Page 56 of August

After making his way to the kitchen, he brewed a cup of coffee and scrolled through his email.

There was an alpha meeting scheduled for after the tours were finished for the day to discuss the lack of soulmates from the free VIP tour coupons the park had been sending out for the last couple years.

When they’d first implemented the tour coupons, he’d been sure that many of their unmated people would find their soulmates. While a lot of their people had found their soulmates recently—eighteen at last count—few had come through the free coupons. They were planning to implement an email coupon for a change of pace, to see if more people would respond to a free VIP tour arriving in their email instead of the actual mail.

He’d been single a hell of a long time.

He’d never had any children or a mate of his own. He had a big family though, with brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces. He and his nephew Indio had been in the same memory, and Indio had come with him when he’d joined up with the other alphas at the safari park. Then his two other nephews—Cael and Kelley—had followed from their memories and joined with Alistair.

He would love to find his soulmate, he just wasn’t sure it would happen. Because while he didn’t consider himself old at forty, he knew he was no spring chicken and maybe it wouldn’t happen for him.

By the time he’d dressed in coveralls and made his way to the norms’ paddock to feed and care for them, he wasn’t in any better of a mood. He felt like his elephant was going to flay him alive trying to shift.

But there wasn’t any reason for the anxiety he was feeling.

It wasn’t like he was in danger or fearful of anything.

Except maybe growing old and dying alone.

Sighing, he rubbed the space over his heart and trudged to the maintenance shed after he’d finished taking care of the norms, including the unofficial park mascot, Tank the cantankerous moose. Once inside the shed, he cleaned up and stripped from the coveralls, putting them in the bin to be washed, and then left the maintenance shed and walked through the gate to the path, following it out to the park.

He wasn’t sure why he was walking into the park, or why his elephant was suddenly so interested in where he was going, so he just kept moving.

It was lunchtime, and the scents of food cooking in the stalls was enough to make him take a hard left and grab a burger from Tarquin and Lucy’s stall. But instead, he stopped and looked around.

“You okay, Alistair?”

Alistair rubbed the space over his heart again and looked at Xavier, one of the lions who handled park security, who was out on patrol. “I’m good, I think.”

“You look like you’re looking for something,” the young male said.

Alistair tilted his head and inhaled, sorting through the scents of food and people, but he didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary.

Still.

Something was going on.

“I think…” Alistair said as realization filled him. The reason for his elephant’s anxious feelings and dragging him out to the park? Because something new was here within the walls. Someone new.

“Think what?”

“I think my soulmate’s here.”

“What? Where?” Xavier asked, looking around.

“I don’t know,” he said. He smiled at the male and clapped him on the shoulder. “But she’s somewhere. I can feel it in my bones. My elephant dragged me out here, so he sensed it.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! So you’re just going to walk around?”

“Yep.”

“Well, good luck, man!”

“Thanks.”

Alastair nodded at Xavier and started walking. He wasn’t sure where his soulmate was, just that he was certain she was within the tall stone walls. He just had to find her.

Ginny could not stop smiling. After many, many months of hard work alongside her soulmate, the carousel was finally ready to open to the public. She hadn’t been able to sleep last night out of excitement for the coming day.