You Had Me at Cougar

by Terry Spear

  "Do you think she doesn't want to have anything to do with the two of you?"

  "No way. I'm sure she thinks if she's out of sight, we'll cool down over her."

  "Will you?" Chet asked.

  "What do you think?"

  "No." If Chet was fighting with another cougar over dating Ava, he would feel the same way. Though he hoped he would go about it in a better way. He was sure everyone in their town would shame him and another cougar into doing so if they both were too hot-headed to see the truth. Why wouldn't the sleuth do that? "Are you sure she's not in trouble since neither of you know where she is?"

  "No. She threatened to disappear. I just thought she was telling me that so I wouldn't fight Jonathon."

  "Why did you tree Carl?"

  Blue looked up at the tree where Carl still sat, not making a move to come down and join them.

  "He was chasing after me and what was I supposed to do? So I treed the pesky cat."

  Chet raised a brow at Carl. He snarled in response, sounding annoyed that the bear got the better of him.

  "Are we good?" Blue asked Chet.

  "Yeah, for now, sure. We won't interfere in dating squabbles between bears unless someone is killed, then that's another matter." Chet shifted back.

  The bear did too, inclined his head and ambled off. When he was far enough away, Carl finally came down out of the tree.

  Carl greeted them, looking thankful Chet had taken care of the bear, but Carl looked a little foolish that Ava was still standing near Chet and hadn't escaped to the tree like he had done.

  Then Chet nuzzled Ava and she nodded. They took off for home so he could call in what he'd learned from Blue.

  Carl ran behind them, as if he was ashamed to run beside them, or maybe he was just cognizant that Chet had been running with Ava as though they were now a couple, and he didn't want to intrude. But he wasn't going back to town on his own, rather, sticking with them in the event they ran into any more angry bears.

  When they finally were near town, Carl ran off in a different direction and Chet figured he was going for his clothes wherever he had left them. Chet and Ava finally reached her place and inside, they dressed.

  "I'm glad you heard Carl snarling. I didn't right away," Chet said. "So what's the deal about the sister/girlfriend angle?"

  "I guess when I saw a she-bear in the vision, I was sure it was a sister, not a girlfriend because Jonathon said it was his sister."

  "Was Blue lying? Or was Jonathon?" Chet slipped his shirt over his head.

  "I'm not a mind-reader like Bridget is. She didn’t say for sure." Ava pulled on her shoes. "I knew you were going to shift in front of the bear again."

  "Yeah, well, I knew you wouldn't jump into the tree for safety. I had to learn who the bear was and his side of the story if it had to do with Jonathon. Also, why he had chased your reporter up the tree."

  She laughed. "I have to admit, it was funny. I wonder if Carl was looking for a story. He was doing such a great job baking for Mrs. Fitzgerald, but once he had the opportunity to go back to being a reporter, he jumped at the chance to work for Roger and Milly Haverton. He's a good reporter, now that he's a cougar like us and not trying to get a story about us that would tell the world what we really are."

  "I'm calling Leyton to let him know what the story is—according to Blue."

  "I'm going to make some iced tea. Do you want some tea or something else?" Ava headed into the kitchen.

  "Water would be good." Then he called Leyton and once he had him on the phone, he said, "Ava and I went for a run and we ran into the wounded bear again." He told him all about it and then added, "I'm still not sure whose story is true." Then he mentioned the bear treeing Carl.

  Leyton laughed.

  Chapter 9

  Ava had a blast running with Chet as a cougar. She sure hadn't expected to see the bear and that he had treed Carl, which, if she hadn't been really worried about him, and the bear, she would have thought was hilarious. Of course, now she did, knowing that everything was okay, and that Blue hadn't been a dangerous wild bear.

  But the business with the sister/girlfriend bothered Ava. What worried her the most was what if the woman was really in trouble, and she wasn't just trying to get away from the two male bears so she wouldn't cause any more trouble between them, where was she?

  "Are you going to look for her?" Ava asked Chet, handing him a glass of ice water.

