by R. E. Butler
Atticus
Were Zoo Book Twelve
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2021, R. E. Butler
Atticus (Were Zoo Book Twelve)
By: R. E. Butler
License Notes
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This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Edited by Sara Dawn Johnson
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Thanks to the best betas on the planet: Joyce, Shelley, & Anne.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Coming Next
Contact the Author
More Books by R. E.
Coming Next in the Were-Zoo Series
Atticus (Were Zoo Book Twelve)
By R. E. Butler
Alpha gorilla Atticus Keeton never believed that love was in the cards for him, not even with the Amazing Adventures Safari Park’s VIP tour bringing in unmated females from all over the tri-state area. He wants to find his soulmate, but he doesn’t think it’ll happen. When he’s compelled to go into the park, he sees a beautiful human female he’s certain is his soulmate. The problem? She’s been on the run for two decades from a dangerous polar bear shifter who wants her and her daughter dead, and she doesn’t know that shifters are real.
Lori Jones can’t relax. Even though she’s been living in an apartment complex within the park, behind stone walls that are patrolled constantly, she’s still afraid. Still worried that her daughter’s father is somehow going to get to them and kill them both as he promised he would. She’s spent so long on the run that she doesn’t know how to trust that she and Novi are finally safe, no matter what her daughter or her daughter’s new boyfriend promise.
When Lori meets the most gorgeous guy she’s ever seen in her life and feels an immediate connection to him, the first thing she worries about is that he’ll become a target and potentially get hurt because of her past. While she doesn’t want Atticus to get hurt, she can’t stay away from him, and his promises that he’ll keep her safe no matter what are enough for her to let her guard down. But her daughter’s father hasn’t given up, and one day Lori’s worst fears are realized. Can Atticus save them both or was twenty years on the run not long enough?
Chapter One
Lori Jones’s heart was still racing. She paced at the apartment door, one hand over her thumping heart, and the other clutching the mace she always, always had on her. Next door, her only daughter—Novi—was most likely already asleep with her new boyfriend, Cael. Only a wall separated them, but it felt like miles. Novi had carved out some happiness for herself, and Lori was ecstatic for her.
But also...she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
One night, over twenty years ago, she’d had a one-night stand with a man named Keir. He was sexy and charming, and she’d been feeling like her life was in a rut. At the time she’d thought, why not? Now, she wondered why.
Novi had been the product of that one night, and once Keir realized she was his child, he’d come for her. He’d tried to abduct her from the hospital then followed Lori and Novi to her sister’s, which had sent them on the run. He’d stalked her from one side of the country to the other, narrowly getting them time after time. Lori was a master at knowing just when to leave.
And tonight, she’d sensed that her time had run out in New Jersey. The little house they’d only been living in for a few weeks had been compromised. She hadn’t seen Keir inside the house that night because she’d felt him while she was still in her car. She’d felt his fury directed at her and knew her time was up. He wanted her dead, and Novi too. While Lori would die for her daughter a thousand times, she refused to let Keir get his hands on her precious child.
In desperation, she’d come to an apartment complex inside the walls of the Amazing Adventures Safari Park. The complex had eight units. Cael was a vet at the zoo. He and Novi had met when she’d gone on a safari tour. He was a good guy and promised to keep Novi safe. Hell, he’d already asked Lori for Novi’s hand in marriage. Of course she’d said yes. She wouldn’t stand in her daughter’s way of having a good and full, happy life. Novi wanted all the things Lori had at one time—love and family, and a real home with safety and peace.
Lori no longer knew what peace was. When was the last time she’d slept soundly through the night?
She snorted. Probably not since before Novi was born and Keir had tried to steal her from the hospital.
How could she sleep well when they both had targets on their backs?
Her pacing slowed, and she turned and leaned against the door. It had a dead bolt and twisty lock on the handle as well as a security bar. She reached a hand back and rested it against the cool metal of the security bar. She was certain it wouldn’t stop Keir. He was a man possessed. Any other guy might have just washed his hands of her after a few years, but the man was incessant.
How had he found her this time?
She turned to face the door and looked out the peephole. She could see the concrete walkway and the metal railing, and beyond that, the well-lit parking lot.
Inhaling, she pushed from the door and walked to the bedroom. The apartment had two bedrooms and was tastefully furnished in shades of blue. She preferred yellow to blue, but she didn’t plan to stay so it didn’t matter, not in the long run.
