by Zoe Chant
The Snow Leopard’s Heart
Glacier Leopards, #4
By Zoe Chant
Copyright Zoe Chant 2017
All Rights Reserved
Author’s Note
This book stands alone. However, it’s part of a series about snow leopards who work as rangers at Glacier National Park. If you’d like to read the series in order, the first book is The Snow Leopard’s Mate.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
The Snow Leopard's Heart (Glacier Leopards, #4)
A note from Zoe Chant
More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant
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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.
The scent trails were all old today, too old to track the strange leopard down, so eventually Joel gave up and went to work.
Being a ranger at Glacier was Joel’s dream job. Some mornings he woke up and couldn’t believe it was real. Spending his workday outside in the mountains, helping people stay safe and respect the environment, being prepared to handle emergencies and rescues...it was all he could have wanted for his life. And Glacier itself was the ideal environment for a snow leopard.
Which was probably why there were so many of them around.
He met Grey, his usual partner, at the rangers’ headquarters, and Grey jerked his head toward Cal’s office. “Boss wants to speak to you.”
Joel looked at Grey, looked at the office door, looked back. “Any idea what for?”
Grey shrugged. He was a man of few words, which Joel usually appreciated, but it meant that getting information out of him was tough.
So, fine. He’d find out when he went in. Joel squared his shoulders and went to meet the boss.
Cal was an intimidating man, not because he was threatening, cold, or a bully, but because he was so confident and self-assured. He never put a word wrong, never seemed to be concerned about screwing up, never got upset or angry when things didn’t go well. He always gave the impression that no matter what happened, he had a plan and he was prepared to handle it.
Joel, who’d handled things pretty spectacularly badly more than once in his life, found Cal’s endless calm a little unnerving.
He tapped on Cal’s office door, and at the gruff, “Come on in,” stepped inside.
“You wanted to see me?”
“That’s right. Take a seat.” Cal waved a casual hand at the chairs set up opposite his desk. He was reading through some papers, but when Joel sat, he set them aside and looked up. “So. You’ve been here six months now.”
Six months. Maybe this was just a standard job-related check-in. Joel relaxed a little. “That’s right.”
“You’ve got a handle on the territory and the tourists, you’re having no trouble keeping up with the work. You show up on time, you do your job, you’ve never caused any trouble.”
Cal was looking at him expectantly, so Joel said, “Thank you.” He had to suppress the sir that wanted to come out whenever he talked to Cal. Cal hated being called sir, and Joel usually hated calling people sir, so he didn’t know what the hell it was that made the word lurk on the tip of his tongue in meetings like this.
“In fact,” Cal said, “there’s only one thing I could write down in this little Needs Improvement box in the employee form, if filling out the little boxes was a priority for me.”
Joel took a second to try and decode that, and then gave up and just said, “What is it?”
“Sociability with other employees,” Cal said bluntly.
Joel tensed. “I’m kind of a loner, that’s all. I don’t have a problem with any of the staff.”
“No, you don’t, and that’s good, because that’s the kind of thing that would make me toss you out on your ear.” Cal’s voice was conversational, but there was no question he meant it. “There’s nothing wrong with keeping to yourself, either. That’s a fine thing for someone to want.”
“So why are we talking about it?” If it wasn’t a job performance problem, then what business was it of Cal’s?
“Because when you spend a few years in charge of rangers, you learn some things.” Cal leaned forward in his chair, meeting Joel’s eyes. Cal’s eyes were the usual snow leopard’s gray, but they were a solid, uncompromising iron color, rather than the lighter, clear silver that Joel was used to from himself and Zach.
“You learn that men take park ranger jobs because they like being alone in the great outdoors, but they don’t know what years of it will do to them. A man has a family at home, a mate and cubs, or he’s got some solid buddies he spends his days with, that’s one thing. But when someone lives alone in a cabin in the mountains, and works the farthest territories in the Park, I get a little concerned.”
Joel’s fists clenched involuntarily. Cal was his boss, not his father—not even his friend.
He was technically the alpha of the Glacier pack, but Joel had figured out pretty quickly that snow leopards were all pretty independent, and Cal didn’t feel the need to try and run their lives.
So why the hell was he starting with Joel?
Joel forced his anger down, but he knew there was a hint of it in his voice when he said, “I don’t know what to say to that, sir.”
This time, the sir wasn’t a mark of respect, but rather of defiance. Joel knew it, and he was sure Cal knew it, too.
