Cougar's Mate

by Terry Spear

  Not with the way she was already attracted to him. Just the way they’d wrestled on the kitchen floor of Hal Haverton’s house and she’d felt the way he’d become aroused and she hadn’t been able to hide hers any more than he could his, and then the kiss she and Chase had shared that hadn’t been exactly chaste—she couldn’t see sleeping with him as anything more than asking for trouble.

  She moved the bedside table in front of the door and then climbed into bed. With the light on and the covers tucked under her chin, she stared at the ceiling and wondered where Hennessey and his brother and uncle were now if all three of them were after her. If all three were involved in the illegal stuff that Ted was into, she figured that his brother and uncle would want her dead just as much. Were they tracking her as cougars? She had believed they would, but then how would they be able to get to her if she did end up doing this? Rejoining the human population?

  Unless they were waiting for word of her suddenly showing up somewhere as a human again.

  Eager to learn if her picture was plastered all over the news as a person of interest in the murder of her cop boyfriend, she opened the phone and frowned at it. The cell phone was an older model, which meant? No Internet!

  ***

  Early the next morning, Chase was torn between wanting to wait for Shannon to wake and serve her a hearty breakfast, worried if he didn’t, she wouldn’t eat enough, and wanting to ensure she was okay with him leaving her alone while he worked on one of the rental cabin’s roofs. He hoped she was having the best sleep of her life. He knew she needed it more than anything else right now after what she must have endured.

  Unable to quit worrying about her, he tried to peek into the room to see if she was still in there. The door was locked. Not that he was surprised. He went outside and surveyed the window. The armoire was still blocking it.

  Believing she wasn’t going to get up anytime soon and attempting to set aside his concern, he fixed himself a piece of toast and honey, then headed out to work. He was just ready to climb onto the roof when Dan called. Immediately, Chase was apprehensive.

  He hated that every time his friend phoned him now that Chase would think the worst. That Dan had learned some horrible news concerning Shannon, and they'd have to arrest her. And he was already contemplating how he was going to hide her away.

  "Yeah, what's up?" Chase asked.

  "We couldn’t lift any prints off the wine glasses. They were too smudged. We’ll have to try at the Muellers’ dinner. Or you can make the attempt again at your place. We're still looking for any clue as to who she is and what trouble she's in. Anything from your end?"

  "Not yet," Chase said. “I’m going to work on some repairs to a roof. She’s sleeping right now.”

  Pause.

  “You still there?” Chase knew Dan thought he should keep an eye on her every minute of the day, but he still felt the best way to learn who she was and what was going on was to earn her trust.

  “Do you think that’s wise?”

  “She's exhausted with all the running she's done. She needs to take it easy. I figure she'll talk about it when she's ready."

  "Which may be too late."

  "I know. That's why I'm trying to ease her into it. Trying to be her friend first."

  "Just be careful you're not thinking with your heart instead of your head," Dan warned. “It is a go on dinner with the Muellers, right?”

  "Yeah, she was good with it. I’ve got to get to work on the roof. The sooner I get to it, the sooner I’ll be back at the main house. Let me know if you learn anything later."

  "Will do."

  Chase tried not to think of Shannon while he concentrated on the roof, or he could take a misstep and end up landing on his backside below. That’s all he would need—to injure himself when he was supposed to be protecting the lady. But he couldn’t quit thinking about her. About the way she was so scared—not just from the way in which she had rearranged the furniture, which had been telling enough, but leaving a light on in the room, as if to warn anyone away who might think she was asleep, and then peeking out the living room curtains when she heard noises outside.

  She’d seemed to sleep well when she was cuddled with him on the couch, and that got him to thinking again about her sleeping with him in his bed. After the kiss they shared? Not a good idea.

  And yet, he couldn’t quit mulling it over. Between listening for any sign of anyone else approaching the cabins, and wary that she might decide to sneak out, he really was having a devil of a time concentrating on his work.

