Auden (Were Zoo Book Seven) Read online

  Then an idea struck, and he picked up his phone and emailed Rory, asking for advice. By the time he texted Joss an hour later with a plan to create a haven for his mate, his wolf was doing cartwheels in his head, happy to have found a way to not only surprise his mate but make a real home for them.

  * * *

  The next afternoon, he left Jess with his mom and some of the other pack females for a luncheon in the market and hurried topside to the security office.

  “Thanks for coming, Rory,” he said to the female with long red hair talking to Amadeus, one of the lions.

  “Hey, Auden. Nice to see you again,” she said, shaking his hand. “How’d you get rid of Jess?”

  “My mom invited her to lunch with some pack females.”

  “Nice. I filled a truck with as much as I could. I have some more ideas, too.”

  “Cool. You can drive your truck from the parking lot to the employee access path and take it around the park to the barn.”

  “Jupiter already did that,” Amadeus said.

  “Oh?” Auden asked.

  “Yep. She explained what she brought, and since the workers are already there, he thought you’d appreciate having it waiting.”

  “Great,” Auden said. “Let’s go.”

  “Thanks for the chat, Amadeus,” Rory said.

  “Anytime.”

  Auden opened the door for Rory and followed her outside, leading her to the path toward the barn. “How are things in the nest?”

  “Bad.”

  “I’m sorry. You were able to leave, though, so that’s good.”

  “I snuck away. It wasn’t easy, but I rented the truck and caught an Uber from the nest to the rental place. I brought two bags of Jess’s things I was able to sneak away from her parents’ house. I wish I could’ve brought more, but I was afraid to get busted and put on lockdown.”

  “Do you think they’ll try to get Jess back?”

  Rory stopped and faced Auden. “I’ve been eavesdropping as much as possible and listening to nest gossip, and it doesn’t seem like it. I’m just not sure what it means. My father was so furious when you and Jess showed up and you were able to get away with her. He really expected to force her to mate Miles. That guy is a creep and a half, by the way. Total douchebag.”

  “I figured as much. Any male who would knowingly try to separate soulmates isn’t a good guy to start with.”

  She hummed. “I think something more is going on there, but I can’t figure it out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, normally the king’s mating matches are pretty decent. It wouldn’t be good for him to choose a guy who’s an asshole to mate one of his females, but that’s exactly what he did. It’s almost like there was a reason he picked Miles, but what that reason is, I don’t have the foggiest.” She shook her head. “The good news is they don’t know where she is, and I don’t have anything on me that could be used to track me, so they won’t be able to know where I’ve been.”

  “Thanks for being vigilant.”

  “She’s my best friend. I’m happy she’s finally happy.”

  They reached the barn and he helped her and the others unload the truck. While she worked inside the barn’s apartment updating one of the rooms, he helped the lions and wolves work on the enclosure that would transform the building into something amazing.

  By the time his mother texted that they were finished with the luncheon and Jess was looking for him, he climbed down from the ladder and called Rory’s name. She wasn’t inside the apartment or the barn.

  He stopped Alfie, one of the wolves, and asked, “Have you seen Rory?”

  “The redhead?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Tayme grabbed her and took off into the woods with her.”

  “What?”

  Alfie smiled. “It was pretty wild. He came stalking into the barn looking like he was two seconds away from shifting, and then Rory raced down the steps to him and they disappeared into the woods together. That was a while ago.”

  Tayme was one of the grizzly bears who called the zoo home. Auden shook his head in amazement. Was it possible that Rory had found her soulmate? He didn’t know Tayme very well, but he trusted him to take care of Jess’s friend.

  Auden opened the contacts on his phone and found Justus, one of the bears who he’d worked security with, and asked him for Tayme’s information. When he dialed the number, the gruff voice that answered on the third ring sounded irritated.

  “What?”

  “It’s Auden. I need to speak to Rory.”

  “Oh. Shit, sorry. Here.”

  “Hey. What time is it?” Rory asked when she came on the line.

  “Almost three.”

  “Oops.” She giggled. “Something amazing happened.”

  “Alfie said you two stole off into the woods together. I take it you’re soulmates?”

  “Yes!”

  “Congratulations. Do you want me to tell Jess?”

  “I can tell her. I have her bags in the truck anyway, so we can say I came here to give them to her and Tayme found me.”

  “I’ll bring her up to the employee cafeteria in thirty minutes.”

  “Make it an hour,” Tayme called.

  Rory giggled again. “See you in an hour.”

  Auden shook his head with a smile as he ended the call. Jess would be thrilled that her best friend had found her soulmate in the park.

  After stopping to visit with his mom and the other females to give Rory and Tayme the full hour requested, he took Jess up to the cafeteria, where they found Rory sitting on Tayme’s lap at one of the tables.

  “What’s going on?” Jess asked, her steps slowing as she took in the sight.

  “Hey, bestie!” Rory said. She didn’t make a move to get off her mate’s lap, which Auden thought was sweet. “So, I came to bring some things I swiped from your parents’ place and guess who I ran into?”

