Chapter 13
Reagan was having the time of her life as she sat in the front row Saturday night during the show under the big top. Friday night’s show had been incredible, and she knew tonight’s would be too.
She and Indio had started the morning in the food tent—long, wooden tables crowded with his family and friends. Her newest craving had hit hard overnight—savory everything . Amara had been delighted to make her a skillet of cornbread and a big bowl of whipped honey butter.
“Let me know what else I can make you,” Amara said, smiling when Reagan didn’t even bother with a plate. She ate the whole thing and would have been tempted to lick the pan if it hadn’t been so heavy.
After breakfast, she’d rolled up her sleeves and helped Amara and two other women prep lunch for everyone.
Reagan made potato salad, then sliced a basket of tomatoes for burgers, listening as Amara worked the grill and shared stories of Indio as a boy.
She’d been right—Indio was a hellion—but she saw his baby pictures, so at least he was a cute one.
“That smile saved his butt a few times,” Amara said with a chuckle.
Reagan loved spending time with his family, but the whole circus had been amazingly welcoming to her and made her feel like she really belonged.
Indio had spent most of the afternoon helping his dad and cousins set up lights in the main tent, and Reagan had helped clean up the food tent and prep for dinner, then Amara had shooed her away to rest up before the show because it would be a late night.
She’d found the circus to be as charming as the people who ran it. From the food and game booths to the shows and the exhibits, the whole place was as family friendly as it could possibly be, and the people who came through the gates seemed to be having a ball.
For the first time in weeks, she felt content. She wasn’t worried about work or bills or what her mom would say about anything; she was just enjoying herself. Indio’s family was so different from what she knew, and it was what she’d always wanted.
Hours later, when she and Indio sat in the front row for the big show, she was thrilled to be part of the fun.
The ringmaster—a charming man named Lazarus—called out the acts as they changed, from acrobats, to clowns, to the elephant parade finale.
Huge elephants wearing sequined harnesses were ridden by women wearing matching costumes, waving to the crowd as they moved around the ring.
It was dazzling and magical.
And she loved every second of it.
She’d peeked at him throughout the performances as he’d watched, and she could see how happy he was.
He’d told her he’d been lonely when he’d been with the circus before, always moving, never putting down roots. He’d been lonely at the park too, but it was a different kind of lonely. The kind that had been him knowing he’d meet his soulmate someday, that he just had to wait.
And then he met Reagan.
She envied him his belief in finding his soulmate. She hadn’t been sure such a thing existed outside of romance novels, but she sure did believe in them now. Especially since she really did feel like she and Indio had been meant to meet.
Her jumping his bones right off the bat was just icing on the cake.
When the elephants had meandered out of the tent, the lights brightened and the crowd exploded with applause. The ringmaster took a bow and thanked everyone for coming, promising another show the following night.
Reagan leaned against Indio, her cheeks aching from smiling so much.
“I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun,” she said.
“The show?” he asked.
“The whole day. Your family is amazing and I love the circus, I love being here.” She tilted her face to his and he kissed her. “Thanks for bringing me here.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”
“Should we go get some walking tacos and maybe a cream soda?” she asked.
Now that the show was over, the circus was closing for the night and patrons were encouraged to leave the grounds.
Since she and Indio were technically part of the circus, they were able to get whatever they wanted from the booths.
He smiled indulgently. “That sounds good to me.”
They left the warmth of the tent and walked out into the chilly night, making their way right to the booth with the walking tacos—bags of corn chips topped with taco ingredients. She’d never had one until earlier that evening, and she was hooked.
“I’ll try the one with the ranch chips this time,” she said, when Mel, who manned the booth with his wife, Tina, asked what she’d like.
“You got it,” he said with a broad smile. “How was the show?”
“Amazing,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over how cool the elephants are. They’re so huge! But they’re quiet in the holding tent, I guess? I haven’t heard them at all since we’ve been here.”
Mel froze, and Tina straightened from where she’d been bent over the toppings bar filling the bag of chips.
Indio cleared his throat, then said, “Yeah, they’re quiet, but also the tent is specially reinforced to keep it quiet inside for them too.
We wouldn’t want them to get spooked by noise from the crowd. ”
“That makes sense,” she said.
She looked at everyone, wondering why they looked like they’d been caught in a compromising position. Before she could ask what was up, Tina handed over the walking taco and Mel set a large cup of cream soda with extra nugget ice on the counter and she completely forgot about all of it.
“Oh yeah, the baby is definitely liking this combo,” she said, inhaling the steamy scents of her meal. “I need about ten of these.”
“We’ll be here for an hour as we clean up,” Mel said with a chuckle. “Then we’ll make sure the ingredients are in the food tent so you can have as many as you want.”
“You guys are the best,” Reagan said.
She and Indio walked around as the circus crowd thinned, people making their way to the exit and the booths shuttering for the night. A brisk wind blew through the aisle between booths and she shivered.
“Let’s go back in the main tent where the wind won’t bother us,” Indio said.
“Why wouldn’t we just go back to the trailer? We can always run out and grab more tacos. Like with the nacho chips this time. Or the corn ones. Oh… I could maybe do both? Or all three with the ranch.”
When Indio didn’t say anything, she looked at him and he was grinning.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re just cute,” he said. “And I like you a lot.”
It was her turn to smile like a goofball. “I like you a lot too.”
They sat in the big top, which was empty of all but a few workers cleaning up.
Indio shared some more stories from his youth of being in the circus and the places they’d visited over the years.
As someone who’d hardly traveled anywhere outside of the tri-state area, she found it fascinating that he’d been to so many places.
“We’re clear, Indio,” a young man she’d met earlier in the day, named Diego, said as he walked up to them. “Your dad said to tell you they’re on the way.”
