Zach was Teri’s mate, who’d moved here with his brother to take a ranger job several months before. There was no reason for him to know the ins and outs of shifter relations at Glacier.
Teri bit her lip. “Lillian’s scared, Cal. She has no idea what to do. She doesn’t know if calling the police would help, and she doesn’t want to go home, because she lives with our parents and she won’t put them in danger. She needs help, and I don’t know what’s best.”
As a rule, Cal didn’t interfere with the lives of his employees. Sometimes, though, he found himself in a position where they were asking him to. For example, Joel, Zach’s brother, had come to Cal for advice about his mate a month or two ago. Cal hadn’t been about to turn him away when he needed help, so he’d talked him through the problem and sent him on his way.
When he’d realized that Joel thought he needed Cal’s permission for his mate, Nina, to settle in town and join their community, Cal had told them that he wasn’t the sort to put his nose in other people’s business. They could live their lives without any interference from him, after all.
On the whole, he found that discouraging people from coming to him for issues in their own personal lives just meant that they sorted those issues out just fine among themselves. And probably grew into better people as a result of it.
But if an innocent woman was in trouble...that was a different kind of a thing.
“Where is your sister now?” he asked.
“On her way here,” Teri said. “I thought that, if nothing else, there’s a larger concentration of shifters here in the Park than in most places, so we could keep her safe if anything happened.”
Cal nodded, thinking. Mountain lions.
Well, he knew a mountain lion or two in town. And they were men who wouldn’t hesitate to frighten a woman if it would get them something they wanted.
The question was: what did they want?
“Go meet her when she gets to the Park, and have her come here,” Cal directed Teri. “Maybe we can get this sorted out without too much fuss.”
Teri nodded vigorously, and hopped up out of the chair. There was that familiar energy, Cal thought, with a traitorous hint of fondness.
He didn’t want to play favorites among his employees. He particularly didn’t want to be seen treating the leopards any differently from the humans. But he’d always had a bit of a soft spot for Teri.
As Teri left the office, Cal found himself wondering if her sister was just like her. Tiny, blonde, and full of energy? Probably younger, if she lived with Teri’s parents. Maybe more impulsive. He pictured a teenaged girl with all of Teri’s willfulness and enthusiasm. He could see a girl like that not realizing how dangerous the local mountain lions could be, or maybe getting caught up in the thrill of poten
tial danger, and getting herself in trouble.
Cal caught himself thinking, Well, I’ll get it sorted out, and shook his head at himself. He wasn’t here to manage other people’s lives. He had plenty to manage with the Park.
He’d just make sure the girl was safe, and that would be it.
Resolved to keep on minding his own business as much as possible, Cal turned his attention back to paperwork. He’d gone through most of the day’s business by the time there was another quick, pert knock at his door.
“Come,” he called, and in came Teri, followed by—
Cal found himself caught out. This had to be the sister, but she wasn’t anything like he’d pictured. Not a little bubbly blonde teenager at all.
No, this was a fully-grown woman, older than Teri by at least a few years. In her thirties, definitely. A mature woman, taller than her sister, with generous curves—but conservatively dressed, with her hair twisted up into the sort of elegant coif that dared gravity to mess with it.
And she was somehow...drawn in on herself. He couldn’t see Teri’s cheerful energy in this woman. There wasn’t any obvious upset, either. Instead, she presented a smooth, polite expression as she moved gracefully forward to take the seat he indicated.
“Cal, this is my sister Lillian,” Teri was saying, nervousness hovering around her. “Lillian, my boss, Cal, and the alpha of the snow leopard pack.”
If they’d been alone, Cal would’ve automatically protested that label. He was no one’s alpha; he refused to take away anyone’s freedom like that. The leopards at Glacier didn’t have to kowtow to him.
But somehow, faced with this careful, composed woman, sitting perched on the edge of one of his office chairs, he found himself swallowing the protest down.
She’s really scared, Teri had said.
Lillian didn’t seem scared. She seemed calm, poised, and ready to have a reasoned discussion about the situation. Her eyes, a striking dark blue color, met his without any hesitation.
But if he looked closer...her jaw was tight. One of her hands was clenched around the other. She sat ramrod-straight in the chair.
And with his leopard’s senses, he could scent it in the air. Fear.