Caesar murmured in agreement.
“I feel better after reading through the book.You really changed the course of your family’s lives coming here.If you’d stayed in your old pride, Jupiter and Lucius wouldn’t have met their mates.If the pride had never been started at the park, then all these lions wouldn’t have this place as their work and home.It’s neat to see how your decision to come here was such a positive change for so many.Plus,” she said, putting the book in the satchel and snuggling into his warmth, “if you hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have met you and that would be awful.”
He nuzzled her head and purred.
She talked about her past with the prowl, her family, and the things she’d hoped for when she was younger.She wished her mom and grandma were alive to see how good life could be outside of the prowl, but she was thankful that she had escaped and so had Sunny and Fallon.
The Amazing Adventures Safari Park was a pretty damn special place.
Sunday night, when the park was closed and the security team had given the all-clear, Caesar and Sera went for a walk.He’d listened to her talk about her past and her family while he’d been in his shift, and he was humbled by her trust in him.She was such a strong female.She’d taken in Sunny when she was a child after her family was killed and raised her alongside Fallon, the two growing up as close as sisters could be.When Sunny was exiled from the prowl for being half-human, Sera recalled hearing from a wolf shifter female at a farmstand years earlier about the safari park full of shifters in New Jersey.Sera had figured the female thought she might need to flee the iron-fisted rule of the prowl alpha and had shared a place to find sanctuary, but she hadn’t realized the information would come in handy at the time.It wasn’t until Sunny needed a place to go that Sera remembered the safari park and sent her there, hoping it was true.
He was thankful for that wolf shifter, whoever she was.
While they strolled around the park, with all the exhibits, shops, and food stalls closed, they talked about the mating and joining ceremony, which the pride females had filled her in on earlier that day.
“Is there a specific time of the month to do the ceremonies?”she asked.
“Nope.It’s entirely up to our discretion, so you and I can choose when we do it.”She didn’t say anything for a few moments, so he added, “There’s no rush, of course.If you’d like to wait until we’ve known each other for a while, that’s fine with me.You’re my marked mate and that makes you alpha female of the pride.The ceremonies—joining you and me as mates, bringing you into the pride as a member, and declaring you my alpha female—are just a way for our people to celebrate and recognize matings and a change in leadership.”
“It’s not really a change, though,” she said.“You’re still the alpha.”
“Yes, but you’re my counterpart.The alpha male is the head of the pride, but the alpha female is his other half.His counsel, his confidant.I’ve been leading the pride since I created it, but I haven’t been as effective an alpha as I will be now that you’re in my life.”
She gave his hand a squeeze.“Do you want to wait?”
“Not even a little bit.”
She smiled at him, her eyes crinkling at the corners.“How about Friday?We’ll have the week to really get to know each other.”
“Friday is perfect.”
They walked the entire park, talking about the ceremonies that would join them not only as mates but as alphas, and then they made their way back to the house underground, where they made love, slowly and tenderly.With every little piece of herself she shared with him, he fell harder for her.She was a spectacular and beautiful person, and he was a better male for her being in his life.
* * *
Otto Magnus paced the length of the crappy motel room, his jaguar clawing just under his skin.He could feel the alpha-ship of the prowl slipping through his fingers.
Dario’s prowl had been unstable the moment that tiger female had killed him at the safari park, but Otto hadn’t cared.He swooped in and claimed what was left of it before Dario’s blood had cooled.Merging it with his own prowl was what he’d wanted all along, so he could be the leader of a single, large prowl.But being alpha meant nothing if the shifters he ruled were eyeing the exit or sharpening their claws behind his back because they didn’t think he had the ability to lead them.
And the males were losing confidence in him.Not only Dario’s prowl, but his own that he’d ruled for years!He’d seen it in their behavior recently.
His people had wanted him to take Fallon as his arranged mate to cement the new power structure and officially join the prowls together.Dario thought Otto was going to go along with having two alphas, but he’d planned to kill him at some point anyway and lead on his own.
Then Fallon ran off and mated a damn horse shifter and was now pregnant.He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t going to take some already-bred-bitch for a mate.
So he’d turned his attention to the mom, Sera.She was older than him, but still fuckable.And she was the only thread left to pull it all back together.
He slammed his palm against the motel’s flimsy desk, sending a lamp crashing to the floor.
“She should be mine,” he growled.“That bitch is costing me everything.”
Breathing through his rage, he turned his attention to the laptop where a satellite image of the safari park glowed.He’d been watching the park for days, utilizing drones.Beside the laptop was a case that’s contents were going to solve a lot of problems for him.All Otto needed was the right moment and he’d take out the alpha lion who’d dared to stand up to him.
“You’ll fall, Caesar,” he said, resting his hand on the large case.“One way or another, I’ll have my reckoning.And my mate.”
* * *
The week leading up to the ceremony passed in a blur.Sera embraced her new role in the pride with grace, spending time with the pride members to get to know them, and stealing sweet moments with Caesar, which he loved.When he wasn’t working a security shift, he was with her.He couldn’t get enough of her and was happy for every moment they could get together.
