Cougar Halloween Mischief: A Novella (Heart of the Cougar) Read online

  Cougar Halloween Mischief

  A Novella

  Terry Spear

  Terry Spear

  Contents

  Cougar Halloween Mischief

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Terry Spear

  Cougar Halloween Mischief

  A Novella

  Terry Spear

  Cougar Halloween Mischief

  Copyright © 2019 by Terry Spear

  Cover Copyright © 2019 by Terry Spear

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Discover more about Terry Spear at:

  http://www.terryspear.com/

  Created with Vellum

  To Doni Miller, thanks for loving my books and my cover art!! You made my day!

  Foreword

  Synopsis

  Ricky Jones is looking forward to his first day on the job as a deputy sheriff in the cougar-run town of Yuma Town, but he doesn’t expect to run into his former girlfriend while he’s wearing his cougar coat. Now he wants her back in the worst way, but he’s sure she’s going to be even madder at him for dumping her three years ago.

  Mandy Richards is on her way to an interview at a hospital north of Yuma Town for the position of a Licensed Practical Nurse when she hits a cougar in the thick foggy night, a full moon silhouetted in the gloom on Friday, the thirteenth. Checking on the wounded cougar changes her world forever.

  But her most recent ex-boyfriend isn’t going along with Ricky’s plans to renew his relationship and things are bound to turn deadly.

  1

  Heading from Durango, Colorado to a hospital in Loveland where Mandy Richards had an interview for a job to be a Licensed Practical Nurse, she squinted at the road, barely visible in the thick fog cloaking the entire area. A shadow of something crossed the road, the third time in twenty minutes, but she suspected it was just her imagination. Her right tires spun on gravel, warning her she was on the shoulder again. She swerved back onto the road, glad she hadn’t met anyone else driving this way. Her skin crawled with a rash of fresh goosebumps. She had to drive so slowly it had taken her an extra hour to get this far. She should have left Durango earlier. At least she had a hotel reserved in Loveland for the night so she could do her interview first thing in the morning.

  A full moon surrounded in fog hung high above the golden aspen and made Friday, the thirteenth, seem even spookier. It was already six and the sun had set. Mandy glanced at her gas gauge. Less than a quarter of a tank. She’d stop for gas in Yuma Town. She should be getting there soon, she thought.

  Smiling, she took a deep breath and let it out, thrilled about the prospect of working in Loveland as an LPN and getting away from her boyfriend, if the interview at the hospital she wanted to work at turned out okay. This would be her first real job out of training, and she sure hoped she’d get the position.

  The leaves were already turning red and gold and orange in the chilly September weather. She loved this time of year.

  She stretched, trying to relax the tension in her muscles, her eyes still straining to see the road. She took a deep breath and sighed and swore she saw something move across the road again. She hit her brakes, but she figured she had to be imagining seeing phantom creatures running in front of her headlights, the gloom making it impossible to really make anything out. Tightening her hands around the steering wheel, she loved the fog when she was at home, not so much when she was driving in the dark on unfamiliar roads. Her headlights were unable to penetrate the gloom, some of the light reflecting back to her, making the visibility worse. She should be nearing Yuma Town soon when she thought she saw something rather big race across the road in front of her.

  Her heart in her throat, she slammed on her brakes but too late. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a phantom this time and she felt a thud and sent whatever it was flying onto the shoulder of the road. Her heart pounding, she immediately stopped the car.

  Was it an animal? A dog, maybe. It couldn’t have been a person. She thought it was running too fast and too low to the ground to have been human. She hesitated to get out of the car, afraid it was a wounded dog that could be vicious because of its injuries, not that she would blame him, if that’s what it was. She had to make sure she hadn’t run into a person or someone’s beloved pet. She couldn’t leave him injured on the side of the road. She had to see what it was and try to get help for it.

  “Nice, doggy,” she said, getting out of the car and heading around the front bumper, the headlights illuminating her, her car phone out so she could use the light to see what she’d hit. “Ohmigod.” Not a dog. A cougar was lying on its side and he, or she, looked dead, his eyes closed, and he wasn’t stirring.

  She felt bad that she’d killed the animal, her eyes blurring with tears. She must have blinded him with her headlights, and she hadn’t seen him in the thick fog until it was too late. She moved closer to check on it, wanting to see if it had a pulse. What was she thinking? She was a nurse, sure, but not an animal doctor. Even if she were one, this was a wild animal, not a domesticated pet. Still, she drew closer to it, trying to see if it was breathing at all, before she called animal control, if they had one anywhere near Yuma Town.

  The cougar stirred, lifting his head so suddenly she didn’t have time to react, and he growled and snapped at her, catching her outstretched hand. She shrieked and dropped her car keys next to his head as his wicked teeth dug into her skin, but he just as quickly released her as if he’d thought better of eating her for dinner tonight.

  He was probably too injured. She jumped back, favoring her hand. She should never have drawn that close to the wild animal. How was she going to get her car keys back now? No way could she try to grab them that close to those wicked teeth.

