Cael (Were Zoo Book 11)

more than the secret. She shouldn’t have been on anyone’s kill-list simply because of her paternity.
But here she was. Half human and half bear of some sort, if Cael’s senses were reading her right.
She might never know the truth, but it suddenly didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that Cael was with her and wanted to be with her… maybe? He still hadn’t answered.
Cael cupped her face and brushed his lips over hers, sending a riot of sensations through her. “I want you to stay with me. I crave it. But we really shouldn’t do more than just sleep if you’re not ready to be with me.”
“What do you mean?” She wrapped her hand around his wrist, anchoring herself to him.
“Shifters are prone to strong attachments when they find their mate. You’re mine. Or, I want to ask you to be my mate officially. Once we have sex, my elephant is going to consider you our mate, our wife. We don’t mark like some of the other shifter groups who will bite with their fangs to leave a permanent scar, but the intention is the same. Once I have you in my arms and in my bed, sweetheart, it’s going to be impossible for me to let you go.”
She let that roll around in her head. “You want me to move in with you, like tonight?”
“Maybe not tonight if we don’t go any further than kissing and sleeping, but yes. Once we make love, my elephant won’t be able to handle you sleeping anywhere else.”
She was in a pickle. She really wanted to make love to Cael, and she even liked the idea of living with him. Hell, she was half in love with him already.
“When shifters meet their one right person—”
“Soulmate,” he supplied.
“Right,” she said and smiled. “When a shifter meets his or her soulmate, the instant connection that I felt with you is what you feel with me?”
“Absolutely. It’s why I tried to keep you here at the park on Saturday for as long as possible. It made me feel downright crazy to be away from you for two nights. But that being said, we don’t have to do anything tonight. I’m content to have you here with me. We can move at whatever pace is right for us, the only expectation I have for tonight is that once I fall asleep, I’ll get to wake up with you in my arms.”
It was ridiculous how sweet he was. She was feeling supremely lucky.
“Do you still get married? If sleeping together makes a mating permanent, is marriage still done?”
“Yes. If the couple wants. Shifters choose mates in lots of different ways. A male might choose to have an arranged mating set up by his alpha or family, or a shifter couple might simply care for each other and want to get mated without being soulmates. But then there are shifters like me, who wanted to wait for our soulmate, the one person on the planet meant solely for us. I couldn’t imagine going into an arranged mating. I waited...for you.”
She felt like she was glowing from the inside out.
“I should text my mom and tell her I’m not going to be home.”
He nodded and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll speak to Alistair while you’re doing that.”
Novi sent a quick text to her mom. It was still early so her mom responded that she hoped she was being careful, and Novi promised she was and that she’d talk to her mom in the morning.
Cael was watching her when she put her phone on the coffee table and straightened.
“Alistair would like to meet us for breakfast in the employee cafeteria tomorrow,” he said.
“Is everything okay?”
“Of course. He’d just like to hear you say in your own words what you know to be the truth, about yourself and me.”
“Can I see you in your shift again? Not through a fence this time?”
He looked really pleased that she made the request. “I’d love that. Maybe after breakfast. We don’t do VIP tours during the week, but there are tours in the afternoon, so we don’t want to have you wandering around in the paddock without a uniform on.”
“That would be strange for the tour guests for sure.” She let out a breath and looked up at him.
Part of her wanted to move things forward physically and just move in with him, but the other part of her knew that it would be better to take things slow.
“I think I just want to sleep tonight,” she said, toeing off her shoes. “I mean, I want you, no doubt about that, but I can’t just move in with you without making sure my mom’s okay with everything.”
“And there are rules in the park for us, so I can’t move into your place.”
She chuckled. “That would’ve been handy. I’m worried Mom will be afraid to be alone. Or that she’ll be worried about me.”
“It’ll work out, Novi, I promise. The good news is that we get to hold each other tonight, and I’ve been aching to do that since we met.”
“Me too.”
He took her hand and pulled her close, lowering his head slowly until their lips were almost touching.
He whispered her name.
“Yes?”
“Let’s go to bed.”
She grinned and threw her arms around his neck as he kissed her. Her toes curled as the kiss deepened and a happy rumble grew in her chest. He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. He gave her a shirt of his to sleep in and went into the bathroom, coming out a few minutes later wearing track pants and nothing else, his sexy muscles on display.
She used the bathroom, brushing her teeth with a spare toothbrush. Tugging on