Page 15 of Donner

I nodded.

"But you can fly."

"Shifters aren't as accepted here as I suppose they would be at the North Pole," I said. "It's one thing for folks to see an eagle flying overhead. It's another to have one strip naked and shift in front of you on the street and then spring into the sky."

"I suppose." He smirked. "I like the idea of you naked, though."

I led him to my old, beat-up Chevy truck, and he grinned. "This is not what I thought you would drive."

"What were you expecting?"

"A new BMW, maybe?" He shrugged. "I painted a few hundred of them silver for last year's stocking stuffers."

"The price of the real thing is a little stiffer than the price for a toy," I said as I leaned over to unlock his door. The truck was so old, it didn't have power locks.

"I suppose," he said, rolling his eyes.

"You don't have vehicles at the North Pole?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"No! We fly!" He grinned.

I should have known.

"Or bicycle, or take the bus." He buckled his seatbelt and reached for my hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like such a snob. We don't have space for cars. We don't exactly own anything of our own. If I like something, like a snow globe, I can take it to my apartment, but I can always return it to the workshop and trade it for something else if I don't like it anymore." He sighed. "I'm glad you're not one of the greedy bastards always asking the Santas for material things."

"No." I'd never wanted anything so much as a friend. My wish was a little harder to grant. Maybe I should have asked for a BMW, but I doubt it would have made me happy.

I drove us to the zoo in comfortable silence. Jax watched out the window most of the time, occasionally commenting on street signs or landmarks. I did my best to acknowledge his comments while trying to navigate the stop and go traffic.

Finally, we arrived at the zoo. After walking through three football fields worth of cars, we made it to the main entrance. Jax stopped at the visitor center to grab us each maps and to study the street signs to see which way we should go first. We ended up heading toward the Australia section. I enjoyed watching the awe on Jax's face, but I could tell something was bothering him by the time we reached the Amazon Station.

"These animals are unhappy," he said. "I thought they would be happy to be in their enclosures, safe from predators, but they're miserable." He pointed at a monkey. "I can almost hear her crying."

I'd noticed the same when we'd passed the North American display of bald eagles. "Are you ready to go back to the hotel?" I asked as gently as I could.

"No." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's see what's ahead."

We watched the pedal boats for a while and saw a baby black rhino at her mother's side. When we reached the gorillas, Jax looked like he was having a better time.

"He looks happy," he said, pointing to a silverback lounging in the shade.

"He is happy," I agreed. "Reminds me of my old EMT partner, Charlie, at his retirement party. Same big grin."

Jax mimicked his grin and burst out laughing. It was all I could do to keep walking the path. I wanted to pick him up and run back to my truck for some more alone time.

Instead, we ate lunch at the Oasis Outpost, watching for lemurs. We didn't see any lemurs on the ground, but then we walked closer and saw them in the trees. Their antics made Jax smile, and I couldn't look away from him.

We spent the longest amount of time at the petting zoo, feeding the goats hay and listening to them bleat contentedly. It was close to the five o'clock closing time when we finally made our way out to the parking lot.

Jax pointed to the tram tracks. "Next time, we should do that."

I laughed. "Why, so we wouldn't have to walk back to where we parked?"

"Exactly."

"Do you want me to carry you?" I lunged for Jax, who darted away, and the chase was on. We ran back to the truck, skirting rows of parked cars and at one point darting into the path of an oncoming SUV. I pulled Jax back between parked cars while the driver honked at us.

Jax turned to me once the SUV was safely past us and laughed. "You caught me."

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