Beside him, Vince grunted and cursed as he reversed the long trailer back up the bumpy dirt road.
“I told you we should’ve confirmed the location before hauling ass all the way down here,” Sawyer said cheerfully. Vince cursed even more, his clown face screwed up in annoyance. He was a bear as well, but he’d long since given up on washing his grease paint off in between shows, so it stayed, smeared and caked into the lines of his skin, and flaking off, ready to scare the hell out of anyone foolish enough to peer inside his rig. The plain t-shirt and jeans he always wore only added to the fright-night effect, and more than once, gas station attendants had called the cops on them, thinking he was about to pull a hold-up.
It took a long, long time to get back up to the main road, and by the time they arrived, the other nine trailers were causing a long traffic tailback.
“Next right,” Sawyer said, and Vince huffed as he hauled the steering wheel around and they pulled into the abandoned camp ground. They parked up on the far side, and the other semis followed them, coiling around until they formed a large circle around the perimeter of the site. Sawyer opened the door of the cab and jumped down. “Not bad at all,” he called, stretching luxuriously, before bounding across the bald, deeply rutted earth, testing its give. At least it was generally flat. The heavy groundsheet would fix the worst of it. And they had a water source and power points. It was luxury compared to some of the places they’d set up.
The doors of all the other cabs and trailers opened, and a variety of people and animals streamed out. Bouncing, yelling, groaning, complaining. Lions and tigers stretched their huge jaws in giant, roaring yawns. Goats capered about. A couple of wolves rolled on their backs on the earth.
Sawyer loved the moment of arrival. This was his family, his clan. This gloriously incongruous mix of shifters, who had come together from all walks of life, some escaping suffering, some rejection, some tedious lives, but all united by their passion for performing and living a nomadic life on the road. And for him, personally, it was also a moment full of hope that this new town would be the place where he’d finally solve the jigsaw puzzle of his past, and find the answers to all of those questions which had been torturing him for years.
But then he let off a rumbling groan at the sight of flashing red and blue lights in the distance.
“One day we’ll arrive on site, put up the tent, and no-one’ll get their panties in a twist,” Melina commented, coming to stand beside him. She was a tall, lithe leopard shifter, with long, braided red hair.
“I guess creating a twenty-car tailback didn’t do a lot for our reputation.”
“Whose fool idea was it to go driving all the way down that road anyways?”
“I’ll give you a clue: it wasn’t mine.” She rolled her eyes.
“There’s no arguing with Old Clownface.”
“There isn’t.” Sawyer put two fingers in his mouth and gave a piercing whistle. Instantly, all the animals stopped cavorting around and ran back into the trailers.
A Sheriff got out of his car and strode toward them. Sawyer and Melina adopted their professional smiles and loped over to greet him, until he withdrew a gun from his holster. They stopped dead, hands in the air.
“There’s no need for that, officer,” Sawyer called.
“We ain’t hurting nobody,” Melina added.
“I hope y’all have got a good reason to be here.”
“Sure we do. But it’s in my pocket.” Sawyer nodded his head toward his shirt pocket. The sheriff kept his gun trained on them both while he stepped forward and snatched the piece of paper from his breast pocket with a jerky, watchful motion. He scanned it fast, his eyes darting back to them every other second, and his eyebrows creeping further and further up his forehead. At last, he holstered his gun.
‘Whew, my arms were sure getting tired up there,” Melina quipped. “They won’t thank me when I’m hanging off the trapeze later.” Sawyer elbowed her.
“Everything seems to be in order. Looks like you all have got a license to stay right through the season. But see to it that there’s no trouble here. The townsfolk aren’t known for their hospitality to strangers.”
“That’s because they haven’t seen the Moonrise Wonderland Circus before.” Melina performed a lightning-quick cartwheel that made the sheriff blink, as if he wasn’t sure whether he’d seen it or not.
