Safari Island Shifters: The Complete Collection(41)

Maura winced. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. She hadn’t even thought that was a possibility. She was only on Safari Island for a few days. This couldn’t be anything serious, though she could stand to see Branch one more time. “Maybe I’ll text you tomorrow night?”

“Cool.” Branch started to walk out and then turned around. “I know you’re on vacation, but I do think you’re a really cool girl. I’d like to keep talking. If you only want this to be some kind of vacation thing, let me know.”

Maura was sure she was hearing things. He wanted to keep talking to her? That didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t. Could she? Her head swam with all the possibilities. If she kept talking to Branch, he might find out what she did and he could be very angry.

It would be better if she didn’t see him after the trip. “I only want a vacation thing. I just came out of a serious relationship.”

He nodded curtly. “Cool.”

He closed the door behind him and Maura let her head fall onto the pillow. She knew it was the right choice, but she felt so awful.





Five


Branch was still in shock when he got home an hour later. He was sure it was all a fever dream. There was no way any of that had happened. A woman had asked him to leave, and he had responded by saying he wanted a relationship.

Oh, and he had marked her, too.

He put his head in his hands as his dinner threatened to come up. All of those things had happened, and now his elephant was restless.

He jumped up and paced his small living room. He was going to have to shift soon or he was going to lose his mind, but he wanted to get a grip on what he’d done first.

Marking a woman was a very big deal. It meant that she was his mate. According to shifter tradition, at least. He liked Maura and all, but it made no sense for her to be his mate. She was great in bed and hot as hell and easy to talk to and smart. That was why he had wanted to get to know her better. But that didn’t mean she was his mate. He wasn’t even looking for a mate. He had just been caught up in the moment, he reassured himself. He liked her a lot but there had to be more to mating than a good roll in the sheets.

His elephant didn’t like that thought at all.

Branch had to get out of the house. It was still early, but he went to the edge of the safari park, undressed and left his clothes on the van he was working that day. He let his elephant take over from there. Once the shift was completed, he headed for the elephant sanctuary. He passed a few of his co-workers heading in from night shift.

Branch was surprised to see a new calf when he reached the elephants. The bull wasn’t around, luckily, and he got a good look at the little guy. After a quick meeting, he set off to look for food. His elephant liked eating near the giraffes. There was lots of tree bark and low-hanging leaves for him to eat.

He felt much better after the short walk. He was starting to feel good, actually. A new calf, delicious leaves, and getting to watch the sunrise surrounded by animals. Pretty nice way to make up for his behavior earlier.

That was what made him most uneasy. It wasn’t how he would normally act. Usually, he would have a great night with a girl and skedaddle before she woke up. This had been one of the rare occasions when he wanted to sleep over. He wanted to make love with Maura two or three more times before he went in to work. Maybe get some dinner later and repeat the whole thing. But she’d tossed him out, and it had hurt. He’d felt awful when she told him to go.

Branch couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. She’d hurt his feelings and he had to let her know. Which he also hadn’t done since college. It wasn’t like she owed him anything, either. She was on vacation, for goodness’ sake! What did he expect her to do? Drop her whole life for some guy she barely knew? They were from the same town but so what? He knew he was being out of hand, but it didn’t change anything.

He did want to keep seeing her. Even after she went home, they could still talk. Maybe it would go somewhere one day. He did go home for Christmas and Thanksgiving, so it wasn’t impossible. She’d said she didn’t want to get serious since she’d just gotten out of a relationship, but what he had in mind would work perfectly for her. They would go slow and be friends first. He wasn’t ready to settle down just yet and neither was she. So why was she being so difficult?

There was a possibility that she didn’t like him at all.

His elephant didn’t think that was true, and he agreed. She liked him too. And he liked her. And they were both single.

No, something else was going on. He needed to talk to her again. He still had a few days before she left.

It was getting close to time to clock in and he began walking back to the vans. When he got close to the entrance to the park, a crocodile stepped into his path. He fought the natural instinct to stomp on it and run, and the croc changed into a grinning Finn Nunez.

“Fancy seeing you here.”

Branch shifted back to human. “I almost squished you, man. Stop sneaking up on me like that.”

“I didn’t sneak up on you. You weren’t paying attention. I’ve been trying to get your attention for miles.”

“Shoot. I guess I have a lot on my mind.”

“What’s going on?”

“A lot.” Branch caught Finn up on his dilemma on the way back to his van.

Finn whistled. “Lily is going to be pissed you slept with her new buddy. She hates when we interfere with her short-term friends.”