Page 2 of Alistair

Alistair closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His mind spun with all the things he could wish for, if he were the sort of male who believed that blowing out a candle would make a wish come true.

Then he opened his eyes and blew out the candle, thinking hopefully,I wish I’d meet my soulmate soon.

They clapped again and he chuckled.

“What did you wish for?” Indio asked.

“He can’t tell, it’s bad luck,” Novi said. “That’s what my mom always says.”

“Good point. Keep that to yourself, we don’t want to jinx anything,” Indio said. “Especially if you wished thatI’dfind my soulmate.”

Alistair narrowed his eyes. “Use your own wish.”

“Oh hell, you could have shared it,” Indio protested.

“Maybe next year,” Alistair said.

He signaled the server and asked for a knife, then cut the large cupcake up and let everyone have a piece. As he ate his slice of sweet vanilla cupcake, a yearning filled him. That he might find his soulmate soon, and that Indio would too. So they’d both know the joy that Cael and Kelley had with their forever girls.

Lifting his beer, he held it aloft and said, “To the future: to happily ever afters and soulmates.”

“To the best uncle any of us could hope for,” Kelley said.

“To birthday wishes coming true,” Indio said.

“Hear, hear,” the others said as their drinks clinked together.

The yearning morphed with hope, and Alistair smiled. Maybe this would be the best year of his life, maybe he’d find his soulmate and could finally fill the void in his heart.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

The following day, Alistair attended to his duties taking care of the non-shifting animals. It was going to be a busy day because a group of elementary kids were coming for a private tour of the park, including the safari tour, which would take them along the paddocks where the shifters would be in their animal forms. Along with the elephants who called the park home, there were also wolves, lions, bears, and gorillas.

Normally, the tours were reserved for VIPs on individual tours or large groups during specially scheduled times, but they’d closed off the tours to everyone but the kids for the afternoon.

The time was drawing close to when the kids would be going through the safari tour, stopping at each paddock and getting information from the guides on the animals along with a group picture in front of each gate.

His heart panged sharply and he rubbed it with his fingertips.

Shit, that had been happening all morning.

Maybe he needed to see Doc Paula, the wolf healer, and get checked out.

Except he knew he was in excellent health.

His elephant trumpeted again, and he let out a grumbling growl.

What the hell was going on?

Then the thought occurred to him that maybe his elephant was acting up because he needed to go somewhere. While he doubted his elephant was psychic, he’d been feeling antsy since yesterday, and right now, he felt like he needed togo somewhere.

But where?

Out into the park, he was sure of it.

He finished walking around the paddock looking for trash and dropped the trash bag into the receptacle. He shut the maintenance shed door and then walked swiftly to the gate and stepped out onto the path. As he made his way again to the main part of the park, his heart started to pound and his elephant stamped in his head.