by R. E. Butler
“Thanks, Benjamin, you too.” She stepped inside the building and the door shut behind her.
A tall man with dark hair stood behind a long counter.
“You must be Novi,” he said with a smile.
“I am. How did you know my name?”
“Benjamin radioed that he was bringing you here for your album. It’s being loaded and then printed. It’s going to take about an hour. I’m Xavier.”
“Nice to meet you. Do I have to stay here the whole time? I’m kind of hungry.”
“Actually, since they’re a little backed up at the print shop, the tour’s sending someone to take you on a private tour of the whole park which includes a free meal. If you like burgers, there’s a stall in the park that has the best ones.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Good. It won’t be long, Cael’s on his way.”
She sat in one of the chairs along a bank of windows and took out her phone, realizing she’d missed a text from her mom asking how her day was going. She replied that she was having a great day and then she put her phone up, her mind a jumble as she thought about the elephant on the tour.
She wondered if Cael would think it was crazy if she asked to go see him one more time.
Chapter Four
Cael headed to the elephant paddock from the private living space, coming up the stairs into the maintenance shed. He found Alistair waiting in the shed, with Kelley and Indio already out and milling around in their shifts. Rhapsody was playing the part of zookeeper, wearing a beige uniform and cleaning the paddock alongside her mate. Because Rhapsody was a black panther and the park had no black panther paddock, she didn’t shift for the public tours, but shifted after hours to run around with Kelley.
Cael dropped the hinged lid to close the stairs with a sigh.
“Something wrong?” Alistair asked, looking up from his phone.
“My elephant’s been driving me crazy all day.”
“Crazy how?” Alistair put his phone on the workbench and folded his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know, just noisy. Anxious. I can’t figure out why, but it’s making me bonkers.”
“They can be a pain in the ass sometimes,” he said with a chuckle. “Hopefully shifting will help.”
“I hope so.”
As it was, his elephant was urging him to shift and get out into the paddock. He wished he could actually talk to his elephant and get a real response, but all he ever got was feelings and urges. Alistair stripped and shifted, leaving the maintenance shed which had a door large enough for them to walk through in their shifts. Cael followed suit and ducked out of the shed, turning to close the doors with his trunk. He shook himself out fully, from his huge ears to his tail and then stretched. It was a beautiful day and he was with his closest friends, but despite shifting and the beauty surrounding him, his beast was still anxious.
Letting out a sigh, he lumbered over to Rhapsody who was sitting on a hay bale and tossing apples in the air for Kelley to catch.
Cael realized that little Khap was in a sling against her chest, his head tilted to the side as he slumbered.
Rhapsody tossed an apple at Cael, and he caught it and ate it quickly.
Cael roamed the paddock, his elephant’s anxiety not ebbing in any way.
He heard the tell-tale rumble of a Jeep which signaled the VIP tours had started. There were four vehicles, each carrying a driver and guide with room for the VIP. The guide told facts about each animal group at the paddocks, but the point of the tours was not about the animals, but about finding soulmates. At this point, after dozens of weekends with hours in their shifts, only five soulmates had come from the tours—two for gorillas, one for a bear, one for a lion, and one for an elephant. Cael was happy for the males who had found their soulmates through the tours, but he knew that everyone was disappointed that more soulmates hadn’t been found. It seemed like a simple enough idea—bring in unmated human males and females and hope for soulmate matches, it just wasn’t as effective in reality as they’d all hoped it would be.
He joined his friends near the fence, watching as Jeeps stopped and a human male or female climbed out, walked to the fence for a pic, and then got back in the Jeep. With each human, the tour guide would wait to see if one of the elephants felt a connection and when they didn’t, the Jeep would head to the next paddock.
As Jeep after Jeep stopped and then moved on, Cael grew disheartened. But his elephant was still anxious and...excited?
He mulled over the feelings as another Jeep pulled to a stop in front of the paddock.
A light breeze blew in his direction, and he caught the most delicious scent—the female in the Jeep.
She smelled amazing...like honey and sunshine.
His beast went nuts in his head, trumpeting loudly and making him feel like he’d go deaf from the inside out. He marched to the fence and inhaled again, but this time he picked up something more as she climbed from the Jeep and walked to the fence.
She smelled like a shifter.
Bear if he wasn’t mistaken, but not the grizzly and black bears in the park. He wasn’t sure what type of bear she smelled like, and the scent was subtle and not as strong as other shifters.
His curiosity was overridden by his elephant’s excitement as she curled her fingers over the fence. He touched her fingers with his trunk and awareness jolted through him. She was his soulmate.
And she was stunning.
Curved for days, beautiful dark brown eyes...no wait, they were pale blue? What the hell was going on?
“Hey, whoa,” Benjamin said. “We don’t really recommend touching the animals, Novi.”
Cael tossed his head back with an annoyed grunt, and Benjamin clearly understood that something more was going on than with the usual VIP tour. “Ah, I get it,” the wolf male said with a nod. “Hey, Novi, why don’t you turn around and I’ll take a pic of you with the elephant.”
