Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
When Myla was a teen, she learned that her grandma had lied about her age for nearly her entire life, because she was two years older than her husband, and when they’d gotten married at the time, it would have been scandalous.
When she passed away and her birth certificate was taken out of the lock box, the truth was revealed.
At the time, Myla thought it was a wild lie and wasn’t sure she would ever hear anything crazier.
But standing inside a maintenance shed, in an animal paddock on the safari tour, with the guy who held her heart telling her that he could turn into a wolf?
That was positively the craziest thing she’d ever heard in her life.
She stared at him, taking in the seriousness on his face. Then she glanced at his boss, Joss, and his wife, Jeanie.
Wait. He’d called her mate, not wife.
Sighing, she rubbed the corner of her eyebrow, wondering if she’d hit her head and was in a fever dream.
“You can’t be serious, Alfie,” she said finally.
“I’m very serious. And I’m going to show you the truth of what I am.”
“You could just tell me you don’t want to date me anymore. You don’t have to make up a lie and make me think you’re nuts.”
He made a face. “I don’t want to date anyone but you. You’re my soulmate. My wolf is nuts about you because you’re the one right person on the planet for me.”
She stifled the urge to sigh even louder. He was batshit crazy! And the strangest part was that his friends were not bothered a bit by the lie stew he was serving up.
“Fine. Just take me home, Alfie.”
“No, I’m going to show you why I wasn’t able to stay all night with you.”
“What the honest crap does you not sleeping all night with me have to do with whatever nonsense you’re cooking up here? News flash, Alfie, but people don’t turn into animals.”
“News flash to you, Myla,” he said, his voice going low and growly.
“We can and we do. The truth is that I knew you were mine the moment we met. But the secret of our people is of the utmost importance. I had to be sure I had your heart, that you love me as much as I love you, so I could share the truth. I couldn’t risk staying away from the park all night with you, until you knew everything. ”
“That’s dumb.”
He arched a brow and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it over his head in one quick move. She did not find it wholly erotic. At all.
Seriously.
Who has abs like that?!
Movement from the side caught her eye and she saw Joss turn Jeanie away from the sight of Alfie. He gave her a half-smile. “The only dick my mate sees is mine.”
“Mate,” Myla said.
“Yes,” Joss said. “I’m a wolf like Alfie and Jeanie is my mate. Just like you’re Alfie’s. You might want to watch, hon. You don’t want to miss it.”
“You’re all nuts,” she said.
But something strange rolled in her gut as she stared at Jeanie with her back to Alfie with Joss’s arm protectively around her shoulders. Something ancient and predatory.
Myla turned her head slowly to look at Alfie, who was standing in the shed, naked as a jaybird.
Wait. Were jaybirds naked?
“This has gone on long enough,” she said, her voice wavering as uncertainty filled her.
“Just watch, sweetheart,” he said. “And remember, I’m still me. Just furry.”
He stared intently at her and not a freaking thing happened.
Until everything happened.
His skin rippled, his eyes going bright amber like she’d seen happen when he was emotional.
The scent of the forest at night grew stronger, and what she’d attributed to him wearing cologne was clearly somehow actually coming from him.
His lips parted and fangs elongated, his nails turned dark, and his whole body bulked up with muscles.
Fur sprouted over his skin, and he rolled down to his knees, a growl rumbling in his chest as his body turned from human to wolf.
To freaking-holy-crap wolf.
Her lungs constricted at the sight and she couldn’t breathe. Her vision tunneled and her skin went hot.
What the actual hell had she just…it wasn’t possible!
Her vision went wonky, bright lights flashing and her body swaying.
This was it. She was actually going to pass out!
“Hey,” Jeanie said, patting her cheeks and holding her steady. “It’s okay. I swear, it’s okay. It’s a lot—trust me, I know—but Alfie is still Alfie, and you’re safe. Breathe, dang it. Joss! She’s not breathing.”
Alfie, all furry and wolfy, moved forward and bumped her knee. Something snapped in place in her head and the strange feelings, the overwhelm, disappeared.
She gasped in a loud breath and pressed her hand to her chest.
“What the crap!”
Jeanie chuckled and moved back into Joss’s arms. “He’s a shifter. And you’re his soulmate. That means fate brought you two together because you were made for each other. There is nothing better than being a shifter’s soulmate. I’m human and Joss is my soulmate. He’s also the pack alpha.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off Alfie. He was sitting on his haunches after giving her the knee-bump, staring at her intently with bright amber eyes. She could feel the connection to him. It was really him.
“This is crazy,” Myla said. “Can I…touch him?”
“He’s your mate,” Jeanie said. “It would be weird if you didn’t.”
She lowered herself to the wood floor and reached her hand out, brushing her fingers lightly into his thick fur.
He was genuinely a handsome wolf, with grays, browns, and shades of white intermixed.
As her hand settled on the back of his neck, her fingers deep in the soft fur, she realized she’d had glimpses of his wolf since they’d met.
