Chapter 22
Sunday morning, Ford walked with Darcy to the employee entrance of the Amazing Adventures Safari Park for their double date with her best friend, Rhomi, and her lion mate, Mercer.
Considering the park was where Ford met his soulmate, he was happy to be back behind the tall stone walls with her once more.
Plus, he was still riding high from the fact that she was officially his mate and part of the herd, and also his fiancée.
His life had literally been the definition of a whirlwind since he had met Darcy during Rhomi’s baby shower.
Not only had his human sweetheart learned the truth about shifters, but the herd’s enemies had taken their last breaths, and they were all finally, truly safe.
Mercer greeted them at the gate, shaking Ford’s hand while Darcy and Rhomi embraced, and then Darcy showed off her engagement ring.
“I’m so happy for you,” Rhomi said as she and Darcy linked arms and walked through the gate.
“I’m pretty dang happy myself,” Darcy said, glancing over her shoulder with a smile at Ford.
“Congrats, man,” Mercer said. He pulled the door shut and they followed the females into the park, heading toward the safari tour.
“Thanks. I’m really happy for you and Rhomi too.”
“Soulmates are a blessing, man,” Mercer said.
“One hundred percent.”
They reached the entrance to the safari tour, where a blue-camo-painted Jeep idled. The females climbed into the back as Mercer sat behind the wheel and Ford settled into the passenger seat.
“Have you ever been on the tour?” Mercer asked.
“Nope,” Ford said. “We talk about it at the farm from time to time, but before I met Darcy, I didn’t have anyone to bring with me and didn’t want to be a third wheel to any of the happy couples in the herd.”
“I hear you,” Mercer said. “When you’re lonely, it’s hard to be around all that happiness.”
Ford nodded. Darcy put her hand on Ford’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “No more third-wheeling for you. You’re all mine and I’m all yours.”
He grinned. “Absolutely.”
Darcy sat back after one more squeeze to his shoulder. “I’m so excited for this. It’s even cooler now that I know that all the animals on the tour are people!”
Ford chuckled. “Not all of them.”
“Oh right,” she said. “It’s the…paddock with deer?”
“Yes,” Rhomi said. “The last paddock is what they call the norms paddock, full of deer and antelope, plus the unofficial park mascot, Tank the moose. Every other animal, though, is a shifter.”
The couple had arranged the tour for their group before the park was open.
The shifters changed forms an hour before the park opened to ensure no humans would see anything strange.
Years ago, the tours had been a way to bring patrons into the park, but then the alphas had gotten the idea to encourage unmated humans in the tri-state area to visit the park through free coupons for individual VIP tours, complete with a souvenir photo album.
As the tour started with the elephant paddock, Mercer said, “A few soulmates have come from the tours, but not as many as the alphas had hoped. It’s still a good business decision, but we have plenty of shifters who are still waiting for their forever-person.”
“How many have come from the tour?” Darcy asked.
“Let’s see,” Rhomi said, thoughtfully. “It started with Adriana, who’s mated to gorilla Zane, then Celeste, who’s mated to Jupiter, a lion.
Then Rhapsody—who is actually a panther shifter—bought a ticket online and found her soulmate in Kelley, an elephant.
” As they talked about the humans and shifters who’ve come on the tours and found their happily ever afters, Ford was really amazed.
“I’m sure the alphas hoped for more, but it seems pretty impressive that so many have found their soulmates,” Ford said. “Stallions don’t have that kind of luxury, we just have to hope we run into our soulmates out in the wild, so to speak.”
He turned in the seat and smiled at Darcy. She grinned at him.
“It was definitely wild meeting you and learning the truth.”
They got out of the Jeep and walked to the big iron gate that allowed tour guests to see into the paddock, and the females talked about wolf shifters and how awesome they were.
He and Mercer both made disgruntled noises.
“I think lions are pretty awesome,” Rhomi said.
“And stallions too,” Darcy said.
“That’s more like it,” Ford said.
They continued on the tour, stopping at the lion, bear, and gorilla paddocks, ending with the norms.
“Tank is so cool,” Darcy said.
Ford put his arm over her shoulder and drew her close. “I think so too.”
“Are there non-bitey shifters?” She peered up at him.
“Non-bitey?” he asked.
“You know, not predators.”
“I’m not sure, actually. I don’t know if people would consider stallions to be predators, so I guess it depends on your definition.”
“Imagine a bunny shifter—how would someone even get that small?” Rhomi asked.
“Babe, I don’t think there are bunny shifters,” Mercer said.
“You don’t know. There could be a whole warren of them somewhere, and they’re just making fools of everyone and stealing carrots.”
“Sure, whatever you say,” Mercer said, smiling indulgently.
“I think maybe not bunnies, but I guess since I didn’t know there were shifters to begin with until a few weeks ago,” Darcy said, “that maybe I think anything is possible.”
“We found each other in a crazy, once in a lifetime way,” Ford said. “I’d agree with that one hundred percent.”
As they finished up the tour and headed back to the entrance with the Jeep so the staff could open the tours when the park opened, Ford thought how lucky he truly was.
If he hadn’t come to the park that day—if Darcy hadn’t been hosting Rhomi’s shower at that exact moment—they may never have met. How else could it be described except as luck?
Maybe fate or destiny.
But whatever it was called, he was damn thankful for it.
