Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Several hundred years later, after the birth of Alex Tate

Lexy rocked back and forth in the big swing that had been brought just for this summer. She had fallen in love with it at the store, and Jeremiah had purchased it for her and set it up so that she could rest under the big trees in their yard. The days were getting shorter, it seemed. She wasn't sure if it was because she was lonely or if the days were actually getting explicitly shorter. Either way, she missed her child and wanted more than anything to make her come home. When the swing moved, rocking violently for several seconds, she frowned at Jeremiah. He told her that he was sorry as he sat on the swing right.

"I just heard from Joel. He and Caitlynn won't be home for another month or two. Dad is having such a good time going through all the churches and tea shops that he begged them to stay a bit longer." He looked at her. "How are you holding up? I know you miss Alex and Micky, but they'll be home in a few days."

"They've extended their vacation for another three months as well. Alex told me that she's learning so much from the leaders in Spain that she's having some books printed up that will have to be approved before they can bring them home. I guess they do things quite a bit different than we do here." Lexy huffed. "Though I don't have any idea why we'd care how they run their packs. Ours runs very well if you ask me. Not a bit of trouble for decades and no theft to speak of." She huffed again. "Didn't she just tell us they had a great deal of theft some years ago? It would seem to me that this pack has better rules anyway."

"Okay. The theft was nearly a hundred years ago, and it wasn't theft that you're referring to was famine not someone stealing it. They didn't have the manpower to rebuild the food lockers after…what is wrong? Tell me so that I can slay your dragons or whatever is upsetting you. You know that I will, too." She nodded, then looked away. When he pulled her chin around and kissed her nose, she burst into tears. "Oh, love. You know that I hate it when you cry. Tell me what it is that's bothering you and I'll take care of it for you. I love you and would give you the world, you know that, don't you?"

"I do." She cried all the harder when he was being so nice to her. "My daughter isn't on her way home. My family is still so far away from me that I…I can't stand it, Jeremiah. I want them to be here. Peabody told me that she barely has time to take a break any more so that she can tell the people working for her that she's retiring. I want her here too, with my little girl. I suppose her mate can come too. I really do love that man, too. Don't you?"

She sobbed some more, and when he held her closely, she let him. It was that, or she was going to create an ocean with her tears and then drown everyone within a mile of them. After a few more minutes of being hard on herself, she told Jeremiah that she was all right, just feeling like everything was against her.

"I know that it's not. But they are away, and I want them to be here. I even miss Joel and the way that he gives me a hard time. Caitlynne yelling at me about how I am overworking myself." She looked beyond where they were sitting, and she saw the faeries out working the fields that the pumpkins were growing in. "I guess we'll be having a nice fat crop this year for the patch of pumpkins. The children so love to get the bigger ones."

She thought of the accident that nearly removed her head that she'd had several decades ago. It had scared her more than hurt her. Yes, she supposed almost having your head removed was dangerous, but she'd been more concerned about the other people who had been on the train who had all lost their lives than herself. Lexy had been on bed rest for nearly a year before she was able to get up and get around after the train they'd all been riding on had jumped the tracks and had ended up in a lake that had been much deeper than they had known about.

"They do. And your idea the last few years about bringing the carved pumpkins back to the patch and dropping them off after the season was an excellent idea. We've been able to not have to plant that field for a while now. Not to mention having all the birds and other wildlife able to get what they want out of it as well. Butter was telling me a few weeks ago that this is the time of year when the little ones put things up for themselves. Having someone manufacture little freezers for them was brilliant, too. Pumpkin for them year-round had been something I know that they enjoyed." She nodded, not really thinking it was all that big of a deal, and told Jeremiah that. "It was a big deal to them. All the ideas that you've been coming up with have saved them and us a great deal of money. Honey, what is it?"

"I'm lonely." He sat back in his chair and just stared at her. Before he could say anything to her about how silly she was being—she knew that was what he was going to tell her, she spoke. "I know that I have a job, and I want you to know that I love it very much. I have people that I talk to every day. Some of them several times a day. I have all my meals with a lot of people, trying new things and dining in some of the most extraordinary places. Last month, when we ate at the queen's palace, it was all I could do not to take a hundred pictures and stare at them for days afterwards. And if you were to ask me, having the faeries decorating the trees with their wings was the best thing ever. There wasn't a single one that looked like the other. And I know that they enjoyed being on display like they were. Oh, I did too. But I'm lonely for…I'm just lonely."

