Cael (Were Zoo Book 11), R. Butler [best management books of all time txt] 📗

Her cheeks heated, and she smiled. “That’s a nice thought, but I’m just a regular girl.”

“Maybe,” Benjamin said. “Or maybe you have a special connection to animals and he was just reacting to it. Where are you from, anyway?”

“All over. We move a lot.”

“For work?” Silvanus asked.

It was easier to lie than to tell the truth to strangers, even though she hated lying. “Yeah. My mom and I don’t stay in one place too long.”

“It’s just the two of you?” Benjamin asked.

“Yeah. My father didn’t want to be part of our lives.”

Or, she told herself, he didn’t want her to be alive in the first place. But that was a truth she’d never shared with anyone and wasn’t about to spill her guts to two strangers on a safari tour.

They continued on the tour, visiting the wolves, then the gorillas, and then the bears. When she got out of the Jeep at the bear paddock, she felt another twinge of familiarity with the bears, but she pushed away the thoughts and focused on the tour guide who told her some interesting facts about the various types of bears in the paddock. She kept her distance, not wanting to have another growling episode, and was relieved to get back into the Jeep and on their way to the other paddocks. She’d been looking forward to seeing Tank the grumpy moose, and he didn’t disappoint. He was really a beautiful animal with his huge horns and dark fur.

When they reached the end of the tour, Benjamin said, “I’m going to take you to the office so you can wait for your photo album. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Okay, thank you. It was fun.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Benjamin said.

She said goodbye to Silvanus and walked with Benjamin to the security office.

“Have you been a tour guide long?” she asked.

“A couple years. What do you do?”

“I work at a thrift store.”

“You must see some neat old things.”

“From time to time. It would be fun to work with animals, though.”

“It is.”

They stopped at a small building with a sign over the door that designated it as the security office. Benjamin opened the door for her, and she thanked him for escorting her and being a great guide.

“It was nice to meet you, Novi. Have a great afternoon.”

“Thanks, Benjamin, you too.” She stepped inside the building and the door shut behind her.

A tall man with dark hair stood behind a long counter.

“You must be Novi,” he said with a smile.

“I am. How did you know my name?”

“Benjamin radioed that he was bringing you here for your album. It’s being loaded and then printed. It’s going to take about an hour. I’m Xavier.”

“Nice to meet you. Do I have to stay here the whole time? I’m kind of hungry.”

“Actually, since they’re a little backed up at the print shop, the tour’s sending someone to take you on a private tour of the whole park which includes a free meal. If you like burgers, there’s a stall in the park that has the best ones.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“Good. It won’t be long, Cael’s on his way.”

She sat in one of the chairs along a bank of windows and took out her phone, realizing she’d missed a text from her mom asking how her day was going. She replied that she was having a great day and then she put her phone up, her mind a jumble as she thought about the elephant on the tour.

She wondered if Cael would think it was crazy if she asked to go see him one more time.

Chapter Four

Cael headed to the elephant paddock from the private living space, coming up the stairs into the maintenance shed. He found Alistair waiting in the shed, with Kelley and Indio already out and milling around in their shifts. Rhapsody was playing the part of zookeeper, wearing a beige uniform and cleaning the paddock alongside her mate. Because Rhapsody was a black panther and the park had no black panther paddock, she didn’t shift for the public tours, but shifted after hours to run around with Kelley.

Cael dropped the hinged lid to close the stairs with a sigh.

“Something wrong?” Alistair asked, looking up from his phone.

“My elephant’s been driving me crazy all day.”

“Crazy how?” Alistair put his phone on the workbench and folded his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know, just noisy. Anxious. I can’t figure out why, but it’s making me bonkers.”

“They can be a pain in the ass sometimes,” he said with a chuckle. “Hopefully shifting will help.”

“I hope so.”

As it was, his elephant was urging him to shift and get out into the paddock. He wished he could actually talk to his elephant and get a real response, but all he ever got was feelings and urges. Alistair stripped and shifted, leaving the maintenance shed which had a door large enough for them to walk through in their shifts. Cael followed suit and ducked out of the shed, turning to close the doors with his trunk. He shook himself out fully, from his huge ears to his tail and then stretched. It was a beautiful day and he was with his closest friends, but despite shifting and the beauty surrounding him, his beast was still anxious.

Letting out a sigh, he lumbered over to Rhapsody who was sitting on a hay bale and tossing apples in the air for Kelley to catch.

Cael realized that little Khap was in a sling against her chest, his head tilted to the side as he slumbered.

Rhapsody tossed an apple at Cael, and he caught it and ate it quickly.

Cael roamed the paddock, his elephant’s anxiety not ebbing in any way.

He heard the tell-tale rumble of a Jeep which signaled the VIP tours had started. There were