Page 49 of Seneca
He caught the subtle hint of her arousal as they reached the door and he entered the code.
“Do you, sweetheart?”
“Yep.”
Her eyes flashed to the gold of her tigress and he scooped her up into his arms.“Let’s see what we can do to entertain ourselves for a little while.”
“Take me to bed,” she whispered, sinking her hands into his hair and kissing his neck as he strode toward the house.
“You’ve got it.”
* * *
The day passed quickly, and they were back in the market for dinner.Sunny sat across from him with Fallon next to her, both enjoying the grilled steaks and loaded fries that were the main dish of the day.
“I’ve been thinking,” Sunny said.
“About what?”he asked, taking a bite of tender, rare steak.
“Shifting.I want to try again.Just to see if it was real.”
“You know it was real,” he said.
“But what if it was a fluke?I was stressed, terrified you were going to be killed.What if I can only shift if I’m overwhelmed with terror for your safety?”
He hummed.“Well, I honestly think that it was just the catalyst your tigress needed to come out, and now that she has, you’ll be able to access her whenever you need.Stress or not.”The truth was that half-shifters could shift, but it seemed to be the norm that they didn’t.Like Novi who was a half-polar bear and mated to Cael, one of the elephants.She couldn’t shift, but when she was emotional, her eyes and fingernails would change color, and she could growl.
As their people found their soulmates, many of them had turned out to be human, and it was anyone’s guess if their offspring would be able to shift or not.But unlike Sunny’s parents, the park welcomed anyone as a soulmate—human or shifter—and their children too.It didn’t matter to him if their kids could shift, or what they shifted into.He only cared that he had Sunny in his life.
“Let’s go talk to my dad.I’m sure we can use the paddock once the park is closed and it’s human-free.Fallon, would you like to join us?”
Fallon’s brows rose.“Really?I haven’t shifted in weeks.I’d love to join you.Plus, I’d love to see my bestie as a tigress.I bet you’re really spectacular.”
Sunny smiled.“I’d love that too.”
They finished eating, the conversation switching to shifting and Fallon sharing what it was like to shift when she was younger, and then they went to find Marcus.
After getting the okay from his dad to use the paddock and reaching out to the security team, they waited until the park was closed and security had given the all-clear.
“I didn’t realize that there was more than one way to get to the surface,” Fallon said as he held the door in the floor of the maintenance shed open for Sunny and Fallon to climb through.
“Everything is secure,” he said.“The maintenance shed is locked from the outside by a keycode, like the gates to get into the paddocks, and there are other doors and codes to get down below as well.The alphas really did a great job keeping our private living areas a secret.”
He set the door back in place and opened the maintenance shed doors.
“I’ll shift first and go for a little run,” Fallon said.“That way you guys can have privacy.Good luck, Sunny.I know you’ll be a gorgeous tigress.”
She walked outside and ducked around the side of the building, and in a few moments, a sleek jaguar went streaking by with a happy purr.
“This was really good for her,” Sunny said.“She sounds so happy.”
“I’m glad she could join us.Are you ready, sweetheart?”
“I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be.”He took her hand and led her outside.As the door shut behind them and they were plunged into darkness, his eyes adjusted to the light from the night sky and he smiled down at her.“Even if it was a fluke—which I don’t think it was—I couldn’t care less about your ability to shift.You’re my soulmate.The half-human, half-tigress parts of yourself don’t define you, but they do make you into the beautiful female I love with every fiber of my being.I adore you, Sunny.Fur or not.”
He drew her close and kissed her, and she melted against him.