Page 1 of Mercer

ChapterOne

Mercer Cannick stretched lazily in the mid-October afternoon sun, his paws kneading the air as a low breeze blew through the lion paddock at the Amazing Adventures Safari Park.

He heard the low murmur of a male talking and knew without opening his eyes that it was Devlin, lioness Jenni’s human mate, who was dressed as a zookeeper and hanging out with her under the guise of working with the lions.

It was a ruse that their people had been using since the park opened years earlier, with a safari tour that carried people by paddocks of different animals.

What the human public didn’t know, however, was that most of the animals on the tour were shifters and not natural animals.

That was a secret shifters were intent on keeping, save for situations like Jenni and Devlin’s, when a soulmate was found and the secret was shared.

The rumble of a tour Jeep echoed around him. He rolled to his paws and stretched, yawning and whipping his tail before he turned to face the big iron gate that separated the tour Jeeps from the paddock’s occupants—Mercer and his lion pride, led by alpha Caesar. The lions weren’t the largest group living in secret at the park; that was the wolves, led by alpha Joss. But the pride had eight members including himself, and if you counted the two mates of pride members, that brought the total up to ten. Among the other groups besides lions and wolves, were gorillas, elephants, and bears. They all lived underneath the park in private living quarters, sharing a marketplace with small businesses like the nail salon run by a gorilla’s mate and a lion’s mate and a cafeteria run by the mate of the alpha wolf and several of the bears.

The lions handled security for the park. Most of the pride was in the paddock, but two of their people were in their human forms handling security: Javan in the security office and Xavier on foot patrol. Tomorrow it would be Mercer’s turn in the security office, which he was not looking forward to. He liked to patrol because it kept him busy; sitting in the office was powerfully boring.

His ears pricked as the Jeep rumbled to a stop. A lone female was in the second row of the blue camo Jeep, driven by Thomas, with Benjamin as the guide. Benjamin leaped from the vehicle and offered his hand to the female, helping her out and leading her to the gate. He rattled off some facts about lions while she stared at their people.

Over a year ago, the alphas of the various groups had decided to mail out coupons for VIP safari tours to unmated human males and females. The coupons entitled each person to free parking and entrance to the park as well as a VIP tour, which concluded with a small album of photos taken at each paddock.

While on the surface, it seemed like a goodwill gesture to the community and to draw in business, the tours’ main purpose was to bring unmated humans into the park in the hopes that they might be shifter soulmates. Matings from the tours hadn’t happened all that often, even though they’d been running three days a week nonstop since the tickets went out.

But there was always hope.

Like today, when the Jeeps stopped and Mercer and his unmated friends hoped for a connection to the person at the gate.

He stared at the female, who was tall with auburn hair. She had a nice smile and seemed very flirty with Benjamin.

Mercer felt no connection to the female, just like the others that had trooped by every half hour, moving from paddock to paddock.

It would have been amazing to find his soulmate. Even though he was only twenty-five, he felt like he’d been waiting several lifetimes to find his mate.

Benjamin stared through the gate, looking for a sign from one of the lions, and when a few moments had passed without any indication, he led the female back to the Jeep and it moved on to the next paddock.

Mercer sighed.

Lucius padded over to him and let out a grumble, which Mercer knew meant he thought it had been a bummer of a day too. They took off to circle the paddock and run off some energy as they waited for the next Jeep.

Hope always sprang within them at the start of each tour day, but as the Jeeps drove on without anyone finding their soulmate, it got more and more difficult to keep a good thought about it all.

He was damn ready to find his soulmate. He just hoped she showed up soon.

* * *

Mercer shifted back into his human form inside the large maintenance building in the paddock. It allowed them to change back without being accidentally seen by humans and also had a hidden door in the floor that led to their private living quarters and the marketplace.

When he was back to human, he grabbed his clothes and dressed.

Caesar shifted.

“Sorry, guys.”

“It’s not your fault,” Mercer said. “You can’t control when our soulmates will show up.”

“I know, I still feel bad, though. We had such high hopes for the tours when we started them.”

Mercer buttoned his jeans and took his flannel off the hook on the wall. As he slid his arms into the sleeves, he said, “We’re not giving up hope. A few soulmates have come on the VIP tours, just not as many as everyone thought.”

Jupiter, Caesar’s son and the second-in-command of the pride, grabbed his clothes. “I’ve gotta run, Celeste had morning sickness and she refused to let me stay with her. My lion’s been growling at me ever since I got up here.”

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