Chapter 2
Alpha lion Caesar Tyrell paused at the back of the Amazing Adventures Safari Park and inhaled, sorting through the scents in the night. He didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary, but that didn’t stop him from checking his other senses just to be sure.
Nope.
“Dad?”
He opened his eyes and looked at his son, Jupiter, head of security and second-in-command of the pride that called the park home.
“Yeah?”
Jupiter’s brow arched, his face in shadows from the overhead light. “You okay?”
“Sure. Just checking things.”
“You seem a little off.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly.
“No,” Jupiter said with a snort. “I mean you don’t seem like yourself.”
Caesar put his hands on his hips. The back of the park had been through numerous changes recently as security had become more of a necessity.
A non-shifting tigress had come to the park seeking sanctuary and had brought a world of trouble on her tail in the form of an alpha jaguar looking for her friend.
The alpha and his people had broken into the park at the back and nearly killed her mate, one of the bears who lived and worked at the park.
She’d ended up shifting and took the alpha out.
A herd of stallions in nearby Little River who ran a construction company had repaired the fence, reinforcing it so no one would be able to break through it again.
But ever since things had settled in the park the last few days, Caesar couldn’t shake a strange feeling in his chest.
It wasn’t bad or good, just odd.
He clapped his son on the shoulder. “I’m good. Just feeling restless.”
“Weren’t you in the paddock yesterday for the safari tour?”
“Yeah, why?”
They resumed their trek around the park. “Well, because usually our beasts acting up means we need to shift, but you were in your shift yesterday, so that’s not it. Oh, man, are you close to finding your soulmate? That would be so cool!”
Caesar smiled. “That would really be something.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“Hey, I’m not that old.”
“Old enough. You’re about to be a grandpa, you know. It would be cool if you found your soulmate before mine and Celeste’s baby is born.”
“I might be a grandpa soon, but that doesn’t make me old. I’m still in my forties. But I’d like that. I’d like for Amadeus to find his soulmate too. Hell, there are many of our pride who need their other halves, not just our family.”
“True. It’s so freaking worth the wait.”
“You can say that because you’re still in your twenties.”
“Good point. I’d still think Celeste was worth the wait no matter how old I was when we met. She’s everything.”
“I’m glad you’re happy. She’s a good female.”
“She’s awesome. Especially with her baby cravings in full swing.”
“What’s she craving now?”
“French toast. The really thick kind with lots of cinnamon. She’s obsessed and I’m loving it.”
“Are you cooking for her?”
“Hell no, she won’t let me touch the stove since I almost set the kitchen on fire trying to deep fry bacon.”
“Why on earth would you try to deep fry bacon?”
“Makes it super crunchy.”
“And deadly.”
Jupiter grinned. “Only potentially deadly. I didn’t actually destroy the kitchen. Just her favorite skillet. Which I didn’t know females even had favorite skillets.”
Caesar laughed. Jupiter was one of the first males in the pride to find his soulmate through VIP tour coupons sent out by the alphas of the park.
Lions, gorillas, bears, elephants, and wolves lived underneath the park in private living areas, and used the park itself as cover to keep their shifting nature secret from humans.
The safari tour coupons had been sent out over the last few years to unmated males and females in the tri-state area, and several soulmates had been found.
The alphas had hoped it would be far more successful than it was, but even just one soulmate was worth it.
A few lions had found their mates, including Jupiter: Jenni, Lucius, and Mercer. The lions had a medium-sized pride with mostly unmated males. Caesar was thankful for the ones who’d found their mates, but hopeful for the others too.
Including himself.
He rubbed his chest, wondering if his lion was thinking similar thoughts about finding their forever female.
“Hey!” Amadeus called out, coming into view.
“How was the convoy?” Jupiter asked.
Amadeus filled them in on an attack on the road, spearheaded by Alpha Otto, the jaguar leader who had combined his prowl with that of the male who’d been killed by the tigress in the park.
He’d set his sights on the tigress’s friend Fallon, who’d been squirreled away to the stallion farm for safekeeping.
She’d mated a stallion and become pregnant right away, which made Otto decide he’d take her mother, Sera, for a mate instead.
Against her will.
So they’d brought her to the park to keep her safe. Because this Otto fellow was a wild card and dangerous, and there was no telling what he’d do to try to get to Sera.
“I’m glad you made it back to the park safely,” Jupiter said.
“Hell yes.” Amadeus flexed. “I rocked the hell out of that SUV.”
Caesar chuckled. “We need to get back on rounds. You joining in?”
“Yeah, I told Alfie I’d meet up with him. I’m too wired from that car chase to go to sleep anyway.”
Amadeus jogged off, and Caesar and Jupiter continued their rounds of the park until dawn, when the next shift would take over.
The lions mainly ran the park security, but other shifters joined in, switching off from running other areas of the park. It took a lot of hands to keep the park running and keep everyone safe, and now they had one more person to add to the list.
Sera Caldwell.
* * *
Caesar rolled over and rubbed his eyes, unable to rest even after the long overnight shift. Jupiter asking if he was maybe going to meet his soulmate soon had gotten him thinking over his past, and that had meant his inner monologue was replaying his love life’s greatest hits on repeat.
Or his lack of greatest hits.
His longest relationship was hardly a relationship at all.
The pride he’d grown up in had an alpha who encouraged the unmated males and females to couple up and have a cub together to keep the pride growing.
Sometimes the couples would mate permanently even though they weren’t soulmates, but Caesar and Alexis hadn’t gone that route.
He’d wanted to wait for his soulmate, and she’d been content to have cubs with him until she made a more permanent choice.
Eventually, she’d chosen a high-ranked male in the pride and decided that Caesar could raise the boys on his own, essentially cutting herself off from them to start a new family.
Caesar hadn’t begrudged her making a new life for herself, but he did hate that she’d abandoned the boys too.
It had been too hard for him to see the boys sad at her behavior, so he’d ventured east to New Jersey and joined up with other alphas to create the park.
Those alphas were his closest friends, and they all looked out for each other and the numerous shifters under their care.
He was glad he hadn’t mated Alexis, because he might never have come to New Jersey if he’d stayed with her. Then Jupiter and Lucius wouldn’t have met their soulmates.
Rubbing the space over his heart, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
He hadn’t slept a wink, the word soulmate bouncing around in his skull like an out-of-control rabbit.
Maybe Jupiter was right, and his lion had some kind of supernatural intuition that they’d meet their soulmate soon.
He certainly hoped so.
Being single sucked.
Rising to his feet with a groan, he decided to grab a shower and breakfast in the market and then see where the day took him.
Perhaps into the arms of his soulmate.