Chapter 10
Sunny woke up snuggled in Seneca’s arms, the night before swirling in her subconscious. Intimate dinner, passionate night, dreamy chatting before sleep overtook them both.
She remembered the last thing she said before she fell asleep, though.
I’m falling for you.
And she was certain he’d told her the same before everything went dark and she slipped down into another sweet night of rest.
She’d never slept so well since she’d been with Seneca. Finding her soulmate had changed her life in so many ways.
And it had only been two days.
Time with a soulmate was strange. Everything seemed to be moving at light speed, but it also felt very right.
Seneca stirred next to her with a bearish grumble.
She turned over and snuggled closer, inhaling the rich, sweet scent of him that reminded her of moonlight and the forest.
“Morning,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
“I’m guessing it is,” she said. “Since we’re underground, it could be midnight or noon.”
He chuckled. “If it was midnight, we’d still be rolling in the throes of passion.”
“Good point.”
She tilted her face to smile at him, and he kissed her. They talked about the day ahead, which started off with breakfast in the house and then prepping for the lunch shift at the burger stall.
They made a simple breakfast of eggs and toast, and while he didn’t have any caramel sauce, he did have vanilla creamer he’d asked someone to bring over to the house—one more way he showed her that he was thinking about her.
Something so simple made her so very happy.
When breakfast was done and the kitchen was cleaned up, he surprised her once more with a set of work clothes that matched his: a blue polo with the park’s logo embroidered on the chest and a pair of khaki pants that he’d asked the wolf couple in the market to send over.
She was touched by how all the shifters in the park were so helpful and welcoming.
After braiding her hair and securing it with a flower scrunchie that Dani had tucked into the gift bag she’d given her the day before, she and Seneca headed topside to the employee cafeteria and made their way to the commercial kitchen where other people were already working on prep for the day.
Seneca introduced her to bear shifter Tayme and his mate Rory, who was a red fox.
Rory gave her a hug and said, “We run the ice cream stall. What’s your favorite ice cream?”
“Strawberry.”
“I love any fruit ice cream,” Rory said. “But then again, I love ice cream in general. It’s hard not to love it when I work with it every day with my mate.”
“I’m sure I’ll feel the same about burgers,” Sunny said. “Does the ice cream stall stay open year-round?”
“No, we pack it up in the fall once it gets chilly. Then we work inside over the winter, helping with prep and other stalls. Burgers stay open all year, though.”
“Fortunately, we have a covered stall that has a heater,” Seneca said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t want to do it. No one wants to stand outside in January flipping burgers.”
“I can’t imagine you sell many burgers in the winter, though,” Sunny said.
“People are hungry,” he said with a shrug. “And we put up vinyl gazebos in the eating areas with heaters that offer some respite. But yeah, traffic goes down in the winter for sure since we don’t have much that’s indoors.”
Seneca pointed her to a whiteboard with all the burgers of the day for the month planned.
“Today is the pulled pork burger with sweet potato fries,” she read out loud. “What would you like me to do?”
Seneca looked down at her and smiled warmly.
“I’m so glad you’re happy to work the burger stall with me.
” They stared at each other, heat simmering between them, and then he cleared his throat as his cheeks darkened with blush and she grinned.
“The pork has been slow cooking overnight, so I’ll deal with it. You can cut the sweet potatoes.”
“Aye aye, captain,” she said, giving him a saucy salute.
He shook his head with a chuckle and showed her where the bags of sweet potatoes were located in the pantry, and she got to work. The commercial kitchen hummed with activity as the morning wore on, and she got to meet several other bears.
By the time they made it out to the stall to get the fries going, it was nearly time to open, the park slowly filling with patrons.
“This is so cool,” she said as she put the first batch of fries in the air fryer.
“I’ll remember that when it’s snowing.”
“I’ll still like it,” she said, bumping his shoulder. “Because I’m with you.”
His gaze was just as heated as it had been before in the kitchen, and she very much wished they weren’t topside so she could spend a good amount of time kissing and touching him. “When are we done here?” she whispered.
“Ready to call it a day?” he asked with an arched brow.
“No, I just want to know when our break is before we have to head to your dad’s for dinner with the others. Since you’re looking at me like you could eat me up.”
