Page 6 of August

Someone had triggered the paddock alarms?

Leaning away from the door, she sighed and rubbed the space between her eyes where a headache was blooming. She was stressed to the max, worry over her grandfather finding her plaguing her every thought.

Something clicked in her mind as she realized the reason the paddock alarms might be triggered was because someone was trying to get into the park. Or someone was already in the park and using the paddocks as a distraction for the security team.

As the sound of Javan’s pounding feet came back to the space in front of the apartment, she listened to him speak into the walkie that all was clear.

A sinking feeling in her gut told her it was time for her to go. If someone was attacking the paddocks and using the alarms as a distraction, clearly they didn’t have good intentions. She was the target, she was sure, and no matter how fierce Javan and the other park shifters were, they couldn’t hope to stand up to her grandfather’s best fighters.

Walking silently to the bathroom, she opened the single window slowly so it didn’t creak and popped the screen out, bringing it to rest against the cabinet. She was on the second floor, so she couldn’t just jump or she’d risk breaking something. Leaning out, she saw the ledge of the apartment below her, just over the window.

It took some maneuvering, but she managed to heft herself out of the window, swing around and lower herself to the bottom of the window, then very carefully make her way to the window ledge below her, which was just wide enough for the toes of her borrowed tennis shoes.

Once she was on the ledge, she closed her eyes and listened for sounds of anyone coming, knowing that the park was crawling with security guards who were frequently passing by the complex.

Dropping silently to the pavement, she crouched against the wall and hustled to the corner, peeking carefully around the edge. She didn’t see or hear anyone. She darted away from the complex, using the various small buildings, attractions, kiosks, and scenery to hide herself, not moving until she was sure no one had seen her.

She was watching for people she didn’t know—the park shifters—and people she did know—other jackals.

The only reason she knew where she was going was because she’d seen a park map when she’d been sitting in what turned out to be the aviary clinic. The plastic-covered map showed the entire park with each building named and numbered, the numbers corresponding to buttons on a nearby wall-mounted phone.

She’d seen a parking lot that was smaller than the main lot where patrons stopped. The building by the small lot was marked security booth/employee lot.

There would be vehicles there, and she did have a little know-how on hot-wiring vehicles, but maybe, just maybe, someone would leave the keys behind in one of the vehicles and she could steal it.

It felt like ages before she finally reached the employee lot. She never saw jackals, but she sure as hell saw plenty of park shifters. They were running around like crazy, and she nearly got caught several times.

Once she moved into the employee lot, her jackal let out an excited yip in her mind and it almost spilled out of her mouth. She clamped her hand over her mouth and ducked behind a golf cart. What the hell was going on?

Her jackal was doing somersaults in her mind.

But why?

Her heart was racing, her palms were suddenly clammy, and her beast wanted to shift and run around.

Her pounding heart clenched hard suddenly and she thought she was going to pass out. But as stars lit up her vision and her heart resumed the pounding rhythm, a delicious scent reached her nose. It was wild and sweet, like some kind of fruit covered with caramel. Her mouth watered and her jackal stretched out in her mind, her skin aching with the need to shift.

She heard voices nearby and, peering around the corner of the golf cart, saw two males.

One was built like a swimmer with broad shoulders and a tapered waist, blond hair that was long on top and casually ruffled like he’d run his fingers through it multiple times. But the other? He was…drool-worthy. Panty-melting. Hotness-overload.

She’d never seen such a gorgeous male before.

Thick with muscles that strained the shirt he wore, like the seams were holding on for dear life. Dark hair cut short and shaved on the sides, a strong jaw, and kissable lips.

Her jackal was immediately and wholeheartedly in love with the dark-haired male.

Head over tails for someone she’d never seen before in her life.

One word flitted through her mind as she stared at the big male.

Mate.

Oh, hell no.

She didn’t have time for a soulmate right now. Hell, probably not ever. Because if there was one thing she’d learned from her grandfather’s murderous ways, it was that mates were not off-limits when it came to using them against the person he wanted to kill. Her grandfather had hurt her aunt to get her uncle to come to him, and then he’d killed them both. She suspected the same thing had happened between her parents, her mother being used to force her father into a position to be killed.

Who knows what her grandfather had done to lure her brother to his home?

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