Page 42 of Alistair

Rhapsody and Novi want to get to know her, they’ve only met her one time, Cael texted.Novi can’t shift, so she feels human most of the time anyway. You could always introduce Maggie to the other human soulmates later, when she’s not overwhelmed with your shift.

Good point, thanks. I’ll see you in the paddock around eight.

We’ll be there with bells on, Indio texted.

Alistair put the phone down and settled back on the couch with a sigh. He heard Maggie stirring and got up, returning to the bed and curling around her warm body. It was heaven to hold her in his arms. After forty years of waiting for her, he finally had her. He was terrified of screwing things up and ruining what they had, but he knew that there was a part of her that believed he was still keeping things from her and he didn’t want to keep that secret any longer than necessary.

He trusted her with his life and his biggest secret.

He just hoped she trusted him too.

Alistair held Maggie’s hand as they walked through the park an hour later. While it had been tempting to sex her up in the shower after she’d woken, he opted to wait until later. He was too keyed up, his elephant too anxious to shift, to focus on anything but getting her to the paddock.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

They passed by the security office and hung a right toward the paddocks. He hadn’t told her where they were going, only that he wanted to show her something.

“Yeah, why?”

“You just seem preoccupied.”

“I am, I guess,” he said. “I just…let me tell you everything when we get where we’re going.”

“Oh-kay,” she said. “Where are we going, anyway? To feed the animals? I’m not really dressed for that.”

“You look perfect,” he promised. And she did, in curve-hugging jeans and a short-sleeved top that revealed just the right amount of cleavage to drive him wild.

“You’re so sweet,” she said.

They reached the elephant paddock a few minutes later. He squatted down and moved the decorative shrubs aside to reveal a keypad. Entering in the code, he unlocked the gate, which clicked loudly.

Standing, he pushed the gate open. “After you, sweetheart.”

She hummed and walked inside. He followed and closed the gate.

“What lives here?” she asked. “Wait, there’s nothing in here.”

She scanned the grassy paddock, with the tall trees and small pond, plus the maintenance shed that had a door in the floor, which led to their private living quarters underground.

“It’s the elephant paddock.”

“There aren’t any elephants in here.”

“I know, sweetheart. Come on,” he said. He took her hand and they headed toward the maintenance shed.

“Well, what happened to them? I didn’t dream that there were elephants, right?”

“No, not at all.”

How the hell was he supposed to start this conversation? He should have asked Joss how he brought it up to Jeanie, gotten some tips.

Shaking off the nerves, because hehadto do this, he cleared his throat. “I wanted to show you something, and it’s very important. It’s a secret, and I have to know that I can trust you with this.”

“Of course you can trust me with a secret.”

He stopped as they neared the maintenance shed. He could hear the memory inside, whispering to each other as they waited for him to call them out.

He stared down at her, memorizing her face. She was so trusting of him, so sweet and such a special female. His heart swelled as he looked at her.

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