Once she knew for sure that Cael would be able to keep Novi safe, she’d leave. She’d lead Keir away from New Jersey so that her daughter could have the life she deserved and wanted. She might one day have to face Keir, and then she might die. It wasn’t that she was a fatalist, but she sure as hell was a realist. Keir was going to find her at some point, was going to appear in front of her, and she’d have to deal with it. The police couldn’t help, no one could.
In the end it would come down to her and the man she wished would just drop off the face of the planet.
If only she were so lucky. Which she wasn’t.
With a deep sigh, she went into the attached bathroom and brushed her teeth, and then she carried a pillow to the couch in the front room and lay down. She faced the door, leaving the little lamp on the end table on so she wasn’t in the dark. She’d just doze for a bit, mace at the ready.
If Keir got to her, then she’d at least be prepared.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled deeply and tried to relax. Novi was safe. And Lori was safe, at least for the momen
t—the tall walls around the park and the security patrols were going to ensure that. She could rest.
She should.
If only she could feel safe.
Chapter Two
Alpha gorilla Atticus Keeton leaned against one of the large shade trees in the gorilla paddock in the Amazing Adventures Safari Park. He was in his shift, taking a break from the heat of the afternoon. He looked out in the paddock and saw his fellow gorilla shifters: his son, Zane, who was mated to a human named Adriana; Win, who was mated to a human named Lexy; Neo, who was mated to a human named Dani, Cael, who was mated to a human-shifter hybrid named Novi; and August, who, like Atticus, had never been mated.
He’d met Zane’s mom when he’d been in Europe and they’d had an affair. When Zane was born, she’d given him to Atticus to raise so she could mate the male of her alpha father’s choosing. He’d liked her, but she just wasn’t his soulmate so he hadn’t protested her lack of desire in mating him and raising Zane together. At this point in his life, now in his mid-forties, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get a soulmate. Even if his gorilla wanted to settle down and have someone to snuggle up to at night, it didn’t mean that it was in the cards for them.
A Jeep engine rumbled in the distance, and he heaved himself up from the ground and made his way toward the fence.
He and the other alphas in the park had decided that not enough unmated males and females came through the park, so they’d created a VIP tour wherein free tickets were sent to single humans in the tri-state area for a private tour. As the humans stopped at each animal paddock, unaware that they were looking at shifters and not natural animals, the shifters hoped to find their soulmate among them.
A soulmate—the one perfect person on the planet for a shifter.
Atticus’s son had found his soulmate on a tour. Win had found Lexy at the side of the road when her car had broken down. Neo had met Dani when she’d come on the tour against the wishes of her family.
The Jeep stopped in front of the paddock and a wolf male, posing as a tour guide, got out of the vehicle and helped a petite blonde female out. They approached the fence and milled around. Although Atticus didn’t expect to find his soulmate, his gorilla hooted in his head, and he sat back on his haunches and inhaled. He smelled french fries from the park’s food stalls and some kind of flowery soap he suspected belonged to the blonde.
His beast was interested in something, or someone, but not the blonde.
Subtly, he shook his head at the wolf guide and watched August do the same thing.
August sighed loudly then shook his head again and turned away. The guide nodded at them, took a picture of the blonde, and then encouraged her to get back in the vehicle so they could continue on the tour.
While the tours had been set up to hopefully bring in soulmates, only a few had been found. At this point, after more than a year of VIP tours, a handful of soulmates had been claimed. There were more soulmates who’d been found in that time span, but in other ways aside from the tours. He wanted his people to find their soulmates, he was happy for them, but he also wished he didn’t feel so damned negative about the idea of himself finding one.
He was forty-six. That wasn’t too old for love.
His gorilla grunted an agreement and urged Atticus to return to the maintenance shed in the paddock and shift. Normally, his beast was fine with hanging out in his shift for however long he wanted to, but today, he was getting push back from the creature. It was a first for sure.
Rubbing the space over his heart, he listened for more Jeeps but didn’t hear any coming, so he headed back to the shade tree and sat.
The urge to return to the shed grew with each passing moment until he was fighting with his beast to stay in his shift.
With a deep frown, he asked his other half what the problem was, but of course got nothing but grunts and non-answers.
As if his beast would actually talk. Now that would be handy.
He had another hour to go before the tours were finished, and then another hour before the area would be cleared by security so they could go to the shed to shift. Maybe he needed to take a walk around the park to settle his beast.
Calm down, we can’t leave yet, he mentally told his gorilla.
