Carnival of Hearts: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance by Scarlett Rhone

met that very night, one of the guests of the carnival. She’d been thirteen and he’d come with his family but got bored and wandered off, and she’d been manning the fun house door, collecting tickets. They’d locked eyes and Kat had felt a thrill right down to her toes, so she’d offered to go with him through the fun house. He had kissed her in the topsy-turvy room, an upside-down armchair drilled into the ceiling above her head. She’d run off as soon as it was over, afraid her father would just know somehow and the boy would get in trouble. She’d managed to lose her virginity a year ago by using Marcus’s tricks. She’d met another boy in Texas, where they’d spent two weeks, and the night before the carnival had left, she’d given herself to him in the back of his pickup truck. Not the most romantic first time—and it was as yet her only time—but it was another experience she’d felt as though she had to steal if she was ever going to have it. Mabel had covered for her that night, and had never asked her what she’d been doing. Or who.
    Those two boys had been normal, average in every way. The man in the cage was not even remotely normal, but Kat found herself drawn to him in a way she’d never felt before. It was exhilarating and terrifying and she knew she had to stop thinking about him, but her brain just wouldn’t cooperate. And then she saw her father walk in and head for the center of the sand, in the middle of the big top’s performance ring. He’d changed his clothes. Now he was wearing the black tailcoat that he wore when he wanted to look intimidating—it worked, every time.
    He was all tall, narrow muscles, broad-shouldered but lean, and the coattails plus the salt in his dark hair made him look distinguished and a little mean. Or perhaps he just was a little mean. Kat didn’t like thinking about that, though over the years, as they’d begun to fight like all parents and children, and her perceptions had begun to widen, she had started to see it. A darkness to him. And she’d never been brave enough to ask after its source, but she knew that it was not a thing that had lived in him forever. She knew that earlier in his life, he’d been a good man who did good things, and at some point that had changed. Mabel wouldn’t talk about it, and neither would Liam or Baptiste. And they were the only ones who had been with the carnival long enough to know.
    Now he stood before his people, and Kat was somewhat thankful for that darkness, and that meanness, because he used it to protect them all.
    “Liam is going to be all right,” he told them all, first and foremost.
    Kat felt her heartbeat gallop suddenly, thinking of how close they must have come to losing Liam if her father led with that.
    A chorus of questions answered him, the members of the carnival all chiming in around the room. Who were they? What did we do? Will they come back? Did you know we were in their territory? What can we do to protect ourselves? And on and on. Eventually, the Ringmaster held up his hands, and the members of the carnival reluctantly quieted.
    “I don’t know who they are,” D’Orfeo said sadly. “A wolf pack. I didn’t know we’d crossed into their territory. You all know how careful I try to be about that. And I don’t know if they’ll come back, but what I do know is that we are going to find them first .”
    A rumble of concern shifted through the crowd. D’Orfeo shook his head.
    “I won’t let this carnival be attacked for no reason without responding in kind. Fortunately, my own Kat managed to capture one of them. Baptiste is interrogating him as we speak, and with the information he gleans, we will be able to put together a safe counterattack. We’ll show them our strength, and that we are not going to be bullied, no matter where we are.”
    More raised voices from the carnival members, but this time in agreement. Some of them congratulated and thanked Kat herself. But Kat wasn’t