Maybe Joel was another lone shifter like her. Maybe it could just be the two of them, living up here at Glacier, and they could get to know each other, and just...leave each other alone, if that was how it ended up working out.
Or...not. If that was how it ended up working out.
But Joel was nodding yes. Nina felt disproportionately crestfallen, as though her wild second of hope had been a detailed plan, a real expectation.
“Yes,” he said. “There’s a pack here.”
“And what?” she snapped, annoyed at herself for being so unrealistic. She took a step back, hoping to clear her head. “It’s one big open happy family? You’re all ready to take in any strays who show up? How does someone join this pack?”
Joel frowned. “My brother and I joined when we got our jobs as rangers at the Park, but—”
“Well, I’m never going to be a park ranger,” Nina told him. “I was lucky to get this job as a damn waitress, okay.”
It made sense. Park rangers. Shifters probably made great park rangers. A whole happy pack of gainfully-employed park rangers and their families. Great.
“You don’t have to be a park ranger to join the pack,” Joel said. “My brother’s mate isn’t. Or, well, she’s training to be one, but the rest of the mates aren’t. Alethia and Leah.”
Alethia was a snow leopard’s mate. What if Nina could stay, and make friends with her—
No, Nina told herself. She knew better than to hope. She knew better than to think things might work out.
Still, she heard herself ask, “So who’s in charge, then?”
Joel brightened. “Cal, the head ranger. He’s—well, he’s not nice, he’s kind of crusty and old-fashioned, but I’m sure he’d take you in. I think he would.”
Nina glared at him. “You think.”
Joel met her eyes. “I do.”
No. No. No, she was not falling for this. She was not letting her heart soften again, only to be hurt even worse when she was kicked in the chest. She didn’t need this pack. And she definitely wasn’t going to be so stupid as to let some not-nice, old-fashioned old man eye her up, decide if she was pretty enough to keep around. Nina shook her head. “I—”
“Look,” Joel
interrupted quickly, “at least stick around for another few days. Talk to me some more. You can meet Cal, meet my brother, and you’ll see. They’re good people. Meet the other women—they’ll tell you that this is a good place to be.”
His voice almost vibrated with sincerity. His eyes were pinning her in place. Nina felt the beginnings of panic creeping over her. Stay or go? Stay or go?
She wanted to run.
But if she ran, she’d be alone. Again. And she’d never see Joel again. Or maybe-her-friend-someday Alethia. Or maybe any other snow leopards, at all, ever.
Maybe it would be different, with other snow leopards. Different from all those times with packs of wolves and bears and mountain lions. Nina hated herself for hoping, but...maybe. Maybe.
Joel, at least, seemed like a decent guy. He’d put himself in the way of those assholes last night, and no one had asked him to, or rewarded him for it.
Joel was waiting for her to make a decision, watching her with those silvery-gray eyes. He looked anxious. Worried that she would say no.
Like her decision mattered to him.
“Okay,” she said finally. “Okay. I’ll talk to you. After I get off-shift tonight. No promises about anything else.”
He relaxed all at once. Nina watched the fall of his shoulders, the loosening of his fists, in bemusement. He really had cared what her answer was.
“Good,” he said. “Great. I’ll come here. What time do you get off?”
“Eight.”
“Great. I’ll see you then.”