Page 53 of Alistair

“The love bug part?” He cut her a sideways glance and she smiled.

“Yes, but everything else?”

“I heard it all. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but it’s hard to ignore that kind of thing with strong hearing abilities.”

“It’s so weird he showed up at my parents’. Sounds like something a desperate guy would do, and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with him anymore.”

“He definitely sounds desperate, but you’re amazing so I’m sure he’s kicking himself for being such a jackass.”

“Well, he can just be a jackass all by himself, because I’m safe at the park with my sexy elephant alpha mate.”

“You know it.” Alistair kissed her hand and smiled at her.

She loved his smile.

She loved everything about him.

“Let’s get home,” she said. “I know I’m supposed to help out in the aviary, but I can tell them I’m running late.”

“How late?” he asked, his voice going low.

“Pretty late. Like two hours?”

“Make it three.”

Thursday night, Alistair and Maggie were looking at the history of the memory, a large leather-bound book he made when he first created the memory, which contained the members’ history as well as laws pertaining to their group.

“Elephants don’t have a whole lot of rules,” Maggie mused as she looked at the page where he’d written out the laws that he’d grown up with in his former memory.

“Not really,” he said. “We don’t mark our mates and we don’t have official mating ceremonies. Casual sex is one thing, but when a male and female come together and declare they’re mates, then when they have sex that makes them official mates.” He turned the page and showed her where he’d written that Cael and Kelley had soulmates and their information. “So for the rules, I focused on leadership as well as joining and leaving the memory.”

Leadership generally passed from the alpha to his eldest male child. When Alistair had created the memory at the park, he wasn’t mated and had no offspring, so he’d made a law that if he stepped down from leadership or passed away without an heir, the remaining memory members would vote and the majority vote would become the new alpha.

He and Maggie had talked at length about having a child, because they’d been having sex without protection since the night of her sister’s wedding. They were both happy to start a family, but she wanted to be married before a child came into their lives, and so did he.

“So if we have a kid and they can’t shift, can they still be alpha?”

“Yep,” he said, touching the line in the laws that stated just that. “Some shifter groups won’t accept humans as soulmates, or even other shifter types. Our memory isn’t like that.”

“I’m glad. I like the memory. It’s like getting an instant family.”

He agreed. “So tomorrow night, we’ll have a big cookout in the paddock after the park closes, and then I’ll make the official announcement to the memory that you’re my soulmate and their new alpha female. I’ll ask if anyone objects, which no one will of course because everyone is happy that I found you, and then you’ll be the alpha female.”

“Not too shabby for a human,” she said with a chuckle.

He kissed her. “Not at all. There’s really nothing to it. I think I have it easier than other alphas, who’ve had to deal with usurpers.” He was remembering when Joss’s brother had tried to kill him and Jeanie and take over the pack. “Elephants aren’t predators, so we’re not quite as aggressive as the others. Once Indio finds his soulmate, our memory will be complete, unless another elephant wants to join us.”

“Like someone from your family’s memory?”

“Right.”

She looked at the laws again and then closed the book. “I’m a little nervous.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know, it’s all so new and different.”

“I know, love, but you’ll be amazing. And it’s not like you’re all on your own; I’ll be right there with you. No one will treat you differently, except in situations when your authority is necessary. Other shifters will refer to you as alpha when we’re in our shifter-only areas, never around humans of course, but otherwise you’re still you, just my beautiful mate.”

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