But Cal, of course, didn’t give any sign he was angry, didn’t react at all. If he’d been feeling good-natured, he would’ve shot right back, Don’t call me sir, I work for a living.
“No need to say anything,” he said instead. “I’m not telling you what to do with your private life, Joel. I’m not ordering you to make friends, or saying you can’t move out to that cabin of old Walton’s that you’re fixing up. None of that’s my job or my right.”
Joel’s anger was fading a bit, but it left confusion in its place. “So what are you saying?”
“Just that everything’s easier when you know who you’re relying on, and they know you. You don’t want to look up in ten years and realize you’re standing alone.”
Joel stared at the wall just behind Cal’s left shoulder. “Thank you for the advice, sir.”
Cal looked at him for a long moment, then waved a hand. “All right, you do what you want. Now get out of my office and get to work.”
“Can do.” Joel made for the door.
Out in the hall, he took a couple of deep breaths until his hands relaxed from his fists. He had to pull back from the knee-jerk anger of don’t tell me what to do before he joined up with Grey. The man was quiet, but perceptive.
As he and Grey headed out for the day, though, after he’d calmed down a bit, he thought about what Cal had said. It was strange to be singled out as the loner when he lived and worked with his brother. None of the other rangers were roommates with their family, after all.
But it wasn’t wrong.
Zach was the people person. He always had been. He made friends everywhere. Hell, even Grey, who was technically Joel’s partner, spent more time with Zach than with Joel, because Grey was teaching Zach some carpentry stuff so he could build a deck for their house.
Meanwhile, Joel and Grey rode up in their Jeep in silence, as always, and parted ways to go patrol the campsites separately, as always. Joel preferred it that way and Grey did too.
At least, he thought that Grey did.
Being partnered with Grey had made Joel figure that being a loner was normal for a ranger. Grey didn’t talk much, and like Joel he preferred spending his time way out in the farthest reaches of the Park. Not like Zach, who worked the visitor’s center and actually seemed to enjoy it.
But Grey had a mate at home, Alethia. Joel had met her a few times, and she wasn’t shy or quiet. Grey probably got plenty of conversation at home. And then he still came over to hang out with Zach in his free time.
Joel, on the other hand, spent his free time out in the mountains, or fixing up the cabin—alone. He’d never asked for Grey’s help, or anyone’s. And he liked that just fine. More than anything, he valued his independence.
And he sure as hell didn’t want a mate. Giving up that independence, being tied to another person without his consent, seemed like a nightmare. Maybe it was fine for other people, but it wasn’t for him.
Cal had said, You don’t want to look up in ten years and realize you’re standing alone.
He wondered suddenly if Cal was speaking from experience. As far as Joel knew, Cal didn’t have a mate, and he didn’t have friends among the rangers, because
he was always somewhat set apart, as their leader.
Well, Joel thought, if Cal was who he was going to be in ten or fifteen years, that was fine. A person could aspire to a lot worse than being like Cal Westland.
If there was one thing Cal had, after all, it was independence. He didn’t need anyone else; he stood on his own two feet. And that was what Joel wanted, too. Liking other people, even loving them, was just fine, but needing them just made you vulnerable. Best to avoid it, if at all possible.
Anyway, it was past time to start paying attention to his job. Making sure everything was copacetic over all the many, many square miles covered by Glacier National Park took his full-time attention. He didn’t have time to be worrying about made-up futures.
***
Ethel frowned at Nina over her glasses. “You’re almost late.”
Nina pointed at the clock on the wall as proof. “But I’m not.” It was 3:59.
“Well, you better get clocked in and get out there fast, then. You’ve only been here two weeks, you don’t have any leeway to be skating on yet, missy.”
“Getting out there now,” Nina said obediently, clocking in and tying on her apron.
She hadn’t meant to be late. Getting this job waitressing at Oliver’s, the local diner, so soon after arriving in town had been a godsend. If she saved carefully, she’d have enough money soon to get an apartment...instead of curling up in leopard form way out in the woods where no one could find her, and showering at the run-down local gym.
The problem was, she didn’t have a clock out in the woods. She had a little battery-powered alarm she kept stashed with her stuff in a hideaway hole in the rocky mountainside, but that didn’t do any good if she was running wild in the forest.
New rule, she told herself. No shifting so soon before work. She couldn’t afford to lose this job, that was for sure—especially since this was a small enough town that if she was fired for being unreliable, everyone would know, and it would be hard to get another job.
Nina didn’t normally spend much time in small towns, the sort of places where everyone knew each other’s business. With her secret, she couldn’t afford to.