by Zoe Chant
“Okay,” she said finally. “What’s this supernatural ability?” It must have something to do with getting them home, or he wouldn’t have brought it up right at that point in the conversation. “Teleporting?”
Now he laughed. “No, it’s not teleporting. That would be handy, though.”
“Tell me about it.” If Leah could get herself and Emily from place to place in an instant, her life would be so much easier.
Although then she never would have met Jeff, because she would never have been stranded in the mountains.
But she also wouldn’t have a no-doubt-daunting auto mechanic bill about to come her way.
She shoved that thought aside. There was something more important happening. “So if it’s not teleporting, what is it?”
He took a deep breath, then stood up from his chair. “It’s easier if I just show you. No, you can stay sitting down, I just need some space.”
Space for what?
But Leah didn’t want to waste any more time with questions, she just wanted to see whatever it was he thought he could do. Levitate objects? Throw fireballs?
Jeff took up an empty spot a few feet in front of her, and gave her a smile. “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Well, now Leah was a little worried.
As she watched, he started to...shimmer. No, not just shimmer, to blur. It was like his whole shape was melting away, shifting...
Into an animal.
Leah shot up out of the chair, pointing at the white-and-gray leopard standing in front of her on the floor. Emily squawked and dropped her apple slice.
“You!” Leah stared at the leopard. “I saw you! I saw you in the snow!”
She wasn’t being very coherent, she realized distantly, but she was too overwhelmed to care. She’d thought was a dream, or a hallucination...a white cat in the snow, warm breath on her cheek, soft fur under her hands...and then blackness.
“You found me when you were like this.” She stared.
The leopard started to shimmer, and blur...and then Jeff was standing there again. “Yes, I did,” he said. “I was out in the snow searching, because I knew there was something wrong. I didn’t know what it was, but my leopard wouldn’t let me stay inside, I had to go out. And when I found you, I didn’t even think to shift back to human. I just had to come to you, see you for myself.”
That all sounded...Leah didn’t know. Like Jeff had some kind of psychic abilities, as well as being able to turn into a freaking leopard. “How long have you been like this? How did you get like this?”
“All my life. I was born this way. It runs in my family—my mother is a shifter, too.”
A family secret, he’d said.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Leah said, still staring at him. Human, blond hair, gray eyes, incredibly good-looking...but a second ago, he’d been that leopard. “Are you and your family the only ones?”
He shook his head. “No, there are shifters all over the globe. But they’re pretty rare, and they tend to congregate in their own communities. And everyone keeps it secret, for obvious reasons.”
Leah nodded. She could only imagine what the government, or some unscrupulous company, might do if they got hold of someone who could do this.
“But how...” Leah shook her head. “I don’t know what I want to ask. How does it work, or what’s it like, but I can’t imagine those are easy questions to answer.”
“No, they aren’t.” Jeff’s voice was serious. “I don’t think anyone really understands how it works, scientifically. And as for what it’s like...” he shrugged, with a rueful smile. “I don’t know what it’s like not to be like this. Being a leopard is like...like being me. That’s the truest thing I can say about it. Like just another side of myself.”
Leah looked down at Emily. She was staring at Jeff, eyes wide. “You’re learning something new about the world today, sweetheart,” she said in a low voice. “And Mommy’s learning the same thing.”
“I know it’s strange.” Jeff came over to her, looking down at Emily with her. “It’s probably hard to accept. But I hope you’re not scared or put off.”
Leah looked up at him. “No,” she said, slowly. “No, I’m not scared. I’m not put off. I think it’s...wonderful.”
As she said it, she realized it was true. A sense of wonderment was spreading through her, making her fingers tingle and her heart ache. A snow leopard. Jeff was a snow leopard.
A smile grew on Jeff’s face. He leaned down and kissed her softly, and then, when he pulled back, bent down again to press a kiss to the top of Emily’s head.
“Thank you for telling me,” Leah said. “This can’t be an easy secret to share.”
“It’s easy to share with you,” Jeff murmured against Emily’s hair. He stood up. “Both of you,” he said, smiling at Leah.
“Will you...” Leah hesitated. “Will you shift again? I’d like to see you again.”
“Of course.” Jeff stepped back, and then glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “This might be more fun outside.”
So they bundled themselves up and went out into the snow. It wasn’t nearly as windy and cold as it had been yesterday, and the sun had broken fully through the clouds and was shining through the trees to sparkle against the spotless drifts of new-fallen snow.
“It’s beautiful,” Leah said. She’d lived in Montana all her life, but since Emily was born, she’d rarely had the chance to get out of town. And while it had definitely been a one-horse town, there was still enough civilization to turn the streets brown and slushy. This pristine wonderland was something else entirely.
“You should spend more time up here in Glacier,” Jeff said, smiling at her. “There’s plenty more beauty where this came from.”
Leah wished suddenly, achingly, that she could. That she could just stop here, with Jeff, and not have to get her car fixed and head out in it with Emily strapped in back, making their way across the highways to set up shop in her mom’s tiny home.
