Devlin

by R. E. Butler

  “How do you know about this?” he asked Trina.

  “Justus is a bear shifter and I’m his soulmate.”

  “Lexy?”

  “Win is a gorilla shifter. Caesar and Jupiter are lion shifters, like Jenni.”

  “The park?”

  “It’s a cover,” Justus said. “Our people live underground in secret, and we run all aspects of the park.”

  Caesar said, “We have rules for a reason, Devlin. They weren’t meant to insult you, but to keep our people safe. We can’t just go around telling everyone about what we are, or we potentially endanger all of us.”

  Suddenly, he wanted to help keep Jenni safe at any cost. And that’s when he knew why she’d never be able to move to Rhode Island. She was safest in the park with her people.

  “Can you give us the room?” he asked.

  Trina kissed his cheek and he whispered a word of thanks to her. When the room was empty, he faced Jenni, ready to lay his cards on the table.

  Chapter 7

  Jenni had been hanging out at the paddock for the VIP tours, hoping that one of the lions would find his soulmate among the patrons.

  “Psst!” a feminine voice said.

  Jenni’s ears twitched and she looked around and saw Trina in the storage building’s open doorway. She motioned for Jenni to join her, and she padded over to her. Caesar followed, his whiskers bristling in curiosity.

  “Hey,” Trina said. “We brought my brother here. Win is taking him on the tour in a golf cart, and he’s going to stop here at the paddock so that Dev can see you in your form. Then we thought you could meet us down in the meeting hall so that you can shift for him.”

  Jenni’s eyes widened. She wished she could speak, because she had a million things to say, chief among them was how Trina had managed to get Devlin to the park when the asshole hadn’t answered any of her calls or texts.

  As if knowing what she was asking, Trina smiled. “Lex and I went with our mates and brought him here. Sometimes guys need a helping hand to get to the right place. Or a friendly shove.”

  Jenni purred and nodded, excitement coursing through her. It had taken about a half hour, but she’d heard the golf cart as it pulled up and idled on the maintenance path in front of the paddock. Devlin had been confused, but he’d still approached the fence, and she’d raced right to him. She’d even let her humanity show through her eyes so he could see the change.

  Once she’d shifted in front of him, she’d felt entirely exposed and it wasn’t just because she was naked. If Devlin freaked out because of her shifting, he’d still be stuck in the park. The council would never let him leave now that he knew the secret. In a way, she was thankful that Trina and Lexy had intervened because it forced him to see why she couldn’t leave the park.

  She twisted her fingers together and inhaled deeply, trying to calm her flying pulse. She opened her mouth, but he put his hand up.

  “Before you say anything, I was mad last night because you picked your friends over me. I know it was childish not to answer your calls, but I just didn’t want to face a decision of my own.”

  She tilted her head. “What decision?”

  “Resigning from my job and moving to New Jersey.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “Are you… what are you saying?”

  He closed the distance between them and put his hands on her waist. “I didn’t understand why you had to leave last night, and I was too pissed to think that there was anything other than you not wanting to be with me at the heart of it.”

  “I wanted to stay, I really did.”

  “I had a chance to wake you up and send you on your way, but I didn’t want to. I was selfish, and I thought you were just being cautious because we hadn’t known each other long. I’m sorry for that.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you why. Unmated males and females aren’t allowed to stay outside of the park overnight.”

  “I should have been more understanding. So, the shifting thing? It’s fucking cool as hell.”

  She grinned. “I’m glad you think so.”

  He sobered immediately, his gaze hardening. “Your safety is paramount to me now. I would never jeopardize the secret that keeps you and your people safe.” He took a single step back and took her hands in his. “Ask me what you need to ask me.”

  She blinked in surprise, and then smiled as warm tingles skirted up and down her spine. “Devlin, will you be my mate?”

  “It’s special, right? It’s why I can’t get you out of my head even though I’m human?”

  She nodded. “We’re soulmates. My people believe that there’s one person for each shifter, that us and our beasts will recognize on sight. You’re that male for me.”

  “And you’re the woman for me. Yes, I’ll be your mate, Jenni.”

  He pulled her close, enveloping her in a tight hug. He kissed her, his tongue dipping into her mouth for only a heartbeat before he cleared his throat and said, “For obvious reasons you can’t leave the park. I want to be with you. I wanted to be with you from the moment I saw you. The intensity scared me, but it makes sense now. It’s supposed to be hard and fast like that because it’s different for your kind to be together than if I was with a human.”

  “You’re amazing,” she said.

  “Well, I did act like an ass for a while, and I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I was hurt.”

  She rested her head over his heart. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You need to be safe. And our kids – can we have kids?”

  Her head shot up and she saw his face twisted with worry. “Kids already? We just met.”

  He grinned. “I like to move fast, sweetheart.”

  “Yes, we can have kids. They’ll most likely be able to shift.”

  “Awesome. I don’t suppose you could bite me and turn me, like in the TV shows?”

  She made a face. “What shows are you watching? No, I can’t. Weres are born, not made.”

