Page 7 of August

Nope. No way. She was one female who was not going to take a mate, no matter how sexy he was or how much she wanted to run to him and ask for help.

Shaking the sexy images from her mind and telling her jackal to shut up, she moved silently away from the males to the farthest vehicles and peeked into each one. She checked seven vehicles before she finally found a set of keys sitting on the driver’s seat.

Opening the door, she grimaced at the creak but didn’t hear anyone coming toward her. She eased behind the wheel and put the keys in the ignition. As the engine turned over, she shut the door, put the vehicle into drive, and slammed her foot on the gas.

Racing down the aisle, she had only the briefest of moments to see her soulmate as he stood, slack-jawed and staring at her at the end of the aisle. She smashed through the guard shack’s security bar, wood splintering across the windshield.

She didn’t stop holding her breath until she was on the main road, the gas pedal on the floor and the Amazing Adventures Safari Park in the rearview mirror.

Her jackal let out a mournful howl in her head, but she ignored the ache that spread slowly from her heart and made her feel cold.

She was leaving her soulmate behind.

She didn’t even know his name.

But it didn’t matter. He’d be safe without her in his life, and even though she didn’t know him, she wanted that for him. Wanted him to be safe and secure.

Without her.

Jupiter and several security team members arrived in the employee lot a few minutes later. August’s gorilla had been hooting in his head non-stop, demanding he find their soulmate and get her back to the park where he could keep her safe.

Jupiter clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll get to her, I promise.”

He nodded, swallowing over the lump in his throat.

He’d seen her eyes flashing to the amber of her beast as she’d sped by. He wondered if it was out of fear or because she’d felt the connection to him. Did she even know he was her soulmate, or was she so consumed with fleeing that she didn’t feel the connection?

Jupiter handed him the tablet that showed the vehicle she’d stolen, the small red dot getting farther away.

They were on their way in minutes, Jupiter behind the wheel and August using the tablet to tell him where to go.

“She’s on the parkway going north,” he said.

“Got it,” Jupiter said. He floored it, the SUV’s engine roaring.

“I should have just followed her,” August said, staring at the red dot on the screen.

“You needed the tablet to keep track of her and most likely would’ve lost her on the road when you went to grab it and the keys, plus you’d have needed to wait for us to catch up to you anyway. She’s got less than a ten-minute head start, we’ll catch up to her.”

“Tell me what happened with the jackals that showed up again,” he said. He glanced in the side mirror and saw the other park SUVs behind them, his friends and fellow shifters coming along for support and in case there was danger where Ginny was headed.

“They were stealthy as hell. They triggered different paddock alarms and places around the park’s exterior walls. While our security team was split going to see what was up, a few of the jackals appeared at the season ticket office where Mercer’s mate Rhomi was alone. They demanded she tell them where Ginny was. She played dumb and triggered the silent alarm, but we were quite far from the ticket office, so one of them managed to break the window before Mercer and a few others got there.”

“Rhomi’s okay, though?”

“Yeah. They split before we showed up. These jackals, man,” Jupiter said, shaking his head. “They’re smart and coordinated.”

“Did she say why her people would come for her?”

“Her story is pretty fucked-up,” Jupiter said. “Jackal packs have a law that an alpha abdicates his or her authority when they turn seventy. Her grandfather didn’t want to give up his position, so he killed his heirs starting with her uncle, his eldest son, then her aunt, followed by her parents and her brother. She’s the only one left in the family, the only threat to his leadership.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.” Jupiter gave him a quick glance. “Listen, she saw what she believes was her brother’s body being taken away by some of her grandfather’s closest males, who intimated that she was next on the chopping block. She fled right then—no money, no phone, and because she shifted so she could move faster, she didn’t even have any clothes. She was caught by those asshole animal hoarders and kept in a cage for weeks.”

August nodded. “Then she was rescued by the animal shelter, but they were going to kill her, right?”

“Yeah. She’s had a hell of a time. We told her she was safe, but it was pretty clear she didn’t believe us. When did you realize she was your soulmate?”

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