Jupiter (Were Zoo Book 2) (2 page)

“
Who?” Adriana parked and
turned off the engine.

“
My forever
guy.”

“
I hope you meet him, but
I’m still going to be skeptical. Sexy guys who happen to be
everything we’re looking for don’t just fall out of the
sky.”

Celeste cast her eyes skyward as she
got out of the car. “It would be cool if they did.”

After checking in at the park gate,
they followed the map to the tour section, where a line of people
waited for their turn. The VIP tours occurred every hour from four
to eight p.m., and they had scheduled their tour for five. The line
was long, but it moved quickly as ticket holders climbed into Jeeps
painted in vibrant blue camouflage.

When they reached the front of the
line, Celeste and Adriana handed the park employee their tickets.
He shook his head and only took Celeste’s. “There’s only one guest
per Jeep, so you can go first,” he said to Celeste.

“
What do you mean we can’t
ride in the same Jeep?” Adriana asked. “Why would we need to be in
separate vehicles?”

“
It’s a private tour,
ma’am,” the man said.

Celeste elbowed Adriana. “It’ll be an
adventure.”

“
What’s with you and
adventures lately?” Adriana groused.

“
Come on,” she pleaded.
“Live a little.”

“
I’m
trying
, but I thought we were going
to be able to be in the Jeep together. I still don’t see what the
deal is.”

As the blue-uniformed guy explained
about the Jeep’s capacity, Celeste said, “It’s fine, really. Let’s
not hold up the line, hon. We’ll talk after the tour.”

Adriana frowned, and Celeste gave her
a quick hug before walking past the guy to one of the waiting
vehicles. There were two men standing next to the Jeep – one
wearing a blue uniform and one wearing an olive uniform. The
olive-uniformed man helped her into the second row as the blue
uniformed man got behind the wheel.

“
I’m Jasper,” the
olive-uniformed man said. “This is Evan.”

“
Nice to meet you. I’m
Celeste.”

The Jeep lurched slightly and then
started to move down a dirt path. She turned and waved at Adriana,
who didn’t look happy. Celeste felt bad that they weren’t riding
together, but she knew they’d both have a good time and have lots
to talk about when they caught up at the end of the
tour.

Turning her attention back to Jasper,
she looked him and Evan over and decided they weren’t too
bad-looking, but nothing she’d write home about. Not that she went
writing her parents every time she saw a handsome guy. She and her
parents were close, but every week when she called to talk to them,
they invariably asked if she was seeing anyone.

“
Have you been to the park
before?” Jasper asked.

“
My parents brought me here
when I was a kid. I was surprised to get a coupon in the mail for
the tour. How did the zoo get my name and address?”

Jasper’s brows rose and then he
laughed. “I have no idea, Celeste, that’s way above my pay grade.
There’s another special treat that goes along with the tour; I’ll
be taking your photo at each of the paddocks, and then you’ll get a
copy of the photos before you leave the park today.”

“
That’s cool.”

The Jeep bumped along the dirt trail.
The sun was warm, and she considered pulling off her light jacket
and tying it around her waist. Just as she reached for the sleeve
to tug it off, the Jeep stopped and Jasper climbed out. He held his
hand out to her and said, “This is the elephant paddock. If you’ll
get out, I’ll grab the camera and then we can get closer to the
fence.”

She took his hand and climbed out.
Jasper unzipped the duffel that was in the seat next to her and
removed a professional camera from inside. He pressed a few buttons
and then gripped it lightly in one hand, gesturing to the fence.
They walked over to it together. Inside the paddock were four huge
elephants; as soon as she reached the fence, they began to move
toward her, as if they sensed she was there and wanted to meet
her.

“
This is a small herd, and
they’re all males. The big one is the alpha, Alistair,” Jasper
said. “They’re African elephants.”

She was awestruck as the elephants
moved close to the fence, all of them reaching their trunks through
the links toward her. She could hear them sniffing through their
trunks.

“
Elephants are colorblind
and have a limited field of vision. It’s why they move close when
they hear the Jeeps stop. They’re curious.”

“
Can I?” she asked, her
hand hovering over the tip of Alistair’s trunk, which was sticking
through the fence.

“
Yeah, sure,” Jasper said,
smiling. She touched the tip of his trunk and jerked her hand back
with a laugh when the huge elephant moved closer. Petting the trunk
a bit more, she grinned. The elephants all seemed to be waiting
their turn for her to pet them.

“
Too bad I can’t go in
there,” she said.

Jasper didn’t say anything for a long
moment, and she turned to see him staring over her head and then
nodding. “Maybe some other time,” Jasper said. “I got a great
picture of you. Let’s get back in the Jeep. Next on the tour are
white-tailed deer and buffalo, and then wolves.”

She waved at the elephants, feeling
kind of silly since they were just animals, but then one of them
actually raised his trunk to her. Now she was positive she was
seeing things.

“
You ready for the wolves?”
Jasper asked when they’d passed the buffalo paddock.

“
You bet,” she
said.

Jasper talked animatedly about the
wolf pack. “Joss is the alpha. There are fifty wolves in the park’s
pack. They’re mostly gray wolves, but we have a few red wolves and
some timber wolves, too.”

She hummed but didn’t say anything.
She wasn’t really a dog person. She preferred cats, and knowing
that big cats were on the tour was one of the reasons she’d been
interested in the first place.

The wolves, like the elephants, seemed
to be waiting for the Jeep. They moved swiftly to the fence,
sniffed the air briefly, and then trotted away.

Jasper said, “Turn around so I can get
a nice shot of you.”

She did as instructed and smiled. “I
can’t wait to see the pictures.”