  “Now, I’m going to point out that you’re naked and you smell incredible.”

  “How do I smell?”

  “Like sunshine and dry grass, but also sweet. Of course, I know exactly how you taste and I can’t wait to taste you again.”

  “We can go to my place,” she said. “Each group has a private living area, and me and the pride members each have our own house.”

  “How many pride members?”

  “Eight including me.”

  He stopped her before she could open the door. “Um, you’re naked.”

  “Nudity isn’t a big deal.”

  “It is to me, because you just said that you’re mine and I’m yours, and I don’t want anyone seeing what’s mine.”

  He pulled off his t-shirt and handed it to her. She tugged it on, loving how it was still warm and smelled like him, all heat and male.

  “There,” he said, giving her a peck on the lips. “Much better.”

  He held the door open for her and then took her hand, and she led him out of the meeting room and through the marketplace.

  “Two of the mates have a nail salon here,” she said. “Jupiter’s mate, Celeste, and Zane’s mate, Adriana. They both did that aboveground before they became mates.”

  “Does everyone work at the park in one way or another?”

  “Pretty much. It’s not encouraged for our people to work outside of the park. There’s safety within these walls.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “The marketplace is where we can get meals and place orders for any items we need. There is a shop stocked with basic necessities, and of course we’re not actually trapped in the park and can go out shopping or to eat whenever we want.”

  “That’s good. I’d like to take you on a real date.”

  “I’d like that, too.”

  They reached the lions’ private living area, and she entered the code. “I’ll share the codes with you. We have one for our area and for the entrances to go topside. We can get up to the park through the e
mployee cafeteria and the storage building in the paddock.”

  He followed her inside.

  “Our private area is decorated to resemble the Savannah, it makes our lions feel at home.”

  He turned in a slow circle and whistled. “This is pretty damn impressive.”

  They walked to the row of homes, and she opened the door to hers. “This is home sweet home.”

  “Are the homes all the same?”

  “Pretty much. Some have more or less bedrooms. Mine has three bedrooms.”

  The family room had a denim-blue couch with blue and white striped throw pillows. A flat-screen TV sat on a glass stand, with her collection of Blu-Ray romantic comedies lined up next to the player on one of the shelves.

  He didn’t say anything as he looked around the room.

  “Are you okay?”

  He met her gaze. “Yeah. I was just wondering about my job.”

  She felt bad that he was going to lose the promotion he’d been working so hard for, but there was no way that she could move to Rhode Island with him. They could try the long-distance thing, but her beast was not interested in spending any time away from their mate.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t be. I just want to be able to support you and take care of you. I’ll find a good job somewhere else. The important thing is that at the end of the day, you and I are together.”

  “I agree.”

  “Want to see the bedroom?” she asked with a purr.

  “Hell yes.”

  There was a knock at the door, and she sighed. “Hold that thought.”

  She opened the door and smiled at Caesar.

  “Sorry for the interruption, but I wanted to talk to you two about the mating ceremony,” Caesar said.

  “What’s a mating ceremony?” Devlin asked.

  Caesar had a leather-bound notebook in his hand. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the couch. He disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a kitchen chair, which he placed across the coffee table from them and sat down. “Lions have certain customs when it comes to mating. It’s not enough to just say ‘let’s be mates’ and have sex, we honor our ancestors and pride by performing certain rituals.”

  “Like getting married?”

  Jenni said, “We can get married if you’d like, but that’s a human custom.”

  “You don’t want to get married?”

  “I do. But the mating ceremony is different.”

  Caesar nodded. “A marriage could be ended, but a mating is permanent. Once you enter into it with Jenni, there isn’t anything that will break it. You could walk away, but her lion wouldn’t allow her to be with anyone else. It’s why understanding mating is so important, since your people don’t have the same sort of primal instincts that ours do.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Jenni nudged him with her shoulder. “I know that. Just think of our mating ceremonies as traditions. It’s important to me and my lion.”

  “Then it’s important to me, too.”

  His words warmed her all over. She wanted to rub against him and purr, but with her alpha right there, she opted to just smile. She’d rub on him later.

  “Our traditions are built on the assumption that the male is a shifter,” Caesar said, clearing his throat, “which is why I wanted to come speak to you. I spoke to Jupiter about changing some aspects of the tradition, but depending on what we need to prepare, I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to talk to you both. Normally, we’d handle the mating traditions on your first night together here, but things are different with you two, so we’ll plan for tomorrow night.”

  She listened as Caesar explained the first tradition, where the male proved his worth to his mate and pride by hunting and killing an animal at night. When Jupiter mated Celeste, he’d hunted a rabbit in the lion paddock after the park was closed, killed and dressed it, and then cooked it over a fire and fed it to her. Jenni knew that although Devlin was strong, he wasn’t a trained hunter and even a well-trained human would have a hard time catching a rabbit in the dark.

  “Instead of foregoing the hunting tradition entirely, I’m suggesting that the two of you work together.”

