She was hoping that Joel would realize he was wrong, or at least that he should think about this some more. She was hoping he'd apologize. But she only got startled silence in response to her outburst. Joel's mouth was open, but nothing was coming out.
Nina glared at him. "So make any plans you want, I guess, but don't include me." She took a step back, and then another, and then she shifted.
"Nina," Joel started, but Nina was already running away.
She crossed a stream to confuse her scent, then found a densely-wooded patch where she could hide among the trees and catch her breath. It took a while to calm herself down, but eventually she managed to slow her breathing, flex her claws in the dirt and do what Alethia had told her. Breathe in, breathe out, focus on what was happening now.
Joel didn’t want the mate-bond. He wanted to break it.
What could she do? She’d told him what she wanted from him. She’d made it clear as day.
So she guessed the rest of it was up to him. Because she couldn’t have that conversation with him again, arguing about whether he wanted her or not. She couldn’t.
So what now?
She wasn't sure where to go, but finally she turned back toward the cabin. The road to town ran by there, at the very least. And maybe Alethia was still there.
It turned out that she was. But it wasn’t just Alethia; the rest of the group was still there with her. Nina hesitated at the opening to the clearing where the cabin stood, not sure if she was welcome.
But Zach, Joel's brother, spotted her and raised his hand. "Nina!" he called. "Nina, come on out. Come say hello."
So she did. She came cautiously forward in her leopard form, and when she was still several yards away, shifted to human. "Hello."
"Nina," said Zach's mate. What was her name? Teri, Nina remembered, Joel had called her Teri. "I'm so glad you came back. Hi. I'm Teri, and this is Joel's brother Zach, and we're so glad to meet you."
Nina looked between them, feeling wary and wrung-out. "You are?"
"Nina, I don't know what Joel's said, or done," Zach said, coming forward a few steps. Nina resisted the urge to retreat. "But if you're his mate, you're part of our family now, and we'd like to get to know you."
"And," Alethia said pointedly from behind him, "we’d like to get to know you for yourself. It would be wonderful to have you stay no matter what your connection to Joel."
The man she didn't recognize came forward. His face was so friendly, his body language so nonthreatening, that he was right up next to her before she even thought about whether she should step back or not. "Alethia's right," he said. "Hi, Nina, I'm Jeff, it's really nice to meet you." He held out his hand.
Nina stared at it for a second, and then remembered her manners. She shook. It all felt very surreal.
"Please stick around at least for a while," Jeff said, smiling at her. "We could really use some more pack members who aren't rangers. Alethia and Leah get sick of us after a while."
"True," said Alethia, straight-faced.
The other woman, the one Nina had seen with a baby in the diner, came up next to Jeff. "I'm not a leopard," she told Nina, "but I'm still an honorary member of the pack, and let me just say that having some more ladies around would be great."
"We're working on it, but it's still a bit of a boys' club," Teri said.
Nina looked around at all of them, feeling overwhelmed. "I don't know what Joel's going to do," she started.
Zach's jaw firmed. "I'm going to have a talk with Joel, I think," he muttered.
Alethia stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen," she said. "I won't say it doesn't matter what Joel does. I know that it matters. But that's not part of the consideration for me here, okay? We're inviting you to stick around, and get to know us, because we want to get to know you, Nina, the new leopard in town. Not Joel's Mate, Insert Name Here. Okay?"
"Okay." Nina's voice was thready. She didn't know if she could believe this. She wanted to, but it was just so much.
"Nina," Teri said, "do you want a ride home? Where are you staying?"
Nina felt a flash of shame. Should she lie? But they all lived in town, they knew the place much better than she did after two weeks. She didn't think she could make up a convincing lie.
"I've just been sleeping in the forest," she admitted, feeling her cheeks heat and glad she was too dark-skinned to show a blush. "I have a little cave where I keep my stuff. I
shift and sleep there."