by R. E. Butler
“If I go hide in our home, then that asshole wins, and he’s not allowed to. We either trust the security people to have our backs or we don’t.”
Alastair smiled. “Your mate’s a spitfire.”
Rhapsody smiled, but her eyes were troubled. “I may sound braver than I feel.”
“That’s okay, it’s half the battle,” Alastair said. “Get back to work, you two. The tours will be starting in a few hours.”
Kelley took Rhapsody’s hand and led her out of the security office. They didn’t speak as they made their way back to the trail and picked up their gear. Before they stepped out onto the tour road, she said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked.
“I just feel like it’s all my fault.”
“It’s not. You couldn’t have known that there was a male waiting around for you.”
“The timing is weird,” she said. “’Maybe he read Joy’s obituary and decided it was a good time to come and claim me. The jackass.”
Kelley smiled at her snarled curse. “So? You’re gorgeous, and any male would be lucky to claim you as his own. But could he also have wanted the territory?”
She hummed. “Unless he was without territory of his own for some reason. Like maybe his brother took over the clan and he was forced out, so he needed a place of his own. But I don’t know, and I don’t care. It’s super creepy that he installed a camera in my territory. I hope he just gets hit by a bus or something on the way out of the zoo, so I don’t have to think about him anymore.”
Kelley chuckled. “I don’t think we’re that lucky, but it doesn’t matter. You told him you were mated. I don’t think he’ll bother us anymore.”
“I hope he doesn’t.”
He wanted to tell her he was positive that they’d never hear from the male again, and he hoped that was the case, but he honestly wasn’t sure. He trusted the security team to keep them safe, and there was no way that anyone could get down into their private areas. It rankled him that Rhapsody wasn’t feeling entirely safe, but all he could do was keep her close and protected.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep her with him and safe.
* * *
Two nights later, Rhapsody and Kelley were woken from sleep with a banging on the door. Kelley rushed from bed as Rhapsody struggled to orient herself in the dark and find clothes to pull on.
She heard the door open and Alastair said, “Get your mate and meet us in the alphas’ room.”
“We’ll be right there,” Kelley said, shutting the door. “Sweetheart?”
“I’m up,” she said, blinking rapidly as Kelley came into the room and switched on the light. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, but they want us in the conference room in a hurry.”
She nodded and dressed swiftly in leggings and a top, grabbing sandals and tugging them on as she followed Kelley, who was a faster dresser than her. They left the private area and walked down the hall, entering the conference room where she’d met with the alphas the day she found Kelley.
All the alphas were there, along with several of the lions she recognized from the security team.
Jupiter said, “Sorry to wake you at this awful hour, but an alarm was triggered in the norms’ paddocks a half hour ago. I was on rounds and was the first one there. By the time I got into the paddock to investigate, it was too late.”
“Too late for what?” Rhapsody asked. Immediately she was worried about the norms.
“A certain moose had trampled a male to death. I found blood from other males nearby, and followed it to the wall, but didn’t see anyone. The wolves are helping us search every inch of each paddock, but it seems clear that whoever breached our wall was in the norm paddock only and escaped that way.”
“Who was it?” Rhapsody asked.
“The male who came looking for you,” Joss said. “We looked at the security footage.”
Rhapsody shook her head. “Seriously?”
“Are the norms okay?” Kelley asked.
Alastair chuckled. “Definitely. I knew Tank was a badass, but I never knew he had that in him.”
Kelley said, “You think he was protecting the other norms?”
Alastair shrugged. “That or he felt threatened. We’re careful to keep predators out of their paddocks, so a handful of panther shifters climbing the fence had to scare them all.”
“Damn,” Kelley said.
“Can I see?” Rhapsody asked.
Joss shook his head. “Before the panthers ran away, they took their alpha’s body. There’s nothing to see but blood.”
“I mean the footage,” Rhapsody said.
Jupiter wrinkled his nose. “You don’t want to see it, trust me.”
“I mean the footage of them before Tank…did what he did.”
“Yeah,” Jupiter said, “let me cue it up.”
She leaned against Kelley’s shoulder and he slipped an arm over her and drew her close. Kissing the top of her head, he said, “You okay?”
“I think so. I mean, physically. Of course, I’m fine just a little sleepy and pretty rattled. But emotionally? I want to kill him all over again for upsetting the norms.”
“That’s my girl,” he murmured, his voice tinged with pride and humor.
Caesar turned on the smart board hanging on the wall and Jupiter swiped his fingers across the tablet in his hands and five screen-captured images appeared.
“When they tripped the perimeter alarm,” Jupiter said, “the security cameras began recording, and we were able to follow them all the way to the norms’ paddock. I pulled clean pictures of their faces as they climbed over the fence.”
“That’s Norris Mayella, the one who came into the security office,” she said, pointing to the first image.
“Do you recognize the others?” Joss asked.
“They’re in his pride, but I don’t know their names, just their faces. Norris is the only one who died?”
“At least the only one who died on camera,” Jupiter said.
