Page 48 of Alistair

“Norms?”

“Non-shifters.”

“Which ones are those?” She tilted her face to look at him.

“We have one paddock of norms—the last paddock, where Tank lives, plus deer, antelope, and moose. There used to be rhinos, but one of them passed away of natural causes and we moved the other to a zoo with a rhino sanctuary so he could be with his own kind. There were giraffes as well, but we had them transferred to another zoo.”

“Tank is the only one that has a name?”

“Yep. It just happened because he was so cantankerous when we first brought him to the park. He attacked everyone for a long time and we worried he was never going to settle down, but then he did. He doesn’t like predator shifters, except for Rhapsody, and we think it’s because she’s mated to Kelley and smells like him.”

“That’s sweet. Are the petting zoo animals the same way? They don’t like predators?”

“We used to have a petting zoo years ago that was run by some wolves, and it didn’t do well for that reason. But now, Mercer and Rhomi are working with Cael and Novi to run it, with Luna helping out after school. We think because Mercer and Rhomi are mates, they don’t mind that he’s a lion.”

“When Jess mentioned I could run educational programs for the aviary, was she just being nice or is that something that’s really being offered?”

“It’s a real offer,” he said. “They get called away to rescue birds all the time, and sometimes they have to cancel shows because there’s no one to run them. And also, sometimes there are sick or very injured birds that need round-the-clock care, so they can’t both be out with the public. If you wanted to work with them, you’d have to be trained to handle the birds and have a good grasp of knowledge to answer questions the public might have. It would be a teaching gig, but not quite like you’re used to.”

“Sounds like a lot of researching and learning,” she said with a hum.

“Definitely. You’d have to spend time on your own learning about the birds in the aviary and hang out with Jess and Auden to learn about the day-to-day with them. They could use the help, but since we only let mates work at the park who aren’t shifters, they don’t have a lot of options for workers.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “What about working with you?”

“You could do that too. I’d love to have you help me out. Cael, Indio, and Kelley would appreciate the extra hands too.” They were planning to redo the entire paddock for the norms over the next few months—painting the interior fence, digging out the pond, and planting trees and native grasses.

They got up and headed into the master bathroom to shower and get ready for the day, which was going to involve taking care of the norms and handling the petting zoo so that Mercer and Rhomi could enjoy their day off.

He turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up. “There’s also a school.”

“Where?”

“In the marketplace. I’ll show you when we get breakfast. There’s a general store run by two wolves, a nail salon run by two human soulmates, and a makeup store run by a human soulmate. The park offices are down here as well, plus a big conference room for our monthly alpha meetings.”

“Yeah, speaking of alpha stuff, when are we going to do the ceremony?”

“I was thinking next weekend if you’d like.”

“Novi said she wanted to have dinner tonight for the memory,” Maggie said as she stepped under the spray once it was hot enough. She wet her skin and then moved aside to let him do the same.

He grimaced. “I was going to take you to dinner last night and we got distracted.”

“It was a good distraction,” she said, wiggling her brows. “I was glad to spend the whole day and night down here with you.”

She gave him a curious look. “How long did you live in the apartment?”

“I moved in the day we met.”

Her brows went high. “Really?”

“Yep. I didn’t know when I’d bring you home, but I wanted to be prepared and I wanted it to look like I had lived there for a while.”

“Is anyone else living there?”

“No. We had a guest for a little while, Ginny, a jackal shifter. But she’s soulmates with August, one of the gorillas, so they live in their private living area with the rest of the band.”

She ran a washcloth full of lather over her skin and said, “I’m going to guess that a band is a group of gorillas?”

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