Chapter Twenty-Six
Requiem Fontaine looked at the drone footage of the park from his concealed location a half-mile away. They’d paid big bucks for the silent drone with a night vision camera. It allowed him to see the whole damn park.
The pack was having a big party in one of the animal enclosures. He couldn’t hear anything, but he saw the male Evan with a female, and figured it for a mating ceremony. He swung away from the enclosure and checked the other sections.
“What do you think?” Cynric asked from the passenger seat of the black pickup.
“I think they’ve got too much damn security.” They had security everywhere—not just in patrols, which they’d increased after Alphonse’s first attempt to get into the park had failed miserably, but also in perimeter alarms, motion detectors, and cameras all over the high walls that circled the whole park. The place was like a damn fortress.
“Yeah. Alphonse is going to be pissed if we can’t get into it.”
“We’ll get in.”
“How without setting off the alarms?”
“Night is not the time to go in. At least not right now. We need to get inside the park during the day.”
“We can’t just walk in there. They’ll scent that we’re a pack.”
“I’ve got that covered. But you definitely can’t go in. Evan would recognize you, as would Aletris.” But they wouldn’t know him. He’d been off on assignment from Alphonse for the last six months, gathering reinforcements for Alphonse’s coup. The pack was one-third larger than it had been with Bernard, and the new males and females were loyal to Alphonse.
“So what’s the plan?” Cynric asked.
“I’m going to go in myself.” The answer to getting into the park was the safari tour. He knew once he was inside the park, he’d be able to figure out everything about it, including the answer to the elusive question: where the hell were the shifters living?
Requiem called the drone back to him, and when it was turned off and in its case, he turned on the pickup and headed to the cabin where Alphonse waited. He had two jobs: infiltrate the park and kill Evan. He had never failed in a job before and he wasn’t about to start now. It was too bad that Evan was on Alphonse’s shit list, but Requiem didn’t care about that.
He didn’t care about anything, actually. It was the only way to live.
No ties to anyone but his alpha, no love for anyone but himself.
* * *
Lark rolled over with a groan, her whole body deliciously aching. She’d never had such a fantastic night, and her body heated immediately at the reminder of all they’d done. Not only had they made love several times, but he’d put his fangs into her neck and marked her as his mate. She’d forever have his bite mark on her neck to tell everyone that she belonged to him.
Then he’d surprised her with an engagement ring, asking her to marry him. She’d immediately said yes and cried happy tears at seeing her sexy man down on one knee to ask her to be his wife.
“What are you thinking about that’s got you smelling so good this morning?” Evan asked as he kissed her neck and inhaled softly, his breath skirting over her skin and giving her goosebumps.
“Our mating night.”
He hummed and gave her throat a kiss. “It was amazing.”
“I was also thinking that I’m ready to tell Dove about us being together. Especially since we’re engaged now. And I’m also wondering what I should do about my mating marks.”
He lifted his head and gave her a curious look. “What about them?”
“They’ll notice them. Humans don’t bite each other, not to scar like wolves do. I need to cover them up, and it’s too hot for a turtleneck.”
“A band-aid?”
“Maybe one time that would work, but if I had a bandage on my neck every time I saw them, they’d ask questions.” She let her mind wander as Evan went back to kissing on her neck and sending a riot of sensations through her. “Oh, I’ve got it! A choker.”
“What?”
“It’s a type of necklace. I used to wear one when I was in middle school and they were in style. I’m sure I can find one that will work to cover up the marks without looking too out of place. Or I can pull my hair to a low ponytail on that side too.” She turned on her side to face him. “You’ve made me so happy.”
“Me too, sweetheart. Today is the first day of our mating. Do you feel different?”
“I do. I feel connected to you even more than ever, and to the pack too. It’s like I can feel a harmony with them that I didn’t feel before the ceremony.”
“That’s part of being in the pack. I’m glad I can share it with you.”
