Chapter Twelve

Tayme frowned at the two males. “Say that again?”

“A handful of people showed up at the front gate just as some of our security personnel were escorting the last humans outside,” Jupiter said. “They asked to see Rory. Our security officers are trained to not confirm that any particular person works at the park, especially a soulmate. They were insistent, however, and when one of our officers scented they were shifters, he escorted them to the security office, and called me. I called Marcus.”

Tayme looked at his sweetheart. “I thought you said you’d never seen another red fox since you lost your family?”

“I haven’t. I don’t understand.” She shook her head like she was trying to clear her hearing. “Red foxes? You’re sure?”

Marcus nodded.

“I should...go see them?” she asked, looking at Tayme. She looked like she was two seconds from bolting, her eyes going luminous and the elongated pupil of her fox making an appearance.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” Tayme said, tucking her more firmly against his side.

“That’s not entirely true,” Jupiter said.

Marcus put a hand up and the big lion shut his mouth with a click. “He’s both right and wrong. The truth is we can send them on their way. Foxes aren’t that big on the shifter scale and we can put some fear into them. But if you don’t talk to them, then you’ll never know how they came to find out you were here.”

Rory squeaked and then cleared her throat. When she spoke the second time, her voice was thin and high. “I think it was the owls.” She looked up at Tayme. “Because of what happened with Jess and her arranged mate.”

The males nodded. Tayme thought over what they’d learned on the way back to the zoo from their disastrous visit with Rory’s adoptive parents. She’d called Jess to tell her what happened, when her best friend explained that she’d just been attacked by the male owl who was her arranged mate. She’d been saved by natural owls, who had attacked the male and driven him out the window, where he’d fallen to his death. Jess believed that she and her mate had been tracked somehow as they left the nest.

“Why would my... I’m not going to call them my parents, because they don’t deserve that title anymore.” Rory rubbed her temple and sighed. “What’s the point of them sending red foxes to the zoo to look for me? I don’t understand.”

“We don’t either,” Marcus said, “which is why we believe it’s best that you speak to them. We’ll have bears, lions, and wolves standing guard, and we won’t allow them to go anywhere without an escort.”

“You want her to hear them out?” Tayme asked, his bear riled at how upset she was.

“It’s the right choice,” Marcus said with a shrug. “It may be difficult, but I think she deserves to know if it was in fact the owls who sent them, and what their purpose is here. The foxes are being cagey about why they’re here, but I don’t believe they intend Rory any harm.”

Rory straightened her shoulders and wiped under her eyes with trembling fingers. “He’s not wrong. It’ll drive my fox batty wondering why they came.”

“Okay sweetheart,” Tayme said. Then he looked at Marcus and Jupiter. “Tell us what you want us to do.”

“I convened the alphas before I came to find you,” Marcus said. “The consensus is that Rory needs to see what they want. Then we can make a show of force if necessary to make them leave and never return.”

“The concern is that they’ll blow our cover,” Jupiter said.

“Cover?” Rory asked.

“That the safari park is really a zoo for shifters,” Marcus said.

Rory glanced at Tayme and he could sense her emotions through their soulmate connection. Fear and sorrow mixed up with curiosity and anger. His bear wanted to take her home and lock the door and say to hell with anyone else. That wasn’t going to help the situation, though.

“We’ll see them,” Tayme said, answering for her. “But we don’t want to be cooped up in the security office.”

“Let me make sure the park is empty,” Jupiter said. He put his cell to his ear and walked a few steps away, talking quietly. When he returned, he said, “The wolves just completed a second sweep of the park and it’s empty of humans. We’ll meet the foxes outside of the security office.”

“Are you ready?” Tayme asked, cupping her face.

“Y-yes.”

“I’m right here, okay? I’m not leaving you alone with anyone.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “Sweetheart, I’m always going to protect you.”

She hugged him fiercely, and he reveled in the tight embrace.