  Her brows rose. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that we release a rabbit, you shift, and the two of you hunt, kill, and clean it together. It’s not quite the same, but it allows you to participate in that part of our traditions. You’ll prove to each other that you can work together to provide for your family, which is what the tradition is about.”

  “Cool,” Devlin said. “I’ll get to see you in your shift again, and hunt with you.”

  Jenni’s eyes stung with tears. She hadn’t thought she’d get to share that tradition with Devlin, but her alpha had changed things for them.

  “Tomorrow, you’ll come to my home at noon for lunch with the pride. It will give everyone a chance to meet and get to know you. Then you’ll harvest and prepare the prickly pears and make the lily bands. We’ll have the mating ceremony tomorrow night, and then you’ll hunt. The pride will leave you alone in the paddock to complete your mating. Devlin will officially become a member of the pride.”

  “I need to go home at some point,” Devlin said. “I have to resign my job in person on Monday and pack up my home. Not to mention that I need to talk to my parents and tell them the good news.”

  “I have Monday and Tuesday off work,” Jenni said.

  Caesar nodded. “I’d recommend taking either some pride members to help you pack up, or your sister and cousin, and their mates.”

  Devlin nodded. “Thanks, Caesar.”

  “You’re welcome. See you for lunch tomorrow.”

  He shook Devlin’s hand and left, and then turned to Jenni with a growl that was adorably human. “Bedroom. Now.”

  “Tour?” she asked attempting to play innocent.

  “Eventually,” he said, stalking to her, his muscles bunching as he moved gracefully, looking every inch the predator. Her lioness preened in happiness. He wasn’t a lion, but he was fierce.

  He bent and put his shoulder into her abdomen and hauled her over his shoulder. She laughed as she found herself upside down, his cute butt right in front of her. Giving him a pinch on the cheek she said, “I love how your mind works, I think you’re psychic.”

  “If you were thinking about getting naked and playing a game of how many orgasms I can give you, then yes, I am psychic.”

  She shivered at the sexy threat, a purr rumbling in her chest. It was going to be a magnificent night.

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, Devlin followed Jenni to the greenhouse that was in the lions’ private area. She opened the door and the scents of earth and flowers filled the air around them. She grabbed two baskets and tools and handed him one of the baskets and a pair of shears.

  “First, we’ll harvest the prickly pear, and I’ll show you how to clean it in the house.”

  “I’ve never had that before,” he said.

  “It’s part of our ceremony. It’s delicious, but it’s a hassle to clean.”

  She cut the pears from the plant and put them in his basket. Then she led the way to a table that held rows of lilies.

  “These are Impala Lilies, which are native to Africa. We plant them in cycles so that at any given time, there are enough blooming for a mating ceremony. Before our people used greenhouses, the flowers would be cut and dried and saved for later use. It’s much nicer to use fresh flowers, though.

  “The number of stems relates to the members of our immediate family. I’m counting my pride as my immediate family instead of my biological family. You have both parents and your sister and her mate, which means we need eleven stems for each bracelet, and we’ll make two of them for me to wear.”

  She began to cut the stems and urged him to do the same. He set the basket of prickly pears down and used the shears on the plants, snipping off the pretty flowers until they’d collected twenty-two, laying them gently in h
er basket. They put the tools back on their hooks and returned to her house, where she showed him how to safely peel the thick outer skin of the prickly pear and prepare it for that night.

  “I wanted to talk to you about the marking.”

  “Marking what?” he asked.

  She flashed him a grin. “Me marking you. With my fangs.”

  He stopped, knife poised above the fruit. “You want to put your fangs in me?”

  “Yes. Me and my lion do. Tonight, after we hunt and have the ceremony with my pride, they’ll leave us alone in the paddock so we can solidify our mating. After we make love, my fangs will elongate and I’ll bite your neck.”

  “Sounds painful.”

  “I promise that I’ll be gentle, and hopefully you’ll be really blissed out on the after-sex glow and won’t feel it as much.”

  “I like that idea.”

  She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath. “Good. I have fast healing, so you can bite me but it won’t scar like my fangs will in your flesh. I hope you don’t feel bad about that.”

  He hummed, turning his attention back to the fruit. “Will your lioness be upset?”

  “No, of course not. You’re my soulmate. That you aren’t a shifter doesn’t matter to me.”

  “Good. I just don’t want you to feel like you’re missing out on anything because I’m human.”

  “I don’t, I promise. I’m so happy to be with you. All the other stuff is just unimportant details.”

  “I’m happy to be with you, too.”

  When the cut fruit was cooling in the refrigerator in a bowl, they sat on the couch and she showed him how to braid the flower stems into a bracelet. By the time they were finished making the two bracelets, the sweet scent of the flowers was all over them, and he thought he’d never be able to smell the flowers again without thinking about how beautiful she was and how deftly her fingers worked the flower stems.

  “Ready for lunch?” she asked.

  “Truthfully? I’d rather take you to bed.”

  She purred. “I’d love that, too, but there’s time for that tonight. If we don’t go to Caesar’s, he’s going to come here, so we might as well just go.”