Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Alfie was actually more nervous about sharing his real home—the underground one in the wolves’ private living area—than he was anything else.
Because he didn’t want her to think he’d started their official mating off with another lie.
He just hadn’t been able to share the truth of their living situation until the alphas had met her and been satisfied that she was fully committed to keeping the secret.
She wasn’t able to have the access codes for the underground areas yet; that would come after the mating ceremony with the pack. But he was allowed to show her his home and she was allowed to move in with him.
He was worried she’d feel betrayed again. But it was a situation he’d been unable to deal with until now.
They walked around the park as he gave her a real tour, starting with the security office, where Justus took her photograph for a badge and entered her into the system.
As they waited for the card to print, Justus said, “It’s not a swipe card, it’s mainly for if you choose to work in public in the park, you’ll have an ID. ”
“We haven’t talked much about that,” she said, glancing at Alfie.
“All in good time,” Justus said. “Once you know the truth, the other stuff is just details. Important, of course, but not right-this-minute serious.”
“Does your mate work in security?” Myla asked.
“Trina works in the candy shop, along with her best friend Lexy and lioness Jenni. Trina and Lexy are human. I actually met Trina the day she came to meet Lexy for a job interview.”
“I thought humans didn’t work at the park unless they were soulmates?” she asked.
“They made an exception because Lexy was a soulmate and wanted her friend to work with her. There were strict conditions, like Trina wasn’t allowed to go anywhere but the candy shop and the parking lot essentially,” he said with a laugh.
“Fortunately, she learned the truth from me quickly and was able to join in the secret.”
After the ID had printed and was attached to a lanyard, Alfie took her to the safari tour and they walked along the path, stopping at the empty paddocks so he could tell her which shifters would be in them, ending at the norms’ paddock, where Tank was being given a treat of carrots by Rhapsody and Kelley, their young son Khap toddling along with them.
The aviary was next, with Jess and Auden and Maggie at the helm, followed by the avian hospital, the petting zoo with Mercer, Rhomi, and Luna, the unused movie theater, and the carousel, which was being deep cleaned ahead of opening again in the spring, manned by Ginny.
They stopped at the apartment complex but didn’t go inside.
“I don’t really live here,” he said.
Her brow arched. “So you have a secret house somewhere?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Oh!” She let out a little gasp. “I was just teasing. Do you really?”
“I do. And this is the surprise that’s not sexy.”
She smiled. “I like your sexy surprises.”
“Trust me, I do too.” He inhaled and then blew out a sharp breath.
“When the shifters in the park started finding human soulmates, the first issue was where the shifter would say he or she lived until their soulmate knew the truth, and second was where the family of the human soulmate would be able to visit if they came to the park. At first, a single apartment was made in the big red barn with the facade of other apartments, but it was determined by the alphas that it wasn’t feasible long-term.
So they built the apartment complex here, with the help of a construction company run by shifters who live in the town of Little River. ”
She looked at the apartment building, and then back at him. “So no one really lives in the apartments?”
“Only if they need to, temporarily. One of the lions has a human soulmate and she’s pregnant. Her family has come to visit them many times, in the apartment they believe is theirs. And when I met you, I moved into an apartment immediately.”
“Wow.” She rocked back on her heels. “I thought the apartment seemed a little cold.”
“Cold? Like temperature?”
“No, cold like it didn’t feel like it was your place. There were some mementoes, but not a lot. And it’s really too well-stocked to belong to a single guy.”
“What?” he asked with a laugh.
“You have a full set of matching plates, silverware, and glasses. I literally have never met a single guy who had a well-appointed kitchen. Milo lived alone for a few years before he and Alice moved in together, and let me tell you, that even with my mom and grandma giving him all sorts of dishes and kitchen stuff, he still drinks out of a chipped coffee mug for his favorite football team because it’s lucky and puts his leftovers in whipped cream containers. ”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” he said.
She shrugged. “Before I knew much about your life, I figured your mom or sister helped you stock it, or you went out and bought a bunch of things to impress me. But aside from the whole place being matchy-matchy with the navy-blue color palette in every room, it’s just a little too neat for a bachelor. ”
He drew her close and kissed her. “I bet the pack members who decorated the apartments hadn’t thought about how it would look to an outsider, they were just trying to make them seem lived-in.”
“That would be hard to do with no one living there for real.” She went onto her toes and kissed him. “So you’re going to show me your real place? Because it’s cold out and my toes are numb.”