“I could.” He mused for a moment. “And I will.”
* * *
Sunny and Seneca walked from his house—which he reminded her was now theirs—to his dad’s for dinner with the sleuth. She was nervous because she was officially meeting everyone.
“The sleuth has over twenty members now,” Seneca said, “since several of our people have found their soulmates. Dad’s got the biggest house for a reason—when he hosts dinners, he needs lots of room.”
“I bet! So whenever there’s a soulmate, the sleuth has a big dinner?”
“Yep.”
“The park is so different from the prowl. I imagine it’s a lot different from my dad’s tiger pride as well, but I don’t know anything about them. He never talked about his people when he and my mom fled after having me.”
“The park works so well because our people all came together to keep each other safe. If one of the alphas was trying to be the boss of everyone and there was always a power struggle, it wouldn’t work.”
“That’s true,” Marcus said from the open front door of his home.
“When I joined up, the other alphas explained that they always wanted to lead the park as a group and not have any one group over another, or any alpha ruling all. I’ve met some alphas over the years who would have wanted to come in and take over everything. ”
“I imagine Dario would be like that,” she said.
“I think so too,” Seneca said.
“Thanks so much for putting a dinner together,” she said, giving Marcus a hug. “You’ve made me feel really welcome.”
He smiled at her. “You’re very welcome as my son’s soulmate. I’m glad you’re here.”
The house smelled amazing, like fresh-baked bread and smoked meat. The low hum of chatter inside quieted when Marcus led them into an enormous kitchen and dining room with tables laden with platters and bowls.
“All right,” Marcus said, his voice booming, “we’re here tonight to get to know Sunny, Seneca’s soulmate.
Once they’re mated fully, she’ll be a member of our sleuth and part of my family, but whether or not she’s wearing his marks, she’s already part of us and we’re glad she’s here.
How about we go around and everyone introduce themselves and say what they do in the park?
” Marcus pulled out a chair at the head of one of the tables where two chairs were empty on one side.
As she and Seneca took their seats, he continued, “I’ll start.
I’m Marcus and I’m the alpha, but I’m also part of the prep brigade and I fill in for the burger stall and anywhere else I’m needed. ”
“I’m Justus and I’m mated to Trina. I work in security because I can’t cook for shit.”
“Watch the swears,” a blonde next to him said. She smiled at Sunny. “I’m Trina, his mate. And I’m pregnant. Our little one can hear now, so Justus has to stop swearing like a sailor.”
“I’m trying!”
Trina smiled indulgently. “I work at the candy shop with my cousin Lexy, who is mated to one of the gorillas. Jenni, a lioness, works there too.”
After Tayme and Rory introduced themselves to her again, she met Tarquin and his albino doe mate Lucy and her younger sister Luna.
The couple usually worked the lunch shift at the burger stall but had been off that day, and Luna worked at the petting zoo.
One by one, the other members of the sleuth greeted Sunny and shared a bit about themselves.
When it finally came around to her, she introduced herself and then said, “I just wanted to thank you all for being so kind to me. I never would have guessed when I was exiled that I’d find my home in a safari park with a bear for a soulmate.
My half-tigress is so happy she’s purring in my head like a train. ”
Marcus lifted his glass. “I propose a toast. To Seneca and Sunny and finding each other despite being hundreds of miles apart. And to the sleuth, may everyone find the happily ever afters they deserve.”
They all lifted their glasses in cheer, and she touched hers to Seneca’s and gave him a kiss.
“To us,” Seneca said.
“To later,” she added with a purr that his bear echoed, his eyes flashing in agreement.
Hours later, when they wandered back into the house from the dinner party, she was so happy that she felt like she was glowing.
She felt like she was still healing from losing her friends and the prowl so abruptly, but thanks to the bear sleuth, she felt far from the scared female who’d shown up at the park with only a sliver of hope and a hastily packed suitcase.
Seneca ducked and hauled her over his shoulder with a playful growl. She let out an oof and then laughed, brushing the hair from her face.
“Am I walking too slow?” she teased.
“Yes.”
He carried her through the living room like a man on a mission. “You smell amazing and my bear’s been yelling at me for the last half hour to get you home and naked as fast as possible.”
“Bossy old bear.”
“Just for you, sweetheart.”