“Tank did a lot of damage to the males, so depending on how badly they were hurt, more than just one male might have succumbed to injuries.”
“How did they get over the outer wall?” Kelley asked.
“Ropes and hooks,” Caesar said. “They tripped the perimeter alarm, but they were fast enough to get through to the norms’ paddock and get stomped on by a pissed off moose before our security team could get to them.”
“What happens now?” Rhapsody asked.
“Well,” Alastair said, folding his hands on the table, “we’re obviously going to increase security.”
“But Norris is dead,” Rhapsody said.
Caesar said, “Yes, but that doesn’t mean one of his people wouldn’t want to retaliate. Being on alert is just smart.”
“I don’t want to cause trouble,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip.
“How are you causing trouble?” Kelley asked. “You didn’t ask him to break into the zoo in the middle of night.”
Alastair said, “An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us. We’re a family. Not just the elephants by ourselves, but the whole zoo together. We want all of our people safe.”
“We’ll add more alarms and cameras,” Jupiter said, typing on the tablet after turning off the large screen. “It’s not a bad idea to just overhaul the whole security system anyway. We have issues to deal with now that we didn’t have when we added to security a few years ago.”
“What issues?” Rhapsody asked. “I mean, besides a crazy panther breaking into the zoo.”
Caesar smiled. “Humans for mates, which means we have to deal with human family members coming to visit, and also babies on the way. Our world is changing, and we have to change with it. Keeping our secret is even more important these days with social media. Someone with a cell phone at just the right time could ruin us.”
Rhapsody grimaced. “I’m sorry that this happened.”
“It’s not your fault.
We’re thankful that they didn’t get any further than the paddock,” Alastair said. “You two go home and get some rest.”
Kelley stood and took Rhapsody’s hand. They said goodbye to the alphas and left the conference room, walking back to their private area and into their home. She hadn’t spoken a word as they walked, her mind spinning out the possibilities of the panthers breaking into the zoo. “Do you think they knew that everyone lives underground here?”
Kelley shut the front door. “How could they?”
“Maybe they watched the zoo? Norris said that he had his people watching my house. He was clearly patient. Maybe he watched the zoo to see if he could catch me leaving and try to get to me? When we didn’t leave – when no one left the zoo as if it were a place of business that closed for the night and people left to go to their own homes – maybe he assumed that we must be living in the zoo somewhere.”
“That makes sense.”
She smirked. “Yeah?”
He laughed. “Yes, my smart sweetheart. But it doesn’t matter what his plans were because he’s dead. It’s too bad, because I don’t like to see anyone, or anything, lose its life but I’m not sorry that the threat to your safety was put down.”
“And by Tank, no less.”
“Right. He deserves a treat tomorrow.”
“Carrots?”
“At the very least.”
“I’m glad they’re all okay. I would have felt awful if one of the norms were hurt.”
“Me, too. The important thing is we’re safe and whatever the security team and alphas decide to do with park safety in the future will just make it better.”
He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. They stripped and climbed into bed together, snuggling under the covers.
“I love how warm you are,” she said.
“I love how you fit perfectly against me.” He kissed her forehead. “Sleep well, sweetheart.”
“You, too,” she murmured, drifting swiftly off to sleep.
When they woke in the morning, Alastair called them to meet with the other members of the memory to go over what happened and the changes that security was going to implement.
Rhapsody sipped on a cup of coffee and listened as Alastair spoke.
“I’ll explain this for your benefit, Rhapsody, since you haven’t been here that long. Now, we always have someone in the security office, twenty-four hours a day. The wolves do foot patrols after hours, but they focus on the interior of the park and not the exterior. And we have perimeter alarms connected to cameras to alert us if anyone tries to climb the wall. What the lions are proposing is to add more perimeter alarms. Instead of the alarms being at the wall, there will be alarms set at ten feet and twenty feet from the wall.”
Rhapsody said, “Won’t they go off all the time with people coming and going?”
“They’ll only be set when the park is closed.”
“Did they consider doing an exterior patrol?” Indio asked before taking a large bite of a breakfast burrito.
“Yes,” Alastair said. “The wolves will do the interior sweep as always, but someone will be walking around the wall at night, too. It’s a big park, so there will be two assigned every night. They’ll be connected to the perimeter alarms through their phones, so if someone attempts to get close at night, they’ll know where they are and can get to them faster.”
Cael looked at Rhapsody. “Do you think the panthers will try to come back?”
“I don’t think so, but that might just be me wanting to be hopeful. I’m still not sure why they came here in the first place.”
“How is the hierarchy in the clan?” Alastair asked.
“The alpha is the only ranked person in the clan. When the alpha dies or retires, the next in line would be his son. It’s a hereditary position, not one that’s fought over or voted for by the group.”
“If the previous alpha retired or died and his son took over, who would take over now?” Kelley asked.
“The brother if he’s alive.” She sighed deeply. “I wish this hadn’t happened.”
“Better that they tried to get into the zoo and were stopped, than attempted to get to you while you were outside of the park and more vulnerable,” Alastair said.