  "If the other guys are going to, sure."

  "What if the other guys aren't going to? Don't you want to know that she's all right?"

  "Are you having a premonition of her now?"

  "No." She led him to her back patio that looked onto the woods. It wasn't her woods, but it was nice that the condos had a nice woodland view. She couldn't imagine living someplace where all she saw were wooden fences and other homes or apartments marring the view of the wilderness.

  Chet took a seat next to her at the patio table. "But you're worried about her."

  "Yeah, aren't you? It would be one thing to keep out of sight of the two male bears, but why not let someone in her sleuth know that she's safe? I would want to know that it's as Blue suspects, rather than speculate she could be in trouble."

  "So what you're saying is if the other guys think there's not a case for us to get involved in, I should still look into it."

  She smiled at him. "That's exactly what I was thinking. And I'll help."

  He looked doubtfully at her.

  "Okay, listen, I might not be a hot shot special agent like you and the rest of the cats in the CSF, but my senses are just as good as the rest of yours, and I'm good at doing research. I don't have to help you though." She tilted her chin up. "I can do my own sleuthing."

  He smiled at her.

  She frowned at him and took a sip of her tea. "What? You don't think I can do it?"

  "Oh, hell, no. I think you can do it for sure, but I wouldn't want you to do it by yourself."

  "Just in case there is something wrong and she is in trouble."

  "Exactly. I wouldn't forgive myself if something untoward happened to you."

  "So what's our first step?"

  He chuckled. "I’ll check with the other guys and see if they want to investigate this further." Then he pulled out his phone and called Leyton back. "Hey, it's me, Chet. Ava's worried that something might have happened to the she-bear and wants to look for her just to make sure she's okay." He glanced at Ava. "No, she doesn't have a premonition about it. I know she's not one of us in the CSF, but she's got our cougar senses and she wants to do this with me if the rest of you guys don't think there's anything to it…okay, thanks. I'll let her know." Then he ended the call. "Leyton said he would talk to the others in his branch and let me know."

  A few minutes later, Leyton called Chet back and Chet put the call on speaker so Ava could listen in on the conversation. "Okay, here's the story. I got in touch with Jonathon, and he says that Ursula Brownstone is like a sister to him. That's why he called her his sister. That she doesn't have a brother to watch out for her and he's always been that for her. Blue is bugging her when she doesn't want him to. So Jonathon was trying to chase him off and stop him."

  "And you asked him about the business with her disappearing?" Chet asked.

  "Yeah, she does that when she gets tired of Blue pestering her and Jonathon trying to look out after her, Jonathon told me."

  "So Jonathon isn't going to look for her now? He doesn't want us to help them?" Chet asked.

  "Yeah, he says it's a bear thing like it's probably a cougar thing for us."

  Chet glanced at Ava. She smiled at him. "Okay, are you going to send out a team to look for her?"

  "No. Not unless we're asked to do so. We've got cougar cases to look into. But by all means, if you want to check into it on your own, do so. And if you need backup, don't hesitate to ask for it," Leyton said.

  "Okay, that sounds good to me," Chet said.

  "Are you and Ava going to look for her then?" Leyton
asked.

  Chet glanced at Ava to see her take on it.

  She nodded. "We're doing it."

  "All right. Well, if anything looks dangerous, you're responsible," Leyton told Chet.

  He knew Leyton was referring to taking a civilian on the mission. "Yeah, if it looks at all like we're going to have any trouble, we'll call you." And then Ava would be sidelined because Chet wouldn't risk her safety if it looked like they were bound to have trouble they hadn't expected.

  Then they ended the call and Ava said, "I know you all don't think I should be involved in this because I don't usually carry a gun and I'm not law enforcement like the rest of you, but you never know if I might end up having a premonition about something regarding her and then my being with you will be invaluable."

