You Had Me at Cougar by Terry Spear

Chapter 15

With rock and roll music playing in the background while Ava cleaned up the kitchen after having tilapia for dinner, she wanted to jump for joy that Chet was returning to see her, well, to drop off a prisoner, but he wanted to stay with her. She was glad they’d caught the man and she hoped he was the right one.

She did a little dance around the kitchen floor. She was going for a run for now. Chet would get in too late, and she still wanted to see if the she-bear was anywhere about.

She finished cleaning the kitchen, then danced out of her clothes, tossing her shorts, shirt, panties, and bra on the kitchen floor, then she shifted and headed out the door. She felt like she was on cloud nine.

While Ava was running, she found the scent of the she-bear again and wondered where the bear had been staying that she seemed so close by all the time. Had Jonathon or Blue found her? Or was she evading them still? Ava heard the flow of water falling from Rainbow Falls off in the distance and thought the she-bear had gone that way. At least from the scent trail she'd left behind, she had. Good. Ava was thirsty. She should have had more water to drink before she left the house.

But then way up ahead she saw the bear. She was smaller than the male bears, and Ava smelled the same scent here that she'd smelled at the cabin and the night Jonathon ran into her after she was treed by a coyote. She was certain it had to be Ursula and she was gaining on her. The bear was eating some blackberries and hadn't noticed her coming yet. She didn't want to startle her or make her think that a cougar was coming in for the kill and have a big fight on her hands. Ava was so far from her yet, she didn't want to shift and call out to Ursula to tell her that she was a shifter, a friend, and she only wanted to help.

Ava wanted to get closer first, and she was when she heard something behind her off in the distance. Voices. Male, three of them and no one she knew. She didn't think they were the bears that had been looking for Ursula either. They'd been running as bears before when they tried to track Ursula down.

Who else would be running around at night other than cougar shifters like Ava or the bear shifters. The only thing she could think of was hunters. She raced toward the bear, wanting to warn her, and that's when the bear turned and saw Ava running at her. Ava quickly stopped, shifted, and said, "Hunters." But she whispered it to her.

Then she shifted and ran to close the distance between them. Thankfully, the bear waited for her. Ava knew the territory and she could help her reach the perfect hiding spot. She shifted again as she got close. "Come with me. I can take you to somewhere safe until the hunters leave."

Ursula shifted. "Let's go."

Then they both shifted back, and Ava led the way.

"I see something that way. Movement. A bear," one of the hunters shouted.

They must not have seen Ava ahead of the bigger bear now. She was at the pool of water in front of the waterfall and jumped in, then swam across it. She finally reached the waterfall, climbed out on the rocks, and ran through the curtain of water.

Then Ursula splashed through the pond, swimming the rest of the way to the waterfall and pulled herself up on the ledge and ran through the screen of water.

They were standing behind the waterfall, watching for the hunters. Ava shifted and whispered, “Are you Ursula?”

The bear shifted. “Yes, how do you know that? And who are you?”

“Ava.” She held out her hand to shake Ursula’s. "I…I'm psychic and I'm an empath. Jonathon…came to see me at a fortune teller's booth, apparently having learned I could see visions. Anyway, I saw that you were at a cabin and another bear was after you. Blue? My friend and I met up with him later. He says you aren't Jonathon's sister."

Ursula laughed. "Hardly."

"So both bears are fighting over you?"

Ursula sighed. "Yeah. And I'm not interested in either of them."

"Well, we were worried about you. That something bad had happened to you since they couldn't find you. So I've been looking for you."

Ursula smiled. "Thanks."

"You know, I have room, if you would like to stay at my condo in the guest room for a while until you can sort out things with the guys."

"I might take you up on it for the night, anyway, if we can get ourselves out of this situation."

Then they heard the sound of men's voices and the women both shifted into their fur coats, feeling warmer and safer and they weren't going to talk right now, even though Ava figured the men wouldn't be able to hear them through the noise of the waterfall and how low they had been speaking. But the women could hear them with their enhanced animal hearing.

If the men did something crazy and went through the waterfall to see if they were on the other side of the falls, they could shift first. They would find two naked women, and hopefully wouldn't try to pull anything with them.

“I know that bear and cougar went this way,” one of the hunters said.

So they had seen Ava. She thought they’d only observed Ursula.

“The cougar might have gone up on the cliffs, but I don’t see it,” another said.

"It's getting dark. We'll set up camp here," the one man said.

Great.Ava glanced at Ursula who looked just as disgruntled as Ava felt.

"You think that's safe here with a bear and a cougar nearby?"

"We'll all take turns guarding the camp."

Ava had figured they would slip out when the men went to sleep. Then again, if the men were on the lookout, surely they would be watching for any moment coming from every direction other than the pond and the waterfall.

For now, they would just tough it out until the other men settled down for the night and fell asleep.

Ava finally laid down on her belly and Ursula followed suit. At least they could see the men setting up camp, erecting tents, starting a fire, heating water. But the men couldn't see them in the darkness. Not without the cougar and bear's night vision.

"That cougar could be up on those rocks there observing us," one of the men said as they sat beside the fire and warmed up a pot of chili.

That meant they would probably watch in the direction of the cliffs and waterfall. The cliffs were exactly where Ava thought she would go, but she wasn't sure Ursula could climb that steep cliff. Though come to think of it, bears could climb trees so she probably could.

"I'll take first watch tonight and the last shift in the morning," one hunter said.

"Yeah, I'll take the next one," another man said.

"Where do you think they got off to?" the last hunter asked.

"They could have hightailed it out of here, if they knew what was good for them. Or they could be sitting around waiting to make a meal of us. Which means no sleeping on guard duty for any of us."