"We just came back from that trip. Yes, I know that there were hundreds of people there, too, but I understand that…to be honest with you, Lexy, I'm so lonely that I find myself making up things that I want to do so that I can find someone to hang out with. All the others have jobs that they love. And while I do know that you love yours, I love mine as well. It's not fulfilling. Right? Is that it?" She nodded, knowing that was it exactly. He turned in the seat so that he was facing her. "I went by the school just yesterday and watched the kids playing out on the playground, and I had to convince myself that pulling the fire lever was wrong on a great many levels. Yes, it would have brought them all out of the building, and I would have gone to them, assuring them that things were going to be all right. However, they don't need me to do that. They have fine teachers doing that very thing now."

"I'll be honest with you since you were with me. I've been tracking this circus around the country so that I can join them. I want to do something that brings me into contact with—"

"ME TOO." He grinned at her after lowering his voice. "It's the Peabody Peanut Buster Circus, now. I think your grandmother likes the name better than she does people anymore." She nodded. "I've been keeping an eye on them for years, but here, of late, I've been watching them to see if they need another animal or two. I'd be the best wolf they've ever had. Doing even tricks I thought would be stupid when I was younger. Fetching a ball. They have a skit now that has Red Riding Hood in it. I so want to be the big bad wolf."

"The elephants, too. I've been practicing twirling a ball on the tip of my trunk when no one is around. And you should see me dressed up in a tutu—a pink one at that, dancing around the fields. I've even gone so far as to try painting my face white like they did in my favorite movie about the big-eared elephant. Remember that part? I'd do that without a bit of embarrassment. They'd not even have to pay me. I'd do it all for free."

They each talked about how they'd work the circus line for years. Making more money for it until they were sought after all over the world. Because of the circus, they'd been all over the world, several times over, just to entertain people of all ages with the animals and other creatures.

They hadn't given up their beds, however. They talked about having a nice trailer for themselves so that they didn't have to be deprived of the luxuries that they had come to love too. Thanks to the magic of faeries, they were just as pampered on the road and abroad as they'd been here. Maybe more so.

"As you know, great-grandmother was a circus elephant up until a few years ago—thank you for talking to her about retiring. She worked so hard all her life, and it's high time for her to take some time for herself. I think that she misses the people more than she does the traveling. And we both know how much she loves traveling the countryside." She smiled at Jeremiah and thanked him again for finding her family for her. "It does make me feel good to hear from her more often now. And the stories that she told me were by far the best that I've ever heard. She has asked me to come and travel with her and to bring you along so that she has eye candy to look at. She can be so outrageous sometimes, don't you think? I love her to pieces."

They both laughed. She knew that this was something that she'd been thinking about for the last few weeks. Just being able to go and come as she pleased. Not that she didn't do that now, but there was something that she found so magical about the idea of being a circus elephant that made her giddy.

"She told me the other day that she's been buying up other animals that are being mistreated by their owners. Not just circus animals but dogs and cats, too. I think that alone has made her as special as people think she is." Lexy agreed with Jeremiah and told him how much she loved him. "I love you as well. So when do we leave?"

"I'm sorry, what?" He repeated himself and then smiled at her. "We can't just up and leave to go join…no matter how much I'd like for us to do that, we can't just go and join the circus, Jeremiah. Think what your family would say." He told her that they'd ask why she'd not done it sooner. "They'd make fun of us."

"Okay, first of all, why do we care if they make fun of us? I don't, that's for sure. Secondly, they'd be super jealous of us, and I know for a fact. All those months that we were on the road with her were good for us all and my family most of all. It was like having minivacations every week. We could be on the road all the time. Enjoying what life tosses at us. It's not like we're needed around here." He winked at her. "You have no idea how close I am daily from pulling the fire alarm, Lexy. It's a daily struggle. I'd really hate to have to tell the new fire chief that it's all your fault. And it would be if you don't get me away from here." Lexy just stared at him.

He couldn't be serious, could he? Would he honestly like to go on the road with her and her grannie? There were things that would have to be put into place. Make arrangements for the house to be looked after. Mail to be—

"Let's do it." When he stood up, dragging her across the lawn as he went, Jeremiah was spouting off duties to the people who were in the yard even before they were in the house. The mail was arranged, and one of the nephews was going to be watching the house. He'd even made arrangements to have their plants watered, all before he closed the door to the outside and pulled her along with him up the stairs.

