Chapter Fifteen

 

Jess arrived in the tent a few minutes later, breathless from exertion, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from her face.

“Jessie,” Katie called softly. “Look who’s home.”

She looked over, stared for a moment, then turned tail and stalked from the tent.

“Typical,” Katie said. “Let me talk to her. She was really angry when you took off. When we thought you’d taken off. Dad should be out in a minute. Wait here for him, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, watching after Jess, unable to hide the hurt he felt.

Jerry was still staring at him, his magazine forgotten.

“I’ll get you some food,” he said, jumping to his feet. “Irish stew tonight.”

If there was one thing he’d missed, it was their home-cooked food.

“Thanks, Jerry,” he said, taking a seat and watching the curtain for his father’s return. He wasn’t sure why he felt so nervous. Once he’d explained everything, once they understood that he hadn’t just taken off on a whim, things would be better.

When his father finally came inside, followed closely by his assistant, Reid, Tristan got to his feet.

“Hi, Dad,” he said.

His father’s reaction was almost worse than Katie and Jess’, a look of complete and utter shock crossing his face as he paled.

“Tristan?” He seemed to recover quickly. “You’re back.”

“Yeah, I… I didn’t run away, Dad. This shifter took me, sold me to these…”

“Are you pregnant?” his father barked. “Bonded?”

“No,” he hastened to say. “Nothing like that.”

“Got tired of you, did he, your alpha boyfriend? Sent you packing.”

“What? No! I… There was no alpha. There was a shifter, he stole me, locked me in the back of a van and sold me…”

His father waved that off. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve always told tall tales, since you were a boy. Don’t you think it’s time you grew out of that? Accepted responsibility for your actions.”

“Dad…” He didn’t know what to say to that. Why wouldn’t anyone believe him? “They locked me up in a room in the dark for days. There were guards keeping us there, they soldered metal cuffs to our ankles to stop us from shifting. There was barbed wire on the walls…”

His father swallowed and looked away. “Well, you’re back now. That’s what matters. We should tell your sisters—”

“We’ve been told,” Katie said, breezing back into the tent, Jess trailing her.

Jess walked right up to him, looking him up and down. “You look… pale. And thin. Didn’t they feed you in that place?”

“There was food. It wasn’t good, but it was edible. But they weren’t big on exercise or outdoors time.”

She pulled him into a hug. “I can feel the bones of your spine. We’ll have to feed you up.”

“We should all have dinner, catch up,” Katie added. “There’s time before the second show.”

It all felt wrong, the conversation stilted, like he was out of step somehow, moving to a different beat. He’d imagined this in his head a hundred times, and it had always gone differently. They’d be happy to see him, there’d be hugs, laughter, tears. And they’d promise that they never gave up looking for him. The truth, and their anger, was a very bitter pill to swallow.

The stew wasn’t the same as he remembered. It tasted thin, watered down almost, reminding him forcefully of meals in the breeder house.

At first, he just ate and listened, hearing all the news he’d missed. Who’d left, who’d arrived. But gradually the conversation came around to the future.

“I’ll need some time to train back up,” he said. “A few weeks at least before I’ll be able to get back out there.” There was only so much he’d been able to do in the dormitory, particularly when the guards were not fans of his acrobatics.

“There’s no rush,” his father said.

“But the show must go on, right? And I’ve missed it. How is the new performance for the spring looking?” When he’d left, they’d just been putting it together. It was, without a doubt, their most ambitious show yet.

“It has come together nicely,” his father replied, with a nod to Jess and Katie.

“I was so close to perfecting that double flip side swing,” he said with regret, remembering the hours of practice he’d put in. “Here’s hoping muscle memory doesn’t let me down so I’ll be ready by spring.”

There was an awkward silence.

“We had to make changes, Tristan,” his father started to say, “when you lef—disappeared. We took on Mario, an alpha from Cheever’s pack. He and Jess are mated, and he’s headlining our new act.”

“Oh. Wow. Congratulations, Jess.” They’d never had an alpha acrobat before. “Well, I guess you could just run through the show with me and figure out where to slot me in.”

There was another painfully awkward silence.

“The show has been finalized, Tristan. Practices are well underway. Everyone knows their part. There’s no space for another performer.”

“But I—” He’d always been in the show. From childhood, there had always been a part for him.

“We’ll find something else to keep you occupied, don’t worry,” his father added, sounding distant.

“Performing is my life. It’s all I’ve ever done. How can you just take that away like it’s nothing?”

His father stood. “Oh, don’t make such a fuss, Tristan. You were good, but you were never great. Mario is. He’s the star who will lead our pack on the path to success.”

“You should see him, Tris,” Jess added. “Watching him perform, it’s effortless, breathtaking.”

He set his plate down, his appetite deserting him.

“You know, I’m really tired. I might go bed down.” He got to his feet, ready to head to their family trailer, where he had a small compartment to himself.

“There’ll be space in the worker’s tent,” his father said.

When he glanced at Katie and Jess in confusion, Jess gave an apologetic shrug. “Mario and I are in mine and Katie’s old room. Katie’s in yours.”

There was a pull-out bed in the living room of their trailer, but no one offered it. Too tired and blindsided, he didn’t argue.

“Goodnight.”

“’Night, Tris,” Katie called after him. “It’s good to have you home.”

As he stumbled his way to the tent where the seasonal workers slept, he saw a group of performers clustered around an alpha he’d never seen before wearing a costume that complimented Jess and Katie’s. Mario, he guessed. The alpha looked up, caught his eye, and gave him a once-over before smirking.

