by R. E. Butler
“Reinforcements?” Tayme asked.
Marcus shrugged. “It’s possible. That means pay extra close attention to your surroundings, everyone.”
Rory couldn’t stop the trembling of her limbs. She was full-blown worried about her soulmate and his sleuth.
Chapter Eight
Tayme gave Rory’s hand a squeeze and led her a few steps away from their people to close the distance to hers. He could see that she was worried and feel the tension through their mate connection. His bear wanted to whisk her away to safety and never let her people ever see her again, but he knew she needed to do this. Whether they walked away today with her relationship with her parents and the owls intact or not, she needed closure one way or the other.
He touched his bear, who was riding close to the surface in defense mode and scented the air. Every one of the males who approached them, stopping a few feet away were owls, as was the lone female. She, of all the owls, looked haggard, as if she hadn’t slept in days. He could tell she was Rory’s adoptive mother, Rinna.
It was clear who the king was. Ahar stood in the center of the group, males spread behind him in a loose semi-circle. Rinna was next to him, and on his other side were two males that had been in the small group Rory didn’t recognize.
“Hello, daughter,” Ahar said, folding his arms across his chest.
“Thanks for meeting us. I wanted to introduce –”
Ahar lifted his hand and cut her off. “That’s unnecessary.”
“What?” Rory asked.
“You’re here to meet Lehren, the king of a neighboring nest.” The male her father gestured to had dark blond hair and a scar on one cheek.
“I’m...what?” Rory asked.
Tayme squeezed her hand and she glanced at him with her brow furrowed in confusion.
“You’re contracted to mate my son, Hudson. We’ve come to collect you,” Lehren said.
Tayme growled. “The fuck you’re taking my mate anywhere.”
Lehren didn’t take his gaze from Rory. “You’ve caused quite a disturbance in our nest, female. You’ll join us now, or there will be hell to pay.”
Rory seemed to snap out of her confusion, and Tayme could hear the snarl of her fox rumbling in her chest. “Excuse me? I’ll do nothing of the sort. I came here today to introduce my soulmate to my parents. I have no idea why you believe I’m going to go anywhere with you, and I know nothing of a contract to mate with anyone, period.”
Lehren snorted and gave an irritated look at Ahar. “This sort of behavior isn’t acceptable in a female.”
“She’ll come around,” Ahar said. “She just needs a firm hand.”
“Hey!” Rory shouted, releasing Tayme’s hand and flexing her fingers as dark claws sprouted from the tips. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here, and no one is putting any sort of firm hand on me. Mom? What the hell is going on here?” She looked at her mother and gestured toward the males. “None of this makes sense.”
Rinna looked at Ahar and at then Rory. “You know that females don’t have a say in who they mate, Rory.”
“I’m not an owl,” she pointed out.
“Which is why it was difficult to find a male to take you as his mate. In order to secure your mating contract, your father had to arrange a mate for his nephew Miles.”
“Are you kidding me?” Rory demanded, throwing up her hands. “Jess is mated. I’m mated. There’s no contract because I’m my own person and I’ll mate who I damn well please. If you won’t accept Tayme as my mate, then you can all go to hell.”
Tayme was proud of her for taking a stand.
Disapproving snarls erupted from the owls and the two kings, and Hudson moved forward.
Tayme pushed Rory behind him as the bears moved up to stand with them. “That’s fucking far enough,” Tayme said, letting his bear out enough to deepen his voice and lend him extra strength. “I’ve claimed Rory as my soulmate, and I promise you that I won’t allow a single hair on her head to be harmed.”
“You have no standing here, stranger,” Ahar said. “Rory’s future is not her own. I saved her when I could have snuffed out her life as easily as turning off a light. I took her in when she had nothing and no one.” He leveled a furious glare at Rory. “You owe me your future, daughter.”
“Fuck. You.” Rory said. Her voice quivered with fury, her claws pricking Tayme’s skin as she flexed her hands. “I have no father or mother. I reject you and your laws.”