“Does he have a name?” she asked, slipping her fingers away from the fence, turning for the picture.
“Um, yeah, but I don’t remember what it is off the top of my head.”
Cael mentally rolled his eyes. The tour guides used to tell guests what their names were, but the last time someone went on the tour and found their soulmate, she’d been told the gorilla’s name and then thought someone was playing a prank on her when she met the actual male with the same name. Now they didn’t tell people the shifters’ names, only the normal, non-shifting animals.
“Oh. He’s really big.”
Benjamin chuckled and tried to cover it with a cough. Cael touched her shoulder through the fence, not wanting to lose the connection. She turned to face him and declared she wished she could stay longer, and he was of the same mind. Unfortunately, she had to leave for the rest of the tour.
She let out a soft growl and rubbed her fingers against his trunk and then stepped away. Her eyes were glistening with tears.
He watched her leave, desperately wanting to rip the fence apart and follow, but he knew he couldn’t. He did the only thing he could at the moment and that was lift his trunk high in the air and trumpet loudly. The sound blasted from him, full of joy at finding the other half of his heart.
His friends joined in.
Once the Jeep was gone, Cael turned and hurried to the shed to shift so he could meet his soulmate at the office. He changed back to human and dressed, then opened the door and found Alistair standing just outside.
“She’s my soulmate,” he said excitedly.
Alistair nodded, his ears flapping.
“I think she’s a shifter. Bear, maybe. But her scent is weird, it’s kind of watered down or not strong. I’m not sure what it means.”
Rhapsody walked up, snacking on one of the apples. “What would it mean if her scent is not strong? I thought you either smelled like a shifter or you smelled human.”
He looked at her baby. “Khap smells like you and Kelley. Maybe my soulmate is a mix and I just can’t pick up what the
other shifter type is.”
“You’d think she would’ve said something to let you know she knew you’re a shifter,” she mused.
He shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t trust the people with her.”
“Maybe. Well, go see her! I can’t wait to meet her. I hope you’re able to bring her to meet everyone soon.”
“Me too. But I have to follow protocol and that means I can’t tell her what I am, she has to tell me she knows.”
“Good luck!”
Cael smiled and pulled the shed door shut, then hurried down the stairs. He came back up into the park through the employee cafeteria. As he hurried to the park office, he thought about what he’d seen with his soulmate. She definitely growled, but he’d also seen her nails get dark and what looked like small, pointed fangs when she opened her mouth.
And then there were her eyes, which had been brown but turned blue.
She had to be a shifter, but there was definitely something strange going on with her.
He’d have to play it cool and get to the bottom of things fast. He didn’t want to waste a minute of time in getting to know her.
“Was she why you were so excited?” he mentally asked his elephant. “Did you sense her when she came into the park?”
A happy trumpet was the answer.
He couldn’t believe his beast was so in tune with their soulmate that he’d sensed her like that. No wonder he’d been feeling so anxious.
Fate had just given him the greatest gift in the world.
He reached the office and saw his soulmate sitting at the row of chairs by the windows. He took a moment to calm himself, not wanting to rush inside the building like an idiot. The last thing he wanted to do was come on too strongly.
When he felt passably normal, he opened the door to the office and walked in. He nodded to Xavier behind the counter and turned to face his female.
Damn she was gorgeous.
His tongue felt like it was glued to the roof of his mouth.
Clearing his throat, he smiled at her. “I’m Cael. You must be the VIP guest.”
She rose to her feet and smiled at him, and it made his heart thud in his chest. “Hi, I’m Novi.”
Their hands clasped in greeting, and he nearly fell to the floor with the power of the touch. He’d felt a jolt in his shift when he touched her fingers, but this full contact was almost too much for his system. His elephant was stomping happily in his mind.
Gathering his wits quickly, he said, “It’s nice to meet you. I heard the photo albums are backed up a bit, so I came to take you on a private tour of the park.”
Xavier cleared his throat. “I told her that she was also getting a free meal because of the wait.”
“Of course,” Cael said. They had a script they followed when a soulmate was found to give the illusion that the park was providing a service like the tour and meal to make up for the wait for the album. In reality, there was no wait for the album—they were put together really quickly. But it was important for the shifters to spend time with their soulmate and make a connection, and hopefully be able to see them again.
Cael opened the door for her and followed her out into the park. As he took her on a tour, leading with the bird sanctuary run by Auden and his mate, Jess, he asked Novi questions, trying to gently prod her to reveal information about herself. He didn’t expect her to come right out and say she was a shifter, but he hoped she’d tell him something that would open up the conversation further.
By the time they made their way to the burger stall for dinner, he found Novi to be super sweet and nice, with a penchant for funny quips and occasional hilarious sarcastic comments. He and his elephant were one hundred percent smitten with her.