* * *
“I thought Reagan was going to join us for lunch?” Darcy asked as they grabbed lunch in the employee cafeteria. There were hot and cold sandwiches, prepared salads, and covered plates under a warmer.
Darcy picked a plate with fried chicken strips and a scoop of mashed potatoes, then followed Ford to one of the tables by the big windows that overlooked the park.
“I think I should have salad,” Rhomi said. “But the baby wants chicken.”
“Gotta listen to the little peanut,” Darcy said with a chuckle.
“Heck yeah. Fried chicken it is.” She and Mercer joined them at the table with their plates. “At first Reagan said she’d come, and then she said something came up.”
Darcy sighed. “I think she’s just scared to run into Indio.”
“I think so too,” Rhomi said. “She’s being really cagey about everything. I can’t figure her out.”
“I’m sure she’ll change her mind in time,” Ford said. “The soulmate bond is hard to ignore.”
Darcy couldn’t imagine running from Ford the day they met. She’d been enchanted by him since the beginning. “I’ll reach out to her when we’re home and see if she wants to come hang out at the farm for a while. She may just need a chance to decompress and relax.”
“And spill the tea,” Rhomi said. “I want to know what happened between them that spooked her so bad she doesn’t want to see him.”
“Uh yeah, I want to know too!” Darcy said. It couldn’t just be that her other bestie was embarrassed they’d hooked up right off the bat. There had to be something else going on, but whatever it was…only Reagan knew right now.
A door at the back of the room opened, and a woman walked in carrying a tray of drinks. “Hi, everyone.” She approached them and set the tray on the table.
Darcy had met Sera at the baby shower, and now she knew that she was a jaguar shifter and mated to the alpha lion, Caesar. “It’s nice to see you all,” Sera said. “I wanted to congratulate the two of you on your engagement, so I brought you some of my homemade blueberry sparkling water.”
She set the pretty purple drinks in front of everyone.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Darcy said. She took a sip. “Oh, this is amazing! Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. When we get the new café open next to the safari tour, you’ll have to come by for the specialty drinks and treats.”
“We’ll definitely do that,” Ford said.
The alpha female said goodbye and Darcy took another sip of the drink.
“Oh my gosh, could you imagine having Sera come to the farm for your wedding and having a coffee and drink bar? I bet she’d make you a personalized drink for the wedding too,” Rhomi said. “And she makes amazing sweets, maybe she’d even do the desserts.”
“I like that idea,” Darcy said.
Ford nodded with a smile. “Any thoughts on the date?”
Darcy knew they hadn’t had much time to chat about when they’d get married, but he’d told her last night, after rocking her world more than once, that he was happy for whatever she wanted when it came to the timing of the wedding.
So she went with the plans she’d always thought of when she was a kid wearing a pillowcase as a veil and pretending to marry one of her stuffed animals.
“Spring for sure, maybe April. In the field, with the trees and split-rail fence as the backdrop. Some roses and ivy around the wood slats, and oh! Daisy the goat as a flower girl.”
“Don’t you mean flower goat?” Rhomi asked.
The two stared at each other for a long moment and then burst out laughing.
She saw Ford and Mercer shake their heads with smiles, and she leaned over and kissed Ford’s cheek.
“You’re a hoot and a half, darlin’,” he said. “But you’re all mine.”
“You’re mine too.”
When their double date ended and they said goodbye to their friends, they headed back to the farm.
Her mind was on Reagan and wondering if her friend was okay.
But she was also thinking about her own future.
So she decided to give Reagan a call when she got home to the farm, but in the meantime, she wanted to talk to Ford about something that had been on her mind.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said.
“Should I be worried?” he asked with a chuckle.
“No,” she said, grinning. “I think I’d like to stop working at the hardware store. Everyone in the herd works either on the farm or with the construction company. Except for Tatum at the library, of course.”
Ford hummed. “What would you like to do?”
“I don’t know. Something that helps the herd. Plus, I wouldn’t mind being close to you too.”
“I love that idea. And I have an idea of my own. Let’s take a small detour.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see.”
He drove past the farm and turned down a dirt driveway, then stopped at the back of a large yard where a barn stood. A shingle hanging over the door said Fitzgerald Construction.
They got out of the truck, and she said, “This is Dexter and Nancy’s place?”
“Yep. And this is Dexter’s office.”
“So what are we doing here?”
“Taking a chance on your hunch.”
They knocked on the door and Dexter called for them to come in. They sat at the desk of the former alpha of the herd, and as Darcy listened, Ford talked to Dexter about her skills and her thoughts about doing something that would benefit the herd.
An hour later, Dexter was shaking her hand and welcoming her to the company as the new office manager.
She’d be handling the customers, billing, and supplies ordering.
Ford offered to build her an office space in the barn on the farm where he worked on the machinery, so that they could be close by but she could have privacy to work, and she and Dexter both loved the idea.
She’d give her two weeks’ notice on Monday at the hardware store. And start a new job with the construction company.
“This is just what I wanted,” she told Ford when they got to the farm and were looking around the barn to see where he could build her an office. “I didn’t know how to put it into words, but you did.”
“I’ve got your back, sweetheart,” he said. He drew her close and kissed her. “I want you to be happy and for us to have an amazing life together.”
“I’m so happy,” she said. “Trust me. My happiness level is off the charts.”
She had everything she’d ever hoped for—love, family, and forever—wrapped up in her sexy stallion.
* * *
Thank you for reading Ford!