He’d been working the burger stall in the Amazing Adventures Safari Park since he was a teenager.He loved handling the grill, and making burgers was his specialty.He usually worked the dinner rush, and his friend Tarquin—a fellow bear shifter—worked the lunch rush with his mate Lucy, an albino deer shifter.
Seneca wasn’t lucky enough to have found his soulmate, but he sure as hell hoped she showed up soon.He was only twenty-five, but he wassoready to find his soulmate and start a family.
In fact, his bear had been acting up quite a bit the last couple of days, and it made him wonder if something was changing for him.
Like maybe his soulmate walking through the big wrought iron gates of the park.
The park had a safari tour, and the alphas of the different shifter groups—elephants, bears, wolves, gorillas, and lions—had agreed to send out free coupons to humans in the tri-state area listed as single in various government databases.The hope was that some of the humans passing through the park would be shifter soulmates.It happened, but not as often as everyone hoped.
Plus, there was the issue of shifters being a very well-kept secret from humans.
They didn’t know shifters existed and shifters intended to keep it that way.
So if a human and a shifter were soulmates, the policy for their people was that they’d keep the secret until the human and shifter were in love so they could guarantee the human would keep the secret from their family and friends.
Seneca didn’t care if his soulmate was a shifter or a human, he just hoped she’d turn up soon.
He rubbed the space over his heart as his bear let out an agreeing grumble.
Someone came up next to him, and he turned and saw his dad, Marcus, alpha of their bear clan, standing beside him.
“Hey, Dad,” Seneca said, returning to the task of cleaning the grill.
“Hey, how was the dinner rush?”
“Good.The mac and cheese burger was a hit.”
“I bet.It’s one to add to the rotation.”
“I think so too.”
The bears, along with a few other shifters and some of the soulmates who enjoyed cooking, provided food for the park patrons and for all the shifters who lived and worked there.
“I was thinking we could have a strategy meeting for the food, maybe plan some food events,” Marcus said.
“Oh?Like what?”
“Well, you know how we did colorful popcorn for the macaw?”
“Sure.”Seneca dropped the cleaning brush into the bucket and looked at his dad, who continued with his thought.
“What if we did more stuff like that?Like a themed day for the petting zoo, or for fall?We could do sliders for a petting zoo promotion, or something for Tank, like a lumberjack burger with maple bacon and sweet potato fries.”
Seneca smiled.“That’s a really cool idea.I’ll start gathering some ideas and you can figure out when to do the strategy meeting.”
“Perfect.”He clapped Seneca on the shoulder and helped him finish closing up the stall.Then they headed to the employee cafeteria, which was across from the security office, where lions and a few others handled security for the park.
“I’ve been feeling a little weird,” Seneca said as they walked into the cafeteria.
“Weird how?”
“Like something’s going to change, or something’s coming.Not bad, like I’m not feeling like something dangerous or wrong is going to happen, I’m just feeling a little off.”
Marcus hummed.“Maybe your soulmate is on the way.Sometimes our beasts get an inkling about things.”
Seneca’s bear let out a happy, hopeful chuff.
“That would be awesome.”