They sat down at a nearby picnic table with their baskets of burgers and fries. “I’m sorry you’ve had to move around a lot, that must be hard,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask why you moved so much?”
She peered at him as she took a bite of the day’s special burger—BBQ bacon and cheese—and chewed slowly. She averted her eyes.
“I’m sorry if I’m prying,” he said. “I’ve only lived two places my whole life—Indiana with my parents and here. You seemed sad when you talked about moving so much.”
She took a long drink of soda and put the cup down. “I don’t know you. I’m not used to telling strangers too much about myself right off the bat.”
He opened his mouth to tell her that she could tell him anything, but she put her hand up and he clicked his teeth together.
“But that being said, I actually feel comfortable with you. I haven’t felt that way in a really long time. Maybe...ever? It’s so weird too, because I feel like I’ve met you already, but I don’t know how that’s possible.” She chuckled. “I probably sound crazy.”
“It doesn’t sound crazy at all. You’re right—we don’t actually know each other, but I kind of feel like I’ve known you longer too.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “So if you’d like to tell me your story, I’d be happy to listen. Mine is pretty boring, unless you count the time that I almost got gored by a bull when I was helping one of my professors on a farm.”
She chuckled and then looked down at the half-eaten burger on her plate. “It’s...not the greatest story, but I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.”
“I promise I won’t.”
“Okay.” She blew out a breath. “So my dad tried to kill me.”
Chapter Five
Novi winced at the blunt words she’d just uttered. Who the heck started a conversation like that?
Oh yeah, nice to meet you, super sexy guy who took me to dinner, by the way my dad hates me enough to try to kill me.
Cael’s gray eyes went wide. “What?”
She pressed her lips together for a moment and then nodded. “I was the product of a one-night stand. My biological father didn’t want anything to do with me, so my mom thought she was going to be on her own. But he showed up at the hospital after I was born and tried to take me. My mom got a restraining order against him, which was easy enough to do because he refused to get a blood test to determine paternity. She moved in with her sister and didn’t see or hear from him for two years. Then one night she heard something in my bedroom and caught him breaking in. He said I was his child, and he wouldn’t allow me to live. He tried to get to me, but my mom and aunt managed to get me out of the bedroom and called the police.” She blew out a breath. She had no memory of the incident because she was so young, and she was always grateful for that fact. “My mom got scared after that and moved again, but my dad found her. So she went on the run and we’ve been in hiding ever since. He always seems to find us if we stay too long, so we move every six months or when she gets worried someone’s paying too much attention to us.”
Cael reached his hand across the table and covered hers. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. It must be so scary to always be looking over your shoulder.”
Her eyes stung with tears and she bit her lip to keep from letting the sadness overwhelm her. “I’ve never told anyone that,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “I don’t know why I told you.”
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Maybe because you feel safe with me.”
She nodded. It was true—she did feel safe with him, and she hadn’t felt safe in a long, long time. “I hate it. I hate everything about being on the run and never being able to put down roots. I hate that my mom can’t date or make friends because she’s too afraid to stay put anywhere.”
“How many times has he found you?”
“A handful of times. He’s so determined. Once, when I was ten, he found us at a park and tried to grab me. If it weren’t for the people around that intervened, he would’ve gotten me. She doesn’t want us to talk about our personal lives at all, so I never was able to really make good friends or have a serious boyfriend.” She shook her head and pulled her hand from his. “I don’t want you to feel sorry f
or me or anything. I mean, I have a mom who’s willing to give up everything to keep me safe. There isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for me, and I love her for that.”
“My mom’s the same way,” he said, giving her a gentle smile. He picked up his burger, taking a bite. When he’d finished, he said, “Do you know anything about your dad aside from his trying to harm you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you think you take after him physically?”
She stared at him for a long moment, wondering what he was getting at. For a heartbeat she wondered if he was talking about the way she’d growled like a freaking animal when she saw the elephant in the paddock, but she mentally tossed the idea away. He hadn’t been there so he wouldn’t know about it. Unless the tour guide heard her and told him?
“I don’t really know,” she said finally.
His gaze narrowed slightly, and she felt like he was trying to read her mind. But then he smiled. “How long has it been since you saw him?”
“Almost two years.”
“Maybe he’s finally given up?”
“It would be nice if that were the case,” she said. “I’ve wanted to stop running for such a long time, but Mom’s so afraid.”
“It’s totally understandable.”
“Can we talk about something else?” she asked as she picked up what was left of her burger.
“Sure. Did you get to meet Tank the moose?”
“Well, I didn’t get to meet him, but I did see him. He was drinking from the pond. He’s really cool.”
“Would you like to meet him?”
“How would I do that? Is he part of a petting zoo or something?”
“I’m the safari vet. I’d be happy to take you into the paddock to see him.”
“Really? I...you could do that?”
“Sure. It’s one of the perks of being the vet. If you don’t have to leave right away, that is. We’d have to wait until the final tour is done.” He glanced at his watch and said, “There’s one more on the schedule.”