Freakshow

Chapter Twenty Four

"I think the only way you'll believe me is to see it," Cairo said that night after we'd snuck out together.

Orion knew of course, I was fully aware of this fact. Orion knew we were meeting up, and he knew there wasn't much that he could do about it.

Or perhaps there was, and I was vastly underestimating his control. At this point I didn't know or care, I just wanted Cairo.

"You mean show me yourself as a wolf?" I laughed openly, still not entirely sure I believed him.

"Yes, exactly," he said.

We were sitting in the stands inside the main performance tent. I was straddling him, he had his arms around my waist and we'd spent the better portion of an hour just making out like teenagers.

I loved it, the way he held me when he wanted me, his fingers digging into me, seeking purchase on my body, clinging to me like a mountain climber on a cliff face...knowing that one slip would mean he fell to his death.

It was incredibly sexy, feeling like falling away from me would mean his death, he needed me with the ferocity that I needed him.

And the pleasure, my god, the pleasure.

Kissing him, nipping him, his tongue and teeth on me. No pain, but I almost came when he bit my neck or held my throat in his hand and squeezed gently.

"Where can we do it?" I asked, "and I thought you had to wait until the full moon."

"Not with you around," he smiled, "I don't know what the fuck you are, Liv, but every day I'm near you I feel the bond with my pack leader growing thinner and thinner. You've given me control over my own body, you've given me the ability to dictate when I shift. I don't think you quite yet understand how fucking profound that is."

"I really don't," I laughed and kissed him. I understood on some level that I was able to wrestle away his power from Orion, but on another level, I couldn't feel what difference it was. So it meant little to me.

"Let's go out back, into the big field. I want to do it in the open, it's easier that way," he said.

"Why do you think that is?"

"It's so much easier to do anything when I can touch the soil. It has to do with our connection to the earth, the energies of the planet and such. But, like most people these days, I know the how of things but not the why. A lot of information has been lost to us over the generations, so don't take my word for it."

"Now that I understand," I said shyly.

"What?"

"Touching the earth. I can feel those energies, I just never knew anybody else could, especially my werewolf boyfriend."

"Shifter, it's different. And you can feel them?" he asked, startled. He pulled back and looked at me, as if scanning me for humour or deception.

"I can," I said and looked down at my scarred arms. Pale criss crossed patterns were all that reminded me of the many extreme injuries I'd suffered over the years. "Most people with my condition have horrible lives. They are prone to really bad accidents and injuries."

"And you aren't somehow?"

"I am. But I heal fast."

"That might just be a metabolism thing."

"No, I was trained from an early age to touch the ground when I needed to fix something in my body. I can pin point what's damaged, and I can draw what I need to patch it up."

"You were?" Cai asked, surprise in his voice. "Who taught you?"

"My Grandma. My mother's mother. She told me many times that this condition was normal in our family, her own older sister had the same thing when they were growing up. She'd always been told that the only way to combat it was with earth energies."