Prologue
It was night when Nina arrived at Glacier National Park.
She didn’t go into the Park itself. Instead, she skirted along the mountainous edges in leopard form, paws silent on the ground. She didn’t want to risk being seen by any tourists. Snow leopards didn’t belong in Montana.
Or anywhere, as far as she’d been able to figure out.
Nina wasn’t picky. She would’ve happily settled down in a pack of wolves, or bears, or any other kind of shifter. She’d been so relieved to learn that she wasn’t just a crazy freak of nature, that other shifters existed at all. At first, anyway.
But she’d been out on her own for years, searching out packs, trying to find a place she’d belong, and all she’d learned was that she didn’t belong anywhere.
We don’t like kitty cats here, the bears had said. Go find some other cats to bother.
So she’d kept looking, and when she’d heard of a pack of mountain lions, she’d thought she’d found the answer. The mountain lions had cautiously welcomed her at first, but then they’d asked what pack she’d grown up in. When she’d said none, they’d looked at her like she was dangerous. Feral. We can’t have a feral cat in our pack. I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave, Nina.
She’d tried again and again, with every shifter pack she’d managed to track down. There always seemed to be some reason that they couldn’t take in a strange outsider.
Finally, she’d found a place with a Colorado wolf pack. She’d been so happy to meet shifters who seemed to like her, who wanted her around, who smiled when they saw her.
And then she’d learned that the alpha had ordered the rest of them to let her stay, to be nice to her...just because he thought she was pretty.
Since he was thirty years older than Nina and already married, she’d said no. And suddenly the pack had turned hostile.
It had been awful. The moment she’d realized the smiles were fake, the moment that creep had put his hand on her leg and she’d understood what was happening...
She’d told them to shove it and left town. And that had been it. Nina was giving up.
She was tired of searching, tired of endlessly searching for the people who would let her in, let her stay. She was tired of the desperate hope that this time, it would be all right.
At this point, she was pretty sure she’d need to find a whole pack of unicorns. And they probably wouldn’t want a predator around, anyway.
So she’d made her decision. She wouldn’t put herself out there to be hurt again.
She didn’t need a pack to survive.
Glacier Park had sounded like a good bet for a snow leopard shifter who didn’t want too many questions asked. The territory was wild and mountainous, perfect for her shifted form. The town would have a lot of tourists coming through, so a new face wouldn’t attract too much attention. Even a face as dark as hers, hopefully.
She just had to find a job, keep her head down, and live her life. As long as no one asked her questions, she’d be fine.
She’d be just fine.
Nina spotted a little cave-like rock formation and trotted toward it. As far as she could tell, there was nothing much in this area as far as human habitation went, so it would be a good place to lie low while she found a job and saved enough money to get an apartment.
She hunkered down in the rock hollow, curling up in a pile of leaves and soft forest earth, and closed her eyes.
Tomorrow she’d look for a job. This would be a fresh start, and if she was alone...well, at least she was used to it.
Two weeks later
Joel had scented the strange leopard again.
This morning, he’d caught its trail when he’d gotten up early to go for a run near his cabin.
Mr. Walton’s cabin, rather. It wasn’t his yet. He’d been fixing it up for a couple of months now, though, and he was starting to think of it as his. He’d gotten the roof all finished just last week, so that it was snug and dry enough to sleep there as often as he wanted.
And since he shared his house with his brother Zach, and Zach’s newly-found mate, Teri...it was often.
Joel wanted to be happy for Zach, and grateful for a new family member in Teri. He wanted to see them together, smiling at each other, kissing in the kitchen, holding hands while they watched a movie, and just smile, too.
But he couldn’t. Their past made it too hard.
Plus, there was the more practical problem. Shifters had extra-sharp senses, and there were plenty of things he’d rather just not know about his brother.
Last night, he’d heard a tell-tale groan drift out from the bedroom, and he’d high-tailed it out of there like his ass was on fire. Apparently being newly mated meant it was hard to control yourself around each other.
But it wasn’t a hardship to spend the night at the cabin now. There wasn’t a bed yet, but he’d brought up some sleeping bags and blankets and pillows. He’d been plenty comfortable. And this morning, he’d shifted and gone for a run through the mountainous territory right outside his door. The cabin was just outside Glacier National Park, where Joel worked.
He’d spent the first several months since he’d been hired learning the Park’s territory like the back of his hand. He had to, in case there was an emergency, like a search for a missing hiker. But he also enjoyed it; after living most of his life in the city, spending all his time out in the wilderness felt like he was finally coming home.
Now he was venturing further, away from the tourist-approved areas of the Park. He needed to get a sense of where he was living, for one thing, and the stark wildness of the mountains drew him out. His human side and his leopard side both relished the endless miles of raw forest and rock that surrounded him. He spent as much time out here as he could.
And it was a good thing, too, because he’d caught the scent of a leopard he didn’t recognize, one that wasn’t part of the loosely-organized Glacier pack. He hadn’t been able to track the leopard down, but the scent trail had stayed well clear of the Park. Joel had to guess that that was on purpose. Someone didn’t want to be found.
Who and why: those were the questions.
Joel didn’t want to get into anyone’s business if all they wanted was to be left alone. He understood wanting to be left alone. As far as Joel was concerned, even his brother Zach could be too much company sometimes.
So if there was a leopard out there who just wanted to live in the mountains and not be bothered, Joel had no problem with that. He could live and let live. Better than most people could, even.
But if someone was out to cause trouble...
In that case, he should warn Cal, the head ranger at Glacier, and the de facto leader of their pack.
But he didn’t want Cal deciding to chase off someone who was just minding their business. Joel respected people who minded their own business and
he didn’t want to mess that up for anybody.
Problem was, he didn’t know Cal well enough to guess what he’d choose to do. Which was the downside of minding your own business.