They followed Marcus and Jupiter out of the commercial kitchen and toward the security office. The sun had set, but the automatic lights around the park were on, so they could see the group of people who were standing with the lions and wolves. There was a single female among the males, and all of them were dressed casually in jeans and shirts. He noticed that most of them had auburn hair like Rory, some darker and some lighter. He’d never thought about human hair color being a trait of a shifter, but it was clear that red foxes tended to have red hair.

As they approached the group, she gripped his hand tightly, her steps slowing and her head tilting as she looked at them. They stopped a few feet away, with Marcus and Jupiter on either side of them.

No one spoke for several moments.

And then a tall male in the center of the group cleared his throat. “You look just like your mother, Rory.”

Rory sucked in a sharp breath. “You knew my mother?”

“She’s my cousin by mating,” he said, looking at the female next to him. “My name is Bertram, and this is my mate – your cousin – Ginny.”

Tayme looked at Rory. “Do you know them?”

She shook her head with a frown. “I don’t know. My fox is saying they’re familiar, but I’m not sure.”

Ginny pulled a worn pack from her shoulder made of quilted material. From the interior, she removed a small photo album and held it out to Rory. “Your mother and I are first cousins. My mom and her dad are siblings. Our skulk lives in Missouri. Your family’s skulk was from here in New Jersey. Or they were, until they were forced out.”

Tayme looked at the photo album as Rory turned the pages that each held a four-by-six glossy photo. Rory didn’t make a sound, until she stopped on one page, with Ginny, Bertram, and another couple. Rory looked just like the female.

“Is that your mom?” Tayme asked softly.

“Yeah,” she answered, tracing the female’s face with her finger. “Why don’t I know you?” She looked at the foxes.

“Can we sit down?” Ginny asked, shifting from foot to foot. “My feet are aching.”

“Of course,” Tayme said. He gestured to nearby picnic tables and walked with Rory to one of them. Ginny and Bertram sat across from them, and the rest of the foxes sat at the next table, with the park shifters standing loosely around the whole group.

Bertram introduced the rest of the skulk, but Rory said she didn’t recognize any of them. Marcus and Jupiter offered them drinks, and when everyone declined, they stepped away with the others, giving the group some privacy while keeping an eye on things.

Rory put the photo album on the table and pointed to the image of the four adults. “You said my skulk was forced out. Of where? And when did that happen?”

Bertram rested his forearms on the table and linked his fingers. “Red foxes are fierce, make no mistake of that. But when a skulk has a large youth population, the alpha will most often make the choice to walk away from confrontation rather than risk the injury or death of any parents in a battle over territory. I remember the phone call from your father, Rory, in the middle of the night. Your mother was pregnant with you, and another skulk came upon your people while they were sleeping and tried to engage in battle. There were numerous young in your skulk, and the alpha called for retreat. They were living in trailers in Northern New Jersey close to the Pennsylvania border. The attack happened suddenly, and they couldn’t get out with the trailers, just their vehicles. But everyone was safe. The other skulk claimed the territory and the trailers, and your people were homeless. We wired them money to purchase trailers, and they began to travel to find a new territory.”

“They never settled down,” Ginny said. “They wanted to stay in New Jersey, but they couldn’t find a place to set up a home base where they’d be away from humans. So the alpha declared they were nomadic until they found a place to settle, and they just traveled all over the state.” She sniffled and leaned against Bertram, who put an arm around her.

“We talked to them every few weeks. They were taking odd jobs for money and following the weather, going toward the coast during the warm months and south in the cold ones. When we didn’t hear from them for two months, we were worried, but had no way to get in touch. Then Fenway and his mother Erica showed up in our territory. Fenway?”

One of the males rose from the next picnic table and joined them.

“You and I were littermates,” he said to Rory. “Our mothers were best friends and you and I were born just weeks apart.”

Rory tilted her head and stared at the male. “You look kind of familiar.”

“I was hoping you might recognize me. Even though we were four when we were attacked, that night is burned into my subconscious.”

Rory shivered. “Mine, too.”

“Trauma will do that to a child,” Bertram said.

