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Lucius fell a little bit more in love with Sidney after the pride’s dinner. She was so sweet and kind to everyone, wanting to know everything there was to know about lions and being mated to one. She’d made plans for lunch the following afternoon with Jenni, Celeste, and Rhomi. He loved that she was curious about his people.

As they left Caesar’s house, his dad stopped them on the front porch.

“I’m sorry to hear things didn’t go well with your mom,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said. “I think Lucius is right and she’ll come around in time. I’m sure I surprised her with how fast I moved out. If she’d come to me and said she was uprooting her whole life for a guy she met the day before, I’d consider having her institutionalized.”

Caesar grinned. “Yeah, we hear that from the human mates. You understand why you want to be with Lucius, but people who don’t understand the pull of soulmates won’t. I wanted to ask if you’ve discussed the mating ceremony and what your plans might be.”

“I told her about the ceremony,” Lucius said. “We haven’t talked about timing.”

“Well, whenever you’re ready to go through with it, we can have the ceremony after the park is closed. I’m asking about the timing of things because it’s very clear to me that Sidney is all-in with keeping our secret, but for the other alphas, they’d like to wait to loosen restrictions until after the mating ceremony.”

“What does that mean for me?” she asked.

“You are free to be with Lucius anywhere in the park, and if you leave the park with him, you’ll have an escort—but that would happen even if he was leaving the park by himself. You won’t be given any of the security codes or a swipe card until after your mating ceremony, but as long as you’re with Lucius, there’s nowhere you can’t go.”

“My phone?”

“You can have it back,” Caesar said. He pulled it out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her. “Thank you for being so gracious about everything. Rhomi said it was difficult at first to keep things from her family because she couldn’t tell them how sure she was that she wanted to be with Mercer when they hadn’t been together very long. Celeste went through a similar situation. They’ll be happy to talk to you about how they deal with the stress of keeping a huge secret from their family.”

“I imagine it will be more of a burden once they have kids because they might worry about their kids saying something,” she said.

Caesar nodded. “It is on the minds of the alphas when it comes to having human mates. But the children will be taught how important the secret is. We have a school here in the park, so the only humans they’d come into contact with will be park patrons and human family members.”

She hummed and looked between Caesar and Lucius.

“I’d like to get to know Lucius better. We basically jumped over everything because he shifted while we were sleeping and spilled the beans.”

“Yes, he definitely let the cat out of the bag,” Caesar said with a wink.

Sidney laughed. “Thanks for dinner tonight. It was really great getting to know everyone.”

“You’re welcome. Goodnight.”

“Night, Dad.”

Lucius took Sidney’s hand and they walked back to his house. He stopped before he opened the door. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

“Where?”

“Topside. We can just walk around and talk. The park is closed so it’ll just be us and the security guards roaming around.”

“Sure.”

He took her up to the park by way of the employee cafeteria. They grabbed drinks from the refrigerator before they left the cafeteria, and walked toward the safari.

“I think,” she said as they stopped in front of the norms’ paddock, “that even though I like you a lot, Tank was my favorite to sketch.”

“He’s pretty impressive.”

Tank had also been helpful a few times in keeping their people safe. Just recently, when August’s mate Ginny had been attacked by her murderous grandfather’s people, Tank had defended her and stomped a few bad guys into the dirt.

She took a drink of lemon-lime soda and leaned against the bars of the gate.

“Can I plan a date?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“For tomorrow night.”

“Absolutely. What did you have in mind?”

She gave him a curious look. “It’s a secret.”

He hummed in interest. “Does it happen to end with me sending you into orbit with a few orgasms?”

“Ugh, dude.”

Sidney squeaked in surprise as Benjamin walked by.

Lucius grinned at his friend. “Not going to be sorry about that.”

“You newly mated couples make the rest of us sick with your lovey-dovey conversations, but we also really want that for ourselves.”

“What do we want for ourselves?” Silvanus, another wolf shifter, asked as he joined them.

“A soulmate and lovey-dovey conversations.”

“Oh hell yeah. I hate hearing that kind of thing, but I can’t wait to do it myself when I find my forever girl.”

Lucius took Sidney’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”

The security guards moved on after a bit more of a chat, and he and Sidney continued their walk around the park, keeping the conversation on sharing parts of their lives they hadn’t shared yet. He told her about going to school in the park and joining the security team when he was old enough, and she told him about her dad taking her to the art museum every Sunday one summer so she could study the great artists.