  His beautiful brown eyes were fluorescent in the light of her cell phone. He almost looked docile and innocent as he watched her, lifting his head slightly. He groaned, laying his head back on the pavement.

  Shivering in the thirty-four-degree weather when she was wearing just a sweater, leggings, and boots, her coat sitting in the passenger seat, she stared openmouthed at the big cat and started to back away to the driver’s side of the car, favoring her injured hand. Her breath came out in a frosty mist and she saw his breath slightly also. What if he was rabid?

  Even if he wasn’t, she’d could still get an infection from the bite. Her hand throbbing, she finally reached the car and jumped in, slamming the door, and searched on her phone to call animal control.

  She was shaking so hard from the cold, the bite, and feeling so nauseous, she couldn’t type on her phone to do a Google search and just called 911 instead.

  “What is your emergency?” the Yuma Town Sheriff’s Department dispatcher, Amy Mayflower asked.

  “I…I hit a cougar on the highway just out of Yuma Town. He—or she’s not dead, just injured. And I…he…bit me. I…I don’t feel well. I…I’d drive into town, but I dropped my keys by the cougar and I…I can’t get them.”

  “I’m sending help out your way right now,” the operat
or said, trying to keep her voice even, but she sounded really concerned anyway, which made Mandy worry even more. Did they know of a rabid cougar in the area? She envisioned a cougar biting half the population of the pets and people in Yuma Town and the cycle repeated as the animals bit others—like a rabid cougar apocalypse. “Just stay on the line,” the 911 operator said, interrupting Mandy’s morbid thoughts.

  She had been sure the operator would make her call another number and she was feeling so lightheaded and not herself that she was glad the woman was taking the necessary steps to get her help. Mandy hoped she was getting aid for the cougar too. She hoped they didn’t put him—or her—down. She loved all animals, even if it was a wild cougar that had bitten her. She knew he was only scared and trying to protect himself the only way that he could. But if he was rabid…

  Ricky Jones hadn’t ever been superstitious before, though his brother Kolby had told him that he was lucky he wasn’t working his first day as a deputy sheriff for Sheriff Dan Steinacker in Yuma Town on Friday, the thirteenth, during the full moon. He’d never expected anything like this to happen to him. All he’d wanted to do was take a nice long cougar run in the fog, so wrapped up in his thoughts about his first day on the job tomorrow, he hadn’t been paying attention to the only car approaching on the road.

  Worse, what were the odds that the car was being driven by his ex-girlfriend and she would actually run into him—with her car. Sure, if she knew he was her ex, she’d probably have wanted to. What a mess. Her keys were sitting next to his head, that was splitting in two. He could barely lift his head without blacking out. His leg was broken, he was pretty sure, as much as it was hurting. So much for starting his first day on the job tomorrow. He wanted to carry her keys to the car, leave them for her, then hide in the brush, so she’d feel safe to leave and he’d be safer, in a way. Except he needed medical attention. Since cougar shifters healed in half the time that humans did, he needed to have his bones set before they began to knit together wrong. He was also afraid he’d shift due to the trauma his body was experiencing. Sometimes that would happen. Then he’d be lying there in the cold, naked.

  Shooting pains streaked up his leg and he groaned again.

  Nothing could be worse than the fact he’d bitten Mandy, drawn blood even, the coppery taste still in his mouth.

  Everyone in the shifter community would want to kill him! They were never to reveal to a human what they were, firstly. And they were never to bite another human, which could lead to them turning into one of their own. He still wasn’t sorry he had turned his brother. What would Kolby have done without him, when they’d already lost both their parents and all they had was each other? And the reporter, Carl Nelson, had shot Ricky when he was a cougar, so he was fair game. Plus, Kolby had bitten Carl also, so maybe it was his bite and not Ricky’s that had turned him.

  Man, if Ricky had thought Mandy would be angry at seeing him now, after the breakup three years earlier, she was sure to be pissed at him when she turned into a cougar. If she did. And it was all his fault. With the way his luck was going—reminding himself about the notion that it was Friday, the thirteenth—she would turn. Guaranteed.

  He had a very noble reason for dumping her earlier. At least he could explain the reason for leaving her like he did. The other part? About being a cougar? About biting her? About turning her? That was going to take a little more explaining.

  Seeing her brought all the memories he’d shared with her back to life—going to the movies, taking trips to the lake, hiking, study time, just talking, and attending steampunk conventions with her, both of them dressed for the occasion.

  Her hand had swept through her dark blond hair, naturally highlighted with golds from the sun, whipped around in the chilly breeze, and her green eyes pierced him to the depth of his soul before she backed away to the safety of her car and got in and shut the door. He so wanted to talk to her, to tell her that he still really cared about her and wanted to get back together with her.

  Sirens were headed his way—an ambulance’s, Sheriff Dan’s, Deputy Sheriffs Hal Haverton, and Chase Buchanan’s vehicles too. He even heard Doc Kate Parker-Hill’s car’s engine. They probably had gotten ahold of the alert roster call-up and were trying to learn which cougar was unaccounted for. Him.

