing toward us.
She’s not looking at us, though, she’s looking to the side, and when I turn my head, I realize she’s watching Maxsim and Echo embrace with a small, sad smile.
“Hmm, that is going to be a thing, me thinks,” Xavier mutters as I return my attention to my mate. Her smile fades, and her mouth drops open in shock as she tilts her head slightly as if she’s listening to something.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask the other two.
“I’m not sure.” Saxon takes a step toward Lila, but before he can get much farther, a voice screams out over the celebrating crowd.
“Lila!”
She turns toward the dais and Minx, who was responsible for screaming her name, but it’s too late. The matriarch has already launched a huge bolt of lightning at my mate, and it hits her before she can even think about moving.
Lila starts to convulse, her mouth open, but no sound is able to leave her lips.
Lightning sparks across her body, but instead of burning her, it seems to flow over her limbs in a caress before grounding through her feet.
It makes no difference. Lila’s eyes roll back, and she collapses to the ground in a heap.
“Lila,” I scream and run toward her as my two co-mates do the same thing. We get to her, and her body continues to seize despite the lightning no longer flowing through her.
“What’s happening to her?” I demand as I crouch to pick her up.
“No, don’t touch her.” Xavier stops me, and I freeze, watching helplessly as our mate continues to jerk uncontrollably.
Before anyone can give us any answers, a loud screech has us all looking toward the dais.
Astrea is there with her claws inside the matriarch’s chest, and with a vicious yank, she tears them out before using her other hand to slice her claws across her throat.
Blue blood spurts out, covering Maxsim’s mother’s face as she growls triumphantly, holding aloft the now dead matriarch’s heart.
Once again, the crowd cheers with approval, chanting Astrea’s name with glee. A new power is rising in Iceen.
“It is done, thank goodness.” Echo sighs next to us, sounding relieved. I’m not sure when he and Maxsim appeared, but his words have my attention going back to my mate who is now lying still and unconscious. Before I can reach for her, Echo kneels next to her, taking her hand and bowing his head.
“I’m so sorry. She was defending me, and this is the thanks she gets. Can you forgive me, and how can we repay you?” Tears stream down his face, and Xavier squeezes his shoulder.
“This is not your fault, and the one responsible is dead. We can ask for no more,” he assures the omega.
“Yes, without her, Echo would have been killed,” Maxsim admits reluctantly, but he is still scowling at my mate. A growl leaves my chest at his ungrateful behavior, but before I can call him out, Lila’s body starts to shimmer.
“What’s happening?” Saxon asks, sounding distraught. “We need a doctor. Someone call Link.”
“He’s on his way,” William, who must have joined us at some stage, says. We are all standing in a circle, protecting Lila as we watch as her body change, morphing into that of a lightning cat. Stormy blue fur covers her body as she sprouts a tail and ears.
“Oh my goddess.” Echo drops Lila’s hand and scurries backward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do anything,” he swears. “I don’t know what happened.”
Xavier takes his place, crouching next to her, his mist seeping out of him while he tries to assess her. Before it can completely shroud her, she shimmers again, taking on a mist form of her own.
“Well, that’s different,” he muses and looks up at us. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
Eric and William exchange a glance. “Could it be?” Eric mutters to his brother, who gives him a solemn nod.
“Yeah, I think so. We need to get her back to the ship.” He lifts his watch and presses a button, speaking into it. “Delay that order for Link. Transport us back to the ship. Are you coming?” He looks at Maxsim and Echo, but Maxsim shakes his head.
“No, we are staying here for now to help with my mother’s transition,” he replies, and William relays the information to the transport operator.
“What’s going on?” I ask, frantic for my mate.
“Not here. We will explain back at the ship,” Eric replies, but it doesn’t soothe me at all.
Before I can reply, the two Adams brothers, Lila, Saxon, Xavier, and I are beamed aboard the ship. Link is there with a hover stretcher.
“Caspian, put her on the stretcher,” William orders before muttering something else into his watch, but I don’t catch the words, because my focus is on my misty mate.
“Can I pick her up?” I ask Xavier. “Does mist have solid form?”
“I’ll do it,” he tells me and waves a hand, and the mist moves to hover above the stretcher. Without waiting, Link starts moving it, and we follow behind.
