Page 7 of Alistair

Keeping his voice low so it didn’t carry past their trio, Alistair said, “The brunette. Her name is Maggie.”

Joss hummed. “Human.”

“Yep,” Alistair said.

“We assume you’d like to stay with the group,” Caesar said.

“Definitely,” Alistair said. “But I want to appear as if I belong.” He didn’t want Maggie to think he was some creep hanging around without any reason to be there.

“No problem,” Joss said. “You can replace Alfie, who was going to be the tour guide in the third Jeep. We’ll just make sure that you’re the guide for whichever Jeep Maggie gets in.”

“Have fun answering six thousand questions from the kids,” Caesar said with a grin.

Alistair was well versed in the spiel the guides used on the tours and wouldn’t have any problem sharing the facts about the animals in the paddocks and answering the kids’ questions, if they had any. He hoped, anyway. He didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of his soulmate.

But he wouldn’t mind whatever questions the kids threw his way if it meant he could be with Maggie. Even if she was going to be busy watching the kids and he had to pay attention to the tour. “It’ll be worth it.”

Joss and Caesar wished him luck, and he moved to stand with Lucy and Rhomi. By that time, the kids had finished eating and were disposing of their trash in the big bins. The teachers and adult volunteers corralled the kids away from the picnic area and through the park to the safari tour staging area, led by Rhomi and Lucy.

Alistair followed at the back of the group with Mercer and Tarquin.

“Happy for you,” Mercer said.

Alistair nodded. “I was beginning to wonder if it would happen for me.”

“What, because you’re in your forties?” Tarquin asked.

Alistair snorted. “I’m notinmy forties, I’m forty. It’s different.”

“Sure, sure,” Mercer said, then laughed, with Tarquin joining in.

“You’re both jackasses,” Alistair said under his breath.

He didn’t mind the teasing, though, because his beautiful soulmate was ahead of him, helping kids get into the large tour Jeeps and smiling sweetly at them.

She was really so stunning he couldn’t quite believe his luck.

The larger issue loomed ahead of him—how the hell was he going to tell her the truth of what he was? They had their own rules that every shifter had to follow, namely that they didn’t share the truth of their shifting nature with their soulmate until they’d fallen in love. It was a way to ensure that the human wouldn’t go telling anyone else what they learned.

Many of the soulmates who’d come into the park one way or another were human. Sometimes they learned the truth in a startling way, like Rhomi, who’d accidentally witnessed Ginny shifting from jackal to human, or Lexy, who’d fallen asleep with Win and he’d shifted to his gorilla while they were sleeping.

Talk about a wake-up call.

He’d just have to take his time and win Maggie’s heart, and then he could tell her everything. Until then, though, he wasn’t permitted to stay overnight with her outside of the park, and if he took her on a date, he’d have to have an escort, which would most likely be a couple of the lions from the security team following at a distance.

He sighed and rubbed the space between his eyes.

He had a hell of a lot to do—move into one of the apartments topside so he had a place to take her that appeared to be his home, and oh yeah, figure out how to get a human to fall in love with him.

Mercer clapped him on the shoulder. “See you at the end of the tour. Good luck.”

“Thanks, man.”

Alistair jogged to the third Jeep, which held eight kids and Maggie. Benjamin, one of the wolves, was behind the wheel. He smiled at Alistair as he stopped next to the passenger side.

“Hi, kids,” Alistair said. “I’m Alistair and I’m going to be your tour guide. Are you ready to see some animals?”

The kids cheered and Maggie smiled at him, her cheeks turning pink.