  He was just finishing up the repairs on one section of the roof, when his phone rang. He fished it out of his shirt pocket, sure Dan had some devastating news if he was calling again this soon. For a second, he saw his name and cell phone number in the caller ID, confusing him, and it took him a minute to realize Shannon was calling him. He smiled. He didn't know why it pleased him so much to get a call from her, but it did.

  "Hey, did you finally get a good sleep?" he asked. He sincerely hoped so.

  "I’ve been awake for a while, but I saw you headed to one of the cabins with roofing materials in hand, and I didn’t want to distract you when I know you have work to do. I wondered if you'd like for me to fix you something to eat for lunch when you're at a good stopping point."

  "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

  She laughed. "You must be hungry. What if I make something that doesn’t appeal?"

  "I'm starving. I'll love it, whatever it is."

  Within ten minutes, he headed back to his cabin. He really was trying to give her more time, but he was at a point that worked well for him to quit, he was hungry, and he was thrilled that she seemed to want to stay put for the moment. Not wanting to alarm her, he unlocked and opened the door, calling out, “It’s just me.”

  The fragrance of chocolate baking in the kitchen filled the air. “Hot damn, now this is the way I wish my cabin always smelled when I finish some repairs on the cabins.”

  She chuckled.

  His stomach began rumbling as he walked into the kitchen. Shannon smiled at him. She looked ravishing, her dark hair cascading softly over her shoulders in silky curls. Her golden eyes were bright and her smile contagious.

  The aroma of roasted chicken made his mouth water. "Besides the chicken, which smells divine, I smell chocolate," he said, wondering what she was making.

  "I baked a cake for tonight for when we go to your friends' house." She motioned to the cake cooling on the slate counter.

  He felt guilty all over again knowing some of the reason the Muellers wanted to see them was to lift her prints off something she used while at their home, if they could. "They'll love it, though the cake might not make it out the door."

  She smiled at him again, and she seemed to be much more rested today. She was wearing the black sweater and the jeans again and though she looked good in it, he was thinking about that hot pink sweater and how much he’d like to see her wearing it.

  Then he got to thinking about her comment that she’d seen him head over to the cabin to work on it, and he wondered if she had slept much at all. He had hoped she’d been sacked out all this time. "Did you finally sleep well?"

  "Much better.”

  “Good.”

  “So how's the roofing going?" She served up the chicken and baked potato and carried it to the dining table.

  He grabbed glasses of water and set them on the table, and then returned for the bowl of salad. "Good. Another couple of hours and I’ll have the cabin’s roof patched. Did you need anything before I go back over there and finish it?"

  They took their seats. She shook her head. "Just resting up."

  "I take it if you're making cake for tonight, you feel all right about going over there." He shouldn’t have said anything more about it, but he didn’t want her to feel pressured into going.

  "Yeah. I've been running for so long and avoiding people—natural instinct when running as a cougar—but after shopping yesterday, I must have met
half your townspeople, so I figured what's the difference if I meet one more couple?"

  All the difference in the world, if they got lucky and could identify who she was and what had happened to make her run. He wished he could quash the guilt he was feeling. But they had to know how to help her if she was in danger. And it appeared from her every action that she was. He would be perfectly upfront with her, if he wasn’t afraid she’d feel the need to run. Instead, he worried what little trust she had in him would be shattered once she learned the truth.

  ***

  At dinner that night, Shannon met Yvonne and Rick Mueller, both blond with blue eyes and the friendliest smiles. They, and everyone else in town, had been so genuinely eager to meet her. Though she suspected a lot had to do with wanting to know in the worst way why she'd come here the way in which she had. But everyone was being ultra-polite in not asking the question straight out. And she appreciated it more than they could ever know.

