Embracing the Leopard by Michelle Houston
This is only a short story, less than 20 pages, but it surprised me with the ability to have an unexpected but well developed turn right in the middle.
At the beginning of the story Erik is a leopard shifter who decided to live alone in a property in the wood since he was tired to mourn the lack of a mate. Erik is gay and he loves his pack, he loves his enlarged family made of his brothers, sisters and nephews, but he was tired to be "pointed out" how the unmated leopard. There were no other gay leopard in the pack and in the end Erik chose to stay alone.
Then one night he sees a man swimming in the lake near his home. Erik smells another shifter leopard and decides to make friends; the other man, Brandon, is younger and apparently skittish, but when Erik lets the guard down, Brandon unveils a stronger core and a very alpha attitude. It is not a chance encounter, and Brandon has his own plan on Erick.
The sudden change in Brandon's behavior is reflected in Erik; Erik is older and a strong leopard, but he is a beta, he needs the lead of an alpha man, and living along, he misses that leader. Apparently Brandon is not the right man, he is too young and not enough forceful, but Brandon is playing a role, like a nymph in the wood who is enthralling a passerby with his singing and the otherworldly beauty of his body.
Then the story moves on to an very hot sexual encounter that seal their budding relationship, and from the encounter you can already see how that relationship will be and who will play the top. In the end, a real "bravo" to the author to pack all of that in only 20 pages.
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