A burden again. Leah had thought she’d gotten out, gotten far enough away that her mom would never have to resent Leah’s presence under her feet again, but it turned out she’d only taken a vacation, and now she was descending again, ready to mess up her mom’s life again, this time with a daughter and a granddaughter.
Oh, if only she could just stay here.
But she couldn’t, and that was life. For now, she was here in the middle of the snowy wonderland, and she was about to see this wonderful, amazing man work real, actual magic.
Jeff grinned at her, a completely undiluted joyous smile that lit up his entire face. Leah smiled back, unable to help herself.
Then he shifted.
Leah had been too shocked the last time to really take in what he looked like in his leopard form. Now, out in the sun, expecting the change, she drank in the sight.
He wasn't as big as she'd been expecting, but was made entirely of compact, powerful muscle. He paced back and forth, looking at her to see what she thought, and she could only shake her head in wonder. "You're beautiful."
Because he was. His coat was white and gray with darker spots, and even in the sun it had a shadowy quality, like he could walk into the shade of one of the trees and vanish without a trace.
And he moved with an impossible grace. She'd seen echoes of it in his human form; he was beautiful to watch whenever he did anything. But this was the real thing. Every movement he made seemed planned for the best effect; every turn was fluid and powerful.
His teeth were impressively sharp-looking, and when he sat back in the snow and flexed his claws, they looked wickedly dangerous. But when she looked into his eyes, they were exactly the same endless clear gray as his human form.
"Can I touch you?" she asked, hesitant. She wasn't sure if it was rude to ask.
But he immediately padded up to her and waited expectantly. She tugged off one of her gloves and reached out.
His fur was amazingly soft, and his
body was so warm. "I remember this from before," Leah said softly. "I touched your fur, and you were so soft and warm even though my gloves..." She ran her fingers through his fur, and he pushed into the touch. Just like a cat. She smiled.
"Emily, do you want to pet the leopard?" she asked.
Emily was watching every movement Jeff made with wide-eyed fascination. She reached out a hand.
Leah pulled off her mitten and crouched down in the snow, leaning forward so Emily could touch Jeff's side. Emily patted him with her little hand, and then grabbed a handful of fur and yanked.
"No, no!" Leah laughed as Jeff jerked his head up in startlement. "Be soft and nice. See?" She extracted Emily's hand from the fur and then flattened it out, showing her how to pet.
"Aah," Emily said.
"That's right," Leah told her. "Jeff. This is Jeff."
"Ah ah ah!"
"Yes, he's a leopard right now, but soon he'll turn back into the Jeff we know. Isn't that amazing? Magic is real, Emily."
As she said that, she felt tears prickle her eyes. Magic is real. Leah had always been a practical person, and after Emily was born and Rob left, she'd stopped believing in any kind of magic, even the mundane kind like love.
But she'd been wrong. Magic was real. And it was right in front of her, in this man.
"How about we ask Jeff if he can show us more things he can do as a leopard?" she asked Emily, swallowing back her tears. "Does that sound fun?"
She stood up, Emily sitting on her hip so she could see, and took a step back.
Jeff padded away, still with that slow, powerful grace—and then suddenly, he sat back on his haunches, and with a burst of power, he leapt up onto a tree trunk.
He scaled the tree with quick movements, settling into a fork in the trunk with a self-satisfied air.
"Wow," Leah said. The way his muscles had coiled as he leapt, the easy strength as he seemed to just walk up the trunk... "That's amazing."
Without warning, he leapt easily down again, landing in the snow on all four paws like a gymnast, and then raced away and disappeared.
Leah scanned the forest for him, and saw nothing. Although it was wooded, this patch of land was pretty flat, so he couldn't have vanished over a hill, and he definitely hadn't been going fast enough to hit the horizon this quickly. Where was he?
She saw nothing, and more nothing...and then there was a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned to see him coming out of the complete opposite direction to pounce on an unsuspecting bush.
"Whoa!" Leah’s eyes went wide. "How did you do that? I didn't see a thing!"
Jeff let the bush go and transformed back to human, grinning. "Snow leopards' camouflage ability is legendary. It's almost impossible to get a good picture of a snow leopard in the wild, because we're so incredibly difficult to see. Snowy, mountainous, tree-filled territory like this is perfect for us to completely disappear into the landscape, which is one reason Glacier is a popular place for us to live."
"Wow." Leah shook her head. "It was like you just went invisible."
"No magic necessary. It's all nature. Which is the most miraculous thing of all, I think."
"I agree," Leah said softly. "Snow leopards are magnificent. I didn't know anything about them before today."
"The wild ones mostly live in the Himalayas, so there's not a lot of reason for you to have seen one before today." He stretched his arms up over his head, as though he needed to shake out his muscles after being in another form.
Leah's chest was aching at the sight of him. He was just so happy. So obviously delighted with what he could do, so eager to share it with her, having so much fun running around in the snow as a leopard.
It made her feel envious, and weighted down with all of the reasons she had to be...not like that. To be depressed, and pessimistic, and disappointed in the world.
Well, maybe when she left Glacier, she could take some of Jeff's joy and excitement with her. After all, she wanted her daughter to grow up with that ability, to see the world as a wondrous, delightful place. Maybe she could learn something from Jeff, something more than just this insane secret about shapeshifters.