“You gave her too much freedom,” Hudson said, snarling the words. “It will take me ages to break her spirit.”
Marcus growled loudly, and the owls winced at the sound. “There will be no breaking of anything but the severing of the relationship between your former daughter and my sleuth member. She’s under my protection as the soulmate of one of my people.”
“Rory,” Rinna pleaded. “Just come with us. Stop this foolishness.”
“How could you?” Rory asked, her voice wavering as emotion seeped into it. “You said you loved me. This isn’t love.”
Hudson’s eyes flashed yellow and he charged suddenly. It took only a heartbeat for Tayme to meet him, grab him by the throat, and throw him back into the owls. A handful of males fell under Hudson’s weight, and Tayme let out his bear enough for his fangs and claws to emerge. “Try it again and you’re dead. She’s mine.”
The owls surged, the bears, lions, and wolves joining in the fight. Tayme kept Rory at his back, Marcus and Amadeus surrounding them to help keep her safe. Hudson rose to his feet and Tayme caught sight of the male for a brief moment and then lost him in the melee.
“Where did that fucker go?” Tayme growled. Something thudded near him on the ground, and he didn’t have to see it to know it was a bomb of some sort. He looked down and saw a dark canister with a red light flashing rapidly. With a snarl, he kicked it, sending it flying toward the owls who were standing at the periphery. Then he flung himself on top of Rory, taking her to the ground as the bomb went off with a loud pop followed by a thick, gray smoke.
“Assholes!” Rory growled, fisting Tayme’s shirt. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head to clear his ringing ears. “Yeah. You?”
“I’m good. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Marcus!” Tayme shouted as he pulled his mate to her feet.
Marcus let out a furious bellow and lifted Ahar off the ground, the bloodied male dangling by his armpits. “The owls are the enemy of the sleuth forever. If you ever try to contact Rory or Tayme, or anyone under my protection, I’ll gut you and leave you for dead. Are we clear?”
“Please don’t hurt him!” Rinna wailed. “Please! We’ll go, I swear.”
Marcus shook Ahar and the male nodded weakly.
With an angry grunt, he dropped the owl king. “Let’s go,” Marcus said.
The bears, wolves, and lions disengaged from the fight. While some of their people were bloodied, none were seriously injured which was more than Tayme could say for the owls, who were struggling to get off the ground. Despite the smoke bomb, he could still see the owls, but he didn’t see Hudson among them.
Hurrying Rory to their vehicles, his bear suddenly roared and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. He turned and swung his fist, catching Hudson square in the chest and sending him flying backward. He careened in the air, landing headfirst on the ground several feet away. He groaned and went limp, his chest rising and falling but his eyes remaining closed.
“He’s not dead?” Rory asked as Tayme opened the SUV door.
“No,” Tayme said.
“Too bad.”
He snorted as he climbed in and settled next to her. In minutes, they were out of the park, picking up the males who’d stayed on the perimeter of the park as lookouts and then headed for the zoo.
“Make sure we’re not followed before we go home,” Marcus said.
“Thank you, guys,” Tayme said. “Thank you for standing with us.”
“You’d do the same for us,” Mer
cer said.
Tayme nodded, emotion choking him so he couldn’t speak. He curled Rory into his side as she started to cry, finally able to let her guard down. He kissed the top of her head. “You’re free now, sweetheart. I’m sorry it went down this way, but I’ll never be sorry you’re mine.”
She snuggled closer and cried harder. When she’d cried all her tears and could speak, she told him how profoundly sad she was.
“I’m not surprised by what happened, but I was hopeful, you know?” She scrubbed at her wet cheeks and shuddered.
“It’s not your fault,” Marcus said. “I’ve never met such a backward people. They twice attempted to separate soulmates with violent means. We’re thankful no one on our side was seriously hurt.”
“Thank you for standing up for me and Tayme,” she said.
