eep going.
“If she’s mad at me about something, she can’t be wrong. She won’t accept that she was ever wrong. So if she’s mad, I must have done something to make her that way, and I can never, ever convince her that I didn’t.”
Teri shook her head, tears standing in her eyes. “Just the fact that you’re telling me that Joel was right and you were wrong shows me that you’re nothing like my mother. But also, you’ve been showing me that in little ways ever since we met. Like when you asked me if I wanted to drive, instead of assuming that I must be an unsafe driver because I got into an accident.”
“Is that what your mother thinks?” Zach asked in disbelief. “Because you skidded at night on an icy road?”
Teri nodded. “That’s what she said. See? You’re nothing like her. Even just now, when I got tired and had to sit on the rock. You asked if I was all right, and when I said I was, you believed me. Zach, part of what I love about you is that you know that helping someone is about what they need, not what you need. And Joel has to know that, too.”
Zach leaned in and kissed her softly. Teri closed her eyes and kissed back.
After a second, he pulled away. “You are so strong, and so brave, and so caring,” he said softly. “I can’t believe how lucky I am that I’m your mate.”
A smile broke through Teri’s almost-tears. This was her family now—this man, and his brother. They were going to make it work. “I’m the lucky one,” she told him.
He just shook his head. Then he glanced up. “We’d better hurry, or Cal won’t be happy with us.”
Teri turned to start walking again. “Then let’s go.” She felt like she could run a marathon.
***
When they got back down to the vehicles, everyone split up: Andy and his parents went off to get Andy checked out for any injuries, and one of the other rangers—Jeff, Teri thought his name was—went with them.
The Morrisons had been concerned that Joel wasn’t coming with them, after spending the night out in the cold as well, but Joel demurred, putting them off and telling them he was fine. As they pulled away, Teri looked up at Zach. “Is he really fine?”
To her surprise, Zach nodded without any suggestion of concern. But then he explained, “Shifters heal faster and better than normal humans do. Even if Joel had gotten hurt, if he’s up and walking around, he’ll be fine. And we try to stay away from anywhere we might get medical attention, just in case someone notices something odd about our bodies.”
Teri sobered, remembering Zach’s story about his parents. Not having easy access to hospitals could be a problem. “Is it worth it, to be secret from the world?” she wondered.
Zach hesitated for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “After my mom died, I would’ve said no way. If we could’ve gone to a hospital, if there were shifter doctors everywhere just like normal doctors...but now, I think about all the trouble that could happen if everyone knew about us. Even in this town, people don’t like shifters, think they’re dangerous. Imagine if the whole country thought we were dangerous.”
Teri thought about that, and shivered.
“Besides,” Zach said, “even if there had been a state-of-the-art shifter hospital down the street, they might not have been able to do anything for my mom. Shifters are lucky, but we’re not immortal.”
Teri thought about that as Cal ordered them all into the rangers' Jeep and they headed back down to the rangers' headquarters. Shifters were lucky...but in a lot of ways, they were unlucky, too. They had to hide who they were or risk running into a situation like poor Joel's attack by those teenagers. If they did live somewhere shifters were known, they had to deal with people like Teri's family who were prejudiced against them. And apparently they could have troubles with other groups of shifters as well, like Zach and Joel's parents had.
It was a lot of struggles, a lot of difficulties.
But the idea of being able to turn into a snow leopard...to run and jump like Zach had, to pad away into the mountains and vanish as though you'd never been, like that leopard she'd seen in the Park so many years ago. It seemed worth it. It even filled her with a sense of yearning.
Stop it, she told herself. She couldn't be in a serious, long-term—permanent—relationship with Zach if she were envious of what he was. That was no way to make a marriage last.
And after all, Zach had said it: she was Teri, and that was enough.
When they got back, Zach had to go back to work, and Joel was called into Cal's office to give a full report of what had happened last night.
"I wish I could drive you somewhere," Zach told her. "But I really have to get back to it. We short-staffed ourselves going after Joel, and there's a ton of stuff to do."
"I understand," Teri assured him. "It's no problem. I can catch the bus, really."
She would've honestly preferred to stay in the Park and just hang around until Zach got off work, but...well, she was starting to get hungry, and she didn't have any money, so if she wanted to eat she was going to have to go back home.
She knew if she'd mentioned it to Zach, he would have bought her something, but it was embarrassing. And he didn't have time to sit down to eat with her, he was heading back to work.
It probably wasn't the best idea to hang around her boyfriend's job waiting wistfully for him to get off and take her out to dinner, anyway. Mates or not, Teri needed to be at least a little self-sufficient; it wouldn't be fair to expect Zach to do everything for her.
Still, she waited for a little bit, sitting just outside the visitor's center on a park bench and drinking from the water bottle she'd...accidentally stolen from the Morrisons. Oops. She'd wash it out in the bathroom and leave it at the front desk on her way out with instructions to give it back, she decided.