“I’m serious, young lady. Watch your step around here. You may have traveled all over the country, but I can guarantee you that you’ve never been in a town like this before.” He nodded to them both, then went back to his car and drove off.
“What does that mean?” Melina said.
“It’s an isolated community, but I’m sure it means nothing; just that the grass is always greener on the other side,” Sawyer replied with a smile.
“Oh, Sawy, why are you always getting us bookings out in the boonies? I’m a simple girl. I like to ride lions and do my aerial show. I don’t want to get shot up by a bunch of rednecks who’ve never seen an outsider before.”
“I have my reasons. And unless I’m mistaken, we’ve already got one of the locals onside. Come on, let’s get to work.” As he turned back to the trailers, several heads were already peeking out of the doors, seeing whether it was safe to emerge.
Sawyer opened the door of his trailer and slipped inside to pick up his maps. He did feel guilty for insisting that the circus always performed in obscure towns, but people came from far and wide to see them, and they always wound up selling out.
Recently, though, he’d begun to grow despondent that he’d ever find his answers. It had been three long years that he’d been booking slots in small towns around the north-western territory, desperately hoping that someone would recognize the name of the circus, and remember something. But no-one ever did. Most of the locals were curious, a few unfriendly, but they all greeted the circus with surprise. Right now, Mistletoe Hollow looked to be another wasted spot. And he had lied to Melina. The place wasn’t just isolated and unfriendly; there seemed to be something unusually dark about it too, just like the sheriff was saying.
“Fantastic choice for the Christmas season, Hunterville,” he muttered to himself.
He opened the local area map on his dining table. The clan hunted all of their meat, and he needed to find the safest, most convenient wood to hunt in. There was a forest leading right off the camp ground, in the opposite direction from the town. Perfect. He strode out of the cabin and headed over to the wolves’ trailer. For the next two days, it’d be their job to supply all the meat to the camp, and then another group of shifters would take over.
As Sawyer stepped outside, he was glad to see that his deputy, Flint, had already gotten the trailers’ power cables rigged up to the main electricity point, and lights were showing in the windows. Things generally worked smoothly in the camp. When he’d inherited leadership a few years back, it had been a different story, marked by chaos and constant bickering and in-fighting, but he’d successfully marshalled everyone, assigning duties on rotation so everyone shared responsibility for everything, and there was no reason for anybody to get resentful of anybody else. He was liked and well respected by his clan, and that made it a lot easier to get things done.
The wolves received their directions gladly and loped off in pack formation for their hunt. As usual, the bears were tasked with the heavy work – setting up the floodlights and putting up the big top. They were already waiting for him beside the trailer that held the tent poles and canvas – eight huge, powerful shifters, in their human forms. They quickly agreed on the best location for the central pole of the big top – smack in the center of the site – and got to work.
Next, Sawyer went and checked on the felines, who he’d put in charge of setting up all the lighting for the inside of the tent, as well as the decorative strings of colorful lights that would illuminate the big top from far and wide, enticing people to come and check it out. The clowns were helping out too. They were a mix of shifters, b
ut they always hung out together, endlessly testing their jokes and tricks on one another. Lastly, he checked on the herbivores, who prepared all the cooked food, both for the clan to eat, and to be sold to the customers. A goat and two rabbit shifters were in the food truck, chopping up potatoes and cooking pots of chili on the stove.
When he was satisfied that everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing, he and Flint went into the woods to gather firewood for the barbecues and the camp fire.
A half hour later, they had enough, and they joined the guys working on the big top.
“First place we’ve been in a while where the wind’s not trying to blow the tent away,” Flint commented as they forced the long tent poles deep into the ground.
“True. Sure makes a difference,” Sawyer replied, distracted by his thoughts of the upcoming performances. For the Christmas season, they wouldn’t be doing their usual show, which every member of the clan knew by heart. They were doing a brand-new, festive extravaganza, and they’d only just agreed on the structure, and all the performers were still rehearsing, with only three days to go until they opened. Time would be very tight, but the sooner the tent was up, the sooner they could start rehearsing.
