Chapter 4
Indio was reeling.
One moment, he was making love to his soulmate in the storage shed of all places, and then the next, she was zipping up her dress and running away like a thief in the night.
He hurriedly dressed, then rushed from the shed but didn’t see her.
His elephant trumpeted in his head as worry filled him. Why had she run?
They were soulmates. He was as certain of that as he was that she was gorgeous and very human .
Calming his flying pulse, he inhaled slowly and forced himself to calm down. Reagan was at the park for her friend Rhomi’s baby shower, so he knew where she was.
He walked to the old botanical building that had been cleaned up for the baby shower, but the doors were shut and he couldn’t see inside. He wasn’t about to rush in there and interrupt the shower, which was clearly in full swing, so he’d just have to wait.
Pacing the length of the small building, he replayed the time with her in his mind.
She’d appeared out of nowhere, her skin flushed with arousal, her green eyes bright with curiosity. He’d immediately known she was his soulmate; the strange feeling he’d had that morning suddenly made sense. His elephant had felt her when she’d been in the park.
After the most amazing quickie ever, she’d jumped off him like her ass was on fire, righted her clothes, and disappeared without a word. And he was left feeling both elated at finding her and worried that he’d done something wrong.
Had he frightened her? Had he made a noise from his elephant when he’d been coming inside her that hadn’t sounded right to a human? He didn’t think so. But what else could have happened? He was fully baffled.
Hadn’t she felt the connection? He was sure she had, but now he didn’t know. Maybe humans didn’t understand the connection as soulmates. Maybe she just needed to see him again and she’d realize that fate brought them together.
His elephant murmured impatiently.
The party would be over soon and he’d be able to see her again.
Rubbing the space over his heart, he checked his watch and tried not to barrel into the party like a bull in a china shop. He was desperate to see her again, to make sure she was okay, but he would wait.
She was worth it.
Indio had every intention of standing right at the botanical garden until the shower was over to talk to Reagan again, but his best-laid plans were spoiled by the crackle of the radio clipped to his belt.
A white-tailed deer was in distress in the norms’ paddock, and he was the only one free to deal with it.
He hurried to the paddock and put in the code to enter the gate from the safari tour.
He found one of the does tangled in honeysuckle vines that grew wild along the far wall.
While there were no blooming flowers on the vines this late in the fall, the vines themselves were woody and had clearly become a natural snare to the curious doe.
He cut her free with his pocketknife and checked her limbs for damage. Once he’d ensured she was just stressed and not injured, he headed to the maintenance shed to grab carrots from the bundles left on the worktable and gave her and the other non-shifting normal animals a treat.
When Indio made it back to the botanical garden, the whole place was cleared out, not even a decoration left behind.
“Damn it,” he muttered, his heart sinking.
He stared into the empty space, his heart held tight in a vise, and then he picked up his phone.
Where are you and Rhomi? I need to talk to you both , he texted Mercer.
A few moments passed, and he responded, We’re just unloading the shower gifts in the house. We can meet you in the market.
I’ll be right there.
Sliding his phone into his pocket, he hurried to the employee cafeteria and took the stairs below ground, making his way to the market. He found the couple at a table with sparkling flavored waters in front of them, courtesy of the lion alpha Sera, who was a master at specialty coffees and drinks.
“Hey,” he said, plunking down in the empty seat. “Thanks for meeting me.”
“Are you okay?” Mercer asked. “You look stressed.”
“I’m definitely stressed,” he said. He looked at Rhomi. “I met your friend Reagan.”
“Oh? Wait…when she disappeared during the shower, was it because she was talking to you?”
He nodded. “She found me in the storage shed. She’s my soulmate.”
“What?” Rhomi practically yelled. Then she lowered her voice. “Are you serious? That’s amazing!”
“Something’s wrong,” Mercer said, his eyes narrowing. “What happened?”
Indio wasn’t going to give them all the details, but he had to tell them something .
“I don’t know what happened. We were spending time together and then she bolted.
I didn’t want to barge into the shower, so I waited outside for it to be over so I could talk to her, but got called to help a doe in the norms’ paddock.
When I was finished, everyone was gone.”
Rhomi glanced at Mercer, then looked at Indio. “Let me call her.”
She got up and walked away, far enough that Indio couldn’t hear her.
“I’m sorry, man,” Mercer said. “Being a human’s soulmate has different rules. They tend to balk against the idea of soulmates, or what they consider love-at-first-sight. They also worry a lot about what their friends and family think, especially if they feel like it moved too fast.”
He replayed their time together. Something had spooked Reagan; he just didn’t know what.
Rhomi came back to the table and gave Indio a sad look. “I’m sorry, she said she doesn’t want to talk to you, and she pretty much shut me down too.”
Damn it.
“Just, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Could you give her my number?”
“Yeah, of course,” Rhomi said. She put his number in her phone and set it on the table. “I’ll give her some time before I send it to her. She really didn’t sound like herself.”
His heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. “Let her know that I’ll wait. However long she needs, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I will,” Rhomi said.
“Fate brought her to you,” Mercer said. “It’ll bring her back.”
Indio sure fucking hoped so.
“Thanks, guys.”
“Good luck,” Rhomi said.
He walked away and headed topside to lose himself in work. He didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts; he wanted to be busy while he waited for her to call him. Because he thought she would at some point. But he just didn’t know when.
He ignored the storage shed and the organizing he’d been planning to do, because he didn’t want to be back there so soon, and headed to the aviary to inventory the avian hospital’s supplies and check in with Jess and Auden, who ran it.
That would keep him busy enough.
He hoped.
He checked his phone as he walked. The ringer was on, the volume all the way up. His watch was synced—he’d feel it buzz the moment she reached out.
How long could a human soulmate stay away?
He was already going nuts and it had only been a couple hours.
Reagan, where did you go? Why did you run?
He forced a steady breath and rolled his shoulders, but it didn’t silence the restlessness inside him. His elephant paced beneath his skin—slow, almost mourning.
He wasn’t going to chase after her and demand she speak to him. He was going to wait for her to come to him.
No matter how long it took.