Lexy didn't know what had gotten into Jeremiah, but she was happier than she'd been in a very long time. Even if nothing came of this, if they only went to visit her grandmother for a few days, it was more than she could have hoped for. As they were tossing things into their suitcase, Jeremiah took it all out and put it back in the drawer.

"We have everything that we need right in our pockets." She laughed and told him that he was right, but they'd need luggage if they were going to play the part. "Yes, yes, of course. We'll take some empty things with us so that we can bring things back with us when we want to. Although we could just ship things home, and that would be the end of it. I've spoken to your grandmother. She's going to pick us up at the airport in Tennessee. They're headed to Florida right now, so we'll pick up…I think she's more excited than we are, to be honest with you. But it's all arranged."

They were at the airport within an hour. Not that they drove there. No, they had Hanna pop them there in seconds. The idea of not having luggage seemed to bother some of the people at the counters, so they bought a nice carry-on and filled it with snacks. Stuff that they'd cut out of their diet long ago. Why? She didn't have any idea but did enjoy having a bag of crunch cheesy doodles while waiting. The best part of it was that she had cheesy powder all over her that made her happy.

By the time they were in the sky, flying over the airport, she had spoken to her grandmother three times, and what Jeremiah had said was true. She seemed to be more excited than they were about this trip.

While the trip wasn't all that long, only a few hours, they talked about the things that they were going to be doing. Not once did either of them utter the words, this is silly, nor did they try and talk each other or themselves out of what they were doing either. It was an adventure, Jeremiah said, one that they were going to think about and treasure for a very long time. She didn't even care at this point if she got to be an elephant with her grandmother's circus. The excitement of what they were doing to get there had made a world of difference for her and her loneliness.

~*~

Lexy waved goodbye to her grandma. She was headed to a cruise with Jeremiah's dad, and she couldn't have been happier for the two of them. They weren't mates, but they were the best of friends. Both of them had been mated at one time in their long lives and knew that kind of love only came to a person once. It was good, too, to see them with their heads together, laughing and plotting. Lexy thought that her father-in-law was the best thing there was for the family, and she couldn't have been happier in her life to have him as a part of her family.

When they got back to the circus, having stopped for dinner on the way back, she and Jeremiah entered the big camper. It was perfect for the two of them. Especially since it had been magically enhanced and was much larger than it was from the outside. They even had a lovely kitchen with a cook that made ‘roughing it' so much more fun.

"I've been thinking about a couple of things." Jeremiah sat down next to her with his plate of food. It was called an appetizer to most, but for them, it was enough to feed a small family. Smiling at him, she took one of the deep-fried ravioli and popped it into her mouth. The crunch was perfect. "We should figure out a house that we can use to…are you going to eat all of those?"

"I just might. She got them perfectly crisp. What were you talking about? Hurry and tell me so that I can finish eating. They're so good but too loud to hear you talking."

Instead of talking, he ate the last two ravioli by putting them both in his mouth at the same time. Pouting at him, she told him he was unfair, and all he did was smile at her when he pulled a second plate of just the ravioli and handed it to her. The man was the best, that was for sure. She asked him what he'd been thinking about.

"Making love to you." She nearly spit her last bite all over him. "Yeah, I know that we do that a great deal. Making love is like a drug for me. But I don't know that I've ever made love to you in this camper. Is it true that if you're good enough, you might be able to make it rock?"

"Hum, I have no idea. Why are you thinking about…never mind. You're forever talking about sex. And thinking about it. Dreaming about it." He laughed, and she joined him. "All right. But I need some food first. This is good and all, but it's not nearly enough for me to be able to have sex…sorry, make love to you."

"Great. We can eat now and then again later." He stood up and put out his hand. While she knew that the man was insatiable, she was too. There was just too much on her mind right now to race to bed. Standing up with his help, he pulled her up into his body and kissed her with so much passion that she was overwhelmed by it. And that got her to thinking.

"We don't do that enough." He asked her what she meant, that he kissed her all the time. "Yes, you do. But it's been a while since it was passionate like that. I know that we make love all the time and kiss during it, but when was the last time either of us simply pulled each other into our arms, or me, you for that matter, and showed with just our mouths how much we love each other. I bet a lot of people have forgotten that they need to do that, too."

