Neo (Were Zoo Book Ten) Read online

  Neo

  Were Zoo Book Ten

  By R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2020 R. E. Butler

  Neo (Were Zoo Book Ten)

  By R. E. Butler

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

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  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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  Edited by Sarah Dawn Johnson

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  Thanks to Joyce, Shelley, and Ann for beta reading.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Coming Next from R. E. Butler

  Contact the Author

  Other Books by R. E.

  Next in the Were Zoo Series

  Neo (Were Zoo Book Ten)

  By R. E. Butler

  Gorilla shifter Neo feels like he’s been waiting for his soulmate forever, even though he’s only twenty-six. He keeps himself busy during the day as a mechanic at Amazing Adventures Safari Park, where he and his fellow shifters live in secrecy from humans. But the lonely nights are getting to him, and he wonders when he’ll meet the other half of his heart.

  Danielle Fitzgerald knows her stepfather, Dexter, and his son, Khyle, are keeping something from her and her mother, but she can’t figure out what it is. There’s something off about both of them–and the group of men that work for their construction company. Against her dad’s wishes, she takes a VIP ticket for the safari tour and finds herself entranced with one of the gorillas.

  Neo knows the moment the vehicle with his soulmate stops in front of the gorilla paddock, and his beast can’t wait to meet her. He knows it will take a while before he can share the truth of his shift with her, but what he doesn’t count on is her stepfamily’s secret. When the truth comes out, will Dani be able to stay with Neo at the park, or will her family steal her away before he can stop them?

  Chapter One

  Neo Wright sat behind the wheel of the blue camo-colored Jeep in the maintenance shed and turned the key. The electric engine started smoothly. “Damn, that’s nice,” he said.

  “Isn’t it?” Atticus said. He was Neo’s alpha and the head of maintenance at the Amazing Adventures Safari Park where they both lived and worked.

  “Lemme ask you something,” Neo said.

  “Sure.”

  “When you were first learning about maintenance, did you ever think there would be electric engines?” Neo had only been fixing vehicles since he was eighteen. He’d come to the park from Ohio where his mother’s band of gorilla shifters lived in a small farming town. He’d never twisted a wrench in his life, but Atticus had taught him everything he knew about maintenance, and Neo had taken some classes at the local community college as well.

  “Not in a million years,” Atticus said with a smile. “I thought we’d have flying cars at some point, but the idea of an all-electric vehicle never crossed my mind.”

  “Well, if it had we’d be billionaires,” Neo said.

  “Indeed.”

  Neo turned off the engine and climbed out. The park used the Jeeps for the safari tours, which took patrons on a trail to see the animals that called the park home. Among the normal animals–giraffes, a cranky moose, deer, and antelope–were other shifter groups. There were seven gorillas who lived in a private area underneath the park, hidden from humans who didn’t know shifters existed. Along with their group, there were other shifter groups who lived underground in separate private areas as well–wolves, elephants, bears, and lions.

  Zane, Atticus’s son, walked into the maintenance shed. “You’re coming to the party, right?”

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” Neo said.

  “How you doing, Papa?” Atticus asked as he clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Nervous as hell.” Zane smiled broadly.

  Zane was one of the first males in the zoo to find his soulmate in a human female–Adriana. She was five months’ pregnant and they were having a party to reveal the gender of the baby. The whole band was going to be there, as well as Adriana’s best friend, a human female named Celeste who was mated to a lion shifter named Jupiter.

  “I gotta go, but don’t be late.” Zane disappeared, and Neo shook his head at his friend.

  “He’s so damn lucky,” Neo said.

  “Yeah. Him and Win,” Atticus said. Zane and Win were the only two gorillas who’d found their soulmates in human females.

  “Do you think you’ll find your soulmate?” Neo asked as he hung the keys to the Jeep on a hook on the wall. He picked up the tablet to finish the report detailing the inspection he’d just done.

  “I hope so. I don’t regret having Zane with his mother. I wish she’d been my soulmate. We got along really well.” Atticus joined him at the long counter and looked over the jobs that needed to be completed.

  “You could’ve mated her, even if you weren’t soulmates,” Neo said.

  Atticus shrugged. “We talked about it. It took her three months to get pregnant, but it wasn’t like we dated during that time. She called me when she was ovulating so we could have sex. I liked her, but it was damn clinical. Not even a little bit romantic.”

  “She didn’t want to raise Zane with you?”

  “No. She was originally from Europe and had come to the States to visit family but had no intention of staying permanently. I didn’t want to leave the States. When we agreed to have a child together to continue our species, we decided if we had a girl that she would raise her, and I’d raise a boy. After Zane was born, she moved back to Europe. We stayed in touch for a while, but eventually she found another male to mate, and we lost touch. Zane stays in touch with her, though.”