“Yes, right now. But I just wanted to apologize. I wasn’t able to show you where I really live because it’s another layer of the secrets in the park. Like my wolf, it’s something else you have to keep from the people you love.”
“You’re worth it,” she said. “And I don’t think you need to apologize. Your alphas have rules to keep everyone safe, and since I’m your soulmate and we’re going to have half-human, half-wolf kiddos at some point, I want you, and them, safe too.”
“Me too.”
He took her hand and they walked to the employee cafeteria, and straight to the back of the building. He entered a code to unlock the security door, then took her down underneath the park where the wolves’ private living area was behind another locked security door.
“I can’t give you the codes for the doors until we’re mates.”
“I thought we were?” she asked.
He opened the door and she let out a surprised gasp. “Oh! It looks like dens in the woods, holy crap!”
Chuckling, he pulled the door shut behind him and took her hand.
Bringing it to his lips, he kissed her knuckles and said, “You’re wearing my marks and that makes you my mate.
But you’re not officially my mate or part of the pack until we’re joined together by the alphas during a mating ceremony.
It’s similar to a wedding ceremony but ends with the pack shifting and running around the paddock. ”
“When can we do that?”
“There’s no rush, we can do it whenever we want. This month or next, or we can wait until it’s nicer out, April or May even,” he said.
“How about this month?” she asked. “The full moon is probably in a couple weeks.”
He loved that she didn’t want to wait. “We can check with Joss and Jeanie, but I’m sure they won’t mind.”
She gave him a curious look. When he prompted her, she said, “You’re going to ask me to be your wife too, at some point? Because I’ve always pictured my dad walking me down the aisle. I’m the only daughter, and I want him to be able to have that. And for my mom to be the mother-of-the-bride.”
“Of course,” he said. “I definitely want you to be my wife too.”
“I want a nice, sexy proposal, by the way. We can have a PG-rated story to tell my family, but the real one needs several Big Os.”
“You got it.”
He led her to the house that he’d claimed when he’d first come to the park and had imagined he’d find his soulmate sooner rather than later. He wasn’t old by any stretch, but he felt like he’d waited a lifetime for Myla. She was well worth the years of waiting, though.
The two-bedroom was similar to the other homes, with the exterior covered with rocks to resemble a den. All the homes were scattered around the forest-themed private living area.
She walked right into the kitchen and opened a cabinet, then pointed to the variety of glassware and mugs. Few matched, and most were sentimental, including the coffee mug that had belonged to his grandpa.
“Hardly anything matches,” she said. “I can tell this is your place, and I love it.”
“It’s yours now too, Myla.”
Her eyes were shining brightly. “I love that even more.”
He showed her the rest of the house, which he’d called home but had never really felt like home.
Then they’d christened the moment with a quick tumble in the sheets before they journeyed up to the employee lot and met Amadeus and London, who escorted them to Myla’s apartment so she could pack a few things.
She zipped up a duffel stuffed with clothes and said, “I’m going back to work on Monday, and you’re going to drop me off and pick me up?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll keep doing that as long as I work there?”
“They’re your friends and you like the work. I don’t want to clip your wings. I will be there for you for however long you want to be there, no matter what.”
She hummed. “I like the idea of being a curator of the little theater in the park. It was neat to see it today.”
They’d spent a little while inside the theater that morning, sitting on the carpet-covered seats and talking about what it might mean for her to work there.
“But I’m not ready to put away everything from my old life just yet. Is that okay?”
“Of course. You’re the most important person in the world to me. I want you to be happy above all else.”
“I am happy,” she said. “Because you’re the guy I’ve been waiting my whole life for.”
He helped her pack up several bags, and then she asked if they could stop for lunch at a diner near her apartment.
The guys were very happy for a lunch break somewhere new, and spent the time in the faux leather-covered booth telling her stories from the park.
Like the time Tank had figured out how to unlock the gate and gone meandering through the park, leading to new and better gates at the paddocks.
Or the time the brakes stopped working on one of the tour Jeeps when Alfie and Evan had been giving a tour, and they came inches from crashing into the Jeep farther along the safari tour trail.
This time, when they came back to the park, he wasn’t keeping anything from her. She now knew what he really was and where he really lived. And she was accepting of all of it.
There were things still to be figured out, like the mating ceremony and her job, but she was ready to be with him full time, and he was more than ready to have her in his life and in his bed.
The small details would come in time.
For now, the only thing that mattered was that they were together.
Alfie had found his human soulmate, and she was the best thing that had ever happened to him.