Page 15 of August

He gazed down at her, his gorilla making sweet but inappropriate comments in his head.

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes going just a shade darker.

“August?” she whispered.

“Yeah?” He tucked a lock of silky, dark hair behind her ear, and she shivered at the soft touch.

“I’d like to kiss you now.”

He snarled softly and lowered his head until his lips met hers. They froze like that, lips pressed and not moving, until she tilted her head and parted her lips on a sigh.

He kissed her sweetly, then deeply, stroking his tongue against hers until he felt like his whole body was going to combust from the heat that built inside him. But he’d gladly burn up to keep kissing her, keep holding her curvy body against his.

What a strange day.

A broken security bar. A car chase.

A daring rescue in the forest.

And now, holding his soulmate in his arms and discovering that she did really taste as good as she smelled and her lips were just as soft as he imagined.

It was a pretty damn good end to the day.

Ginny looked at the rack of clothes in a little store inside what August referred to as the marketplace. It was down a long hall, where they passed by the other shifter groups’ private living areas. Along with the shop, run by a wolf couple named Zeger and Anke, there was a nail salon and a makeup shop, a cafeteria, offices, and conference rooms. He explained that each private living area had access to their shifter group’s paddock on the safari tour as well as the employee cafeteria aboveground.

“Here you go, I have two pairs of shoes in your size,” Anke said as she walked out of a storage room at the back of the small shop. She held two open shoeboxes and smiled.

Ginny turned from the clothes and looked at the shoes: a pair of skate shoes that were navy blue and white, and a pair of dark brown leather loafers.

“I’ll take the skate shoes,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

Anke put the lid on the navy-blue shoes and handed them over, then tucked the other box under her arm. “You bet. It’s what we’re here for. Did August explain that we can order anything you need that we don’t have? Undergarments, clothes, toiletries…you name it.”

“You’re all so generous.” She smiled, but her heart hurt.

No one had been kind to her the way the shifters at the park were since her parents were killed.

“It’s what we do for each other. We’re all family here, even if we don’t have the same animals under our skin.”

Ginny turned back to the clothes because she kind of wanted to cry at how sweet the she-wolf was being. She took two tops in her size from the rack and put them with a pair of jeans and a pair of leggings, as well as undergarments and soft socks.

“I think I’m set,” she said.

Anke carried her things to the front counter where Zeger was talking to August. “Here’s your phone,” August said. “I already put the band contacts in for you and sent you your first text.”

She took the phone and looked at the screen, where a text from him read, You have a beautiful smile, sweetheart.

She grinned at his sweet text.

Swiping her thumb on the screen to open it, she said, “Thank you all so much.”

“Of course,” Zeger said. “I heard my wife say it’s what we do here and that’s very true. You’re one of us now, and that means we’ll help in any way we can.”

Anke put the clothes in a paper bag and set it on the counter. Then she came to Ginny and gave her a quick hug. “Let us know if you need anything. August can show you how to request clothes and supplies until you two are able to leave the park safely.”

She thanked the couple again. August took the bag and said, “Let’s take these back to the house and then we can grab lunch.”

They walked down the hall, their shoulders bumping occasionally. Her jackal let out a few chirps in her mind, the last thing that August’s alpha had said to them banging around in her skull: she couldn’t have access codes until they were fully mated.

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