  Neo ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t want that. My mom was telling me the other day about a female in her band who’s looking to have a child. I don’t want to have a baby with someone I don’t love. Or not see my own kid.”

  “I believe when you make the decision to choose to wait for your soulmate, that you’ll find her eventually. Going the route I did isn’t for everyone, and it has its downside. I think you’ll find her when the time is right.”

  “Soon would be good,” Neo said.

  “If only it were that simple,” Atticus said. He glanced at his phone. “Why don’t we call it a day and head to the party? I’m sure Zane could use some help setting up.”

  “Sounds good,” Neo said.

  He closed out the report and made a mental note for what he needed to complete the next day. Atticus closed and secured the main door of the maintenance shed and then lifted the hidden door in the floor. A staircase led to a locked door, which opened into the gorillas’ private area. They could also access their area through a
shed within their paddock on the safari tour, and through the employee cafeteria which was topside in the park.

  Their private area was decorated to mimic the jungle. Their homes were built on fake trees made of concrete and steel, covered with a bark-like material that felt real, with branches covered in silk leaves. Each gorilla had his own house. Neo’s had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a small kitchen and a family room with an electric fireplace. Today, the private area was set up with several round tables surrounded by chairs, and two tables for food.

  “Hey, can you help bring the food from the market?” Zane said as he carried a table and set it behind a chair.

  “I guess we’re right on time to give you a hand,” Atticus said.

  “It would help me a lot,” Zane said. He put the table down and opened the legs. “Adriana keeps trying to carry stuff, but she can’t see her feet, and I’m worried she’ll trip and hurt herself.”

  “We’ve got it, no worries,” Neo said.

  He and Atticus walked to the market, a central gathering place underground. The bears handled the food for the entire park–from the stands that sold food to park visitors to stocking the employee cafeteria with grab-and-go meals. Most of the park’s residents ate meals in the market or had them delivered to their homes.

  “Hi guys, what can I get you?” Jeanie, human mate of the alpha wolf Joss, asked as she finished boxing up a sandwich and sweet potato fries.

  “We’re here to pick up the food for Adriana and Zane’s party,” Neo said.

  “Great, I’ll grab it.” She placed the cardboard container on the counter and said, “Cael?”

  The elephant shifter strode up to the counter. “Thanks, Jeanie.” He took the container and greeted Neo and Atticus.

  “How’s things?” Neo asked. Cael was the park’s veterinarian and handled the normal, non-shifter animals.

  “Pretty good. You guys?”

  “Same old, same old,” Neo said.

  “I hear you. Maybe the VIP tours this weekend will bring in some soulmates.”

  “Maybe,” Neo said.

  Cael took his meal and said goodbye. Neo stared after him for a moment and then turned around. “Everyone’s always so hopeful about the tours.”

  “It doesn’t do anyone any good to give up.”

  “I know. I just wish we had more to show for it after running the tours for such a long time.”

  The alphas of each shifter group had gotten together over a year ago and decided to send out tickets to eligible males and females in the tri-state area. Each human got free entry and parking at the park as well as a private safari tour. All the shifters took turns being in their shifts during the tours which happened on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays year-round. Despite the many long hours he’d spent in his shift in the gorillas’ paddock during the tours, and the many hundreds of unmated human females who’d gone by, he’d not found his soulmate among them.

  So few soulmates had been found through the tours that many were giving up hope in them. And maybe Neo was among them. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to call it a day with the tours or not. Because what if he decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and he missed his soulmate?

  Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he accepted the large box that Jeanie brought to the counter.

  “You okay?” Atticus asked.

  “Just thinking.”

  “About your soulmate?”

  Jeanie came back with another box. “Here you go, guys. Have fun at the party.”

  “Will do, thanks,” Atticus said.

  They turned away with their boxes, and Neo said, “Yeah, I’m tired of waiting for her, though.”

  “I wish I could see into the future and tell you how long you have to wait until you find your soulmate.”

  “That would be damn handy.”

  “You’re not giving up, right?”

  “No.” Neo entered the code to unlock the door to their area and shouldered it open, holding it for Atticus. “It’s hard not to want what Zane and Win have.”

  “Of course. You’ll find her, I’m sure of it.”

  Neo nodded but didn’t say what he was really thinking. That he wished he could just walk into the park and find her. Not someday. Today.

  It wasn’t in his control, though. No matter how much he wished he could meet her soon, he’d meet her when the time was right. He wasn’t going to enter into a mating with a female who wasn’t his soulmate, or contract with one to have a child. So if he had to wait, then he would. And he’d be the best damn mate in the universe to her.