Something about what the existence of shapeshifters meant. That there were always surprises left in the world, and she shouldn't ever think that she'd seen it all.
Suddenly, Jeff’s head tilted, and he turned to scan the horizon.
“What is it?” Leah couldn’t hear anything.
“Snowplow,” Jeff said. “They’re clearing the roads.”
“That’s great,” Leah said automatically, but the words were accompanied by a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Clearing the roads meant that they’d be getting out of here soon. Which was good, because they were stranded in a cabin in the snow, and that was generally a situation that people wanted to get out of.
Right?
But oh, Leah wished that they could have had one more day. Just one more day, tucked in this cozy little home with Jeff and Emily, eating trail mix and oatmeal, playing with the baby, watching Jeff transform and do amazing, magical things, and making love.
Stop that, Leah told herself. She was turning this into something it hadn’t been.
It wasn’t like she thought Jeff was the sort to sleep with a girl and run off without a care. He clearly wasn’t. He was a good, kind person, and she believed that he did truly care about her and Emily. That he wanted to help them and make sure that they were all right.
But that didn’t mean he was in love with her.
Even though this swelling of feeling inside her chest when she looked at him, the sparks that she thought she could feel whenever they touched, the way she seemed to fall into his eyes whenever she looked at him...
She was falling in love with this man.
No. She’d already fallen in love with this man.
And that meant that she had to leave. As soon as possible. She should probably even turn down that dinner invitation, because the longer she stayed, the more she’d be tempted to tell him how she felt. To try and entwine her life with his.
And she couldn’t take advantage of such a kind, generous man like that. He’d want to help her, and so he’d let her stay with him...until her car was fixed, or maybe while she found a part-time job to get herself a little bit of money, and that wasn’t fair to him, to trade on his giving nature like that.
And it wasn’t fair to her. Now that she’d realized how she felt, she knew that she couldn’t bear to spend too much more time with him. Not if she had to leave. And eventually, she’d have to leave. There was no question about it.
Because she had a daughter to support. And unless Jeff wanted to let her move in and be a stay-at-home mom while he supported both of them, after having known her for one day, that meant that Leah had to find her own way.
Just for a second, though, she let herself have that fantasy. Living with Jeff in some cute little house right on the border of a gorgeous national park, taking Emily on walks together. Maybe getting a part-time job working on gardens or in a local nursery, but just as an extra income, something fun, rather than a desperate attempt to scrape together enough money to support two people. Jeff cooking them breakfast in the mornings.
But then she shook herself out of it. She would not be a burden on Jeff. She would figure out how to get her car fixed, thank Jeff for all that he’d done for her and Emily, kiss him goodbye, and move on with her life.
Item one in that agenda, then, was getting out of this cabin. “Maybe you should go find that snowplow,” she suggested to Jeff. “Then he’ll know we’re up here, and he can tell someone when he gets home.”
Jeff nodded. “Better than that, he’ll probably have a radio. I can get hold of the rangers’ headquarters and report in. They have to be wondering where I am, I should have been at work over an hour ago.”
Oops. Leah hadn’t even thought of the fact that Jeff had to be missing work for this.
He caught her guilty look. “But it�
�s okay, because I’m technically doing my job. Rescuing people who are stranded in the snow is one of our main priorities here at Glacier. I just need to let people know where I am, and ask for someone to come get us out.”
“Then the snowplow sounds like our best bet,” Leah said firmly.
“You’re absolutely right. Okay.” Jeff looked around, like he was wondering if he’d be leaving something behind. “I’ll...head out, I guess. See you soon.”
He leaned in to give her a kiss, and she melted into it despite herself. Why did she have to leave somebody who tasted so good? It wasn’t fair.
It was a long, long moment before he pulled back. And then he leaned in for one more little kiss, like he couldn’t help himself. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said finally, and stepped back to shift.
Once more, there was a snow leopard standing in front of them. Leah thought she could watch Jeff transform a thousand times and never get used to the sight.
He bounded off through the snow, quickly disappearing into the trees, but Leah watched for a long time after he seemed to be gone.
Then Emily tried to dive out of her arms into the snow, and she had to go back inside. “Don’t worry, honey,” she told her daughter as she closed the door behind them, “we’ll be out of here soon. Maybe we can get your snowsuit out of the car and you can play in the snow all you want.”
Emily started to cry, straining backwards for the door, and Leah sighed and set her down, letting her crawl back to it and plaster her little body against it.
“Soon, baby,” she promised. “Soon.”
***
Jeff hadn’t expected the snowplow to show up this soon, and so when he’d heard it, he’d been thrown off-balance.
Leah’s suggestion to go find the plow and talk to the driver was absolutely right, of course—and it showed that she was thinking straight, thinking about getting back to civilization as quickly as possible.
Which Jeff wasn’t.
He’d been planning on revealing that Leah was his mate after demonstrating his shifter form to her. But communicating their situation to the ranger base was...maybe not more important, but more urgent.
People would be worried back home, now that he hadn’t shown up for work, and probably someone had come by his house to see where he was. What with the storm last night, they’d probably think something had happened to him.