“Wait,” Rory said, rising to her feet and stepping away from the picnic table. She walked to the male and picked up his wrist, lifting his arm and inspecting it. She dropped it with a gasp and turned to look at Tayme. “I do remember him. He has a birthmark on his forearm.”

Tayme joined her as Fenway twisted his arm around to show him the birthmark she’d described.

“Rory was taken by the owls,” Tayme said, putting his arm around her waist. “You weren’t?”

He shook his head. “Let’s sit back down. It’s a bit of a long story.”

They joined Bertram and Ginny at the table, and Fenway wove the tale of the night their skulk was attacked. “We were hunting in the woods. The whole group hunted together, even the young. But my mom was pregnant and having trouble with nausea, so she stayed in a trailer and I stayed with her. We were sleeping and woke up to the sound of fighting. Mom and I went to investigate and saw the owls killing our people. I saw your parents get killed, Rory. We searched for you, but the owls drove us out. Everyone was dead – from the youngest to the oldest, even our alpha pair. Mom drove us away to safety, and then we returned at dawn to look for survivors but didn’t find anyone. The owls burned all the bodies. We honestly believed we were the only ones left alive, and we drove for Bertram’s skulk and they took us in. I didn’t know you were alive, Rory, or I would have kept searching for you. My mom died a few years ago. She never really got over losing your mom and you. You were family to us.”

Rory turned into Tayme and cried, and he wrapped his arms around her. “How did you guys find Rory?” he asked.

Bertram twisted on the bench and faced them. “A male called us a few days ago with information on a red fox female who was being held against her will in a shifter zoo.”

Rory lifted her head abruptly. “So it was the owls who told you where I was.”

“Yes,” Bertram said. “We didn’t believe them at first, of course. No one from our skulk was missing, and Fenway insisted that everyone in his skulk had died. But then the male described finding a young female after the battle, and Fenway was certain it was you.”

Tayme was thankful he was holding onto Rory, because her legs went out and she leaned heavily against him. He took her to the table and helped her sit, murmuring to Marcus that she needed some water. His alpha returned a moment later with a chilled bottle, and Tayme cracked the lid and gave it to her. Her hands were trembling so badly that he had to help her hold it. After a few swallows, color returned to her cheeks and she blinked tear-filled eyes at Tayme before turning her attention to Fenway.

“They knew all this time how to get in touch with a skulk?”

Fenway nodded. “Apparently. The bastards.”

“Fenway!” Ginny admonished.

“It’s true,” Fenway said. “You’re obviously not being held against your will, right?”

Rory shook her head.

“Then they called us to come rescue Rory under false pretenses. I can see the mating mark on her neck. What if we’d come in here like that damn alpha bird told us to?”

Marcus stepped closer with a growl in his throat. “What did he say exactly?”

“He told us that Rory was in danger,” Bertram said. “Some of our people are hackers, and they located the nest. There were too many unanswered questions, and we wanted to know more. When we went to confront them, they attacked. In the melee, the alpha bird was killed, and his people fell apart, most of them taking off in the air and disappearing. We found the alpha bird’s mate and she told us everything – that your skulk hadn’t attacked the owls for their territory, they’d simply been hunting for food and crossed into the owl’s nest. Some of the owls chose to attack, a strike first and ask questions later, when the alpha bird realized there were kids being attacked. Instead of stopping the attack, he chose to go full-out and destroy everyone so there wasn’t any evidence of the owls’ error.”

“They always told me that they spared me even though my people had attacked them. I believed they saved my life.”

Bertram nodded. “They did, in a way. But they also caused you to be an orphan. I’d never heard of a group of shifters that would kill children, but the owls clearly didn’t hesitate to do just that.”

“What’s going to happen to the nest?” Rory asked.

“The alpha female thought we were going to kill her and the people who were still there, but I told her we weren’t in the business of behaving that way. As long as they promised to leave you alone, I said they were free to do what they wanted. A male stepped up to take over and assured me that they would forget you and a female named Jess ever existed. He swore on his own life that you’d be safe from them forever.”

