Stop it! Joel shouted internally. He couldn’t let the mate-bond force him to do things. He had to stay in control of it, not the other way around.
But if Nina was in trouble, he had to get to her. It didn’t matter if they were mates or not. He wasn’t going to let her get hu
rt.
Joel started running back toward the cabin. The bond was telling him that Nina was still in that direction.
She would’ve woken up all alone. Had someone—some animal?—snuck up on her?
Joel suddenly remembered what he’d said to her last night as she was falling asleep. Go to sleep. I’ll be right here.
And then he’d run away this morning, because of his own paranoia at what would happen if they looked at each other. What the mate-bond might do.
That didn’t matter much if she was in danger, did it? Joel cursed himself for being an idiot and raced back to the cabin at his top speed, slowing down as he approached so as to be less noticeable.
However, he quickly spotted the vehicles in the driveway—Grey’s truck and Zach’s car. What were they doing here? Their presence was a relief, though; Nina couldn’t be in too much trouble if they were all there.
He saw them standing together next to the cabin. They were mostly in human form, but there was one leopard—Joel recognized him as Grey. There was no sign of Nina.
As he watched, Grey turned to face him; he’d caught Joel’s scent, no doubt. Joel came up to meet him, shifting at the last minute as Grey did the same.
“What happened?” he asked them urgently. “Where’s Nina?”
They all started talking at once, but the loudest was Alethia, who took a step forward as she said, “Nina? The waitress from Oliver’s? Is she the leopard that we saw here when we drove up?”
“Yes, Nina,” Joel said impatiently. “Where is she? Where did she go?”
“She ran away,” said Teri, looking worried. “She was afraid of us, it was obvious. We were just wondering if we should go after her.”
Joel shook his head, not sure if he meant no or just I don’t know what’s happening. “She would’ve been afraid. She would’ve thought—” He didn’t know what she would’ve thought, seeing most of the pack drive up like that. Especially if Joel wasn’t there with her. “I should have been here. What are you all even doing here?”
“We thought,” Teri started, and then bit her lip and looked at Zach.
“It was my idea,” Zach said tentatively. “We were going to come spend the day helping you with the cabin.” He gestured around to Teri, Alethia, Grey, Jeff, and Leah.
It took Joel a minute to process that, a minute he spent just blinking stupidly at his brother.
“We thought you knew about it,” Jeff added, shooting Zach an annoyed look.
“You said it sounded good at dinner last night!” Zach said plaintively. “And then I called you and left a message saying we were heading up this morning. And I texted you about ten times. I thought for sure that if you didn’t want us here, you would’ve told me to stay the hell away.”
“My phone’s back at the house,” Joel said heavily. He’d left it there because he’d shifted to run before he met with Nina at the diner. Objects like phones were much less reliable than clothes, when shifting; you were liable to leave it lying on the ground instead of bringing it with you.
Then he hadn’t gone back to the house at all, too busy with Nina, and they’d come right here to sleep.
“And I didn’t realize you meant today when you were talking about it last night,” he added. “I thought you meant...you know, sometime.”
“By which time your secret snow leopard stowaway would’ve been gone?” Zach asked. “Why is she here? What’s she hiding from?”
“Nothing!” Joel said.
“That’s not true,” Alethia said suddenly. She’d been watching the conversation with an unreadable expression, but now she stepped forward. “She was hiding. She hid when we came up, and she ran when we asked who she was. What’s she afraid of? Did something happen to her?”
The concern in her voice brought Joel’s attention back to her. He didn’t know Alethia very well, but right now, she seemed to be the only person who was more worried about Nina than curious or accusatory.
“She’s been alone for her whole life,” Joel said to her. “She’s had...bad experiences with packs. She might’ve thought you guys were coming to—to hurt her, or something.” What had happened to Nina when she hadn’t fit in with other packs?
Alethia frowned, and stepped away to stare off into the mountains where Nina had gone. After a second, she shifted and started sniffing.