“
They’re turning out great.
You’re very photogenic.” He gave her a rakish smile.

“
I bet you say that to all
the VIPs.”

“
Only the pretty
ones.”

He winked, and she shook her head as
she got back in the Jeep. “What’s next on the tour?”

“
Lions.”

“
Cool! I love big
cats.”

Jasper turned around in the seat. “Oh
yeah? I like the wolves, personally.”

Evan snorted and Jasper
grinned.

“
Sorry, I’m a cat
person.”

“
Everyone has a favorite,”
he said.

When the Jeep stopped, she found
herself at the lion paddock. Beyond the chain-link fence was what
looked like a savannah. There were large spots of tall, golden
grasses, big trees with low-hanging branches, and large, flat
rocks. Like in the other paddocks, she saw a shed inside the fence
and some small buildings.

“
What are the buildings
for?”

“
The big one is for
storage. The others are places for the lions to sleep.”

She climbed out of the Jeep slowly,
entirely mesmerized by the lions. They were incredible. The
sunlight glinted off their tawny fur, and the rich chocolate of
their manes was deeper than she expected. She forgot about
everything but the lions as she moved to the fence and, without any
fear, hooked her fingers through the chain link. The lions moved
gracefully, their muscles bunching and flexing under their fur as
they closed in on her.

She counted seven of the big cats
making their way in her direction. Like the elephants and wolves,
she noticed they were lifting their heads and sniffing the air as
they moved, but instead of turning away like the wolves had, the
lions kept coming.

One lion, who was bigger than the
others, moved swiftly through the group with a snarl, spun to face
away from her, and roared. The other lions stopped in their tracks,
their heads cocked in confusion.

“
What happened?” she
whispered, unable to turn away from the sight of one lion holding
six others away from the fence with only a roar.

“
I don’t know,” Jasper
said.

The big lion growled sharply, a sound
almost like a command, and the others turned and moved
away.

“
Holy crap,” she
said.

“
Um, Evan? Call Joss. I
think we have a match.”

Chapter 3

Jupiter and the pride were following a
routine that he and the other head of security, Javan, had chosen.
Whenever a VIP Jeep arrived, the group would move near the fence to
catch the scent of the human. If there was no match, Caesar would
subtly signal the tour leader, so he could take the human away to
the next paddock. Each time the Jeep’s engine sounded, Jupiter
found himself getting more and more frustrated. The tours ran every
Saturday and Sunday from four to eight p.m., and depending on how
many ticket-holders scheduled their tours on any given day, there
could be dozens of females paraded through the safari. There were
human males as well, because there were four unmated females in the
zoo, including Jenni, a lioness. Jenni only ventured toward the
fence if the tour was for a human male; otherwise she was content
to sun herself on her favorite rock.

One of the tour Jeep’s engines rumbled
near, and Jupiter padded toward the fence as the vehicle stopped
and a wolf shifter helped a female out. As she neared the fence and
the pride moved toward her, a light breeze blew in their direction,
sending a wave of her scent over the group. Immediately, Jupiter
knew he was in the presence of his soulmate. A million thoughts
raced through his mind at once, chief among them that he needed to
get to her so he could make her his. He darted to the front of the
group and faced them, roaring an order for them to stay back. They
all froze in place, including Caesar, and stared at him in
confusion. This was one of those times when the ability to speak in
shifted form would’ve been extremely handy.

He growled at them, telling them in
the only way he could that it was fine and she was his. They all
subtly purred in understanding, turning to leave him to his
soulmate. Protocol was that the female would finish the tour and be
taken to the security office, where the mate would be introduced.
Since shifters were unknown to humans, they had to ensure that the
female was interested before they shared their true nature, but at
that moment all Jupiter wanted to do was get close to
her.

Spinning toward her, he heard the two
wolves discussing him and the match. He padded toward her, not
really certain what he would do once he reached the
fence

Jasper pushed the female behind him.
“Jupiter, are you fucking crazy? Follow protocol.”

“
Hey!” the female said in
annoyance. “What’s going on?”

“
Come back to the Jeep,”
Evan said. “Sometimes the lions get cranky.”

Jupiter didn’t care for the way that
Jasper was standing between him and his female, and he especially
didn’t care for Evan’s interest in getting her away from him. The
part of him that was human knew that there was protocol in place
for a reason, but the lion part of him wasn’t interested in
anything except getting to her. He reared onto his hind legs, his
big front paws hitting the fence.

Jasper growled, and the female took a
large step away from him. “What the hell is going on?” She met
Jupiter’s gaze as the acrid scent of her fear reached him. He
flexed his claws into the fence and pulled, his muscles bunching as
he prepared to rip the fence apart to get to her. He didn’t like
her being afraid, and the need to protect her was stronger than
anything he’d ever experienced.

A heavy weight barreled into him, and
he roared as he was ripped away from the fence and taken to the
ground. A large hand grasped his ear and twisted sharply as Caesar
snarled, “Get a fucking grip!”

Jupiter reined in the cat as much as
he could because his alpha demanded it of him. Still panting, still
furious, he relaxed his muscles one by one and went still. Caesar
waited a long moment, then released his hold on Jupiter’s ear and
climbed off him. Without lifting his head, Jupiter glanced at his
dad and saw he was wearing only pants, clearly having shifted
quickly in the shed to get to him. He was grateful in a way to have
been stopped, because he wasn’t sure what would’ve happened if he
hadn’t been.

“
Is he okay?” the female
asked.

Jupiter lifted his head and saw her
standing apart from Jasper, her hands clutched in worry.

“
We need to make some
changes to protocol,” Caesar said.

“
He’s
the one who made the rules,” Evan said, his arms folded
angrily over his chest.