Page 14 of Lucius

How could he not? She wasn’t just beautiful, she was funny and sweet and he couldn’t wait to get to know her better.

He now understood why males didn’t like being away from their soulmates, because he didn’t want to leave her side. But he had to make some arrangements quickly, and the security office was the place to do it.

“Hey,” he said, as the door shut behind him.

Jupiter stood at the desk and was talking to Justus, one of the bears who worked with the security team.

“How’s it going?” Jupiter asked.

“Awesome. I need some help, though.”

He handed the flash drive to Lori, who handled the printing of the souvenir books, and then leaned against the counter. “Ineed an apartment set up right away. I’ve also got a date and need an escort to the steakhouse in town.”

“You thinking of bringing her back here?” Jupiter asked as he lifted his phone.

“I just want to be prepared.”

“Jenni didn’t go into the paddock today,” he said. “So she and Devlin could grab clothes for you and stock the apartment with food and toiletries just in case you bring her back here.”

“Congrats, man,” Justus said. “I can’t believe the email coupon brought a soulmate here.”

“Me either,” Lucius said.

“It’ll give hope to so many of our people,” Jupiter said with a nod, then looked up from his phone. “Okay, Jenni said they’ll get right on it. We’ll put you in apartment three. You can use your swipe card to get into it.”

“Perfect. Thanks.”

“What time did you want to go for dinner?”

“Six?”

“Sure, come to the employee lot,” Jupiter said. “Javan and Xavier will follow you.”

The park alphas had a rule that no one went anywhere alone, and that included dates. He and Sidney could be in the car alone, but they’d be followed by Javan and Xavier, who’d keep their eyes on them. It was always better to be safe than sorry, and the few times the park had been targeted by shifters wanting to take over, they’d been caught off guard.

“It’ll be an hour, hon,” Lori said from the little room where she printed the pictures and assembled the photo albums.

“We’ll be back, thanks.”

He rapped his knuckles on the counter and turned to get back to his soulmate. Just at that moment, he had the strangest feeling of sadness mixed with anger wash over him.

He moved to the door and saw through the window that Sidney was on the phone, pacing and gesturing angrily with her free hand.

He realized he’d been catching a hint of her emotions because they were soulmates, even though they weren’t mated yet.

She must be extremely emotional for him to pick up on them at this point.

He wanted to go to her and comfort her, but he decided to give her time to finish her call without intruding.

“I’m just going to hang for a minute,” he said, turning back to his friends.

“Sure thing,” Jupiter said.

Lucius tried not to listen, but even inside the security building, his excellent hearing thanks to his shifter genetics allowed him to catch most of Sidney’s side of the conversation. He had a feeling that Sidney was going to be very upset when she got off the phone. Hopefully, she still wanted to go out tonight because he didn’t want to be done spending time with her, but if she needed to leave, he’d understand.

His lion let out a grumble and he mentally shushed the beast.

Her happiness was the most important thing to him now.

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