  Jess scented the air. “I don’t know who he is, but he’s a bear.”

  Tayme smiled and introduced himself. “Thanks for being Auden’s mate so I could find Rory.”

  “My pleasure,” she said, grinning. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to my bestie.”

  Rory kissed Tayme and slipped from his lap, following Jess to the other side of the room.

  “Thanks for bringing her to the cafeteria,” Auden said to the other male.

  “Sure. I’m off work for the rest of the day. Rory and I have a lot to deal with.”

  “Did she tell you what happened when Jess and I went to see her parents?”

  He nodded gravely. “Rory’s not going anywhere near the nest, period. If her parents want to see her, they’ll do so on neutral ground with my whole damn sleuth at our backs.”

  “Good. Jess and I’ll stand with you, too. Rory was instrumental in us getting away.”

  “She’s smart.”

  “They’ll want to hang out, I’m sure.”

  “I’ve already been told that we’ll be eating dinner together a few nights a week.” He smiled fondly, looking past Auden to the females.

  “Sounds good.”

  Jess and Rory returned, and Jess took Auden’s hand, smiling at him. “She brought me clothes and my bird books.”

  “That’s great!”

  “It’ll be nice to have some of my old things.”

  “I made sure to grab your favorite sweater,” Rory told her.

  “You’re the best.” Jess looked at Auden. “Can we hang out with them for a bit before she leaves?”

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Tayme said, his brows drawing down.

  “I think she meant us leaving the cafeteria. Jess knows I can’t go home again.”

  “I’ll be your home,” Tayme murmured.

  “You already are.”

  “Okay, okay, enough mushy stuff. You’re making me want to cry, it’s so sappy,” Jess said. “Yes, I meant can we hang out here for a bit?”

  “How about we go to my ice cream sta
ll? I’ve got a new flavor out today.”

  “I’d love that. Bestie?” Rory asked.

  “We’re in,” Jess said.

  They left the cafeteria and walked to the ice cream stall, where they were served maple ice cream in waffle cones with candied bacon sprinkles. They sat at a picnic table under a shade tree and talked, the two females chattering away about the amazingness of the two of them finding their soulmates in the same place. Auden felt like his family had just extended to include two more people: his mate’s best friend, who was like a sister to her, and Tayme, a tattooed bear who liked ice cream.

  It made him even happier to know that his desire to make Jess happy with the renovations to the barn had ended with Rory and Tayme finding each other.

  * * *

  Three days later, Auden brought Jess to the employee cafeteria after the park closed. “Turn around,” he said, lifting a blindfold from his pocket.

  “Seriously?”

  “What? I said I had a surprise for you, and I don’t want you peeking.”

  “You can trust me.”

  He snorted. “Humor me.”

  She made a face but turned around, and he slipped the blindfold over her eyes.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “I bought it.”

  “Can I use it on you sometime?”

  He growled and kissed her neck. “I’d love that.”

  The park wasn’t open for another hour, so he didn’t have to worry about any humans thinking it was odd that he was leading his mate blindfolded through the park. Although it had made his wolf nuts to be away from Jess for stretches of time, he’d worked as much as possible on the surprise, enlisting pack females and other mates to keep her occupied. He didn’t think she suspected anything was going on outside of the work being completed on the barn to turn it into a sanctuary.

  He knew she hadn’t slept well the night before. His wolf was highly attuned to her now, knowing she’d slipped away once, so the moment she woke in the middle of the night, he was awake, too. He’d taken her for a walk topside but had avoided the barn so the surprise wasn’t ruined.

  They reached the barn and he unlocked the front door, swinging it wide and drawing her inside. He locked the door and flipped on the overhead lights, illuminating the interior. They’d made a lot of headway in preparing the space to house birds, and according to estimates from the lions heading up the project, they’d be able to take in injured birds in the next thirty days.

  They walked to the front door of the remaining apartment, which he unlocked and led her through. The apartment was a two-story townhouse, with a kitchen, family room, and spare bedroom on the first floor, and two bedrooms on the second floor, both with attached bathrooms. After walking up the stairs to the second floor, he stopped at the door to the master bedroom. He’d placed a wide, red ribbon across to make sure it looked like a surprise.

  “Ready, angel?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He lifted the blindfold off. She blinked a few times and then looked at the door in confusion.

  “Do you know where we are?”

  She gave him a smile. “Even though you tried to fool me by walking the wrong direction, I scented the trees that are around the barn the moment we got here. So what’s the surprise?”

  “Open the door.”

  She pulled on the ribbon, the bow unraveling and falling to the side. Twisting the knob, she opened the door and stepped inside. He flipped on the overhead light, which illuminated the empty space.

  “Why are we in the apartment?”

  “Go pull on that sheet.” He pointed to tape holding a sheet to the wall.

  She gave him a curious look as she crossed the room. With a tug, she pulled the sheet down and revealed French doors. Her mouth fell open as she twisted the handles on the doors and opened them. Outside, the nearby tree had been enclosed by the room the workers had built around it, effectively making a small treehouse.