Tristan just turned his gaze away and hurried off.

The worker’s tent was still mostly empty, so he grabbed a blanket and bedroll, picked a corner near the door and settled down. But when he tried to sleep, his mind just wouldn’t settle down. Every word he’d heard since his return played over and over in his head. The recriminations, the rejection, the clear message that he’d been replaced. And even that didn’t make sense. A guy like Mario didn’t just fall from the sky. He was trained in another circus. No one walked away from that, not even for the promise of a mate like his sister. Unless his pack split or had a glut of talent. And then there was the other thing bothering him. What Katie had said about his stuff being packed up. It made no sense.

After nearly two hours of tossing and turning, he got up and went to find his father. If someone had packed up his stuff the same night he’d been taken, then either they’d been watching the pack very closely or someone in the pack was in on it. Not impossible as they took in seasonal workers every year. If that was the case, he wanted to know who it was. Like as not, they’d moved on to other circuses and would try again when they found another target. He didn’t want anyone else to end up in the position he had.

He was almost at the family trailer when he noticed there were still lights on in the performer's tent, even though the show was long over. That was where he’d find his father after hours, talking business with Reid. He heard their voices as he reached the tent flap, carrying in the night air despite the fact that they were making an effort to be quiet. He was about to push inside when he heard his name.

“If they find out Tristan’s back, there’ll be hell to pay.”

That was his father, sounding as stressed as Tristan had ever heard him.

“Do they need to know? Couldn’t we hush it up?”

“He escaped. They must know he’s missing by now. The first place they’ll look is here. We need to get ahead of this before they start demanding their money back.”

“Can’t get blood from a stone,” Reid said. “And people will talk if Tristan vanishes a second time after the story he’s been telling.”

“You’re right. But we don’t want the kind of trouble this will bring. Word is spreading. People are already asking questions. I’m doing my best to make out that we think Tristan’s lying to cover his stupidity in chasing after some alpha who only wanted him for one thing. If he disappears again, we can play it off that he left in a huff after he realized Mario had replaced him. They’ll believe that.”

“How are you going to contact the guy you sold him to?”

“I have his number. If it still works, I’ll call him tonight, arrange for Tristan to disappear during tomorrow’s performance when everyone is distracted.”

Tristan had been standing there too long. Laughter nearby broke his paralysis, and he stumbled backward. It couldn’t be true what they were saying. It sounded like his father had—No, they were pack, they were circus. They were family. You didn’t sell out your family, literally or figuratively. And yet, the look of shock on his father’s face made all the more sense. There was a good reason he hadn’t expected to see Tristan again. And suddenly, Mario’s arrival wasn’t all that strange. A deal where significant money changed hands could see an alpha of his talent move from one pack to another.

Blindly, he walked back toward the worker’s tent, stopping before he reached it. He couldn’t risk staying, not now he knew. His father wouldn’t make contact with the broker, he was certain of that. But the breeder house had known where he was from. If any part of their operation was still functioning, they might come for him. And now he knew his father wouldn’t stand in their way. Or—his heart squeezed tightly in fear at the thought—his father might sell him again. It seemed he wasn’t the priceless son he’d always told Tristan he was.

He spun around and started walking toward the outskirts of their camp.

“Tris?”

He ignored the call, hearing footsteps running after him.

“Tris!” A hand caught his shoulder, stopping him. It was Katie.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “It’s late and cold. Come on, you can bunk in with me.”

There was no way to hide his anguish or his suspicion.

“Did you know?” he asked. “Were you in on it too? Or was it just Dad and Jess?”

She stared at him. “What are you talking about? In on what?”

“Was Dad the one who told you I’d run away? Was he the one who told you I’d gone chasing after an alpha?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “When you weren’t there the next day, your bed hadn’t been slept in, and your stuff was gone, I went to Dad first thing. He said you’d been distracted for a few weeks, that you’d mentioned that alpha in Cherry Grove a few times, and he guessed you’d decided you wanted out.”

“It must have been Dad who packed up my things,” he said, mostly to himself. “I wonder what he did with them.”

“No,” Katie said. “Why would he have done that?”

“To convince you that I’d run away. So no one would think that I’d been abducted. So no one would look for me.”

“But Tris…”

“I heard him, Katie. Just now, talking to Reid. Worrying about how the broker he sold me to is going to be looking for his money back if he finds out I’m here.”

“Dad would never—”

“Dad did. How do you think the pack afforded an alpha like Mario? I know you think the world of Jess but even she isn’t enough of an inducement for a performer of his caliber to leave his own pack.”

Tradition dictated that an alpha stayed with his pack and his mate joined him there. Bucking tradition happened but rarely.

“That can’t be true,” she said again.

“Yeah? Believe what you like. I know what I heard, and I know what happened to me. And I’m not waiting around for Dad to figure out he can sell me again and get paid twice.”

He went to walk away, his gaze firmly on the fence in the distance.

“Tris, wait.”

He stopped, bracing himself for her words.

“Here, take this,” she said. He turned to find her holding out a small wad of cash. “It’s all I have, but it’s better than nothing.”

He hesitated only a moment before taking it from her and stuffing it into his pocket.

“Thanks,” he mumbled awkwardly. “I need to get going. Maybe I’ll send you a postcard or something, when I’m settled.”

Her arms wrapped tightly around him, the hug everything he needed and something he desperately didn’t want to walk away from.

This was supposed to be his family, his home, and his pack. Now it was twisted beyond all recognition, hopelessly torn into pieces he couldn’t even begin to put back together. Before he could let himself get lost in her warm embrace, he pulled back, turned, and walked away.