“That’s true,” she said, shuddering. “I hope we never hear from them again.”
“They’d be foolish to come into the park,” Cael said, “but with the better security protocols in place, even if they did try, they’d be stopped.”
Kelley nodded. “We’ll keep you safe, sweetheart.”
“Not just me, though,” she pointed out. “All of us.”
“The lions are confident that what they’ve put together will work, and I feel the same. We’ve learned from this and we’ll only be better from here on out.”
Alastair stood and carried his empty mug into the kitchen. When he returned, he said, “You two are leaving on Friday for the circus, right?”
“Right,” Kelley said. “We’ll be gone for a week.”
“Take an unmarked vehicle. Just to be safe.”
“You bet. Come on sweetheart,” Kelley said as he stood. “The norms are waiting for their food.”
“And extra carrots for Tank,” she said.
“You spoil that moose,” Indio said.
“Today he deserves it,” Rhapsody said. “He’s a hero.”
The elephants all chuckled as she and Kelley left Alastair’s home and headed for the norms’ paddocks to get the days’ work going. She was still shaken by what had happened. Her mind was swirling with thoughts of what-if. Determined to not be afraid, she pushed the thoughts of the panther clan from her mind and threw herself into the work, cleaning and feeding the norms and enjoying her time with her mate. The panthers might have thought they could take her away from the zoo, but they were wrong. The zoo was a part of her heart now, as much as Kelley was. The shifters and norms were her family, and they had her back.
Chapter 11
Friday afternoon, Kelley finished shaving and then rinsed his face, patting his skin dry. He glanced at his watch and hustled from the bathroom, nearly knocking Rhapsody down. With a swift move, he snagged her close to keep her from falling and gave her a peck on the cheek.
“I think you’re excited to see your family,” she said with a laugh as he set her back on her feet.
“How can you tell?”
“You almost mowed me down.”
“Almost being the most important word.”
She chuckled and ran her knuckles over his now-smooth cheek. “You’re so sexy.”
He grinned. “I’m in excellent company. Are you ready?”
“Yep,” she said. “I was just coming to check on you.”
“I’m good. Let’s hit the road.”
They were leaving the zoo to meet up with his parents’ traveling circus, which was camped out for two weeks on farmland they rented every year. He and Rhapsody were going to spend a week with the circus, and he was looking forward to not only her getting to know his family, but also her getting a front-row seat to what his life had been like before he came to the zoo. Although he loved living at the zoo, he did miss the circus from time to time. The circus was busy in a way that the zoo wasn’t. The circus traveled around the country year-round, only staying in one place for two or three weeks before packing up and moving on. There were matinees and evening shows during the week, and two or three shows each weekend day.
When they reached the employee cafeteria, he held open the door for Rhapsody and followed her out.
“You miss the circus?” she asked as he took her hand once they were outside and headed toward one of the park’s unmarked SUVs.
“What makes you say that?”
“You look thoughtful.”
“I was thinking about how different it is there than here. I miss my family, but I have family here, too. Not just my uncle and cousins, but you. If I was still traveling, we might never have met.”
She wrinkled her nose.
“That would suck. My life is so much better with you in it.”
The grin that crossed his face was so wide that it made his cheeks hurt. His sexy soulmate said the sweetest things. “Mine too.”
He opened the SUV door for her after putting their bags in the back, then he climbed in behind the wheel and turned the key. After checking in with the security booth, he set the GPS for the farm where the circus was camping out, and then took Rhapsody’s hand and rested it on his thigh.
The drive to Delaware took less than an hour. He followed the wooden signs that pointed the way to the circus, smiling as the big top came into view.
Rhapsody squealed happily. “It looks amazing!”
He laughed and stopped in front of the parking attendant booth. His cousin Reggie smiled when he saw him.
“Welcome home, stranger,” Reggie said.
“Thanks. Reggie, this is my soulmate, Rhapsody. Sweetheart, this is my cousin, Reggie. He and his mate have a high wire trapeze show.”
“Wow, that’s really cool,” Rhapsody said.
“And my mate makes the best skillet cornbread you’ve ever had,” Reggie said proudly. “The matinee’s almost over. Your folks said to tell you to park behind Franklin’s camper, which is next to theirs behind the big top. Dinner’s at five, show’s at seven. Are you performing?”
“Nah,” Kelley said. “Just observing. Rhapsody hasn’t been to a real circus before.”
“Then you’re in for a treat! See you at dinner.”
Kelley put an employee parking pass on the dashboard and headed toward the big top, following a dirt road that ran along the exterior of the circus grounds.
“We’ve got food, game, and souvenir booths,” he said as they bumped and bounced along the rough trail. “When I was a kid we used to have some rides, but humans changed the safety laws a while back and the memory felt it was too risky to have humans coming around inspecting all the time. They added more game booths instead.”
“I’m so excited to watch your family perform,” she said. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He parked behind the camper and turned off the engine. “I’m so happy to share it with you, sweetheart.”