“What happened?” he asks, and William fills him in on the events leading up to this.
“You said you would tell us what’s going on,” Saxon reminds the brothers, and William huffs out a sigh of frustration.
“Hang on, I just want to test one more thing,” he cautions us, and I can see that Saxon and Xavier feel as frustrated and confused as I do.
Before anyone can argue, though, Tynker, the Vengi fashion designer, appears in the hallway. They step up next to the stretcher and peer down at Lila.
“Oh dear, what happened?” they ask, but before anyone can respond, the mist surrounding Lila shimmers, and once again, she changes, taking on Tynker’s characteristics.
“Oh my god,” Link mutters and looks at the Adams brothers. “She’s a mimic. That is her Skarrian gift?”
“Yes, so it would seem,” Eric murmurs, looking at his granddaughter with no shortage of amazement.
“We will test her once more just to be sure. Have Tully meet us in the med bay,” William tells Tynker, who nods and disappears.
“What does this mean?” I ask, feeling confused and not really sure what is happening.
“It means that Lila has a very rare and dangerous ability, one that has seen Skarrians hunted down and killed or captured because they are considered to be too powerful to exist,” Eric announces, and a feeling of dread flows through me.
“We need to get to Celestia as soon as possible,” Link says as we continue our hurried dash toward the med bay.
“Lila’s babies are okay, but changing as often as she is can’t be good for her body.
She seems to have no control over it. Maybe they can help us, because there is nothing I can do to stop the flow of power.
” He sounds terrified, and that worries me.
He is usually so unflappable. My heart races with fear.
“The lightning strike must have destroyed the block my parents’ powers had on her abilities,” Xavier murmurs.
“Yes, and in such a way her body is overloading. You need to sedate her and keep everyone out of her room. We don’t want her latching onto anyone else,” William tells the doctor.
“I don’t want to leave her alone,” I argue, shaking my head. “She needs us.”
“I think I should be fine. I’m pretty sure I remember reading that a cyborg can’t be mimicked because we aren’t wholly organic,” Link says as we finally arrive in the med bay. Tully is there, and sure enough, Lila changes once more.
“Speak of this to no one. Forget you saw this,” Xavier orders her, and her eyes glaze over before he sends her away, none the wiser.
“Right, lock down the med bay, and everyone, get out,” William orders.
“What about Susie? She could come sit with Lila. She has no abilities to mimic,” Saxon suggests, and Link nods.
“Good idea. The rest of you can get some rest. I will let you know if anything changes in the meantime, but without any of you around, her body should settle,” he tells us.
I shake my head stubbornly and open my mouth to refuse, but Xavier puts his arm around my shoulders and gives me a squeeze.
“Come on. Link won’t let anything happen to her. You need rest so when she is conscious again, we can be there for her.” He sounds more reasonable than I would have expected. Saxon looks just as torn as I feel, but he agrees with him.
“Fine, but if anything changes, you better let us know,” I threaten the doctor who nods.
“Of course I will. I’ll look after our mate. I promise on my source code,” he replies.
“See that you do,” I growl but let my other two co-mates pull me out of the med bay. The last thing I see is Link brushing Lila’s hair back from her face with reverence, and I relax ever so slightly, knowing she’s in good hands.
“Come, we will request Susie’s help and then find some sustenance.
We are going to need to keep up our strength.
I remember reading that Skarrian mimics fuel their powers through sex, and considering how powerful she seems, she is going to need a lot of it,” Xavier informs the two of us, and my horny kraken pops his head up in interest. He was content to wait while we found out what was wrong with Lila, but now his voice rolls through my head with determination.
Mate powerful. Lots of sex, need more mates. His words reverberate around my brain, and I feel a little rattled and bewildered by his declaration.
Is this why you keep trying to coerce all these new mates? I ask him, and he sends me a wave of smug reassurance.
We are good mate. We provide everything she needs.
I’m gobsmacked and not quite sure how to respond, but I allow myself to be pulled along with the other two as I process everything.
It finally makes sense, and I come to a decision.
Lila needs more mates to fuel her powers, and we are going to see that she gets everything she could want or need as a good mate should.