You Had Me at Cougar Read online

  Dr. Kate had him pull down his pants so she could check the wound, and he smiled at Ava.

  She smiled back at him.

  Then Kate said, "It looks much better than it did to me last night. Ava tells me you were having fevers and chills last night."

  "Yeah, but then they were gone, and I slept well after that."

  "Get plenty of rest, lots of fluids, and take it easy. You don't want me to have to confine you to a hospital bed. I hear you plan to help chase down a bear in the woods. I would say no to that. Not for another day or so. If you have no fevers tonight and the wound looks more healed up by tomorrow, then we'll see. But I want to take a look at it again."

  He sighed.

  Doc smiled. "You guys are all the same. I thought only Leyton made for a bad patient, but I've learned all you guys do. Make sure he comes in to see me before he goes off on any missions, Ava."

  "I will. We were going to swim, but I think that is out, don't you?" Ava asked.

  "Yes. He doesn't have to wear a bandage now, but I don't want him in any kind of water unless it's to shower."

  "Okay, thanks, Doc," Ava said, giving Chet a look that he'd better mind the doctor.

  He sighed. "So what can we do?"

  "No running as a cougar," Doc said. "You don't want to scratch the area against tree branches and what not. Just heal, Chet, and you'll be all better in no time."

  "You can watch me garden some more this morning," Ava said.

  "All right."

  "You can sit with a cup of coffee at my table on the back porch."

  He wanted to help her, and he would, if she would let him.

  Then they left the clinic and returned home. He got a fresh mug of coffee and she got a thermos of iced water and her gloves and she went outside with him.

  "I guess you don't have another pair of work gloves for me," he said.

  "Not man sized and you're not working. Sit," she said, pointing to a chair at the table.

  He sat on the patio in the shade then to watch her, but he really wanted to help her. He folded his arms. "You know helping you to weed won't bother the wound."

  "You're my guest. You don't need to work. Just enjoy the day. You're not a workaholic, are you?"

  "I don't consider myself one, but I hate seeing someone working when I can help and I'm just sitting around watching."

  She clipped some shrubs. "You might pull up the wrong plants you think are weeds when they're not."

  "Ahh, there's the truth of the matter."

  She smiled.

  He got a call and she looked up to see who it was from, probably suspecting it was from Leyton, and it was. "Hey, Leyton. I'm on the patio resting."

  "Doc said you can't go with us."

  "Yeah, Doc said no running after bears in my current condition. So she called you?"

  "Yeah. How are you feeling?"

  "Great now."

  Ava rolled her eyes.

  "I have a pretty she-cat to watch while she's gardening and a great cup of coffee I'm drinking while I do it. What a life."

  "Kate said you're to be watched at all times. I'm under strict orders not to let you go on a mission until she verifies you're good to go."

  "I should have gone to Dr. William."

  Leyton laughed. "He would have been under strict orders from Kate too. Just enjoy your vacation. Ava will take good care of you."

  "I would rather be helping you guys."

  "You will, if we don't catch up to the wounded bear today. We'll let you know how it goes."

  "All right, talk to you later." Chet called his mother next. "Hey, Mom, I'm going to stay awhile longer here. I won't be going on the bear hunt today, but probably tomorrow. Or worst-case scenario, the next day. I'll let you know when I'm getting in though."

  "Okay, that's fine. Thanks for letting me know. I'm off to get some grocery shopping done."

  "Okay, love you, Mom."

  "Love you too, honey."

  Chet set his phone on the table. "You know I could clip the shrubs back like you're doing. I couldn't make a mistake in doing that. You could continue to pull weeds."

  "Thanks, but if you get sick again, I would feel it was all my fault. Just sit and relax."

  "I wonder if we could go boating."

  She gave him a look that said he couldn't be serious.

  "If I stay out of the water."

  "No."

  "We could take a walk on a hiking trail, no cougar coats. Just as humans."

  "The walking could cause friction between your pants and your wound, I think."

  "I could call Kate and see if that would work."

  "How about we play board games? In a nice clean house, no chance of getting your wound infected."

  "Yeah, that could be fun. Sure." He never thought of things like that. He tended to be all about the outdoors, especially in the summer.

  "Okay, then it's decided. We can watch movies later."

  "You've got a deal." Then he felt better. He wanted to do something and if she had fun doing the things with him, all the better.

  Once she was done with her chores, she went inside with him and she got them glasses of ice water and set out a stack of games. One that looked interesting was all about a dragon who was hoarding his gold coins until one of the players put him on a tile and a player could control the dragon with a certain move and force his or her opponent to lose a coin and be sent back to the beginning tile. The dragon could be moved up to three spaces in any direction, and Ava was the one controlling the dragon. No matter how many times Chet tried to move beyond the path of the dragon, Ava kept getting him, via the dragon.

  Chet smiled. "You're good at this."

  "I just got lucky. If I hadn't picked up that tile to summon a dragon, I would never have been able to control him and sic him on you."

  It was an entertaining game and he thought it would be fun to play with even more people. They played several games and then she checked his temperature, even though he said he was fine, just in case. “You’re good.”

  And then she went to fix lunch.

  "What can I do to help?"

