Chapter 7

Ginny looked at the rack of clothes in a little store inside what August referred to as the marketplace. It was down a long hall, where they passed by the other shifter groups' private living areas. Along with the shop, run by a wolf couple named Zeger and Anke, there was a nail salon and a makeup shop, a cafeteria, offices, and conference rooms. He explained that each private living area had access to their shifter group's paddock on the safari tour as well as the employee cafeteria aboveground.

"Here you go, I have two pairs of shoes in your size," Anke said as she walked out of a storage room at the back of the small shop. She held two open shoeboxes and smiled.

Ginny turned from the clothes and looked at the shoes: a pair of skate shoes that were navy blue and white, and a pair of dark brown leather loafers.

"I'll take the skate shoes," she said. "Thank you so much."

Anke put the lid on the navy-blue shoes and handed them over, then tucked the other box under her arm. "You bet. It's what we're here for. Did August explain that we can order anything you need that we don't have? Undergarments, clothes, toiletries…you name it."

"You're all so generous." She smiled, but her heart hurt.

No one had been kind to her the way the shifters at the park were since her parents were killed.

"It's what we do for each other. We're all family here, even if we don't have the same animals under our skin."

Ginny turned back to the clothes because she kind of wanted to cry at how sweet the she-wolf was being. She took two tops in her size from the rack and put them with a pair of jeans and a pair of leggings, as well as undergarments and soft socks.

"I think I'm set," she said.

Anke carried her things to the front counter where Zeger was talking to August. "Here's your phone," August said. "I already put the band contacts in for you and sent you your first text."

She took the phone and looked at the screen, where a text from him read, You have a beautiful smile, sweetheart.

She grinned at his sweet text.

Swiping her thumb on the screen to open it, she said, "Thank you all so much."

"Of course," Zeger said. "I heard my wife say it's what we do here and that's very true. You're one of us now, and that means we'll help in any way we can."

Anke put the clothes in a paper bag and set it on the counter. Then she came to Ginny and gave her a quick hug. "Let us know if you need anything. August can show you how to request clothes and supplies until you two are able to leave the park safely."

She thanked the couple again. August took the bag and said, "Let's take these back to the house and then we can grab lunch."

They walked down the hall, their shoulders bumping occasionally. Her jackal let out a few chirps in her mind, the last thing that August's alpha had said to them banging around in her skull: she couldn't have access codes until they were fully mated.

Not that she cared about access codes, necessarily, but the fully mated part was what was sticking out.

She wanted to mate August. She wanted to find out just how muscular he was under his clothes and what it would feel like to make love to him. But she was scared to pieces to actually mate him. To let her fangs out and sink them into his neck to bind them as mates, and however gorillas mated their females too.

Probably fangs.

She shivered as she thought about how it would feel to belong to him and know that he belonged to her too.

But she couldn't mate August. She wouldn't. Not fully, not with her fangs.

That would make him a target. She didn't think her grandfather would ever forget about her or leave her be. Now that she'd figured out why he was going to keep coming after her, she couldn't risk August's life or the lives of her future children.

Although it warred with everything inside her, she knew she had to leave.

She felt safe in the park and with August, but how the hell long could that actually last? Eventually her grandfather would find her, she was sure of it. He was tenacious and crazy.

If she and August were mated, then her grandfather could and would use him to get to her, and his blood would be on her hands.

She didn't want him hurt.

"Ginny?"

She stopped and realized she was nearly at the end of the hallway. She turned around and saw that she'd overshot the door for the private living area by several feet.

"Sorry," she said, catching up to him as he stood at the open door.

"You were lost in thought; I called you a couple times." She walked into the private living area, with the walls painted to look like the jungle and the houses on top of steel trees like treehouses.

"Just thinking about everything."

She followed him up a retractable set of stairs to his house, a two-bedroom with a kitchen and family room. He walked into the master bedroom, with a mahogany sleigh bed and flat-screen TV on the long dresser, and set the bag on the dresser.

Turning to face her, he folded his arms and gave her a long, quiet look.

Hell, she felt like he could read her thoughts.

"Tell me what's going on in that beautiful head of yours."