Ava wished she had her phone. She would have called Dan and had these men arrested for illegal hunting. No one would even know she was missing. Not until she had to go into the bakery at four in the morning. Chet might come in about two. He might not even check on her, thinking she had to go in so early, he wouldn't want to disturb her.

Of course, she had no intention of waiting until morning and the hunters went back to hunting. She and Ursula would be out of here as soon as two of the men went to sleep and only one man was on guard duty.

Ava figured both she and Ursula would need to decide who left the cave behind the waterfall first. And once one of them was out of there safely, the other would take off and they could meet up and Ava would have Ursula follow her home.

Ursula had to have left her clothes somewhere. They would need to go there first. Maybe she had a car parked somewhere close by. Ava wished they'd had more time to talk before the hunters had shown up.

The hunters talked forever though, and Ava didn't think they would ever go to sleep.

* * *

Late that night,Chet and the others finally arrived in Yuma Town, and he called Dan. The sheriff and Ricky took custody of Benny Langston.

"Have you had any trouble with the ex-girlfriend yet?" Chet asked Ricky.

He shook his head. "She has been here already. But as far as I know, she returned home and that’s the last of it."

"Good. I hope so. I'm going to get some sleep."

"Is Ava putting you up?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, she is."

Dan and Ricky smiled.

"All right, thanks." Then Chet said goodnight to Bridget and Travis also before they headed home, and he soon arrived at Ava's place. The first thing he noticed was it was dark. She had said she would leave the light on. Had she changed her mind about him staying with her? Or had she just forgotten to leave a light on?

He found the spare key under the patio table leg on the back patio and let himself in.

As soon as he walked into the kitchen, he saw her clothes strewn about the floor. It reminded him of the first time he'd been to her place to stay, and she'd dropped her clothes all the way to her bedroom because she wanted to hurry and swim the day of Fourth of July festivities. But she had said she normally didn't do that. And since she had known he was coming, he figured she really wouldn't have done it.

It made him think she had shifted and gone for run as a big cat. But at this hour? He headed for the stairs and went straight to her bedroom to make sure she was sleeping there. He hadn't planned to disturb her, though one of the steps on the stairs squeaked when he stepped on it. When he finally reached her bedroom, he peeked inside and saw that the bed hadn't been slept in. He checked the master bathroom, but she hadn't taken a shower in it recently and she wasn't there. He thought maybe she was sleeping in the guest room bed, waiting for him to come him. He sure liked that idea.

But when he didn't find her in there, that really worried him. Before he stripped and shifted and went into search mode, he called Dan as he hurried down the stairs. "Ava's not home. She left the spare key for me, but her clothes are on the kitchen floor near the cougar door, and it appears she went for a run, but she hasn't returned."

"Did you check with her sister first?"

"No."

"I'll call Nina first and get back with you. Don't go until you hear from me, just in case she's over there for some reason, or she told Nina where she was going."

"All right. But make it quick." Chet didn't want to have to wait a second longer than necessary before he took off after Ava. Yet, it would be foolish of him to take off searching for her if she was just with her sister or at the bakery or something and was all right.

He got a call back from Dan. "She's not at Nina's and now she's worried. We're organizing a search party now. We'll meet you at the condo."

"I'm leaving now. You can catch her scent." Chet wasn’t about to wait a second more. He dumped his clothes on top of hers on the kitchen floor and then shifted and bolted out the door after her.

He prayed she was okay as he ran after her, following her scent. He had to find her.

He ran across a she-bear’s scent soon afterwards and he suspected Ava had been after the she-bear, to learn her story. But he didn’t think she would be out this late like this if she’d met up with the woman and had talked. Not when she knew he was coming in to stay with her and he would have worried about her. Which meant? She was in trouble, he was afraid.

Then he found the scent of three males—humans, following her. Following them? Who were the men?

Hell, they better not be hunters. He sprinted faster through the woods and thought all of them were heading toward Rainbow Falls. He figured if Ava was in trouble, she might have decided to hide behind the waterfall if hunters were after her and the bear. The she-bear might not know a safe place to hide like Ava did.

And then he finally saw the tents—three of them. And one hunter sitting with a rifle on guard duty.

So if the women were hiding behind the waterfall, they might not have been able to leave because of the hunter watching for them.

Chet wanted to pace. He wanted to snarl and tell Ava he was here if she was there. He wanted to shred the tents and scare off the hunters into the darkness. He wanted to join her behind the waterfall and let her know he was there for her.

But he needed to wait for the others to get here, to take these men into custody, while he remained here to protect Ava.

That’s when she shot through the waterfall and headed up the face of the cliffs, leaping from one boulder to the next.

At the same time, the bright full moon helped the hunter sitting beside his fire see her and he began firing at her. Chet slammed into him, taking him down, then leaped onto the cliffs, and headed Ava’s way. He thought she would have headed home, but she was sitting in a safe spot where the men couldn’t reach them, and she quickly greeted him.

“I was worried about you,” he said, shifting in the darkness where the men couldn’t see them and giving her a hug.

She shifted and shivered in the cool night air. “Ursula is still in the cave,” Ava whispered. “We need to stay here and get her out of there safely. But when the hunter shot at me, she’ll know she has to stay put.”

“I notified Dan that you were missing. He’s getting a search party together and they’ll all follow our scents. They’ll deal with the hunters and we can take Ursula home with us.”

Ava held onto Chet tight. “You are so my hero.”

He smiled at her and kissed her. Then they shifted to stay warm in their cougar coats and laid down on the rocks, watching the one man leaving his tent, scrambling to get dressed, and readying his rifle.

“Up there,” the one hunter serving on guard duty said as the last guy that was sleeping emerged from the tent, still pulling on his boots. “Two mountain lions. That’s the way they went up there. Shoot them.”