The stubborn, animal disbelief was making everything harder. Because that was how it was meant to go. You belonged with your mate.
But apparently Nina didn’t.
She’d tried to come up with some other explanation for what had happened, but she couldn’t. Joel would’ve woken her up if there had been an emergency. His scent hadn’t led toward town, but far away into the wilderness.
Maybe he’d just been hunting? But why wouldn’t he leave her a note? And why would the whole pack show up while he was away?
Joel hated the whole idea of fated mates. So the explanation that made the most sense was that now that he had one, he wanted her as far away as possible.
It just wasn’t fair.
Great, now she was being childish. Nina was glad she was in snow leopard form, or she’d probably be crying like a little kid about this.
Get over it, she thought fiercely. You thought this was going to work out for once? Well, it didn’t. That’s nothing new. It never works out. Get up and move on.
She’d just started to stand up, in preparation for heading...away somewhere, she didn’t know yet, when there was a rustle in the underbrush.
Nina froze, not sure what other animals might be out here with her. A bear?
But no, the movement she saw in the leaves eventually resolved itself into a snow leopard.
Not Joel, she knew immediately; this was a female, and her coat was paler than Joel’s, her markings more subtle. As Nina tried to decide whether to run, fight, or wait to see what happened, the other leopard’s form shimmered, shifted, and became Alethia, from the diner.
Nina hesitated, poised to run. What would Alethia think, now that she knew that Nina was a feral shifter, a loner invading her territory?
But she was wearing the same friendly smile Nina had seen so many times in the diner. “Hi, Nina,” she said calmly. “Can we talk?”
Nina hesitated for another long moment. Then she shifted.
Alethia’s smile brightened as Nina took on human form, and she took a few steps forward, until they were standing close, facing each other.
“Nina," said Alethia. "Hi. I didn’t know you were
a shifter.”
“Neither did I,” Nina said softly. “About you, I mean.”
“Hey,” Alethia said, “then it’s a good surprise for both of us. Right?”
Nina couldn’t quite muster a yes, not after everything that had just happened. She shrugged.
Alethia’s smile faded. “Nina, what did you think was happening, back there at the cabin? Why were you afraid?"
That wasn't what Nina had expected to hear. "I thought—I thought you'd come to chase me away," she said haltingly. "I thought you didn't want me in your territory any longer."
"No," Alethia said immediately. "No, that's not it at all. We'd come to see Joel. None of us even knew that you were a shifter, let alone that you were up there. You surprised us as much as we surprised you."
"...Oh." Nina had to reorganize her thoughts. She felt like they were coming too slowly, caught up in all of the things that had happened in the last twenty-four hours like mice in a maze.
"Were you looking for other snow leopards? Is that why you came to Glacier?"
Nina shook her head, feeling her cheeks heat at how stupid the whole situation was. "No. It was a coincidence. I was trying to think of the best place to go, a place that'd be good for a leopard to roam, but also had enough people coming and going that I wouldn't stand out. Here seemed like a good bet. I didn't know that there were leopards already here."
Alethia raised her eyebrows. “Sounds like a lucky coincidence to me.”
Nina felt a surge of hope. Maybe she could stay after all, if Alethia was talking about things like good surprises and lucky coincidences. But then she remembered the real problem. "Well—Joel—"
She stopped. She didn't know what to say. Or she did, but she didn't want to say it out loud.