Justus
Justus (Were Zoo Book Four)
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2017 R. E. Butler
Justus (Were Zoo Book Four)
By R. E. Butler
License Notes
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Cover by CT Cover Designs
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Editing by Tracy Vincent
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Thanks to Joyce & Shelley for beta reading
For BB and BL - I love you both.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Coming Next from R. E. Butler
Contact the Author
Other Works by R. E. Butler
Coming Soon in the Were Zoo Series
Justus (Were Zoo Book Four)
By R. E. Butler
When Trina Potter arrives at the Amazing Adventures Safari Park to apply for a job at her cousin’s sweets shop, she doesn’t expect to meet the man of her dreams at the front gate, or that his kisses would drive her senseless.
Bear shifter Justus Dorne would love to meet his soulmate. The weekly park VIP tours so far have netted him zero meetings with the one female meant to be his. He doesn’t want to be discouraged but seeing his friends find their soulmates is making him long for a female of his own. When he volunteers to escort a human to the park’s new sweets shop, he doesn’t expect to fall head over heels for the feisty brunette.
It’s no simple thing to find a soulmate who’s human. Shifters aren’t known to humans, and one careless whisper of their nature out in the human world could spell disaster for the entire shifter race. Justus doesn’t want to keep anything from his soulmate, but he’s not sure how to tell her the truth of what he is without losing her. When she comes face to face with his bear, will she stay or will she run?
Chapter 1
Justus Dorne rolled his neck and ran his hand through his hair. Steam rose from the pots of water as he waited for them to boil so he could put the ziti in to cook. Normally, he was happy to work in the commercial kitchen of the Amazing Adventures Safari Park, but all he could think about was that in a few hours, he’d need to be in the paddock in his shifted form, hoping that his soulmate would be on one of the VIP tours.
Tarquin, one of the members of Justus’s bear shifter sleuth, walked into the commercial kitchen with both arms laden with grocery sacks. Justus moved to help, lifting several bags from his friend.
“Did you find everything?” Justus asked.
“Yeah,” Tarquin said as he set the rest of the bags down on a long, metal counter. “I had to go to three stores to find the roasted red peppers, though.”
Justus shook his head as he started to unload one of the sacks. “That’s weird. I’ll add it to the list of items we’re going to start ordering in bulk for delivery.”
“Cool. I’m going to unload the bags and then head over to the paddock. Are you going to be ready for the first tour?”
The VIP tours, which had been started several months earlier, were designed to bring unmated males and females through the doors of the park in the hopes that the shifters in the zoo would find their soulmates. It was a good idea, but only three males had found their soulmates since the tours started, and only two of those soulmates had been on the VIP tours.
“Yeah, I’ll be there.”
Tarquin clapped Justus on the shoulder. “One of these days, all the tours will be worth it because we’ll be in the presence of our soulmates.”
“I hope so,” Justus said.
He heard sizzling, and glanced at the pots of water and realized they were boiling. Leaving the groceries to Tarquin, he dumped the uncooked noodles into the pots and stirred them before setting the timer.
The bears handled food for the park, from the stalls that were open to the public to the employee cafeteria and the market in the underground living quarters the zoo employees called home. Along with their twenty-member sleuth, the park was also home for shifters of the wolf, lion, gorilla, and elephant varieties. The groups each had a private living area under the park, along with a shared marketplace where they could eat meals and order supplies. Each group had their own specialties within the park. The bears handled the food, the elephants handled the non-shifting animals, the wolves handled the safari tours, the lions handled park security, and the gorillas handled park maintenance. Justus happened to love cooking, but he wished he were cooking for someone special, not just the park visitors and shifters who called Amazing Adventures home.
It would be easier if shifters were known to humans, but their abilities were a carefully guarded secret. Even if Justus happened to find his soulmate while he was in his shifted form in the paddock, he would have to wait until he shifted back into his human form and then carefully reveal his nature to her over time. There were rules for when and how to reveal shifters to soulmates, which had been created by the shifters who were in charge of each group. They were called the council, and their word was law.
“I have a good feeling,” Tarquin said as he finished unloading the groceries.
“About what?” Justus asked.
He shrugged. “I think someone will find their soulmate today.”
Justus arched a brow. “Are you psychic now?”
“Not remotely. It’s just a feeling I have. Plus, the bears are due.”
“True.”
So far, two gorillas and one lion had found their soulmates. It would be nice if a bear would find a soulmate next. And it would be doubly nice if that bear happened to be Justus. He wanted to start the next chapter of his life. He often felt like he was just spinning his wheels in the paddock, hoping that his soulmate happened to get a VIP tour ticket in the mail and decided to use it.