Fenway looked at the group of males behind Rory and Tayme. “We spoke to the dozen remaining owls about your whereabouts, and none of them knew. It was only the alpha male and his higher-ranked males. The alpha female said her mate hadn’t shared where you were with anyone but three of his males because he didn’t want anyone to feel guilty and try to contact you in warning about his plans for our people to come in and cause trouble. It looks like it was a last-ditch effort on his part to break up your mating. Which makes him an asshole of the highest order.”

Tayme agreed with them one hundred percent.

Rory stepped from Tayme’s embrace and hugged Ginny, both females crying and holding each other tightly. Then she hugged Bertram and Fenway and shook the hands of the other males. “Thank you for coming to check on me. And for letting me know about the fate of the nest. I’m grateful for your intervention.”

“There aren’t a lot of skulks in the States,” Bertram said. “It’s our duty and honor to watch out for our own.”

They all sat again at the tables, and Marcus called for snacks and drinks to be brought for everyone. While they talked and ate, Tayme could tell that Rory was feeling both upset and relieved to find out what had truly happened to her people and the lies the owls had told her. She’d been brainwashed as a child, too young to know any truth but what the owls gave her. When they said goodbye to the red foxes well after midnight, they’d exchanged phone numbers and promised to stay in touch.

Fenway shook Tayme’s hand. “I’m so thankful Rory found her soulmate. I’m glad she’s safe and happy. Our mothers would be thrilled that both of us found love despite the terrible circumstances of our childhood.”

Tayme was feeling supremely lucky and thankful himself. When they saw the foxes out of the park, and the tall gates were closed and locked, he stood with her for a long time as she stared through the bars and watched her own kind leave.

He cleared his throat. “You know I’d go anywhere with you, right?”

She turned slowly and faced him. “What?”

He jutted his chin toward the caravan that was leaving, escorted by park SUVs. “If your fox wants to be with her own kind, we can go with them.”

Her head tilted slowly, and even in the darkness he could see the subtle glow of her fox’s eyes. “You’d leave the park for me?”

Grasping the iron bars on either side of her, he let out his bear enough that his scent deepened, and a rumbling growl stuttered from his throat. “In a heartbeat. You’re my soulmate, my life, my everything, Rory. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, anyplace I wouldn’t go. Say the word and we’re gone.”

He leaned in for a kiss. He could taste her tears, but her emotions weren’t sad. Instead, she was happy and content.

Resting her forehead against his, she sighed deeply, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I love you, Tayme. I love every inch of you. You’re home for me, and I don’t want to be anywhere but here with you. The people leaving are part of my family, but you’re where my heart is, and that means we stay. I want to be in touch with them, but my fox is one hundred percent content right here.”

His grip tightened on the bars and then he pushed off and took her hand. “I love you, and where you are is home for me, too.”

She kissed him again and gave his hand a squeeze as they strode through the park to the employee cafeteria where Marcus was waiting to let them in.

“What a night,” Marcus said as he locked the door behind them.

“Yeah,” Tayme said. “Thank you for standing with us.”

“Of course,” he said as he unlocked the door leading to the stairwell. “It was my honor.”

They parted ways in the private area, Tayme and Rory making their way to their home. They stripped and climbed into bed together, curling around each other.

“I hate that I lost my parents because of the owls and that I believed their lies.” She rolled to her back in his arms and looked up at him. “But without the owls sending the foxes here, I would never have known the truth of the night when I lost them. I’m feeling sad and happy at the same time.”

“I think that’s what closure does for us,” he said, stroking her cheek with his thumb. “There’s a relief that comes with finding out the truth but also sadness. At least we don’t need to worry about the owls anymore.”

“Yeah.”

Tayme nuzzled her throat with a soft growl and hugged her a little closer.

“Tayme?”

“Yes?”

“I’m so glad you’re mine.”

His bear rumbled in happiness. “The feeling is one hundred percent mutual, sweetheart.”