  She was somewhat apprehensive to see the sheriff’s car there. The last time she’d seen him, she’d assaulted him, knocking him flat on his back. But he never had said anything about charging her with it, so she finally relaxed—a little. She still felt she was under a magnifying glass since Dan and Chase were lawmen. No matter how much she wanted to see Chase as just a nice and helpful guy, she had to remind herself he had a badge, her cop boyfriend was dead, she would be a murder suspect, and cops stood together when it came to one of their own.

  They'd talked about the weather and all kinds of inane subjects and Shannon finally asked, "So do you have any hobbies?"

  Everyone just looked at her and then at each other. She didn't mean for it to be such an abrupt conversation stopper. She shrugged. "I used to do a lot of photography—for a hobby. I’m not a professional photographer or anything."

  "Photography," Yvonne said. "Now I can get into that. Love to do it, but like you, just a hobby."

  "Fishing," both Dan and Rick said.

  "Me, too," Chase said.

  Silence.

  "I love reading. Haven't done any in a while, though," Shannon said.

  "We have a nice library," Yvonne offered.

  "We can run by sometime this week and get you a library card," Chase said.

  She smiled a little. She wasn't setting down roots. She didn’t even have any ID, though she suspected that the local library would still give her access to the books if the sheriff and his deputy vouched for her. She guessed no one read much, so she didn’t mention what she liked to read.

  Silence.

  "We're glad you found your way here. It's the perfect place to raise one of our kind," Yvonne said.

  As if Shannon was ready to have kids even. "I won't be staying," Shannon said. She couldn't lie about it.

  Yvonne looked sympathetic. "We'll look out for you. Believe me. You have no need to worry about anything. Truly."

  She swore Yvonne was trying to tell her that no matter what the circumstances surrounding Shannon's flight, they were behind her. But they didn't know her boyfriend's family.

  Even so, at the thought that Yvonne and the others would take her in like that, she couldn't help the tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you. I… I believe you're sincere. All of you."

  "But?" Yvonne asked.

  Shannon shook her head. She didn't want to cause trouble for these people. Hennessey was sure to come after her here eventually. She suspected Hennessey, his brother, Roger, and their Uncle Murphy were all getting kickbacks on whatever illegal business they were involved in as close as they all were. And they most likely all had a stake in Ted's death.

  Then suddenly she thought—what if they believed she knew all the details of their criminal activities? Maybe they knew her background. That her brother had been in trouble with the law and they felt comfortable that she hadn’t come from a law-abiding family. But then they worried that she knew too much. Well, besides that Hennessey murdered Ted in cold blood.

  Yvonne patted Shannon's shoulder. "We'll protect you."

  Shannon immediately was drawn out of her worrisome thoughts and at once felt self-conscious as everyone watched her reaction. She didn’t think they could protect her. Not always.

  Then Dan began talking about the cougar hunting season coming up and how dangerous that was for their own kind.

  She swore they were discussing it to remind her how dangerous it could be soon if she decided to run as a cougar. Not that some hunters didn't illegally kill cougars—or other animals—out of season.

  She enjoyed the delightful dinner of spicy spaghetti, Italian garlic bread, and a salad while the conversation switched to the weather and fishing and then the chocolate cake was served up. She was amused to see both Rick and Chase take second large helpings and she was pleased they’d enjoyed it so much.

  To Shannon's surprise, Rick talked about a mission that the three men had been on while in the army. She hadn’t realized he'd been a military man also. Unlike Chase and Hal’s, Rick’s hair was cut shorter, more military style like Dan’s was.

  She remembered her father talking with her brother when they were little about having served in the army, and she wished that her father had known how proud she’d been of him for having done so.

  “My father…” As soon as she spoke the words, she abruptly stopped and felt her face heat as all eyes were upon her. They were waiting anxiously, trying to appear not to be, while she gave them some hint of who she was. She was becoming too free with her words. Drinking the wine, eating the good food, having a nice conversation, and being so comfortable with everyone as friendly as they were, she almost forgot to keep her guard up. "Have any more of the men in the town served in the military?" Shannon asked, changing the subject.