“You’re part of the sleuth and that makes you precious to every one of us,” Marcus said.
“You’re especially precious to me,” Tayme said, his words punctuated by the soft, agreeing growl of his bear.
She lowered her head and rested her ear over his heart. “I hope I never hear from them again.”
“You can delete your email address. The phone number was protected so they never had it,” Tayme said.
She nodded. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but I’m glad we’re all safe now.”
“Me too, sweetheart.” He wasn’t just glad they were safe; he was thanking his lucky stars that his alpha had brought along so much backup. He would be forever grateful to the sleuth for coming to their aid, and he knew he could never repay them.
“I think you guys win the prize for craziest mating issues ever,” Javan said from where he sat with Marcus behind them.
Tayme looked over his shoulder and chuckled. “Yeah, a fight in the park with smoke bomb wielding owls will be hard to top.”
“Can I just say that I hope my soulmate doesn’t come from crazy people?” Javan asked.
“It’s not so bad,” Tayme said. “I get the love of my life. Whatever we had to face to get here is worth it.”
“Good point,” Javan said. “Still, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”
Rory lifted her head and smiled at Tayme. “You’re definitely worth it.”
Chapter Nine
Rory and Tayme stayed underground through the weekend, venturing out to the marketplace for meals. They were still technically on the shifter version of a honeymoon, enjoying their privacy and time to get to really know each other. Her fox was digging being underground. Her biological family had been nomadic, but that life didn’t appeal to her. She much preferred being in the quaint house with Tayme and finding new, fun ways to make his bear growl in pleasure. They’d christened every room in the house – twice.
Sunday night, Tayme took her to the marketplace so she could meet with Jess at the nail salon. Adriana and her best friend Celeste had a small place, and Rory thought it was a perfect way to spend time with Jess, who she hadn’t seen in a while.
“I think red,” Rory said as she looked over the bottles of colorful polish on the wall. The scent of nail polish remover and lacquer made her nose wrinkle, but she ignored the pungent odors and lifted a bottle of polish from the narrow shelves on the wall.
Turning it over, she read the name on the bottom, “Pop My Cherry.”
“Oh gross,” Rory said with a chuckle, putting the bottle back. “That’s a terrible name.”
“What does it matter what the name is if you like the color?” Jess asked, holding two bottles of polish in her hands – one gray and one pastel yellow.
“It’s the principle. Also, it’s a horrible metaphor, or whatever you call it.”
“A name.”
Rory shrugged and moved to the next set of shelves, where she found a similar red, but with the added touch of glitter, and a much more palatable name, “Meet Me at the Disco.”
“That’s better,” Rory said.
“I should just peel off that name,” Adriana said as she walked into the small shop from the back room. “No one will wear it once they read what it’s called.”
“See?” Rory said to Jess as they sat down. There were two stations equipped for manicures, laden with supplies.
After Celeste made some notes on a spiral-bound calendar at the check-in desk, she joined Adriana. Rory was sitting across from Adriana, and Jess was sitting across from Celeste.
“I thought Adriana was the only one who did manicures?” Jess asked.
“I got my license a few months ago,” Celeste said. “I still handle the appointments and the books for the place, but I thought it would be fun to be on the other side. It was not easy, let me tell you.”
“Getting your license?” Rory asked.
At Adriana’s direction, Rory soaked her fingers in warm, soapy water while the human female got the tools and supplies ready.
“No, dealing with my mate. Jupiter’s a lion, and he insisted on coming to all of my classes along with a few other lions for protection. I felt like a celebrity. He’s not exactly a low-key-looking sort of male, either.”
Rory nodded. She’d met Jupiter, and the male was imposing.
While the two females got to work on their nails, Jess filled Rory in on her week. She’d gotten her surprise from Auden that Rory had helped with – the private apartment within the park, in the huge red barn that would double as a care center for natural birds.