What could she say? The moment I can, I'm running so that my grandfather won't try to take you out to get to me.

He'd just tell her she was safe there, with him, and she might start to believe it. But there wasn't safety for her. Maybe she'd have to go to Canada or Mexico, leave the country entirely.

What if she let her guard down and August was hurt?

She couldn't bear it.

So instead of telling him exactly what she was thinking, she said, "l miss my family. You're so sweet and amazing, and everyone here is so kind." She moved to him, inhaling his dark, sweet scent and staring into his deep brown eyes. "In the shop I was thinking that no one's been that kind to me since my parents died. My brother and I were close, but it wasn't the same. I felt alone a lot, even with him around." Her eyes stung and she leaned against him.

He put his arms around her, and she closed her eyes.

It was monstrously unfair that she was being hunted. She wouldn't ask him to leave with her because he had friends who needed him. Somehow, she'd figure out how to get away and keep August safe.

Maybe someday in the future, she'd be able to come back to him.

Until then, though, she'd be watching for any chance she had to flee. The only way to keep August and the other shifters in the park safe was to get as far away from them as soon as possible.

The afternoon disappeared quickly as August and Ginny spent time together, talking and hanging out. He discovered her love of animated movies and shows, and they watched one of her all-time favorite movies about a little mouse and his mouse family trying to save their home from destruction.

They'd eaten dinner in the marketplace, and she'd picked out some face wash and shampoo from the makeup shop in the market.

She'd fallen asleep on the couch with her head in his lap. He'd carried her to his bed but didn't join her because she hadn't asked him to and they hadn't done more than kiss.

She was hiding something, he was sure of it, and he was very damn sure that she was going to run the moment he looked away. She might feel safe with him in the park on the surface, but in her heart she was scared her grandfather was going to get to her.

He figured, too, that part of her anxiety was because of him.

They were soulmates, and that meant that her grandfather could use him to get to her, the way he'd done with the others in her family.

His phone buzzed, and he saw a text from Atticus asking how things were going.

August checked to see if his sweetheart was still sleeping and then stepped out onto the porch, closing the door quietly. He swung down to the ground on the steel beams that were covered in material to look like branches with leaves.

Atticus whistled at him from outside his own home, and August walked over and swung up onto the porch.

"You okay?" Atticus asked.

"I think she's going to run the second I take my eyes off her if we're topside. I can't keep her locked up forever, but damn I want to."

Atticus opened the door to his home, and August walked in. "Lori's watching a movie in the other room, so we don't have to worry about disturbing her." They sat on the couch, and August scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"She doesn't feel safe here. I think she's worried that her grandfather might take me out to get to her or use me to draw her out. I spent the whole day telling her how safe it is here, but the truth is that jackals got into the park once already that we know of, plus she already knows they're watching the park." He shrugged, angry. "How can I convince her that I can keep her safe when I nearly lost her before we even met?"

Atticus nodded. "I understand how you're feeling. I went through that with Lori and her ex, the polar bear. We have made changes to the security in the park, and underground here is the very safest place for you both. But you're right, it's not fair to keep her locked up like that forever."

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"Just that you have to give her time. Eventually she'll realize that going out on her own isn't safe. There's safety in numbers, not solitude. Going on the run on her own would be a terrible decision, and she has to know that you'd follow her anyway."

"Damn straight."

Atticus's lips quirked in a smile. "How about this: tomorrow, you can take her around the park with some of the security guys and they'll explain the improvements we've made to security since the jackals broke in before we opened when they were looking for her. Give her a chance to see for herself what we're doing to keep everyone safe. Because yes, her grandfather is coming after her, but we also need to make sure all of our people are safe."

August agreed. "I'll message Jupiter and ask him to set up a tour for us tomorrow; maybe Mercer and Rhomi can come with us too. It would be good for Ginny to see her again, since she's the reason Rhomi now knows shifters are real."

"Good point."

August said goodnight to his alpha and left, walking the short distance back to his home. He checked in on Ginny once more, watching her as she slept and listening to her soft, even breathing.

"I'm going to keep you safe, I promise," August whispered.