"I love you. And you're right. I think that after all this time, we sort of forget about passion. I love you so much, Lexy Tate. And will until the end of time." They raced one another to the bedroom.

He stood near the bed and was naked before she was. His cock was the first thing she noticed because he was incredibly hard and straining from his groin. When she reached for him, he took a step back and took a deep breath.

"I'm going to bite you when we come. I'm going to mark you as mine. All right?" Was he kidding? She didn't care at this point if he tore her throat out so long as he was inside of her. She nodded.

He lifted her up and took her mouth. Her body was molded to his as he took them back to the bed, and his mouth was voracious. His tongue, soft and smooth, now touched deep and tangled with her own over and over. His hands tore at her clothes, and she at his flesh.

When he took her nipple into his mouth, she cried out, lifting herself up to him to give her all to him. When his cock was at her entrance, she moved and shifted around until she felt his crown fill her. Moving again, she tried to take him all.

He tore his mouth from her breast and looked down at her. "I know you need me right now, but I don't believe I've ever been this hard before. Darling, I love you. And I need to fill you."

"Please. Please take me." He punched hard into her. She screamed out in pain and held him. When he didn't move, she looked up at him. Christ, she could see his concern but his lust as well. It was almost too much and not nearly enough. "Take me."

"I'm so sorry I hurt you, but I have never needed you this much before. I swear to you I'll make it better for you next time, but I need to come inside of you." When he moved again, it was slow and easy. "I'll make it up to you, baby."

She felt her body adjust to his. His cock was thicker than she was used to from him, but he wasn't hurting her anymore. She rolled her hips up to take more of him when he licked along her throat. Every part of her body, including she was sure her hair, felt it. Moving her head for him, she felt his teeth as they grazed along her skin. Digging her nails into his back to encourage him to do it, she felt his teeth at her ear lobe. All the while, he was moving in and out of her slowly, steadily.

"You're going to come when I bite you. Come very hard. I can hardly wait to taste you. Lick my tongue into your pussy and drink you." Her hands moved to his chest, and she flicked her nail over his nipple. "Christ, do that again."

She did and drew blood. But instead of feeling bad for hurting him, she found that she wanted to taste him. Lifting her head, she licked the droplet and then covered her mouth over the tiny wound and suckled.

Her climax tore through her, but before she could throw back her head and scream with it, Jeremiah held her to his chest and took her hard. Then he sank his teeth into her neck.

The climax screamed through her body, taking her up and over a crest so high she saw stars behind her closed lids. Even as he lapped at her skin and her his, he pounded into her, over and over. Then he stiffened and lifted his head. As he snarled, she looked up and saw her blood on his chin, his teeth longer than before stained with it. She took his injured nipple again in her mouth and bit him as hard as she could and cried out when her mouth filled with his blood. As she swallowed, she knew that something had happened, something neither of them had expected. As the darkness took her, she thought he told her he loved her.

When she woke, she was alone in the big bed. Not that she cared right now. Even if he had been in bed with her, she would have begged him not to move. Her pores hurt she was so sore, but she could feel a smile on her face that she knew was because of him. Sitting up, she finally made her way to the shower and turned it on to the hottest setting.

She knew that Jeremiah had been in the shower recently. As the floor was still damp, and the hot water came out of the shower head faster than before. After getting dressed, she left their bedroom and had a funny thought. She wondered if they had made the camper rock and would have to ask him about it.

Not only was Jeremiah not in the kitchen, but he didn't seem to be anywhere in the camper. Reaching out to him, he asked her to come to the lions' cage with him and she made her way there. After a few minutes, she was standing in front of one of the larger cages and was surprised to smell blood. It wasn't until she saw the little cub that she took a deep breath.

"Oh, she's beautiful. Look at her tiny paws." She asked permission to hold the cub and the momma, not a shifter, but her mate nodded her approval. "Oh, you're a good momma, Tawny. She's so fat and healthy."

"They want us to take her under our wings when we leave here." She was only half listening to Jeremiah. "Honey, she can't keep her." That got her attention.

"Why?" She looked from Leo, her mate who was human right now, to the momma. "I don't understand. Why can't she keep her with her?"

