Cael (Were Zoo Book 11) by R. Butler (best e reader for academics .txt) 📗

human. Cael didn’t care, either. He was glad she was in his life. Making love to her, waking up with her, had been heaven, and he had a lifetime of that to look forward to.

When he finished his work with the norms, he grabbed lunch in the employee cafeteria and met with Alistair to see if the alphas had any ideas.

“It would be handy if she would accept a job in the park and we could make the apartment part of her salary,” Alistair said. “But we don’t really have any openings that a human could fill without knowing the truth of what we are. So much about the park, and us, is secret and needs to stay that way.”

“What would really be good is if Novi’s biological father gave up and left them alone, so her mom could keep her place and be safe. But Novi’s not happy with her being alone because she doesn’t trust that her father won’t show up at some point.”

Alistair nodded, rubbing his chin. “It’s unfortunate there isn’t some kind of shifter location system, where we could find her father and preemptively state Novi and her mother are under our protection and he needs to forget about them.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. Shifters valued their privacy and keeping the secret from humans too much to do something so bold as to tell others where they were. Even if it was a private system for shifters, there were dangerous groups out there who would look at any kind of information like that as a way to take over territory or pull a coup and lead a group. Most shifter groups were on their own. The park was a unique place because the different groups all had each other’s backs. Any group that came against one of the groups at the park would be taking on every single shifter inside.

“Well, no such luck with that,” Cael said. “I’ll come up with something to get her to the complex one way or another. She’s my mother-in-law and I won’t be able to rest easy until I know she’s safe all the time.”

“I understand. If I, or any of the alphas, think of anything that would be helpful, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, what are your plans?”

“I’m picking up Novi and taking her to her place so she can pack, and then we’ll come back here.”

“You’re going to stay underground until her mom moves in, assuming she ever does?”

“Yes.”

“All right, keep me posted. We’d like to have dinner with you two, the whole memory. Rhapsody would like to get to know her better; she’s excited to have another non-elephant person to hang out with.”

Cael was glad that there was another female for Novi to get to know in the memory as well.

He said goodbye to his alpha and went to his house to get ready to pick up Novi. The closer it got to the time to see her, the more excited his beast became. She’d been on his mind all day, but now that it was near the time to see her again, he was thrilled with the prospect.

He parked in front of the thrift store and walked inside, curious about her work. She waved and smiled at him from behind the counter where she was checking out an older woman with a stack of clothes.

“Are you Cael?” an older woman asked.

“Yes. Are you Novi’s boss, Katya?”

“I am,” she said with a grin. “It’s really nice to meet you, even though I’m disappointed that she’s quitting to work with you.”

“Well, I won’t apologize for sweeping her off her feet,” he said with a chuckle.

“And you shouldn’t,” Katya said, winking. “She will be missed. She’s a hard worker and so good with customers.”

Cael knew he was grinning like a fool. His elephant was so tickled that his soulmate was being complimented.

He wandered around the store looking at the shelves of glassware and curios, the scratched and dented furniture, and shelves of books.

“Hey,” Novi said, joining him at a shelf of old VHS tapes. “I don’t think anyone even has a VCR anymore.”

“Probably the technology holdouts. My grandma still doesn’t know how to change the clock on her oven when the time changes. It drives my mom bonkers when she visits and the clock is wrong.”

Novi chuckled and then lifted a small elephant statue. It fit in the palm of her hand, the wooden statue depicting an elephant sitting down, trunk held high and one leg lifted like it was waving.

“That’s cool,” he said, taking it from her and turning it over in his hands.

“It was in a box I unpacked from an estate. The woman collected elephant statues by the dozens. I’ve never seen so many of them. I thought this one was really neat so I bought it. For a whopping two dollars.”

“Nice,” he said. “I know just the place for it.”

“Oh?”

“Yep, on the bookshelf I’m going to build for you.”

“Aw. Really?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ve never made one before, but I found a kit online and it looks pretty easy. I figure I’ll get practice putting a bookshelf together and then I’ll be prepared for when I get to build a crib.”

She beamed at him. “I love it. I’ll actually get to keep books now instead of having to read and return them.”

He loved that he could do that for her.

“Ready to go, sweetheart?”

“I am. Let me grab my bag.”

She hurried to the break room and returned with her bag and the elephant. When they were headed toward her place, she said, “I talked to my mom while we were both on lunch break today and I told her that I was going to move in with you and was packing up after