Then he caught the scent again.
The strange leopard. Definitely not any of the rangers, or their mates; he’d met them all in shifted form and he knew what they smelled like. This was someone else.
And it was fresh. A strong, rich scent, almost—feminine? Joel didn’t know what about the scent suggested female to him, but there was something.
The leopard was out here right now. Joel sat back on his haunches, thinking about his options. Should he follow the scent? It might be better to wait until he had another leopard or two from the Glacier pack out here with him, in case the strange leopard was aggressive, or violent. Even if the leopard was female, well, Joel had seen Alethia and Teri in their shifted forms, and he had no illusions about how strong and powerful a female snow leopard could be.
If she was friendly, Joel wasn’t the best representative of the Glacier pack for her to meet. He’d been raised in a city away from other shifters, and he was surly and distrustful on top of that. Jeff or Cal would be much better. He suddenly regretted not telling Cal about the leopard during their meeting this morning.
He sniffed again. There was something about the scent...it caught his curiosity. He wanted to know more. His leopard growled inside him. Find her.
Instinct won out, and he surged forward despite his misgivings. This might be a mistake, but Joel needed to find this leopard and see who she was.
The scent was strong, easy to follow, and the further he went, the closer he came. He could almost sense the other snow leopard now. It was like he could feel her moving in the trees ahead of him. His leopard urged him forward.
Finally, he caught sight of a pale form darting away into the dark forest. The sight sent a jolt of adrenaline through him, and he leapt forward, using his powerful hindquarters to propel himself into a jump that turned into a flat-out run.
The strange leopard’s scent was all around, now, but there was no need to use it anymore, because he could see her, running away deeper into the mountains. He raced after her, pelting forward, trying to close the distance between them. He needed to catch up to her, to learn who she was—
Joel was faster, but not by much, and the female leopard clearly knew this particular territory better than he did. She dodged around rocks and leapt over logs without having to think twice about it, while Joel had to keep an eye on the terrain as he ran.
On the other hand, she started to tire out much sooner, slowing bit by bit until he could clearly see her white-and-gray form in the bright moonlight. She was heading up past the tree line, and Joel put on a burst of speed and caught up to her just as she crouched and jumped up to the top of a rocky outcropping.
She stopped, poised on the rock, looking down at him as he reached her. Joel came to a halt, staring up at her.
She’d stopped on purpose. She could’ve run away through the rocks, maybe found a stream and confused her scent, but instead she was waiting for him. She had to be curious about who he was, what he wanted.
Joel shifted. All at once, he was standing on the cold mountainside in his human form, craning his neck to look up at the snow leopard perched on the rock above.
“Hello,” he called up to her. “I’m Joel. Can we talk?”
The moon brightened as he spoke, clouds moving away from it, and the light caught the leopard’s eyes, illuminating them as they stared down at him. Joel’s own eyes widened as he took in their color, a green-tinted grey.
He recognized those eyes.
But before he could say anything else, the leopard crouched, gathering herself, and made a great leap away into the darkness. Joel watched her dart away into the rocks and vanish.
He let her go, despite his leopard’s snarl of disappointment. Because he knew where he was going to eat tomorrow.
***
Nina couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.
She’d come up here to northern Montana because she’d thought it was perfect. Both the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains, and a travel spot for tourists.
It had seemed like the best possible place to hide in plain sight; she’d get an anonymous job and place to stay for her human side, and her leopard side could shift and run as much as she wanted in the mountains.
She hadn’t ever considered that other snow leopard shifters might have made the same decision.
Last night wasn’t the first time Nina had been chased by another shifter. She’d learned the hard way that shapeshifters were insular and suspicious people. They didn’t like strangers invading their territory and they didn’t want new or different shifters around to attract potentially dangerous attention.
When she was still a teenager, the discovery that other shifters existed had filled her with hope. Over the years, that hope had drained away to nothing.
Or almost nothing.
This was the worst part. Hope. The idea that it might be different this time.