Page 177 of Galaxy Circus Act One

“Of course,” he agrees, and we move over to the long sectional.

Cas takes a seat on the end, but I make my way down the line, stopping first at Xavier and giving him a kiss before moving farther down to shuffle my butt between Saxon and Link. Turning to Saxon, I smile at my newest husband, still feeling the slight awkwardness of a new relationship.

“Hi, I missed you,” I tell him, and he leans in and nuzzles my neck, giving it a nip without breaking the skin before pulling away.

“I missed you too. Glad to see you’re okay after your swim.”

I feel my eyebrows jump in surprise. Leaning forward, I place my glass of wine on the table while I gather my thoughts. “You know about that?” I’m not sure if he’s talking about the mental breakdown or our krakens doing the beast with the two backs.

“Yes. I searched for you after I finished with Susie and Mark,” Link tells me.

“And the Aquilian merman messaged me to let me know.” Saxon has a confused little purse to his lips that makes me grin. Huh? The can of tuna has a surprisingly thoughtful side. Extremely surprising.

“I’m okay. I really needed the swim, and Cas joined me, and we let our beasts out to frolic. I’m feeling a lot more stable, and she seems to be satisfied for now.”

“Good, but I still want to do another full exam when we’re done here just to make sure.” My sexy doctor has the cutest little furrow between his silver eyebrows, and I just want to reach up and smooth it out, so I do. The frown drops, and his gaze turns from concerned to soft.

“I missed you too,” I whisper, moving a little closer and letting the rest of the background noise fade away. I hearCaspian ask Xavier and Saxon about the Aaz’axian, but I tune all that out so I can focus on the cyborg in front of me. “Cas is distracting the others so I can ask you a question.”

I take one of his hands in mine. It’s the arm with the display screen built into it, and I run my finger over it, marveling at the fact that there is a seamless join between it and his skin. You would think it would be obvious, but if my eyes were closed, I wouldn’t even know it was there. It is turned off at the moment and blank, so my fingers don’t activate any programs as I continue to caress his skin, awkwardly considering how to approach this topic without making too much of a fool out of myself. I know we discussed it earlier, and he said he was in, but I’m trying to make this official, a proposal I guess, and I just know I’m going to fuck it up.

“Lila, look at me.” Link places a finger under my chin and lifts it so I can’t avoid looking into his molten silver eyes. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Well, I just wanted to double-check that you want to be here. Like Eric said, this is a family meeting, and the other three are all destined to be my mate, but you actually get a choice. I know we’ve been seeing where this will take us, but Skarrians don’t really have a lot of options for prolonging the getting to know you part of the relationship unless we want to forgo sex, and from the way my body has been acting, we are highly sexual creatures, so I don’t really understand how we ended up with the five goes and then we’re bonded physiology.”

I’m rambling because I’m nervous, but he just sits there, giving me his full attention.

“I guess what I’m asking is—shit, I don’t know what I’m asking. My mind, which is firmly entrenched in human traditions, is telling me that it is too fucking soon to ask you to marry me, but fuck, I want to. My body, on the other hand, is riding me hard, insisting that you are ours and to rideyouhard. I guess I kind of need to know if you’re on board.” A sudden lump develops in my throat. “Because I guess if you’re not, I’m going to have to put an end to this relationship before my feelings develop even deeper, because I’m already in pretty deep.” I break off finally, getting everything out in one great big word dump.

Link has a perfect poker face, and I have no idea how he is feeling by looking at him. Right this moment, I can see the machine part of him vividly. It’s almost like he’s not even breathing, and my heart starts to race even harder. Fuck, he doesn’t want this.

I go to pull my hand out of his. “Gosh, I’m so sorry, I thought we might be on the same page.”

Just as I remove my hand, he clamps his down hard, stopping me from going anywhere. “We are. I’m sorry, but my emotions overloaded me, and I short-circuited for a moment and needed to reboot. Yes, yes, I will marry you,” he all but shouts before hauling me into his lap and kissing me hard.

I place my hand on his cheek, kissing him back just as hard, completely thrilled with his answer. Dropping my hand, I start to remove his shirt, desperate to get on with the bonding part of the evening, when a cleared throat penetrates my happiness, and I freeze. Holy fuck, I was going to seal this bond in front of my grandfathers. Seriously, someone needs to neuter me, because I’m like a horny dog humping everyone’s legs. I peel back from Link, releasing my hold on his shirt, feeling my face flame with embarrassment. I turn on his lap, staying on it so Eric and William don’t catch sight of the very prominent erection he is rocking.

My other mates are all smiling with amusement, but William’s eyebrow is cocked, and Eric’s arms are crossed, and neither of them look impressed. “Whoops, sorry,” I say.

William sighs. “It’s fine, we know what it’s like, but this conversation needs to be had first. Strange things have been happening, and in light of the situation, we need to brief your partners on everything.”

“Brief us on everything?” Xavier can’t hide the curiosity in his voice, and Eric waves a hand.

“Can you secure the room against listening ears?” he asks my warlock, who quickly complies. The seven of us are surrounded by a large, domed purple barrier.

“No one should be able to penetrate that,” Xavier assures us, and Eric and William exchange glances.

“Lila knows this, but the four of you need to know too. The Galaxy Circus is not just a diplomatic trade and peace keeping organization. The specific reason it was originally created was to guard the orb of power.” When I look at William as he explains our mission, I realize that he looks exhausted. In fact, both he and Eric look like the weight of the world is on them at the moment.

I feel Link’s entire body tense beneath me, and Saxon sits upright, completely at attention, like his military training just kicked into overdrive.

“Holy fuck,” Xavier mutters, and when I look at Cas, his blue skin has paled significantly.

“The Adams family are the guardians of the orb, and it has been in our possession since the end of the Una’s and Aaz’axian war. Lila will be the next guardian, and any of her mates will also be bound due to the nature of the arrangement. All of you will be in danger if this information gets out.”

The room is silent as we let the guys absorb this information.

“The oath of loyalty that the circus performers take when they join is somewhat of a smokescreen in that it is a spell that pledges their loyalty to us and doesn’t allow them to turn on usin the event that this knowledge becomes public. It is also why we have so many powerful families as part of the circus.”