  "I totally agree, or I would say no to your coming, only because I don't want to risk your safety for anything. But if the bears are telling the truth, then she's okay, just cooling her heels," he said. "And if she's not, we can hopefully locate her and help her out. You know, even if she's fine, I wouldn't mind learning the whole truth of the matter because I'm not sure Jonathon is telling us the truth still.”

  “Okay, I agree since he has changed his story once already. So where do we go first with this?"

  He smiled. He liked a woman who was ready at a moment's notice to go on a mission. He just hoped the she-bear wasn't in any trouble and he didn't get Ava into a mess. Or that he didn't rile up a couple of male bears who wanted to keep the cougars' noses out of the whole business. He wouldn't blame them if they were annoyed with them. He wouldn't like it if a bear made cougar business his business. Then again, if a cougar was in trouble, he would welcome a bear's assistance.

  Chet said, "We find that cabin you saw in your vision and follow her trail. Though I'm sure the bears would have done the same thing, we can start there."

  "Let's go check it out. I've got some time off and I want to make sure she's okay."

  "Then let's do this." Chet and she left in his car to see what they could learn about the female bear.

  "I had a premonition before you came, that someone or something was chasing me. Before I could make it up a tree and out of danger, a bear came after me. I had to climb the tree and try to get away from him."

  "Bears can climb trees."

  "I know that. And fast. But I stripped out of my clothes as fast as I could and then I shifted and leapt out of the tree and headed for the cliffs."

  "Here?"

  "Yeah. It had to be here. The premonition where I hear and feel sensations that make it so real mean it happens soon."

  "You think we could be in that situation here? If we go looking for the bear?" Chet asked.

  "Maybe. I wouldn't discount it."

  "Where am I?"

  "I don't know. Maybe you were behind me. But I couldn't see you. I don't know who it was."

  When they reached the cabin, they found that no one was there, but they smelled both a female bear had been, and also Jonathon and Blue—the one who was interested in mating her, they suspected.

  They hoped all was well between the three bears. Ava wished they could have at least spoken with her to learn her side of the story. In this case, there were three sides to the story. What if Jonathon was the only one having a fit about Ursula seeing Blue? What if she left to keep the peace? Or maybe even was trying to secretly rendezvous with Blue there. Oh, that could be bad. Then Ava could have interfered when she hadn't meant to. Here, she thought she was helping out when she could have caused a worse situation to occur.

  She told Chet what she was thinking.

  "Don't overthink it. They're gone and maybe everything's acceptable with all three of them now. They could have worked their differences out. If we get another lead on them, we can look into it. But I think for now, this is all we can do."

  Ava had to agree with him. She was a baker, not a special agent like him who dealt in all kinds of stuff like this. Still, she wished she knew Ursula's side of the story. She wondered even where the bear sleuth was located. "All right. Let's go home. But I do have a question about this whole sorted affair. When we talked to Jonathon and Blue, they both indicated they hadn’t seen her."

  “She must have already left the cabin before they arrived.”

  Ava wished they knew what was going with the bear, but when they returned to the condo, Chet got a call, and she knew it wasn’t the greatest news the way he glanced at her. “All right, yeah, I’m on it. No, I’m well. All rested up. I’m on my way within the hour.”

  “Chuck?” she asked, when he hung up the phone.

  “Yeah, another day, another dollar. I knew the fun wouldn’t last.”

  She smiled at him. “You love doing your work.”

  “True. I do. And I love taking down the bad guys and helping our kind out. Normally, I would be eager to get back to work. But this time, not so much so. Truthfully, you are the reason for my change of heart.”

  She smiled. “Well, I’ll miss you too. I’ve had a great time also. I guess you’ve got to go now?”

  “Yeah, I need to pack and leave.”

  “Did you want me to fix a quick lunch for us while you’re packing?”

  “Yeah, sure, that would be great. Thanks.” Then he headed into the guest room and she went into the kitchen to make them grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

  It was quick, but a little fancier than a plain cold sandwich for the long drive ahead of him.

  “So what’s the case about?” she asked as she worked on the sandwiches.

