Irina shot her a quick grin. The woman was cute, with a heart-shaped face and short curling brown hair, and wore a name tag that said 'AOIFE' with a pronunciation guide—ee-fah—beneath it. "Like your own name?"
Aoife glanced down at the name tag and smiled back up at Irina. "Yeah, kind of. Only without making them try to figure it out on their own, first. Are ye from the States, or Canada?"
"The States. This is my first time in Ireland."
"Welcome," Aoife said again. "What brings you here?"
Irina's stomach dropped. "I'm part of the International Irish Dance Competition." She felt certain she'd be judged, but Aoife's smile only widened.
"Sure and that's grand so. Good luck to you! Or wait, would ye say 'break a leg,' because it's a performance? Either way, I hope it goes well."
"Thank you." Some of the nerves in Irina's gut uncoiled and she blurted, "I'm really nervous. I've never been anywhere before and I don't have anybody with me and I feel like an imposter."
"Ah, chicken." Aoife, who wasn't much older than Irina, gave her an incredibly sympathetic smile. "You know what Carrie Fisher would've said to that, right?"
"No?"
"Be afraid, but do it anyway."
Irina ducked her head. "Yeah, but she was Princess, and then General, Leia."
"We've all got to start somewhere. Why do you feel like an imposter?"
"I'm American."
"Doing Irish dance? Most of us think that's grand, pet. It's only gotten to be popular again in Ireland as the whole world's discovered it, so it's not like we've any stones to throw. I hope you do well," Aoife said, and sounded like she meant it.
"Thank you." Irina sighed, then glanced at the gorilla, who had his face mashed against the glass like he was a five-year-old. She laughed. "Does he do that a lot?"
"I've never seen it before, but he's a visitor here, so who knows? Lovely big fella, isn't he?"
"He's beautiful." It was true: the big ape was very handsome, as far as gorillas went. His fur was black and sleek with only sprinklings of silver in it, although Irina vaguely knew the males got more silver in their fur as they became dominant in their family groups. Maybe he didn't have a family yet. "How long is he here for?"
"Oh, it's hard to say. Through the weekend, at least. He'll want to stretch his legs, like."
The gorilla momentarily transferred his attention to Aoife. Irina swore he was giving the park employee a dirty look. Then he looked back at Irina, and if gorillas could grin, she was pretty certain he grinned at her. Then he sat down and looked for all the world like he was stretching his legs. Irina laughed and put her hand on the glass. "He's pretty great. Does he have a family?"
"Not yet," Aoife said as the gorilla scooted back to the glass and put his hand up against Irina's. His hand was huge in comparison to hers, though his thumb was proportionately much shorter. He curled his fingers a little, like he was making his hand fit Irina's better, and Aoife said, "But I think he will, someday soon."
"I hope so. He seems to have a sense of humor. I bet he'd be a good partner for some nice lady gorilla." Irina stepped back from the glass and the gorilla mooshed his face up against it, giving the impression of not wanting her to leave. "Aw. I'll come backtomorrow and say hi, okay, buddy? Or at least, I'll try. I've got a lot going on. I can't believe I'm explaining things to a gorilla," she added, mostly to herself. Or maybe to Aoife.
Aoife grinned. "Sometimes animals are great listeners. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you, if you come by again."
"I'll try," Irina promised both the park employee and the gorilla. "But I have to get back to the city soon. The first stage of the competition is tonight."
"Break a leg," Aoife said, and Irina, again, swore that the gorilla shot her a readable human expression, except this time it was alarm. Aoife said, "Oh, stop that, it's just an expression," to him, and Irina left the park feeling better, somehow, because a gorilla seemed to like her company.
CHAPTER 2
Mick's fatedmate wasright there, walking out of the wildlife park without him, and he was stuck in the damn enclosure, watching her go. She was so sad and nervous, and all he could do was make stupid gorilla faces at her and try to cheer her up. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and he was going to throw himself out of the enclosure, chase her across the wildlife park, and?—
—hang out here,his gorilla said mellowly.Our mate is less sad than she was, and those small primates want to see a gorilla.
'Those small primates' were a group of children between about five and twelve who were running full-speed toward his enclosure. Mick groaned and flopped over on his back, staring wistfully at the sky.But I want to meet our mate!
We will.The gorilla was the calmest shifter animal Mick had ever met. Absolutely nothing bothered it. Which made sense, because despite all the hundred-men-vs-a-gorilla memes, there was really very little that could take on an adult gorilla with any hope of success. As a general rule, Mick knew his gorilla would gently invite them to give it a go, and gently bounce them on their heads a few times to get the point across.
That, of course, was because his gorilla was a shifter gorilla. A true gorilla would get his point across with a great deal more…enthusiasm.