“I’ll keep my fingers cross,” Tarquin said. “For both of us.”
* * *
Justus rubbed his side on a tree and yawned. The tours were almost over for the day, and none of the humans who had come through in the Jeeps had been a soulmate for any of the bears. In the distance, he could hear another Jeep coming, and he followed the other bears as they headed toward the chain link fence that separated their paddock from the safari trail.
The Jeep stopped in front of the paddock, and a human woman with long, blonde hair climbed out of the back of the vehicle with the help of a wolf shifter who was acting as a tour guide.
The guides spoke from a memorized script about the animals in the paddocks, listing qualities and facts about each of them.
Brent took a picture of the woman. Pictures were taken in front of each paddock, and then at the end of the tour, the visitor would be presented with a complimentary photo album.
“What kind of bears are these?” the woman asked as she turned to look into the paddock.
Brent cleared his throat and said, “Mostly grizzlies, which are also called brown bears. We also have two American black bears.”
Justus was a grizzl
y. His coloring was chocolate brown. His mother, who lived in a small town in Michigan, had a paler coat. He’d only met his father once, and he’d had the same dark coat as Justus.
The female looked through the links at them, her gaze flitting from one to the next, then she turned and said, “What’s next on the tour?”
Brent looked past her to the bears, looking for a sign that one of them had found her to be their soulmate, but no one signaled him. Justus knew that if he was in the presence of his soulmate that he would just know. He’d feel drawn to her in an inexplicable way, and his bear would be in agreement.
As the last tour of the day left the paddock and headed to the next group, Justus let out a soft grumble which was echoed by several males. He headed to the storage shed in the paddock, which had a secret entrance to the underground quarters in the floor. Once inside, he shifted, grabbed his clothes, and headed downstairs. It was going to be a long, lonely night.
Chapter 2
Trina Potter closed the door to her apartment and yawned. She’d spent the evening with her cousin and best friend, Lexy, and Lexy’s boyfriend, Win. Trina was so happy for her bestie. Not only were all her dreams coming true, but it had happened in such a short amount of time. Trina had gone away for her brother’s college graduation, and come home to find Lexy with a new boyfriend and a new job, starting up a sweets shop at Amazing Adventures Safari Park.
She was supposed to meet with Lexy on Monday morning to talk about her taking a job at the shop, which gave her Sunday to think about her future. She wanted to stay at the apartment that she had shared with Lexy for the last few years, but she wasn’t sure she could swing the rent on her own. At least not for very long, anyway. Although she had savings, it didn’t seem wise to burn through it just to stay in the apartment, when a smarter move would be to find a less expensive place to live.
Her phone buzzed and she lifted it from her purse before plopping down on the couch. Her brother’s photo appeared on the screen and she chuckled at the image. She and Devlin went out of their way to put embarrassing photos as the picture for their phone numbers. She had a picture of Devlin making a face as he struggled to lift a barbell stuffed with weights over his head. The picture he had on his phone for her number was one he’d taken last Christmas when they’d spent the night at their folks’ house, and she’d fallen asleep on the couch and woken up with Devlin grinning and pointing his phone at her – makeup smudged, hair in tangles, and a line of drool down her chin.
“Hey,” she said when she answered.
“Aunt Rhonda texted mom and said that she just met Lexy’s new boyfriend. Is the guy moving in with you?”
Immediately, Trina could hear that Devlin was going into over-protective-brother mode.
“No, Lexy moved out to live in the park after she took over the sweets shop there.”
There was a pause. “Can you handle the rent?”
“For now.”
“You can come live with me.”
“I’m supposed to interview Monday morning with Lexy at the park, for a job as a cashier at her new shop. Your apartment is way too far away.”
“Oh. What are you going to do about your living arrangements?”
She toed off her shoes and wiggled her toes in her fuzzy socks. “I’m not making any plans right now until I see how things go with the job. There are apartments closer to the park I thought I’d check out.”
“I can come with you,” he offered.
“Aw. You’re sweet.”
“I just want you to be safe. How about I come over tomorrow and take you out for breakfast and then we can apartment hunt.”
“Don’t you usually work out on Sundays?”
Her brother was very much into physical fitness. When he’d gone to college, she was surprised he hadn’t wanted to be a trainer.
“It’s fine. How about I pick you up at nine for breakfast and then we start visiting complexes?”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“It’s what big brothers are for.”
