Chapter 20
Wednesday morning, Seneca walked with Sunny and Fallon to the underground market for breakfast. It had been a day since the attack, but the stress for his mate and her friend was still palpable.
There was too much that was unknown.
What happened when the two surviving jaguars returned to the prowl?
Would the other alpha—Otto—simply move on, or would he know where Fallon was and try to claim her in person?
The stallion-run construction company was slated to start repairing the issue with the back fence later that day.
It turned out that an overgrown tree had obscured where there was a weakness, possibly from a storm, and no one had seen it.
The park prided itself on being a safe place for their people, so the alphas were particularly upset that a weakness had been exploited and their people had to fight off intruders.
He glanced at Sunny as they reached the market, and she was looking at Fallon with a worried frown.
Since the attack, Fallon had been even more withdrawn and Sunny was concerned for her friend. Seneca was concerned for them both, because he knew Sunny harbored some guilt at taking Dario’s life even if it had been in defense of him.
They stopped at the shop run by wolf couple Anke and Zeger and picked up the phone that Marcus had ordered for Fallon along with a new tablet so she could read her digital books without worrying that someone was tracking her.
“The tablet is loaded with a gift card so you can replace the books you are losing from your old account,” Anke said as she slid it across the counter.
“We’ve set up an email address for you that is untraceable.
If you go into the notes app, the password and details are there for you and you can use that email address for anything like signing up for newsletters for your favorite websites.
The phone is also safe and untraceable. We’ve loaded Sunny’s and Seneca’s numbers into the contact list as well as Marcus’s and the security office. ”
Fallon looked at the phone cases Zeger had set out and picked a dark purple one and put the phone into it with a click. “Thank you so much,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Zeger said with a nod. “And please let us know if we can get you anything at all—clothes, shoes, toiletries—you name it and we’re the wolves to find it.”
Fallon smiled and held the devices to her chest.
They continued to the counter for the cafeteria, greeting Hyde, who was working the breakfast rush. “Hey, guys,” Hyde said. “I made my famous eggs Benedict casserole for today, and London made fruit salad with the last of the watermelons from the greenhouse.”
“That works for me,” Sunny said. Seneca agreed and so did Fallon.
After making their drinks, they found seats with other bears and settled in to eat.
“Oh, I see why this is famous,” Sunny said after taking a bite. “It’s delicious.”
“My ears are burning,” Hyde called.
Sunny lifted her fork in a salute. “It’s awesome!”
They talked about the day ahead, which for him and Sunny was a day off. They were all staying underground as a precaution, and then they’d work the dinner shift tomorrow.
With Justus standing guard with them.
He was thankful for his friend, who stepped up to have their back.
While it seemed really altruistic to offer to hang out for six hours as a stationary guard, Seneca knew that Justus hoped to get a few burgers out of the deal as well, and he was happy to provide them.
In the meantime, he and Sunny were planning to spend the day with a movie marathon and keep Fallon entertained.
And he hoped he and his soulmate could sneak away for some alone time too.
He couldn’t get enough of her.
As their meal wound down, Dani walked over and greeted them, asking how they were and telling them she was thankful they were safe.
Dani smiled at Fallon. “You look like you could use some pampering. Would you like a mini facial? I’ve got a new facial scrub that is literally my most favorite thing on the planet—next to my Neo, of course.”
Fallon hesitated.
Sunny nudged her gently with her elbow. “Go ahead. You deserve something fun. You can text us when you’re done and we’ll open the door for you. The movie marathon can wait.”
“Okay, that would be really neat.” She seemed to relax a little, a smile curving one side of her mouth.
Seneca cleared their dishes and then they said goodbye to Fallon, leaving her in Dani’s capable hands. On the way back to the private living area, he said, “Are you okay with us being stuck down here until tomorrow’s dinner shift?”
“I kind of wish we were working today, actually. I love being out in the park and talking to the patrons, and working with you. But I think I’d be a little nervous too. Another day off is a good idea, I think. In fact, I think it’s the best idea ever.”
He caught the subtle hint of her arousal as they reached the door and he entered the code.
“Do you, sweetheart?”
“Yep.”
Her eyes flashed to the gold of her tigress and he scooped her up into his arms. “Let’s see what we can do to entertain ourselves for a little while.”
“Take me to bed,” she whispered, sinking her hands into his hair and kissing his neck as he strode toward the house.
“You’ve got it.”
* * *
The day passed quickly, and they were back in the market for dinner. Sunny sat across from him with Fallon next to her, both enjoying the grilled steaks and loaded fries that were the main dish of the day.
“I’ve been thinking,” Sunny said.
“About what?” he asked, taking a bite of tender, rare steak.
“Shifting. I want to try again. Just to see if it was real.”
“You know it was real,” he said.
“But what if it was a fluke? I was stressed, terrified you were going to be killed. What if I can only shift if I’m overwhelmed with terror for your safety?”