She wiggled a little closer. “We’ve got the day today, right? All to ourselves?”
“Yep, until tomorrow morning when we have to meet with Joss for our custodian assignments. But we can’t stay in the paddock too long this morning. We need to pack up because of the tours.”
She kissed his jaw. “We can stay a little longer right now, though, right?”
He wrapped his arms around her more tightly and let out a wolfy purr. “Female, I love how you think.”
As they slowly drove each other crazy on the blowup mattress in the tent in the wolf paddock, she couldn’t believe how much her life had changed. She’d lived a lifetime since she and Evan met—found her soulmate, been attacked by dangerous people, found out the truth about shifters, and given her heart entirely to Evan. She was now a wolf’s mate, fully his as much as he was fully hers.
She couldn’t be happier. Whatever came their way, she knew that they could handle it together. There was no better and safer place to be in the world than in Evan’s arms.
* * *
Thank you so much for reading Evan! I hope you enjoyed hanging out with the shifters at the Amazing Adventures Safari Park! The series continues in Book Fourteen – Requiem! Can Sarah trust Requiem when his whole life is a lie?
Requiem Dunn has zero problems doing whatever his alpha tells him to, so when he's tasked with using a fake ID to get on the Amazing Adventures Safari Park VIP Tour to check out the security, he's ready and willing. His alpha wants to force out the shifters in the park and take it over for himself, and since Requiem is tired of living in a trailer with several other wolves, he'd do just about anything to have space to spread out. Even if it means covering himself in a special chemical to make him smell human.
Sarah Lowe is one of the few unmated female wolves at the park. When she's not taking tickets at the park's front gates, she’s helping out in the kitchen, and doing whatever her alphas ask of her. While she doesn't think she'll ever find her soulmate, she dutifully spends time in her shift during the VIP tours, even though she holds out almost no hope that she'll find the male for her.
Requiem is suddenly in hell as he spies a beautiful she-wolf in the paddock. His beast wants out—now—and he has trouble controlling his base reactions. Not only is he beholden to his alpha to take out her people, but to make matters worse, she thinks he's human! For the first time in his life, Requiem will have to choose between his alpha and the female who has his heart. The question is...will Sarah forgive him when the truth comes out, or is his only chance at happiness over before it begins?
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Read on for an excerpt from Requiem…
* * *
Requiem sat on a plastic chair, his wolf pacing and demanding to go back to the paddock and find out more about the female. What was her name? Did she have any plans for the next fifty years or so? What were the odds that he’d be in the Jeep on a tour and his soulmate would be in the paddock?
Then it dawned on him. The tours must be used to bring humans into the park on the chance they might be soulmates. Which meant he’d been escorted to the security office and told to wait for the photo album, so the female would have time to shift and come meet him.
He only had to wait, and soon he’d be face-to-face with his soulmate.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket.
Is the tour finished? Alphonse’s text read.
Just now.
Were you successful?
Yes.
Requiem decided not to tell him how he’d gotten distracted by a she-wolf and didn’t put a camera in the wolf paddock. He’d get the information he needed from the other cameras. If Alphonse asked, he’d simply tell him that it must have been defective.
He tapped his foot restlessly, his wolf head-butting him from the inside. He needed to get the hell out of the park. If he met the female, he didn’t know what would happen. He was loyal to Alphonse, and nothing was going to change that.
I’m on my way back, he texted. Then he put his phone in his pocket and stood. He headed for the door.
“Hey! Your album’s not ready yet,” Lucius said.
“Sorry, I have to run. Family emergency.”
He ducked out the door before the male could respond. He walked as fast as he could without looking like he was hurrying, and in minutes he was in his truck and on the way back to the cabin.
He put the windows down and breathed in the fresh air, trying to clear his mind and put some distance between himself and the she-wolf.
He did not have time for a soulmate right now.
Period.
* * *
Want to read more? Click HERE to go Requiem’s page on my website!