  The circular room had floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights to allow as much of the tree to be viewed as possible. The trunk was in the center of the room, and one of the large branches that was wide enough to sit on had been kept intact, its leafy tip extending through a hole in the wall.

  “Oh, Auden! What did you do?” She brought her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide and glistening with tears.

  He leaned against the doorway and smiled as she walked in circles around the trunk, then climbed onto the branch. Her legs swung as she grinned at him.

  “After you disappeared on me that night, I realized you needed to be aboveground. At first I thought we could just live in the apartment, but I emailed Rory for advice while you were sleeping that morning, and she said your owl needed more than just being topside. You needed a place to nest.”

  At first, he’d wondered if Rory meant that Jess would need to build a real nest in the trees, but he’d quickly realized that owls liked to have a place in the trees to call home. While the apartment was near trees, it wasn’t in the trees. Joss and the lions had been instrumental in helping him come up with the plan to build the enclosed room.

  “We can bring in some bookshelves for your books, and if you want furniture, it’s big enough for some chairs or a small couch. We can keep the doors open at night, so it’ll be like sleeping in the trees. At least I hope your owl will think so.”

  She turned to face him, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. Rushing toward him, she jumped into his arms with the softest of hoots in her throat, and he held her tightly.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “This is the best surprise I’ve ever gotten.”

  “I’m so glad you like it.”

  “How could I not?” She lifted her head from his neck and gazed at him. “You made this for me and my owl because we need to be outside.”

  He stared at her, watching her eyes flicker from pretty emerald to the yellow of her owl, and said what had been on his heart for the last few days. “Jess, I love you. Your happiness is the most important thing to me and my wolf. I’d pull the damn moon from the sky for you if it would make you smile.”

  “I love you, too.” She brushed her lips over his, sending a riot of sensations down his spine. “I’m so glad you’re mine.”

  “You’re my whole world, angel.”

  “You’re mine, too.”

  Chapter 11

  Jess woke up the following morning, her owl the most content creature ever because of their new living arrangements. Although work was still being done on the sanctuary, because Auden had furnished the apartment before he’d brought her to it, they’d been able to move in immediately. The lions had outfitted the barn with state-of-the-art security measures, from perimeter alarms to motion-detecting cameras, to ensure that they’d be safe living aboveground.

  She hadn’t heard from her parents since that fateful day when they’d been party to trying to separate her and Auden. But regardless of her parents’ behavior, she was thankful that Rory had found her soulmate in Tayme, and the two were happily living underground with the bears. Which meant she could see her bestie whenever she wanted.

  Slipping from the bed, she headed down to the kitchen and made coffee for herself and Auden, then carried the mugs up to the bedroom. Auden was leaning against the oak headboard, his hair mussed in that just-woke-up sexy way.

  “You’re the best, angel,” he said, accepting the mug and a kiss.

  “I aim to please.” She walked into the bonus room, running her hand along the smooth bark of the tree before climbing onto the branch and settling against the trunk.

  It was the most perfect place to start the day.

  “Angel?”

  She peeked around the trunk at her mate, who was standing next to the bed and staring at his phone. “Yeah?”

  “I just got a text from Joss. They need me to fill in on the VIP tours this afternoon. Do you want to ride with me? I’ll drive, and you can read from the script and take the pictures.”

  �
�That sounds like fun! Maybe we’ll get to be there when someone finds their soulmate!”

  “Maybe. In the meantime, we can grab breakfast in the cafeteria and work with the building team on the outside sanctuary.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  She finished her coffee and hopped off the branch, walking into the bathroom where Auden was already showering. He pulled the curtain back and grinned at her. “I’m so glad this shower is big enough for both of us.”

  “Me, too.”

  When they’d christened the shower and turned off the water just as it started to turn cold, she handed him a towel and wrapped the other around herself. “I love this bathroom.”

  “Oh?” He rubbed his hair with the towel and anchored it around his waist.

  “Well, I love the whole place, especially the tree room, but the bathroom is really perfect. Big tub, double sinks, and plenty of drawer space. My parents and I shared a bathroom, and there wasn’t any cabinet space for me. I had to carry everything in a caddy every time I went in there.”

  He kissed her temple. “Aw. I’m sorry you didn’t have a bathroom of your own. I had to share one with Evan, but at least we had room for our stuff.”

  “Are you sure you won’t miss living in the den with the pack?”

  “Nah,” he said. “It’s all good, angel. Where you are is home for me, and my wolf is content to be with you anywhere.”

  “I bet the full moon will look amazing from the tree room.”

  “I bet it will, too. We’ll have to get a blow-up mattress and sleep out there for the next full moon. We can open the skylights and all the windows.”

  “I’d love that.”

  With her owl happily hooting in her mind, she finished getting ready, dressing in comfortable jeans and a zoo T-shirt that matched one Auden was wearing. When they left the barn, she heard soft hooting and stopped, looking toward the nearby trees.

  “Oh, look!” she said, walking toward the sound.

  “What?” Auden asked when he stopped by her side. He lifted his head and looked where she pointed.