  If she’d just show up.

  Chapter Two

  Danielle smoothed her black half-apron and checked that she had pens and business cards in one of the pockets. She looked at the station where someone would sit, where she’d help them find the perfect shade of lipstick or quad of eye shadow or recommend makeup brushes or moisturizer. She loved her job at Beauty, which she’d taken after she’d gone to cosmetology school for makeup.

  When Dani was a teenager, she’d thought it would be fun to do makeup for television or movies, but then she’d done makeup for a wedding party when she was a senior in high school, and she’d been hooked. She didn’t want a glamorous job like being a famous makeup artist in Hollywood, she just wanted to do special occasion makeup.

  If only she could get a few more clients and grow her home business. Then she wouldn’t have to stand on her feet in Beauty five days a week.

  A woman walked by, her brows furrowed as she looked at the wall of products.

  “Can I help you find something?” Dani asked.

  The woman looked at her and shook her head. “Sorry, you’re too young.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I want to talk to someone my age about products. You have great skin and you’re young. You can’t imagine what I need.”

  Dani smiled tightly. She’d heard that complaint from customers before. They assumed because she was only twenty-two that she didn’t understand the needs of women older than her. “Actually, I handle all my mom’s skincare and makeup needs. You look like you’re younger than her, so I’m sure I’d be able to help you. I understand if you don’t trust me because of my age, but I promise I won’t lead you astray.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly and then she said, “All right. But don’t recommend anything too crazy. No pink eye shadow or weird-colored lipstick.”

  “I promise.”

  By the time the store closed at nine, Dani’s feet were aching. Her shoes were cute, but they did a number on her toes. “Any plans for the weekend?” Dani asked Freida, the store’s manager.

  “Going to my mother-in-law’s Saturday to watch my hubby and his brother install a shower in her bathroom. So you know, I’m living the dream.”

  Dani grinned. “Sounds like it.”

  “You?”

  “Nothing as far as I know. My mom said she wanted to do something, but my dad and brother are working on a big build and trying to get it finished on time, so I don’t know if we’ll actually do anything or not.”

  “They’re building something for the zoo, right?”

  “The safari park, yeah.”

  “Cool. I haven’t been there since I was a kid.”

  “Me either. Maybe I’ll volunteer to help them out. Or I might just decide to pamper myself and sleep in.”

  “Now that I’d love to do. The older I get the more I realize how great naps are.”

  Dani said goodnight to Freida and walked to her car. She sat behind the wheel and texted her mom that she was on the way home, then found a playlist on her music app and waited for it to load. Once her favorite pop tunes were blaring through the speakers, she put the phone in the cup holder and buckled up, heading for home.

  Beauty was a twenty-five-minute drive from where Dani had grown up and still lived, in the town of Little River. There wasn’t much in Little River–a gas station with a minimart that served the best sandwiches on the planet and a campsite where peo
ple could rent kayaks and canoes in the summer.

  She liked the quietness of the town, but she also got tired of it. There wasn’t anything to do in Little River, and there definitely weren’t any guys she could date who she hadn’t already dated. Her father’s construction business employed four other men who were all in their twenties–Crew, Avi, Grey, and Ford–but while she found them good-looking, her father had forbidden her from dating any of them. It hadn’t mattered in the long run, because they all treated her like a little sister anyway, and she thought of them as big brothers. The last thing on her mind when she was around them was dating.

  She parked on the street in front of the two-story colonial and turned off the engine. Her father’s truck was in the driveway, as was her mom’s sedan. Khyle, her brother, didn’t live at home anymore. He and the guys lived in an apartment complex fifteen minutes away. Dani wanted to move out, but she couldn’t afford to make rent on her own. She didn’t mind living at home, though. At least not right now, anyway. She didn’t have to worry about rent or utilities, and her mom was a great cook.

  Dani got out of the car and walked up the sidewalk, finding the front door unlocked which told her that her parents were still up. She heard the television and smiled as she made her way to the family room. Her mom was curled up on the couch, a book in her lap and her reading glasses perched on her nose, and her dad was in his favorite recliner, watching a police show.

  “Hey sweetie,” her dad, Dexter, said.

  “Hi.”

  “How was work?” her mom, Nancy, asked.

  “Good. Long.” Dani stepped out of her heels and wiggled her toes in the carpet. “I gave my card to a woman getting married in a few months. And I saw online that James Ray High School’s homecoming is in a month, so I thought I could advertise my services for makeup on social media and target young people in that town and the surrounding areas.”