  Ricky was certain Mandy had told them she’d been bitten and then they would really be worried she’d turn and take off for the woods. They’d definitely be angry with him. If he were a dog, he’d be in the doghouse about now.

  In the past, once he no longer was an informant, he knew there was no getting back together again with her, not because he wouldn’t have loved to, but because once he’d been turned, he couldn’t see her. Then he smiled a little. Now she was one of them. Maybe.

  Then he frowned. She would probably hate his guts for doing this to her. He wondered what she was doing around this area. Maybe she’d learned he was living here and wanted to come see him.

  Nah, that was too much to hope for.

  He now saw the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles as they approached, and he was glad help was on its way.

  Mandy’s car door suddenly opened, and he wondered what she was doing. Why would she leave her vehicle when a dangerous cougar lay a few feet from her car? Help would soon arrive. She didn’t need to go anywhere.

  Then he heard a low growl. Oh. No.

  He saw her beautiful cougar face, reddish tanned fur, black markings and white under her chin, right before she tore off across the road, disappearing into the woods and the fog, limping slightly with her right paw. The hand that he’d bitten when she’d been human. He felt awful about it.

  He struggled to get up, to run after her, to pin her down until help could arrive to take care of her. But he couldn’t even sit up, his head and leg hurt so bad. He thought of shifting and hollering for her to stop, but he didn’t believe she would. If anything, she’d think he was human, and he wouldn’t understand that she was a cougar now.

  All the vehicles slowed down as they approached her car and parked. He heard everyone moving toward him, footsteps hurried as they rounded he car, spotlights sweeping the area while searching for him, not knowing yet that they would have to chase her down too.

  Man, was he in trouble.

  2

  Mandy had to be hallucinating. Did rabies victims hallucinate? As far as she recalled from her nurse’s training, victims would have a tingling, itching sensation around the bite area. Hers burned and ached like crazy. No tingling or itching. Flu-like symptoms would follow: fever, headaches, nausea, tiredness. She still might feel that way, if it took a little longer to come on. Though she was suffering from the nausea already.

  But hallucinations? She hadn’t remembered anything in her nurse’s training about that. The icy wind blew in her eyes as she ran as a long-legged furry critter, but she was warm at least. Still, she couldn’t believe all this seemed so real when she knew she had to be hallucinating.

  The sirens were wailing, getting closer to her car. So why was she running away? Through the woods? She needed help for her injured hand. Maybe she needed rabies shots.

  No. No. They’d find her passed out in her car and take care of her and do what they had to with the cougar. And get her car keys back to her.

  “Where’s the woman who was driving the car?” Sheriff Dan asked, looking inside Mandy’s car. “Ah hell, she’s gone.” He ran to join Ricky, his dark brown hair ruffled in the breeze, his blue eyes narrowed with concern. “Ricky. How are you—you have blood on your mouth. You bit the woman, she told the dispatcher. Shift. Tell us where you hurt.”

  Chase, Hal, and Deputy Sheriff Stryker Hill joined them. Stryker must have ridden with someone else because Ricky hadn’t heard his car’s engine. Doc Kate and the EMTs reached them after that. They were a welcome sight. Every one of them.

  Ricky struggled to shift, his body warming all at once and as soon as he was in his human state, he groaned out, “I think I have a broken leg. And, yeah, I bit my
girlfriend.”

  They moved him onto a stretcher and stabilized his leg and his head, then wrapped him in a blanket.

  “You’ve bashed your head too,” Kate said, her red hair hanging over her shoulders as she examined him, like she’d just fallen out of bed, which meant she’d already gone home from work and let loose her beautiful hair. “Let’s get him into the ambulance. What about the woman you bit? Where is she?”

  “She ran off into the woods.” Ricky’s skull splitting in two, he closed his eyes. “Yeah. As a cougar.”

  “All right, get him into the ambulance and take care of him, Doc,” Dan said. “The rest of you? We’re on a cougar hunt.”

  “Don’t hurt her,” Ricky said. “She’s my girlfriend. Mandy Richards.”

  Doc arched a red brow. “An old girlfriend?”

  “She’s my age.”

  Doc smiled. “I meant that she was your girlfriend before you arrived in Yuma Town.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is that why you bit her?” Doc asked, as the EMTs loaded Ricky into the ambulance.

  Everyone else was supposed to be looking for Mandy but waited to hear what Ricky had to say first.

  Not that he didn’t have a history of biting someone he cared about so that he could remain friends, but he wouldn’t have bitten his ex-girlfriend.

  “No. She reached her hand down toward me. I don’t know. I was startled, lashing out, just coming to. I…I thought the person meant to kill me, then realized it was Mandy. I couldn’t believe she was here. That she ran into me, though I can imagine she would have loved to when I first left her. She’ll kill me, now that I’ve turned her.” He let out his breath on a heavy sigh and groaned again.