The responding grunt was furious, antsy even, but he wasn’t about to go rogue on his people and leave them with more tours to go.
Suck it up, furball.
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When they finally received the all-clear from the patrols that there were no humans in the vicinity and it was safe for them to return to human, Atticus made his way to the maintenance shed. Inside, he returned to his human form, his gorilla still urging him to go out into the park.
He tugged on his uniform and sat on a bench to lace up his boots.
“You okay, Dad?” Zane asked once he’d returned to human.
Atticus let out a deep sigh. “I am. I think.”
“You think?” Win asked.
“I don’t know. My gorilla’s feeling antsy. I can’t really explain it, I just feel kind of off.”
August leaned against a counter. “When did that start?”
Atticus shrugged. “When I was in my shift.”
“Do you think one of the VIPs was your soulmate?” Zane asked.
“No.” Atticus shook his head and stood. “It’s not that. I just feel like I need to go for a walk in the park.” He hadn’t strolled around the park in several weeks. He’d been busy working on the Jeeps and other park vehicles in the maintenance building within the park. For the last month or so, he’d been doing nothing but working, taking his meals in the marketplace underneath the park where the shifters lived. He hadn’t left the park in ages.
“Want some company?” Win asked.
“Nah. Maybe I’ll grab a bite to eat and clear my head.”
“We’ll see you in the maintenance shed later,” Zane said. “I’m meeting Adriana for dinner after she finishes a manicure. We’re going to make a run to the beauty supply place and get something to eat after.”
“Have fun and be safe,” Atticus said.
“You know it.”
The group left through the door in the floor of the shed that led down to the underground living quarters. The gorillas lived in a large room that contained small homes they’d each claimed. The homes were built on fake trees made of steel and covered with material to appear more natural. The walls of the room were painted to look like the jungle.
When the door was shut and Atticus was alone, he left the maintenance shed and walked out of the paddock, locking the gate behind him. He started toward the exit, following the dirt path that would lead to where the tours started. The area was closed for the day, so no one was around. Once he was past the tour station, he stopped.
His gorilla started to grunt again, urging him forward.
But forward to what?
He had no freaking clue and he really hated that he had no idea what his beast wanted from him.
If only he could figure it out.
And then he caught it.
Something sweet on the air that made everything within him quiet completely.
Closing his eyes, he focused on the scent. His gorilla hooted happily.
Was it possible? Had he caught the scent of his soulmate in the park?
Is that why you were acting so crazy? he asked his beast.
The urgency returned and he decided to follow the scent and see what happened. He made his way through the park, finding the scent growing stronger. His body was reacting like crazy—his muscles were tight, his blood was heating, and parts south were ready for action.
A female stood a few feet from one of the food stalls, staring at the menu and chewing on her bottom lip. She had a small backpack with embroidered butterflies hanging from one shoulder. Her hair was long and dark, pulled to the side in a low ponytail. She was petite and lushly curved, and while she was the most beautiful female he’d ever seen in his life, he couldn’t help but notice the dark circles u
nder her eyes or the way she watched everything even as she studied the menu. Her shoulders were hunched like she was ready to run away, and her posture spoke of a person who never felt at peace.
Who the hell was she?
His beast let him know exactly who she was. The source of the scent.
His soulmate.
“Hey, Atticus.”
He startled from staring at the female and turned to see Javan, one of the lions from the security office.
“Hi, how’s it going?”
“Not too bad, just came to grab lunch. Oh hey, Lori, what’s up?” The young male waved at Atticus’s female, and she gave him a small smile.
“Hi, Javan. Late lunch. You?”
“Same. I’m going to the cafeteria though.”
Atticus nudged the young male. “What?” Javan asked.
“Introduce me,” Atticus said with a low voice.
“Oh, sure.” They closed the distance to the female—Lori. “Lori Jones, this is Atticus Keeton. He works at the park and heads up the vehicle repair for our tour Jeeps and stuff. This is Lori, she’s Novi’s mom and is staying in one of the apartments.”
Lori looked at Atticus. “Hello.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Atticus said. He extended his hand, and she hesitated a moment before taking it. Her hand was cold, and she looked nervous.
Then he put two and two together. He’d been told by Alistair, the elephant alpha, that Cael’s soulmate Novi and her mother were in danger from a polar bear shifter who’d been stalking them since Novi’s birth.
Suddenly, he wanted to find the male and slaughter him to put Lori’s mind at ease.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Lori said.