  There was a pause. They had to know she wasn’t about to say anything more about herself.

  "Over the years, many have served in all of the major wars," Dan finally said. "Every year, in honor of our military, we have a grand celebration for the 4th of July and Armed Forces Day."

  "Oh, speaking of celebrations, Thanksgiving isn't that far off,” Yvonne quickly said. “We haven't really discussed it, but usually Dan comes over, and we've asked Dottie if she'd like to come and bring her two children. We'd love to have you and Chase," Yvonne said to Shannon.

  Shannon wondered then what Chase normally did for Thanksgiving. Surely, he didn’t sit at home alone. "I'm sure that I'll be gone by—"

  "We'll have to decide a little later," Chase said, coming to Shannon's rescue, or maybe he was just rescuing himself from the holiday fare.

  When the meal was through, Shannon offered to help clean the dishes, but Yvonne shook her head. "Thanks so much, but I have my own way of doing things. Takes just a second."

  Shannon glanced at Chase, silently telling him she wanted to leave, but she didn't want to appear ungrateful. Even though she’d wanted to mix with their kind, she hadn’t realized how wearing it could be.

  "We need to go, and we'll definitely get back to you about Thanksgiving," Chase said, sounding as if Shannon was staying that long, when there was no way that she could.

  "It was so good to meet you, Shannon. I hope you are here for the holidays," Yvonne said. And then she, Rick, and Dan walked them out to the car.

  After saying their good nights and thanking Yvonne for the meal again, Chase drove Shannon back to his place.

  "What was that all about?" she asked, feeling a little wary.

  "What do you mean?" Chase said, sounding cautious.

  Shannon didn't say anything for a few minutes as he drove down the dark road through the woods to his cabin resort as she tried to think of what to say without sounding like she was being totally paranoid. "I… I feel like this is The Stepford Wives’ town, except that everyone is too nice. Too caring. Too eager to be my best friend. Not just the women like in The Stepford Wives, but everyone."

  "We're a friendly town—toward everyone—human visitors, cougars—but believe me when I say that a female cougar traveling alone the way in whi
ch you have has rallied everyone to want to take care of you. No secret agenda. Everyone wants to help you out, Shannon. We understand what it's like being a shifter in a human world. We know how dangerous it can be for one of us who has no support system. We want to provide you with that support system. No strings attached."

  "All right. Thanks. I'm… sorry if I sound suspicious of people's motives when they don't know anything about me."

  "I understand. We won't put you at risk.”

  "Which means practically your whole town, right? Or someone could accidentally mention me to others." She couldn’t help worrying that someone would blog about her or put the story on Facebook, something that might alert Hennessey as to where she was.

  "Our whole town. We work together, play together, take care of each other. If we didn't, who else would?"

  Shannon sighed. "Sorry. It's just… so hard for me to trust anyone after all that's happened."

  "I understand. You'll be all right here, Shannon. One thing about the people here is that everyone is aware of your dire circumstances. If anyone hears of anyone asking questions that could pertain to you, this information will be reported right back to Dan. He'll get in touch with me at once."

  "Thank you," she said. Though she didn't entirely trust everyone. What if they learned the real trouble she could cause them and decided being one of them just wasn’t good enough?

  Chapter 9

  Later that night, Shannon was half dozing in the bedroom when she heard something—outside, she thought. She wasn't sure what the noise had been.

  A scratching? She thought that once she was inside a cabin like this, she’d sleep better than when she had to attempt to sleep in the wilderness, fending for herself.

  She got up and moved the table away from the door, then opened it. In the dark, she made her way into the living room and heard something bumping into something outside.

  A trashcan?

  Her heart racing, she peeked out the living room window curtains and saw a black bear trying to get into a bear-proof trashcan. She took a calming breath. She was safe, she told herself. Not like when she was running in the wilderness as a cougar. But her heart was still beating a million miles a minute.