After saying goodbye, she set the phone on the couch and closed her eyes. It seemed impossible that not too long ago, she’d left for Devlin’s graduation and everything had been normal in her life. Then Lexy had met Win, and the relationship moved so quickly that before Trina knew what was happening, Lexy had moved out. She liked Win, and knew that Lexy was happy, but she couldn’t help but feel left behind.
Which was probably why Devlin was taking her out to breakfast and looking at apartments with her. He was not just looking out for her, he was letting her know that he was there.
First, she would find a new place to live with more reasonable rent, and then she’d be the best cashier that the zoo had ever seen. After she had her job and living arrangements figured out, then she’d focus on her love life. Or the lack of it, at the moment. After all…Lexy had found love at the side of the road thanks to a flat tire. Trina might meet her forever-guy anytime, anyplace.
* * *
Trina looked at the brochure with the apartment layouts as she spooned a bite of hot fudge sundae into her mouth. It was the most reasonably priced apartment complex within thirty minutes of the zoo, and aside from having a security system that passed Devlin’s high standards, the floor plans were generous with utilities included.
“First, I’d like to point out that you should maybe get the job before you commit to a lease,” Devlin said.
“I was planning to go to the apartment manager’s office tomorrow after I get the job.”
He arched a brow. “So sure you will?”
“It’s Lexy.”
“And?”
“And… she’s family and she loves me and she knows I’m a hard worker. It’s been a combined dream for us that she’d have a bakery and I’d work the front for her. That it happens to be in a zoo is just a bonus.”
“How is that a bonus?” he asked.
“Because it’s neat. And it guarantees a captive audience. She’s going to be the only sweets shop in the park, and she’s planning to make some signature treats like taffy and fudge that will be sold in decorative tins.”
He didn’t say anything as he finished off his bowl of frozen yogurt. After looking at apartments, they’d stopped for a snack before parting ways. “You don’t want to do anything else but work a register for the rest of your life?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t know, Trin. It’s just…I thought you would go to college and have a career.”
“That’s your dream, not mine. I like retail and dealing with the public, and I know I’m going to enjoy working at the zoo.”
“As long as you’re happy, I’ll be happy.”
“Great. If you could also get Mom and Dad off my back about having a boyfriend, that would be awesome.”
“No dice, little sis.” He leaned back in the booth and smiled. “If they focus on you, they don’t focus on me.”
“We’re quite the pair, huh?”
With a snort, he leaned forward and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “There’s nothing wrong with waiting for the right person.”
“I agree.”
He paid the bill and she left the tip. He walked Trina to her car and gave her a hug. “Good luck with the interview tomorrow. If you need me to put in a good word for you with the boss, let me know.”
She chuckled. “I will. Thanks for going out with me today.”
“Keep me posted. Love ya kiddo.”
“Love you, too.”
She climbed behind the wheel and shut the door. Devlin got into his truck, and in his typical over-protective brother self, waited until she was safely on her way before leaving the restaurant.
As she headed to her apartment, she planned her outfit for the following day. Even though Lexy was her best friend, she still wanted to make a good impression on anyone she might meet. It might not be the life that Devlin had thought she’d have, but she was proud of the life she’d carved out for herself, and the future that awaited at
the Amazing Adventures Safari Park.
Chapter 3
Justus carried a case of bottled water, balancing it on one shoulder, as he headed to the security office Monday morning. He normally wasn’t in charge of stocking the security office refrigerator, but he’d had a few moments of spare time that morning while the fresh cut french fries were soaking in ice water, so he’d volunteered to handle things. The security office was near the front gates of the park, which hadn’t opened for the day yet.
Jupiter, a lion shifter, opened the door to the security office.
“Hey,” the big male said. “Where’s Moss?”
“Helping out with lunch prep,” Justus said as he stepped into the office.
Justus used a pocket knife to cut the plastic that held the bottles together and filled the small refrigerator.
“Any chance you can add RC cola to the list?” Xavier, one of the lions, asked from where he sat in front of the security monitors.
“RC? Do they even make that anymore?” Justus asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
“I’ll look into it for you.” Justus took his phone from his pocket to make note of it. He was fairly sure he wouldn’t remember to see if they could get RC delivered to the zoo without leaving a reminder for himself.
The security desk phone rang and Jupiter answered. “I’ll be right there,” he said.
“What’s up?” Justus asked, sliding his phone into his pocket.
“There’s a human female at the front gates who needs to be escorted to Lexy’s shop for a job interview.”
“Wait, you’re supposed to help me test the new camera system,” Xavier said.