He gazed into the distance, at the little run-down town at the bottom of the hill. There was something else playing on his mind too. Even if Mistletoe Hollow was the place he’d been looking for, he sensed that the town wasn’t going to make it easy for him to find out the truth. But maybe if he could find that girl again, the one that had uncoiled such a sudden and startling desire in him, he could ask for her help. He had to be careful though, seeing how gorgeous she was. His bear was already coming up with all sorts of thoughts, but he couldn’t afford to get attached; he was on his mission and he had to keep moving until he found the answers to all of his questions.
3
Harlow knew better than to mention the circus to Carly again, but for the rest of the afternoon, she couldn’t get it out of her head. Every time she whispered the word to herself, someone seemed to light a firecracker inside her. A certain someone with jet black hair and a sexy, slightly lopsided grin.
After work, she selected some bread from the day’s leftovers, then she stopped at the butcher’s for some meat, and then the green grocer’s for some vegetables, before going home to cook dinner for her father and herself, as she did every day. It had just been the two of them for as long as she could remember. She didn’t have a mom. And she didn’t even know why. Every attempt to find out what had happened to her, from either her father or the village elders had hit a brick wall. It was as if her mom had never existed. It was just another secret in a village full of mysteries, but she was her mother, and she had the right to know what’d happened to her.
Her father usually came home as she was putting the final touches to dinner, tired from a day’s woodcutting. He was often grumpy, and he said very little, but she never gave up on conversation, and while they ate she chattered enough for the both of them. They shared a small, two-bedroom cabin, with a sitting area and an open kitchen. Harlow had worked hard in the last months at fixing it up in the hope that the cozy winter atmosphere would bring him some happiness and encourage him to be more social. But so far, it wasn’t working. Even though she’d piled up logs in the fire, cracking and hissing as they filled the room with a delicious warm glow, he still heaved himself up from the dinner table after reading the paper for a half hour and retired to his bedroom. As always, the door closed, and thirty seconds later, the drone of the TV started up.
Harlow curled up in a chair and started to read a brand-new romance. She usually loved reading, but tonight she couldn’t concentrate, and her thoughts kept flickering back to the circus truck, and the very alluring man who’d been sitting inside it. Were they really setting up on the camp ground? That whole area was dead. No-one ever even passed it, as far as she knew. How were they going to get anyone to visit it? Maybe Sawyer had gotten confused and it was a different Mistletoe Hollow altogether.
At last, her curiosity got the better of her. She got up, pulled on an extra sweater, wrapped herself up in her coat and a scarf, and went outside. The wind was blowing hard, as usual, and there was no-one about in the town. She walked across to the far side of the square, and slipped down a narrow alley between two cabins. The town was built from a combination of cabins and trailers. The cabins were mostly dilapidated, with rotting walls, patched up with odd bits of wood by their owners, without a lot of skill or effort. And some of the trailers were in bad shape, dented or crumpled from being in traffic accidents, some with plastic sheeting over the windows, or warped doors that didn’t close properly They’d been picked up cheap, or rescued from dumps. It’s like people just don’t care here, she thought, recalling Carly’s words.
She crept through a bunch of trailers, before she came to a small, well-maintained one. It was old, older than most, but its owner had taken care of it. It even had two window boxes, filled with evergreen plants, and a welcome mat in front of the steps. She rapped on the door, and a second later Rebecca swung the door open, her face lighting up when she saw it was Harlow.
“Come in quick,” she said, and Harlow ran up the steps and closed the door behind herself, instantly being engulfed in cinnamon-scented warmth. Rebecca’s was her favorite home in the whole town, but tonight, she didn’t have time to relax and enjoy it.
“Do you want to come with me to find out whether the circus is really setting up on the camp ground?” she said, taking her hands. Rebecca’s big, syrup-brown eyes widened.