  “A cougar stealing cars in Cheyenne. We just can’t let them get caught and become incarcerated,” Chet said from the bedroom.

  “Has he injured or killed anyone?”

  “Not that we’re aware of, but I have to stop this before he gets himself caught by the regular police.”

  “Okay, so what do you do when you catch him?”

  “If he only has stolen cars, not harmed anyone, he could be incarcerated here. If someone has died as a result of his illegal activity? He has made his bed.”

  “Well, you be careful.”

  He smiled. “But if I have a disaster like the last time, you’ll take care of it for me, right?”

  She laughed. “I would rather we could just have fun together.”

  “Yeah, I agree.”

  After Chet ate lunch at her place, he kissed her goodbye, but it wasn’t as much a kiss goodbye as it was a promise of more—sizzling, passionate, needy, and she was giving him as good as she got. She realized he wanted more, and she was feeling the same need. She really was going to miss him.

  Then he finally pulled his mouth away from hers, kissed her on the forehead, and squeezed her arms and left and she didn’t know what to do with herself. That had never been a problem for her.

  When it was early evening, she stripped off her clothes and went running as a cougar. She had to do something. Everything reminded her of Chet now. What was up with that? Eating meals here? Watching movies? Even sitting on the back patio watching the sun set.

  She sighed. She just had to get out of the condo and run, but that reminded her of Chet too.

  She headed toward the cabin where she had seen the vision of the she-bear, not that she thought Ursula would return there, but she just couldn’t quit thinking of her. And of course, she thought of doing that with Chet.

  Had it been a mistake to have done so much with him while he was here?

  No way. He’d really made everything so much more fun. The only regret she had was that he didn’t live and work here.

  She had been running for awhile when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw a male coyote coming out of nowhere. If a coyote thought to tangle with her, he'd better rethink his position. She was not in the mood for playing games. Then she thought she smelled the female bear's scent trail. A fresh scent trail. The same one they had smelled at the cabin. But what if it was some other bear's scent? Not the she-bear they were looking for?

  S
he hurried to track the bear trail, but the coyote was following her. Ava turned around and ran at him. She didn't want to waste her time on this. He turned tail and ran. Good. She hoped he would listen to reason. She wondered why he would even come after her. He had to realize that wasn't a good idea. Then she smelled the scent of a female somewhere close by. Oh, great. She smelled young ones too. He was trying to chase her off because they had little ones nearby.

  She took off in another direction, planning to make a wide sweep around the area where the den must be. She heard the small cries of the little ones then. Crap. She was headed toward the den, not away from it. Then she raced off as if the hounds of hell were after her, when she wasn't afraid of a couple of coyotes. She just didn't want to upset them. She had to let everyone in Yuma Town know that coyote pups were out here and not to come into the area. They respected other animals that had found a home here, and they didn't want to disturb them. The male coyote chased after her. Darn it. She didn't want to climb into a tree, though if she did, he couldn't reach her.

  But then Ava would have to sit him out and she didn't want to have to do that. It was one thing for her to leap into a tree because she wanted to. Quite another to be treed by an animal. Then she saw a bear racing toward her and the coyote. She frowned. What now?

  The bear was running so fast, she was impressed. She realized he would be impossible to outrun as a human. She hadn't seen Jonathon in his bear fur coat, and she wondered if that's who it was. Or maybe the female he had been after? Or it could be just some full-time bear. She couldn't smell his scent on the breeze. The wind was carrying Ava’s scent to the bear instead.

  She leapt up into a tree.

  The coyote was so busy barking and pawing at the tree, trying to reach her, he hadn't yet noticed the bear's approach. Then he suddenly must have heard the bear or felt the bear's heavy weight pounding on the earth, or seen him in its peripheral vision, because the coyote suddenly turned and then ran off, leaving her alone to face the bear threat. If it was one. Cowardly coyote.

  The bear finally reached the tree and shifted—Jonathon. "You're the one who gave me a fortune telling reading earlier. I smell your scent."