Teri was too fixated on the hope dawning in her chest to answer. “Are you saying,” she said, slowly and deliberately, so there could be no possibility of misunderstanding, “that there’s a way for a shifter to make a human into a shifter?”
She’d heard of the idea, of course, but only in the context of shifters being dangerous and violent. They were animals, and if they bit you, they’d make you into an animal too. She’d dismissed the idea as part of the overall paranoia and prejudice against shifters. But could it be true?
Apparently so, because Joel was nodding. "With a bite. If a shifter bites you when they're shifted, they'll turn you too." He hesitated. "Maybe I should let Zach talk to you about this."
"Maybe so." Teri thought about it. Why hadn't Zach mentioned the possibility to her?
Maybe, she reminded herself, because they'd gone on their first date literally the night before, and only realized they were mated this morning.
She couldn't believe it had been so short a time. It seemed like forever—both because of the emergency with Joel, and because she felt like she'd known Zach her entire life.
Which, in some way, maybe she had. She'd just been waiting to meet him in person until now.
"I'll ask him about it," she told Joel. "For now, you probably want to go home and get some sleep."
He nodded, and yawned. "You want a ride somewhere?"
She shook her head. "I'll wait for Zach."
"Cool." He seemed perfectly sanguine about it, and Teri wondered if it had really worked that quickly—if, now she was a person Joel actually knew rather than the strange figure of a mate, he would be completely okay with her.
She hoped so.
***
Zach worked the rest of the day with an impatience he didn't usually feel on the clock. Normally he was happy to be at his job, but today, he just wanted to finish out the day so that he could see Teri and Joel.
Joel going missing like that had shaken him to the core. Zach knew, deep in his heart, that if anything happened to his little brother, it would absolutely ruin him. His entire adult life had been about taking care of Joel, making sure he was safe and happy. And he and Joel were the only family each other had left.
Although, that wasn't true anymore. Now Zach had Teri.
And hopefully Joel did, too. Joel hadn't liked learning that Zach had a mate, which Zach could've predicted—although Zach had always thought of their parents' deaths as the sort of tragedy that could happen to anyone, Joel blamed it on “stupid shifter customs.” He'd hated that it had seemed inevitable that their dad followed their mom into death, and he'd always sworn that if he ever discovered his mate, he'd be running the other way as fast as he could. "No one's going to tie me down like that," he'd said fiercely.
But Joel was a natural free spirit. He wanted to run free on his own, without anything keeping him inside or in place. Zach was different. He wanted a house and a family. Just the thought of living out his days with Teri and Joel, and maybe having kids someday soon, filled him with warmth and happiness.
Well, he'd be sure to make Joel understand that no one was forcing him into having a mate. He could just grow up and understand that even though they were as close as brothers could be, they were each living their own lives their own way, and if Joel could spend the night out up on the mountain whenever he wanted, Zach could settle down in his own home with his mate.
Besides, he knew Joel would come around. He'd liked Teri when they'd met—was it only last night? They'd gotten along great. That wasn't going to change.
Finally, after the longest d
ay he'd ever spent working at Glacier, quitting time rolled around. And Zach was pleasantly surprised, when he stepped out of the ranger station after getting all his end-of-day stuff done, to see Teri waiting for him.
The sight of her, her wild hair tied back, her curves half-hidden in her sensible coat, a little muddy from the trek up and down the mountain...
He wanted to get her out of those clothes right here in front of God and everyone, lay her down in the new spring grass and make love to her until she screamed.
He restrained himself. But it was a close thing.
The kiss he gave her was deeper and hotter than he normally would’ve done in public, but she just tasted so good. “Hi,” he murmured against her mouth. “You’re still here. You feel good.” He pulled her closer to him.
"Mmm, thanks." She went up on her tiptoes to kiss him again. "So do you.” They kissed for another long minute, until she pulled back and caught her breath, her expression bright and happy. “I thought I'd wait for you, since I'm always happy to spend the day at the Park and I wanted to see you at least for a few minutes before you went home."
"A few minutes? Is that all I get?" Zach pretended to be hurt.
She broke into a smile. "If you want more, I'm all yours."
"I'm glad to hear it." That came out a bit deeper and more heartfelt than he'd meant it to, but even though she looked away, the smile lingered around her mouth, and a little bit of a flush rose on her cheeks.