Page 2 of Jasper

“It’s not my fault the carnies didn’t put it together right!”

As Ellie laughed, Melody walked into the pantry and grabbed the coffee beans. The day was just getting started, but it was sure to be an interesting one because her best friend was a nut and always kept them on their toes.

It would be awesome if she had a mate by her side and some kids running around, but that was a dream that was probably never going to come true. So she’d make do in Northbelle with what she had and be grateful she got to live in such a pretty place.

Jasper Breslin made his way through the Amazing Adventures Safari Park as the sun peeked up over the horizon, casting the trees and buildings in ambers and oranges. His wolf was on alert, the beast rolling under his skin, as he took in everything around him on the hunt for danger. Recently, a group of hyena shifters had made numerous attempts to get to Ginny, a hyena who’d escaped from her dangerous grandfather and found her soulmate in August, one of the gorillas who called the park home.

Even though the threat against Ginny was put down for good—the battle had been truly epic—the security team hadn’t eased off on any of the new measures put into place by the lions who were in charge of keeping everyone safe.

That was the thing about the park: it was not only a business that employed people, it was also cover for the shifters who kept their animal natures secret from humans. All the shifters lived and worked at the park, and that meant safety was paramount.

If the secret of shifters ever got out to the general public, it would be the end of life as they knew it.

“Hey!”

Jasper paused as he was about to pass the bird sanctuary and swiveled around. He saw his best friend, Alfie, another security team member.

“Hey, man,” he said. The two bumped fists.

Alife yawned. “I hate morning shift. I don’t like being up before the sun.”

Jasper actually preferred the night shift himself, but that was because he didn’t sleep well.

He hadn’t slept well in seven years.

“It’s just until a spot opens for us,” Jasper said. “Maybe we’ll get back on the night shift soon.”

“I hope so.”

“You do realize,” Jasper said as they continued their trek around the park’s interior, “that we’ll still see the sun rise on the night shift at the end of the shift.”

“Yeah, but I don’t mind the sunrise when I’ve been up all night; I just hate being upearly. I hope when I find my soulmate that she’s a night owl too. Imagine if she was an early bird and I had to change my entire outlook on early mornings.”

Jasper chuckled. “You would, though.”

“Oh hell yeah, one hundred percent. I just hope she’s a night owl. Good things happen at night.” Alfie waggled his brows, and Jasper shook his head at his nutty friend.

“Maybe she’ll show up on the tours this weekend,” he suggested.

Alfie hummed in a way that sounded like he didn’t think it would happen, a short gruntingyeah right.

“What about you?” Alfie asked.

“What about me what?”

“Aren’t you hoping your soulmate will show up soon? On one of the tours or maybe she’ll just happen to walk into the park?”

Okay, so this is why Jasper didn’t tell anyone about his past. It left too many questions hanging around like knives poised to slice through him.

Regardless of his past and the violet eyes that haunted what little sleep he did get, the park hosted VIP safari tours, with free tickets sent out to single males and females in the Tri-State area to encourage people to come to the park. The hope was that the shifters—posing in paddocks as normal animals—would find their soulmates if they came on the tours.

The idea had spawned only a few soulmates, even after thousands upon thousands of tickets had been sent out. Most recently, a teacher had brought her elementary school class for a group tour and the alpha elephant, Alistair, had realized she was his soulmate. It was a sweet thing when it happened, but it would never happen to Jasper.

He wasn’t going to find his soulmate on the tour because he knew where she was already: Northbelle, Pennsylvania.

His childhood home and pack.

They’d grown up together, and he felt like he’d known his whole life that they were soulmates. But just before she turned eighteen, everything went to shit and he was forced to leave the pack and move to New Jersey to join up with alpha wolf Joss’s pack at the park.

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