Page 6 of Alistair

He nodded at her and moved away to stand with the women who’d been taking them around the park.

Sitting back next to Jenny, she picked up the remains of her burger, her hands trembling.

“He’s cute,” Jenny whispered. “What did he want?”

“To introduce himself. He’s going to take us on the safari tour.”

“I think he wanted to introduce himself toyou,” Jenny said.

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t introduce himself to me or the other adults, just you.”

She realized Jenny was right, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

“Ask him out.”

“What?” she whispered. “I’ve never done that in my life.”

“You’ve never asked a guy out? Really?”

She shrugged. “I haven’t had many boyfriends. And I haven’t really dated since my last boyfriend either. I’m out of practice.”

“It’s like riding a bike.” Jenny winked. “Dating, anyway. When we’re done with the safari tour, slip him your number. You said it was going to be a good day, right?”

“I did. But I say that every day.”

“Well, today you meant it and you turned out to be a little bit of a prophet too. You’ll regret it if you walk away without at least getting his number. Trust me. Sometimes you only get one chance for something like that.”

Determination filling her, Maggie nodded.

Maybe she was a little bit prophetic when she said it was going to be a good day.

Maybe the good day was going to be because of Alistair.

Alistair was an alpha. He’d been born to lead, had been in countless circumstances over the years where he’d had to think on his feet and defend his people from various dangers. Just recently he’d helped to defend the park shifters against a group of jackals that had tried to take one of the gorilla’s soulmates.

In those situations, he was completely at ease.

But right now, he was as nervous as a teenager on a first date.

And it was because of the brunette beauty he was certain was his soulmate.

Maggie.

He’d followed his heart right to the picnic area and found himself drawn to her immediately. The pull was so strong that he had trouble holding onto his elephant and keeping his trumpet call of joy from erupting.

She was petite and curvy, with a dark chocolate waterfall of hair that was curled around her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes sparkled with interest when he spoke to her, and he couldn’t stop staring at the curve of her lips.

He’d never wanted to kiss anyone so badly in his entire life, but she was a teacher and there were a couple dozen young kids in the area, so he kept his lips and his hands to himself.

While the group finished eating, he moved back to the others who’d been tasked with escorting the kids through the park.

Rhomi and Lucy were the main tour guides, and there were a few other males nearby, ensuring no one wandered away, including Rhomi’s mate Mercer, who was a lion, and Lucy’s mate Tarquin, who was a bear. Lucy herself was an albino doe. Her sister, Luna, was in the norms’ paddock in her doe shift.

Joss, the wolf alpha, appeared with Caesar, the lion alpha, and Alistair moved a few yards away to speak with them.

“Mercer gave me a heads up and I called Joss,” Caesar said. “We heard the good news. Which female is your soulmate?”