His eyes changing color so fast she was sure she’d imagined it, the soft growling, the strength he emanated. How fast he was.
How she had fallen for him right from the moment they met, and how even though it felt fast, it felt supremely right too.
She rested her head against his as tears pricked her eyes. Shifters were real, and it was a secret kept from humans. Now that she knew, what did that mean for her?
“What happens now?” she asked, turning her head slightly to look at the couple nearby.
“He’s stuck as a wolf for a few hours,” Joss said. “He most likely wants to walk around the paddock. I can give you a flashlight so you can light your way around with him. Other than that, are you asking what happens to you?”
“Yeah.” Although the question seemed ominous on the surface, she didn’t feel threatened. She’d been gifted with a truth that the general public didn’t know.
Her boyfriend could turn into a wolf.
Mate.
“You can’t tell anyone about shifters,” Joss said.
“Not your parents or anyone in your family, not your best friend who you believe would keep a secret. You’re sworn to secrecy.
Our truth is dangerous. If humans as a whole found out about shifters, we’d be hunted and slaughtered, locked up and experimented on.
We live here and work here, keeping our nature a secret from the humans who come to the park.
We don’t use terms like mate or soulmate out in public. ”
“He couldn’t tell you until you loved each other,” Jeanie said. “And he can’t live anywhere else but the park.”
“If he can’t live anywhere but the park, then you want me to live here too?”
“Don’t you want to live with him?” Jeanie asked.
She didn’t have to think about it, because she did.
She’d wanted to stay all night with him.
Every time they said goodbye, she’d hated the time away from him.
The clinginess she felt toward him hadn’t seemed over the top, it had seemed just right.
She wanted to be with him because he was her soulmate. It was a supernatural connection.
“I do,” she said.
“Let’s walk around the paddock,” Joss said. “Then we’ll leave you two alone until he can shift back. The gate is locked and there are no animals in here, so you’re safe.”
Myla nodded. She lightly rubbed the space behind Alfie’s ear and he hummed softly, then licked her chin.
She chuckled and hugged his neck. “I kind of feel like I should be mad that you kept a secret from me, but I can tell it’s serious and you needed to know that you could trust me.
You can. I promise I will never tell another soul that you’re a handsome wolf.
We can talk about living arrangements once you’re back to your sexy self. ”
Joss handed her a small flashlight and they left the maintenance shed, heading out into the freshly fallen snow in the paddock to walk.
Alfie was by her side, occasionally bumping against her leg as they walked, as Joss and Jeanie walked with them and talked about the park’s origins, wolves and other shifters, and how to navigate having human family and friends who could never know the truth.
An hour had passed by the time they got back to the maintenance shed. Jeanie stomped snow off her boots and gave Myla a hug. “Tomorrow, we’d like to meet with you two for breakfast in the employee cafeteria. Alfie can text us in the morning and let us know what time works for you.”
“Sure,” Myla said.
“The alphas will want to meet you,” Joss said. “They’ll be with us in the cafeteria.”
Myla nodded. More shifters, more alphas. The words seemed foreign but also made sense to the part of her that felt truly connected to Alfie.
“Have a good night,” Jeanie said. “And welcome to the pack.”
Jeanie and Joss walked away from the maintenance shed toward the gate, and after it creaked open and closed, she and Alfie were alone.
She was cold, even with her winter coat and hat. Alfie moved into the shed and over to a corner, nudging a tall black cylinder with his nose. She joined him and saw it was a space heater. “Oh, perfect.”
She moved it into the center of the shed, then pulled the door shut.
She turned on the heater and found a cabinet with blankets and layered a few of them on the floor by the heater.
She toed off her boots and stripped off her coat and gloves, then settled on the pile of blankets in front of the heater as warmth seeped into her skin.
Alfie sat next to her, his fur bristling as he snuffled her, and let out a soft growl.
“Okay,” she said. “You can’t talk, but you have two ears to listen. So I’m just going to talk until you can turn back to human, and then you can talk. How’s that sound?”
He nodded, then licked her jaw again.
She stared at the red glowing element in the heater, then turned her gaze to the wolf next to her.
“In a million years I never would have expected this could happen. I feel like I’m dreaming, but it’s such a good dream I wouldn’t ever want to wake up.
You saved me two times. You were exactly where you needed to be to find me, to protect me, and I was mad because I didn’t know why you wouldn’t stay all night with me.
Now I know. And I’m crazy about you.” She paused, then leaned against him.
“When you turn back, I’ll say the words.
Until then, let me tell you what happened when I was a kid and my brother told me I could fly if I only found a large enough umbrella. ”
As she launched into one of the funnier stories of her childhood, she felt a peace settle over her.
She was the mate of a wolf shifter, and privy to a world that few knew existed.
She cherished Alfie and would never want any harm to come to him or his people.
So she’d keep the secret, no matter what.
He was worth it.