Taking the Stage

“Mother?”

“Anthony!”

Warmth shook him. In the decades since his uncle handed him his ass in battle and ordered him to submit or leave, he hadn’t had the courage to face his mother. She’d wept openly when he’d chosen to walk away.

“Yes, Mama, it’s Anthony.”

“Are you finally ready to come home?”

He wrestled with himself. He’d explained his shame to Roseatre and instead of disappointment or disgust, she’d merely slugged him in the arm and told him to grow a pair. Leadership wasn’t about winning. It was about doing what was best for the tribe or Pride. She’d sacrificed her freedom, her sense of self to protect a tribe member that didn’t even remember her. Could he do any less?

“Yes.” The word was short, a breath. But as his gaze slid over the pool, he met Roseatre’s—no, Ruthie’s— grin. She gave him a thumb’s up. They would return to his Pride. He would bow to his uncle. He wasn’t all that interested in the burden of leadership, but she promised to back him every step of the way if he wanted to take it back.

“All the better to watch your ass,” she’d teased.

“Mama, I have a mate and I want to bring her home to meet all of you.” He held his breath during the long silence greeting his statement.

Finally, his mother’s soft sigh drifted musically through the phone. “It’s about time…”

Cerveau’s reaction was nothing like he expected. It took several days of rehearsal to get all the girls comfortable. Not even the vampire, Kiki, took her role as seriously as Ruthie, but they managed. Together, they adjusted the storyline, tweaking the turning points, the dark moment and the ending.

“So you’ll stay with the show for the seventy-five shows the diNapoli tigers are scheduled to perform.” Cerveau sat next to Ruthie at the stage edge. Anthony stood on the theatre floor, watching them. The quiet agony in Ruthie’s eyes slashed at his soul. No matter how much they discussed the issue, he knew that leaving would hurt her. But if her shield-sister was as loyal as she, the princess’s absence might motivate Jaimela to come out again, to fight to be at her sister’s side.

“Maybe longer. But I don’t know for sure.” Ruthie cast a glance at him and he nodded. Unquestioningly. Even if they left the Arcana Royale they wouldn’t give up on Jaimela. So if that meant putting on a cat and pony show every night, they would do it.

“It’s a selfish decision, but you deserve it.” Cerveau nodded. “Even if he’s a bit of a fun burglar to steal you away.” Yes, the woman smelled of Amazon, but she didn’t smell right and the painted emptiness in her features reminded Anthony forcefully of Roseatre’s turn into a porcelain doll. Only in Cerveau’s case, the animation seemed wrong somehow, hollow.

“Jaimela…” Ruthie began, but the woman’s smile evaporated and her expression went completely cold. She drew away from Ruthie and stood.

“We have rehearsals and if your time here is that short, then you should make the most of it.”

Pain rippled through his mate, but she buried it. He caught her hand in his, resisting the urge to rub it against his cheek. She needed comforting, but she wouldn’t appreciate it in front of their audience.

“Why are you people sitting on your asses? We have a show to perfect. Move, move, move!” Heidi shooed them back to work. Ruthie squeezed his hand once before letting go and then followed her sister back to the stage, but Anthony paused, studying the stage manager.

“Honey, I’m way too much woman for you.” Heidi tweaked his nose. If anyone else tried that, he’d have taken their hand off, but there was something distinctly maternal about this Heidi and the crazy, little demon that raced around her heels, constantly chattering. The minion was even now creeping up on Nalini, the white tiger’s gaze bored with the childish tricks.

They wouldn’t hurt each other, but Ruthie scooped the minion up, tail first to tease her.

“You going to stand there looking all broody and edible or get back to work?” Heidi still watched him.

“I have a question for you.” He grinned. The woman said the most outrageous things at the oddest time. He liked that about her.

“Just one? I must be losing my touch.”

“Yes. Why did you ask me to come to the Arcana Royale? When you called me, I had a lucrative offer in Monaco, the first in months, but you nearly doubled what they offered me. So why did you want me here?”

Heidi smiled, the humor glinting in her eyes. “You are a smart one, Anthony. Stubborn, hotheaded and a little foolish at times, but a smart one nonetheless. I brought you here for two reasons.” She ticked them off with her fingers. “Because the show needed the help and this performance is the best we’ve managed since we lost Pandora. It will be exquisite and a sellout, more than covering your ridiculously high fee as well as that hedonistic suite you requested.”

Anthony laughed. He couldn’t argue. The rainforest suite was the second best part of the job. The first was Ruthie.

“I’m sure you can guess the second.”

“I can. But how did you know?”

“Now, that would be telling.” Heidi snapped her fingers. Anthony blinked. She’d disappeared, just like that.

Maddening woman.

“Yo, Anthony!” Ruthie bellowed from the stage, and he forgot about the stage manager, her enigmatic smiles and her mysterious words. She’d brought him here to meet Ruthie. He’d send her roses every year on the anniversary of their first rehearsal and it didn’t matter why.

Opening night, the backstage area was a riot of colorful chaos. The dancers flitted about half-naked. Anthony leaned against Roseatre’s makeup table, a bemused expression on his face. It was insane and fun. Breasts bobbed as costumes were shuffled. The air was ripe with the scent of hairspray and deodorant.

Kiki oo’ed and aah’ed over a pair of crystalline-and-gold pumps that Ruthie—he just couldn’t think of her as Roseatre anymore—dropped on her table as he and his mate walked through. The girls squealed, hugged and danced and then were off again.

“Will you miss this?” he asked quietly, the one question he hadn’t dare ask before.

“Yes.” Her face was a riot of makeup. She’d layered it heavily, explaining that the stage makeup had to be visible to people in the back row. But her eyelashes fascinated him. She’d fringed them with silver, and the striping of white on black illuminated the streak in her hair. “But we have time yet. Time to help Cerveau and we could be here for years if we’re a hit. Do you mind that?”

No. His home was where Ruthie was whether it was some pleasure-drenched casino in the middle of a North American desert or roaming free in the mountains of his homeland or, the gods help him, the corporate headquarters of her tribe’s businesses in Dubai. “Your oaths are mine.”

She caught his hands, fingers interlacing together. “And yours are mine.”

Anthony bent down and thoroughly smudged her lipstick, the deep kiss just enough to pacify the tiger that wanted to sweep her up and take her right there, so no one would have any doubt who she belonged to or who he belonged to for that matter.

A chorus of oooohs broke through the lazy passion, and he lifted his head to meet Ruthie’s amused eyes. But the dancers were already fluttering back to work.

“Anthony. Roseatre.” Stan stood at the edge of the chaos and beckoned them over. Anthony pulled out Ruthie’s chair.

Stan glanced at the other dancers, a hard stare until they got back to work. “The Overseers want to see you both. Right now.”

Roseatre’s hand turned to ice against his palm. He didn’t let her pull away. “I take it they’re down here?”

“Heidi’s office. You need to be fast. We’re going to have a full house.” Stan waved them on their way and walked up the concrete stairs to the stage area rather than escort them.

“Anthony…” Anxiety quavered in her voice.

“We’re not going to keep them waiting.” He guided her toward the stage manager’s office.