“Thanks,” Indio said.
Diego walked out, and Reagan realized they were now alone in the tent. She put down her empty chip bag and looked at him in confusion. “Is something going on? Why are we still sitting here? And why did Diego need to tell you it’s clear?”
He stared at her intently. “Do you trust me, Reagan?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Then just trust me that I needed to talk to you in a place where I could also show you something extremely important.”
She straightened in her seat, her heart pounding at his serious tone. “You’re starting to scare me a little.”
“I’m not trying to at all,” he said, taking her hands in his. “I love you, Reagan.”
“I love you too.”
There was movement at the far side of the tent and she saw his parents walk in, pausing at the edge of the ring without a word.
Indio squeezed her hands and she returned her gaze to him. “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us, but I’ve been keeping a big secret from you.”
“You have?”
“Yes. It’s because it’s a secret that has to be kept from any outsiders. I couldn’t tell you the truth of what I am, what my family is, until I knew that you loved me and I could trust you to keep the secret.”
“Okay, now you’re definitely scaring me. What’s going on?”
“I’m not just a man, I’m a shifter. An elephant, to be exact. And most everyone in this circus is a shifter, including my parents. The clowns are wolf shifters, the acrobats are bear shifters, and Diego and his sister, Luna, are panthers who were adopted into our circus family a few years ago.”
“You’re talking crazy,” Reagan said, pulling her hands from his grasp. “There’s no such thing as people turning into animals. Why are you lying to me?”
“I’m not lying, it’s the truth,” he said. “I want to show you the truth of what I am, but I’ll be stuck as an elephant for a few hours, which is why my parents are here. So they can talk to you and keep you company.”
His parents joined them, and Reagan rose to her feet, her mouth going dry as wariness settled over her. Had they all gone crazy?
“It’s the truth, honey,” Amara said. “It’s a secret we’ve kept since the first elephant in our family.
The circus gives us a way to live among humans without telling them the truth.
Could you imagine how devastating it would be if humans knew that people could turn into animals?
We’d be hunted, experimented on, maybe even killed.
That’s why no shifter tells their human soulmate the truth until they’re in love. ”
“It’s important you keep the secret, Reagan,” Rohan said.
And that’s when she saw it: all three of their eyes were that odd amber color she’d seen Indio’s change to whenever he got emotional. She’d passed it off as a trick of light or just the way his eyes were, but there was no mistaking now that there was something different about them.
She panted for breath as fear rose up inside her, but then Indio stepped close and put his hands on her shoulders, his thumbs grazing her neck. “Baby, it’s okay. I promise it’s okay. I love you and I trust you to keep this secret. I can tell you think we’re lying, but we’re not. Let me show you.”
Her breath caught, her lungs burning for a moment. “Show me?”
He looked at his parents and they nodded at him, and then he moved away into the ring, where the overhead spotlights were concentrated.
“It’s still me,” Indio said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Amara took Reagan’s hand and Rohan stood on Reagan’s other side. She felt suddenly suffocated by their closeness but she couldn’t move or take her eyes off Indio, who was stripping.
Honest to goodness stripping right in the center of the big top in front of his parents.
And then something happened.
His skin changed, she could hear bones cracking, and he grew quickly larger. So large that she felt like she needed to step backward even though he wasn’t near her. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. She wasn’t even sure she blinked.
Where her sexy boyfriend had stood, an elephant appeared. The tall, muscular man she adored, the father of her baby, had changed into an elephant.
A freaking elephant.
“Breathe, honey,” Amara said, giving Reagan’s hand a hard squeeze.
Reagan gasped as her breathing came back online. She blinked a few times, and her world went crooked for a heartbeat but then righted itself as the truth settled over her like a blanket.
There was an elephant in front of her. A real one. Towering over her, tusks gleaming in the overhead lights, dark eyes watching her intently.
“Oh my…holy crap,” Reagan said.
“It’s Indio in there,” Amara said.
“I don’t believe my eyes.”
“Believe it,” Rohan said. “And trust that the only reason he’s showing you is because you’re his soulmate and you both love each other. You can’t tell a single person on this planet about shifters, not family, not friends. Do you understand?”
His words seemed to reach into the depths of the fear coursing through her, and suddenly it was gone.
The fear, the disbelief.
Replaced with warmth in her chest at the wonder of it all.
Her boyfriend—soulmate—had turned into an elephant. And that meant her baby was half-elephant too.
Tears blurred her vision as she walked away from his parents right to the big elephant. “Indio,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
He curled his trunk around her waist and drew her against his leg, the gesture making her feel like he was hugging her.
She closed her eyes and hugged him back, her arms around his leg and her fingers gripping the thick, tough hide.
For the first time since she’d met him, she finally knew he was truly hers forever.
He was sharing a secret so huge that it had to be kept no matter what.
She could have felt betrayed by the secret, angry that he hadn’t told her sooner, but she wasn’t.
There were no meddling voices in her head from her past, telling her he was a no-good liar.
Because he was loyal to the people he had to keep safe: his family and friends.
He'd waited until he could trust her to tell her, and she understood.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“Now you can hang out here with him for a few hours, until he can turn back,” Amara said. “And we’ll stay with you.”
“Thanks,” Reagan said, brushing at the tears on her cheeks. “I have a ton of questions.”
Indio let out what sounded a lot like a laugh, his trunk wiggling against her waist like he was trying to tickle her.
“What’s your first question?” Rohan asked.
As her mind spun over everything she wanted to know, she first pressed her lips to his trunk for a quick kiss, and then she turned in his hold and rested her hands on his trunk across her waist.
“Elephants, wolves, bears, and panthers are here in the circus. What other sorts of shifters are out there, and are there shifters at the park?”