When they finished their trek around the park, they returned to the house, shoved all her clothes to the floor, and drove each other wild. As he fell asleep with his arms around his beautiful mate, he felt more at peace than he ever had in his life, and it was all thanks to one very special human.

Sidney had an amazing time with the girls at lunch the following day. Celeste and Rhomi were human, so they could understand what she was going through as she learned about shifters and being mated to one. Jenni as a lioness had a unique point of view of being a shifter herself, which was pretty damn cool in Sidney’s book.

They helped her gather her things for her special date with Lucius. He was dying to know what she had planned, but she was excited to keep a secret from him for a change.

“Good luck tonight,” Jenni said, giving her a hug.

“Thank you, and thanks for hanging out for lunch.”

“I had fun, plus it’s nice to get away from the candy shop every now and then.”

After saying goodbye to the girls, Sidney found Lucius in the house waiting for her. She was so excited to see him, so very happy to be back in his arms.

“Everything feels so right when we’re together,” she said. “It’s so cool to be your soulmate. I just feel…content.”

“I do too,” he said, hugging her tightly. He buried his face in her neck and she heard him inhale and then let out a low purr that made her skin tingle and her stomach clench.

“Are you free?” she whispered.

“For you? Anytime.”

He scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom, where they shared how much they’d missed each other and proved it over and over with their shouts of pleasure.

When the time had come for their date, Sidney told him they were going to the employee cafeteria.

“For our date?”

“For part of it,” she said.

He gave her a curious look and then said, “I trust you.”

“That means the world to me. I trust you too.”

They walked up into the employee cafeteria, which was empty. With the girls’ help earlier, she’d set up a corner of the cafeteria for the first part of their date.

Chairs were set in front of easels that faced each other. Large pieces of paper were clipped to boards resting on the easels, and the trays were stocked with acrylic paints, filled water cups, and brushes.

“Oh, what’s this?” he asked as his eyes lit up.

“I thought we could paint each other’s portraits.”

“Wow, really? I love that idea, even though you’re the artist and I haven’t held a brush for any kind of art project since I was a kid.”

“Well, pencil is my medium of choice, so I’m not super good with paints. I thought this would be fun for us to try.”

“I love it.” He gave her a kiss and then they settled behind easels.

Sidney picked up a brush and dipped it in black paint, then leaned to the side to take a peek at her sexy mate. He smiled at her as he leaned to the side of his easel.

“Great minds, love,” he said with a laugh.

They were too focused to talk at first, but as their paintings came to life, they talked about their favorite things like movies, books, and food. Whenever their gazes met, her heart would flutter.

He was so dang sexy.

They continued to paint, exchanging playful banter and occasional glances until they’d finished their paintings. She turned hers around to show him.

“Wow, that’s awesome! You did a great job.”

“Do you like it?” she asked. She hadn’t tried to paint a portrait before, but she didn’t think she did too badly for a first try.

“I do, you’re talented! Ready to see mine?”

She nodded.

He turned his around to show her, and she grinned and tried not to laugh.

“Okay, I know it looks like something a toddler painted,” he said, his eyes dancing, “but I really tried.”

“You did great.”

“You’re lying like a rug, girl.”

This time she did laugh. “I’m sorry, it was a great try. I love it. And I really enjoyed painting with you.”

They set their paintings back on the easels to dry and met with a hug next to the cleared space. He whispered in her ear, “I think I’ve fallen a little more in love with you just now, Sidney. You’re sweet and special, and I’m a lucky male.”

Her heart felt like it skipped a beat. “I think I’m pretty lucky too. And falling for you.”

With their paintings finished, they moved to the second part of the date—making pizzas in the commercial kitchen near the cafeteria. The bears had been happy to share the space with her for the date-night cooking session. She and Lucius used prepared dough to start off their pizzas, choosing sauces and toppings as they chatted happily.

When their pizzas were done, they sat down at the counter to eat. Lucius raised a slice of his pizza. “Let’s toast to a perfect date and the most amazing soulmate.”

She raised her slice and touched his. “To us.”

Sidney realized just how deeply she was falling for Lucius. The evening had been everything she had hoped for, and as they finished their meal, she felt an overwhelming sense of love and happiness. No one had ever made her feel as good as Lucius did. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she was definitely the lucky one.