"This isn't a good place to raise a child. Especially a shifter cub. For the first year, she'll have no control over shifting, and they're afraid that she'll shift around humans, and that would be really bad." She could see that but wasn't happy about separating a mom and her child. "Honey, she'll come with us. The baby won't be alone. The two of them will be with the leap on our lands, and we'll raise her to be a human. Along with the other shifters in the leap."

"But she'll come with us, Tawny, I mean. She'll be there with us, too." He hesitated just long enough that she was worried. "Tell me. I need to know what you're dancing around."

"Tawny is twenty-three years old. She was actually thought to be too old to have a child. As you can imagine, it's been hard on her." She asked him to tell her again. "Tawny is dying. The birth took too much out of her, and with her age, it was too much on her heart. That's why she wants us to take care that her cub is well-versed in being a shifter."

"No. No, I won't have it." The big lioness put her large paw on her hands while she still held her child. "No, Tawny. You can't die. You're the best thing that has ever happened to this circus. You've been here forever. I won't allow you to die."

That got a laugh, sort of a snort from the lioness. When she lifted her head, Lexy could see how much that little movement cost her. Putting her forehead on hers, scratching her behind the ears as she cried. Lexy assured her that she would watch her child like her own. And that she was ever so proud that she let her and Jeremiah be a part of her life.

It was, she thought, the hardest thing she'd ever done. Telling Tawny that she'd only allow her to die if she waited until they got her home again. Shaking her head, feeling her pain all the way to her heart, Tawny laid back on the fresh hay that was in her pen and closed her eyes. In no time at all, she was gone.

Joel came with the rest of the family to pick her up. She'd be buried on the land that was used for the leap, and a lovely headstone would tell all that came upon it how Tawny had been a showgirl and that she'd been all over the world dancing into the hearts of all the people that had met her. Without mentioning the child, the headstone would only say that she was the best there was, too.

When she was gone, her child in the arms of one of the leap ladies, she was loaded onto the private jet that would take her back to Ohio. Lexy sat and cried for over an hour at the loss of one so wonderful. The two of them had performed together over the last few years, and she was glad for the photos that had been taken so that she'd be able to remember their time together.

By the next night, they were setting up in another town. The tent was put up, and things went on like the death had never occurred. It hurt her so much that she wanted to scream at the laughing people that a good-hearted cat had passed on. Jeremiah stood under the lights before the show and cleared his throat.

"Today, we lost a great member of our cast. Tawny passed away earlier this morning and has been taken back to her home. She will be greatly missed." He asked for a moment to reflect on her passing, and there wasn't a dry eye on the tent. After that, the lions that were left, most of them shifters, bowed down to the audience before the show went on. Those words, the show must go on, meant more to her in that moment than they had ever meant before.

The next day, the local paper ran a full-page article about the loss and people from all over the world sent their condolences. Some even sent money for the burial and headstone. So much love and support that she was sure that she would remember this forever. She knew that she would Tawny.

The flowers too that came were used in the shows. They also were able to give away some of the planters. There wasn't any way that they'd be able to keep them as they traveled. Also, a few of the larger donations sent vouchers for trees to be planted in her memory. Lexy thought that that had been the best gifts. She could see herself taking the little cub to visit the trees and then talk about her mom.

The fruit was enjoyed by everyone in the circus. Some of the larger animals got a good portion of the fruits with their nightly meals. She came upon Leo washing one of the hippos that was a shifter too, and him talking to him. Lexy didn't have long to think about if Leo knew that he was talking to another shifter like himself.

"Ben, you know that I don't mind giving you a bath right now, but you have to know that I'm not all here tonight. Why did you think that you needed a nice cleanup right now?" He must have answered him because Leo laughed. "All right. I guess I can see that, too. Wouldn't want your pretty face all messing with tear stains. Yes, I can see that. You're a good friend, you know. And probably just what I needed about now. I'm surely going to miss my missus."

Several years ago, about a decade now, Ben had found his mate. But the issue was, she'd been married to someone else at the time, and he stepped back. It was a small wonder that he knew just what to do for Leo. Giving the big animal a scrub-up, what he called it, got both of them out of their funk.

Even though they were of different species, they were men who had lost a great deal. Lexy backed out of the tent they were in and set off to find her own mate. She wanted a hug in the worst sort of way.