He hummed. “Well, I honestly think that it was just the catalyst your tigress needed to come out, and now that she has, you’ll be able to access her whenever you need.
Stress or not.” The truth was that half-shifters could shift, but it seemed to be the norm that they didn’t.
Like Novi who was a half-polar bear and mated to Cael, one of the elephants.
She couldn’t shift, but when she was emotional, her eyes and fingernails would change color, and she could growl.
As their people found their soulmates, many of them had turned out to be human, and it was anyone’s guess if their offspring would be able to shift or not.
But unlike Sunny’s parents, the park welcomed anyone as a soulmate—human or shifter—and their children too.
It didn’t matter to him if their kids could shift, or what they shifted into.
He only cared that he had Sunny in his life.
“Let’s go talk to my dad. I’m sure we can use the paddock once the park is closed and it’s human-free. Fallon, would you like to join us?”
Fallon’s brows rose. “Really? I haven’t shifted in weeks. I’d love to join you. Plus, I’d love to see my bestie as a tigress. I bet you’re really spectacular.”
Sunny smiled. “I’d love that too.”
They finished eating, the conversation switching to shifting and Fallon sharing what it was like to shift when she was younger, and then they went to find Marcus.
After getting the okay from his dad to use the paddock and reaching out to the security team, they waited until the park was closed and security had given the all-clear.
“I didn’t realize that there was more than one way to get to the surface,” Fallon said as he held the door in the floor of the maintenance shed open for Sunny and Fallon to climb through.
“Everything is secure,” he said. “The maintenance shed is locked from the outside by a keycode, like the gates to get into the paddocks, and there are other doors and codes to get down below as well. The alphas really did a great job keeping our private living areas a secret.”
He set the door back in place and opened the maintenance shed doors.
“I’ll shift first and go for a little run,” Fallon said. “That way you guys can have privacy. Good luck, Sunny. I know you’ll be a gorgeous tigress.”
She walked outside and ducked around the side of the building, and in a few moments, a sleek jaguar went streaking by with a happy purr.
“This was really good for her,” Sunny said. “She sounds so happy.”
“I’m glad she could join us. Are you ready, sweetheart?”
“I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be.” He took her hand and led her outside.
As the door shut behind them and they were plunged into darkness, his eyes adjusted to the light from the night sky and he smiled down at her.
“Even if it was a fluke—which I don’t think it was—I couldn’t care less about your ability to shift.
You’re my soulmate. The half-human, half-tigress parts of yourself don’t define you, but they do make you into the beautiful female I love with every fiber of my being. I adore you, Sunny. Fur or not.”
He drew her close and kissed her, and she melted against him.
“I love you too,” she murmured against his lips.
They stripped and he told her to trust herself, to touch the part of herself that was a tigress and let her out. Then he shifted while she watched, his bear enjoying a chance to be with her in the paddock.
“I’ve got this,” she whispered to herself.
He sat on his haunches and watched her close her eyes, and then she purred.
Fur cascaded over her skin and then disappeared, and then she gasped and fell to her knees and shifted.
Her tigress yowled loudly and stretched, claws digging into the ground and tail swishing back and forth. Her whiskers twitched as she sniffed the air and then she purred loudly again and stalked to him, golden eyes glowing.
His bear rumbled as they butted heads and she rubbed her chin along his cheek, her whiskers brushing his thick fur.
A happy yowl came from deeper in the paddock as Fallon bounded back toward them.
She and Sunny greeted each other with loud purrs and snuffles, and then the three of them walked around the paddock under the moonlight and stars, sometimes the two females would chase each other with playful growls and tumble together, and sometimes they just walked in quiet communion.
He wished that Sunny could have enjoyed her youth shifting, that her parents hadn’t been taken from her so violently and left her with a group of shifters who never saw her as anything but a burden.
Except for Sera and Fallon, of course.
Those two females were family in his book. And he hoped that someday he’d get to meet Sera and thank her for taking care of his mate until they could find each other.
As the night waned and they were able to shift back to human, they returned to the private living area to head to bed. Fallon seemed happier than she had since she’d arrived, and Sunny was elated that she’d gotten to shift again.
“I knew you could do it,” he said as they climbed into bed after saying goodnight to Fallon.
“I wasn’t so sure, but you made me feel confident.”
“I’m so proud of you.” He drew her close for a kiss and then curled around her, his hand resting on her stomach and her sweet scent in his nose.
“I’m pretty dang proud of myself, actually. I was thinking of my parents, and how much I love you, and how I can feel how much you love me. My tigress was so happy to come out this time. I feel like my parents were looking down on me.”
“I’m sure they were, sweetheart.”
“Mostly, though,” she said with a yawn, “is that my tigress—and I—know that we’re home now. Because of you. You’re my heart and my home.”
“You’re home for me too.”