  "I've got a roasted chicken in there and I'm going to make homemade chicken soup with the chicken from that, shredded carrots, rice, onions, cook it all together, and we'll have that. We can figure out dinner later."

  "Okay, sounds good to me."

  He helped her while she pulled all the chicken meat off the whole chicken and he shredded carrots and cut up the onions. She made the rice and then they put all of it in one big saucepan, added spices, and finished cooking everything.

  She heated up rolls and once the chicken was done, they had lunch.

  "This is great. I’ve only eaten chicken soup and rice that came in a can," he said.

  "Yeah, it's great when you're sick, or it's cold out. Though it's not cold, I thought it would be nice because you're—"

  "Not sick."

  "Well, true, just under the weather."

  When they finished eating, she started to clear away the bowls. Then they sat down to watch a movie, but he said, "You really don't have to stay with me and watch over me the whole time."

  "I know, but I'm enjoying your company. When you're gone, I'll be alone again. So this is nice for a change. Oh, I need to get the stuff out of the dryer and dry the sheets."

  "Here, I'll help you with that." Chet wasn't about to sit around while she worked, especially after he was the one that caused her to have all this extra laundry.

  She didn't seem to mind his help and when she pulled the clean clothes out of the dryer, she handed them to him. "You can take them into the bedroom, and I'll help you make the bed again."

  "You don't mind me staying another night?"

  She shook her head. "I know you want to help the other guys with the bear issue. If they don't resolve it before you can join them on the hunt, you're welcome to stay here at my place."

  "Okay, I appreciate it."

  "That means you get to grill chicken tonight if
you're up to it."

  "Oh, yeah, I can do that." He would love to do anything to help pay Ava back for all that she'd already done for him. He noticed she’d put the stuffed cougar on one of her chairs in the living room as if she were showing it off. He smiled.

  "So what did your mother think about you staying with a she-cat she didn't know in Yuma Town?" Ava asked.

  "She's already getting ideas. She has hoped for a long time that I would settle down. So I'm sure she's dying to meet you, even if there's nothing to it."

  "What about with Bridget?" Ava threw the wet linens from the washing machine into the dryer and started them.

  "I was Bridget's partner, but Travis was the one who charmed her into mating him. Bridget and I were a great team together, and we are great friends, but we didn't have what it took to make a couple. Of course, my mother wanted to meet her, and I had to tell her that there was nothing going on between us, as much as I had hoped for more. If you didn't know, both my parents were CSF special agents."

  "Aww, so your mom probably is more interested in you hooking up with another CSF agent and not someone who just works in a bakery."

  "On the contrary. She would be worried about a mate of mine who was in such a dangerous occupation. Now for Bridget and Travis it works out great. They work together on missions, see each other all the time, but then again, they have kids now and that makes it harder. She's at home while he's on missions, and she really wanted to go on them too."

  "I'm just a baker and I enjoy learning how to make new treats. Sometimes I create really unusual stuff, to challenge myself like they do on those cooking channels. I made the coolest zombie girl for Halloween that actually glowed in the dark. Florence loved it so much, she wants me to make a whole bunch of different ones to put on display in the windows for different occasions. That one sold right away for the Halloween party the town was putting on. But I can see making more for individuals who have a thing for zombies. Or, really, anything that I can paint with florescent icing for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays."

  She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of the zombie.

  "Now that is cool."

  "Thanks." They made up his bed then. "I'll leave a couple of towels out for you on your bedside table, once they have dried, in case you have any night sweats this evening."

  "I appreciate that. It really did the trick last night. I probably would have been freezing again, if I hadn't used those to help absorb the moisture."

  "I've done that before, when I finally realized I was sweating in the middle of the night and making my sheets and nightshirt all wet repeatedly after drying them out."

  While they grilled chicken that night, they enjoyed the cooler air and listened to the cicadas and crickets in the woods. She rarely sat on her back patio but with Chet it was really relaxing.

  "You didn't tell your mother you were injured and feeling poorly, did you?" Ava asked then as they looked up at the stars sparkling and the full moon all aglow.

  "No. There's no sense worrying her unless I had to be hospitalized."

  Ava scoffed. "Even then, you probably wouldn't have told her."

  Chet just smiled at her.

  They finally cleaned up after dinner, and she had been halfway considering allowing Chet into her bed, but instead, she came to her senses and kissed him good night and they retired to their own beds.

  But in the middle of the night, she was being chased by a bear and she woke with a start. She rubbed her forehead. Was it a nightmare? Or a premonition of things to come?

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, Chet woke to see Ava leaning over him with a thermometer next to his forehead, checking his temperature. He smiled at her. He was feeling like his normal self and he was ready to tackle any mission. He realized just how much he didn't want to leave Yuma Town. As much as he liked working with all the CSF agents, Ava was the one who made him want to stay there longer.

  "How are you feeling?" Ava asked as she made them eggs, ham, and toast for breakfast.

  "Great. No fever, chills, no pain." He pulled his pants modestly down to show her the wound. "The wound is healing nicely."

  She smiled. "Good. I won't have to have you drop your pants any longer to inspect your injury then."

  "Not for that reason, anyway."