“Have you come up with a name for the bird sanctuary yet?” Rory asked. Her bestie loved natural birds and had gone to college to become an ornithologist. The alphas had been keen on her idea to open a sanctuary where there had once been a petting zoo. It would be a new attraction for the park, and a way to encourage conservation and educate the public.
“It’s going to be called Angel’s Sanctuary for Birds.”
“Oh?” Rory asked.
“That’s Auden’s nickname for me.”
“Adorable,” Adriana said.
“Would you like to come work with me at the sanctuary?” Jess asked. “Or are you going to work with Tayme?”
“I have no idea, actually,” Rory said. She hadn’t thought about her future at the park and what she might do. She wanted to be a help to the park that had taken her in and stood by her when her adoptive family had tried to cause her harm.
“You don’t have to decide now I’m sure,” Jess said.
“Do the mates all work with their males?” Rory asked.
Celeste shook her head. “Jupiter’s head of security for the park, so he’s busy in the office in the park. He also has responsibilities with the pride, too. I could have worked with him in the security office, and I spent a bit of time with him there when we were first mated, but I found it super boring. He’s also very protective of me, like all the males of their soulmates, so he had a hard time controlling his growling around unmated males.”
“When I got the idea to start a nail salon down here, Zane was all for it,” Adriana said. “I invited Celeste to help me out. Zane and Jupiter were happy about it, because it keeps us underground where they feel it’s safer.”
“What about the other soulmates? How many are there?” Rory asked. She smiled as she looked at the first glossy, sparkly coat of red polish on her perfectly trimmed nails.
As Adriana put another coat on, she said, “Including you two there are eight total soulmates since they started the VIP tours. Zane and Jupiter found us on the same day, when we were here for a tour. Then Win, a gorilla, met his soulmate Lexy when her car broke down on the side of the road and he and some other shifters stopped to help.”
“Talk about fate,” Jess said.
“Yep,” Adriana said, grinning. “Lexy started up the old candy shop that closed down after the couple who ran it decided to retire. Her cousin Trina came to interview for a job at the shop and met Justus.”
“I’ve met both of them,” Rory said. “Trina’s very sweet.”
“She sure is,” Celeste said. “And she makes amazing gummy candies in crazy shap
es and flavors. My favorite is a root beer float one shaped like a barrel.”
Rory and Tayme hadn’t really toured the park. She made a mental note to ask him to take her around so she could see everything, and maybe grab some candy, too.
“So that’s four of you,” Jess said. “The other two mates?”
“Trina’s brother, Devlin, is Jenni’s soulmate, and she works at the candy shop, too. Devlin’s in the accounting department,” Adriana said. “And then the last soulmate before you two showed up is a black panther named Rhapsody. She heard about the park from a wolf pack and bought a VIP ticket online.”
Celeste snorted. “She scared the crap out of everyone, apparently. She scented her soulmate in an elephant named Kelley and climbed the fence before the wolves handling the tour could stop her. Fortunately, the vehicles are spaced far enough apart so that no one saw what she did, but it pissed off the alphas something fierce.”
Rory shook her head. “There’s so much fate at work when it comes to soulmates.”
“It’s too bad the VIP tours don’t work as well as the alphas thought they would, though,” Celeste said.
Their nails finished, the two females set small dryers over their fingers and started a timer. As warm air blew over her nails, Rory asked what she meant.
“Well, they started the tours to bring unmated males and females into the park in the hopes of hooking up soulmates. They sent VIP tour coupons out to eligible people in the area, but so far only two soulmates used the tour coupons – me and Adriana. The other soulmates have come into the park in odd twists of fate – broken down vehicle, a job, a party. I think they thought the tours would see a lot of soulmate matches, but there haven’t been.”
“It’s too bad,” Rory said. “It’s a great idea. Why isn’t it working?”
“The tour coupons aren’t being used as much as they thought. The tours run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from three to eight, every half hour. They can take up to four people in a half hour slot, but sometimes only one person shows up for a time slot.”