“But – why?”
“Why not? What were you doing right now?” Rebecca shrugged.
“Nothing. Watching a movie.”
“Exactly. Come on. I have to find out if they’re there. I haven’t been able to think about anything else tonight. You know what my curiosity does to me sometimes!” Rebecca laughed.
“So where do I come into it?”
“You’ll be my partner in crime! It will be fun. Please!” Rebecca sighed, fiddling with a lock of her black, corkscrew curls.
“Okay, but only because you’re my best friend.” She stepped into her tiny bedroom and pulled on some more layers, followed by her coat, and they set out.
“How do we even get there?” Rebecca said between chattering teeth as they walked to the center of the town, moving fast to keep themselves warm.
“There’s a track I remember from when I was a kid. We need to cut up this bank here, then hopefully I’ll remember the way.” Harlow headed off, scrambling up the muddy bank, and Rebecca followed.
It got very dark away from the lights of the town, but after ten minutes of walking, they found an old wooden signpost.
“What does it say?” Rebecca said.
“I can’t see. But I think it says ‘camp ground this way’,” Harlow replied, her excitement a tightening ball in her stomach. They were now on higher ground, and when they looked back at the village it seemed to be far below them, its lights looking pretty at a distance.
“That’s weird. I hadn’t realized we’re on such low ground.”
“Me neither,” Rebecca replied. “And do you notice something else?”
“What?”
Rebecca opened her coat. “There’s no wind, and it’s not cold here.” Harlow unfastened her zippers and buttons, then gasped.
“You’re right. Maybe the wind just dropped.” Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“Girl, the wind never drops. Not for the last 20 years, anyways!”
“You’re right. Weird.”
They continued walking and in another hundred yards, they spotted some lights in the distance.
“That’s it!” Harlow clutched Rebecca’s arm and began to pull her along.
“Let go of me, you lunatic!” Rebecca shouted, laughing. They passed through a small thicket of trees, and suddenly, the lights got a lot brighter, and they could see that the whole area was illuminated with floodlights. There was a bunch of trailers, and piles of long metal po
les, and a huge amount of canvas sheeting. “It is the circus!” They stopped under a tree and looked at the scene in front of them.
“There’s the truck.” Rebecca pointed to the red semi from before, with a long trailer behind it, painted in brightly-colored lettering.
“Moonrise Wonderland Christmas Circus,” Harlow read. “Just like he told us.”
“They’ve definitely come to the wrong place,” Rebecca said. Christmas was banned in Windy Hollow, as was Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and elaborate birthday celebrations. One year just ticked on into another, with only the turning seasons to mark the passage of time. “Do you think they know that?”
“Someone’s granted them a permit to set up here.”
“But who?” They both shrugged. No-one in their town, that was for sure.
“Let’s get a little closer.” There was a trailer directly in front of them, also painted in bright colors, its edges illuminated with a string of purple lights. They crept up to it, using it for cover, then peered around the side.
“I see people!” Harlow whispered. As they watched, a whole bunch of people emerged from one of the trailers and walked over to the metal poles and canvas sheeting. They were laughing and joking. Some were skipping along and turning cartwheels, some were dressed in oversized, brightly colored costumes, their faces painted black and white. They got into groups and started working at the poles and canvas. “They’re putting the tent up.”
The two of them watched in fascination as the circus people measured out the space, hammered giant pegs into the ground, and bored deep holes for the poles.
A man appeared from a trailer on the opposite side of the site and walked over to the tent, calling something, which was greeted with laughs and whoops. He was tall and densely built, but he moved in long, athletic strides.
“It’s Sawyer,” Harlow whispered, clutching at Rebecca’s arm. “Seems like he’s the boss. Come on, I want to get a bit closer.”
Shiftr: Swipe Left For Love (Nash) BBW Wolf Shifter Romance (Hope Valley BBW Dating App Romance Book 10) Page 14