  Smiling, she raised a brow.

  "I mean, if we want to strip and shift and run as cougars. Which, now that I'm able to, I'm ready. Did you want to run?"

  It was light out, but they didn't have to worry much about hunters in the area.

  "Okay, sure, I would love that."

  "Good." Chet called Leyton, "Hey, Ava and I are going for a cougar run. If you need me, we'll be back in a little while."

  "We haven't found the bear yet, so enjoy your run. We can get with you later to make some plans to hunt him down."

  "What about Jonathon's bear sleuth? Shouldn't they be the ones handling this?" Chet had wondered about that after they had offered their help.

  "It's our territory. I believe he was afraid of infringing on our territory, should a bunch of bears suddenly start running through the area. But you're right. I need to verify why they aren't handling it."

  Then they ended the call and Ava asked, "Are they wanting you to run with them instead?"

  "No, not until later. I think Leyton is getting some clarification as to why Jonathon's own people aren't dealing with this."

  "What are you thinking?" Ava asked.

  "I wonder if they don't know about it. That something deeper is going on."

  "Like?"

  "Maybe his sister wants to be with the bear and it's just Jonathon who doesn't want her to be."

  "Oh, a family feud. That would be awful. Especially if we involve ourselves when they need to handle the matter themselves."

  "I agree."

  "Are you ready to run?"

  "I sure am."

  “Wait, weren’t you supposed to see Dr. Kate first?” Ava asked.

  He slipped his boxer briefs down to show her his wound again.

  “Okay by me, but if you get worse again, it’s all your fault you didn’t have it checked out again.”

  “She has real patients to see and doesn’t have time to waste with me every day. Besides, if I do get sick, it will be my fault for not going in to see her again.”

  “All right, just remember that.”

  They stripped out of their clothes, then shifted and ran through the condo to the cougar door. Then they bolted outside. He wondered, offhand, what the bear shifters did about leaving their homes if they wanted to run. How would they get out of them in a hurry? A couple of the ones up on the North Shore of Lake Superior had gone into one of the resort cabins through the cougar door, but as humans to get inside and then outside again. As bears, they would have been too big.

  He and Ava ran through the woods and paused only to look up at a mountain of rocks, then both of them began the climb, leaping from one rock to another until they were at the top. He was glad they were cougars and could climb like this with ease. His wound wasn't bothering him at all, though when Ava looked at him with concern, he suspected she had been worried about it.

  He just nuzzled her face to let her know he was good and that he was glad they were up here enjoying the view as cougars. She nuzzled him back, reciprocating the affection. Then they looked out across the land and saw the lake off in the distance, mountains, forests, the beauty of the area. He took it for granted, he realized, when he was running through it just for sport and not really seeing the vast splendor. With Ava at his side, he wanted to take a pause and enjoy all of it.

  But then she saw something, heard something, her ears perked up, twitching one way and then the other, listening to whatever sound she had heard. He'd been concentrating on being with her and had missed hearing what she had heard. Then she bounded down the rocks and he tore off after her.

  That's when he heard a cat snarl—a big cat—and he wondered how he'd missed it.

&
nbsp; They ran together to help the cat—it was the reporter, Carl Nelson, who had been more recently turned—which had been a good thing for the residents of Yuma Town since he'd been looking for a story about them before he was turned.

  When they reached the area, they realized a bear had treed him. Chet would have laughed, if he could have as a human, though the bear could be dangerous too. It was the same injured bear they'd seen before. What the hell was it doing in their territory and now treeing their cougars?

  Ava glanced at Chet with a warning look not to shift and talk to the angry bear. He was sitting on his haunches, eyeing them warily. Carl wasn't moving from the tree.

  Chet had to communicate with the bear. He just hoped that Carl and Ava would take the heat off him if the bear charged him once Chet shifted.

  Chet shifted. "We need to know what's going on with you. If you and Jonathon have a beef between the two of you, we need to know that."

  The bear grunted and shifted. The guy was big, six-four or so. "Jonathon is the one who is at fault in all this."

  "He says you stole his sister away from him. Why not go to your sleuth to resolve this?" Chet glanced at Ava since she was the one who had seen the event in her premonition.

  "He has lied about all of it. He doesn't have a sister. Just a brother. Jonathon and I have been squabbling over a she-bear."

  That made sense.

  "And that's why you haven't involved your sleuth?" Chet asked.

  "Yeah, they tell us to deal with issues like this on our own."

  In the bear's way, Chet suspected. "Okay, well, Jonathon solicited us to help track you after he turned us down at the beginning. I'll let the others know that this is an issue between you and the she-bear, but don't kill Jonathon in our territory or we'll have to deal with it." And they needed to verify if this bear was telling the truth. "I’m Chet Kensington, by the way, special agent with the Cougar Shifters' Force, CSF. We normally go after rogue cougar shifters."

  "I'm Blue Bearsden. But this issue between Jonathon and me needs to be settled between the two of us, no one else."

  "Where's the she-bear?"

  "Ursula Brownstone has vanished. I thought Jonathon had her, and he thinks I have her, but I don't. We got into a fight a couple of days ago, and he got the best of me."