You Had Me at Cougar by Terry Spear

Chapter 3

Ava couldn’t believe Chet would stand near her booth for nearly an hour until she was done, and that he had been ready to tackle the bear if he hadn’t minded Ava and left. That was until they realized why he was there. She appreciated Chet’s help. She still was surprised that Jonathon was a bear shifter and had come here looking for his sister and another bear. She hoped no cougars would be hurt in the process. Well, and that his sister would be all right.

“Why didn’t you really swim or do something else while I was stuck in the fortune teller booth?” she asked Chet again.

“Everyone else appeared busy with kids and such. What you were doing was vastly more interesting.”

She smiled as she looked back and watched him paddle, his muscles rippling like the waters about the canoe. “Well, thanks for being there for me in case Jonathon had turned out to pose a real threat. I visited Alaska last year, and by mistake I ended up in White Bear where shifters run the town. So it turned out to be providence. Amazingly enough, a polar bear couple are psychics too. It was fascinating to see polar bear shifters, snow leopards, Arctic foxes and wolves, all shifters there. Oh, and they had grizzlies too. No cougars though.”

“I would love to see it sometime. What made you go up there?”

“I just wanted to take a trip up there. I had never been to Alaska. They were surprised to see a cougar arrive. I was surprised to see all the different kinds of shifters there.”

“Sounds like a fun place to visit, as long as no one minds cougars invading their territory.” Chet was paddling hard, expertly, as if he had been in competitions like this for years.

“They were thrilled to meet me." She glanced back at Chet. "Have you done this before?”

“Paddled? Sure.”

“No, in competitions,” she said.

“No, but I’m a competitive sort. Besides, you said we were going to win. So I have to do my best to prove to you that I was part of the winning team.”

Smiling, she glanced at the other canoes. Without him paddling, she would never have won. She and Chet were way ahead of all the others. She thought they had a good chance at beating the rest of the competitors.

“Do your predictions always come true?” Chet asked.

“They do, but you never know the exact context. Like this. I saw my boat coming in first, but I didn’t see you in the boat with me.”

“Which is a surprise”—he flexed his broad, muscled shoulders—“since I would think it would be hard to miss seeing me.”

She laughed. “Your muscles are getting a good workout. What I saw was me getting out of the canoe and everyone cheering me.”

“So you didn’t see me at all? Maybe I fall overboard, and you made it to shore on your own.”

She chuckled. “I’m sure if you fell overboard, we wouldn’t win.”

“Maybe we do this another time.”

“We might, but the premonition was so clear that I’m sure it happens now. And from the looks of it, we’re way in the lead.” They turned the boat around and headed for shore.

Chase hollered, “Hurry, we can’t let them win.”

“Too late,” Chet shouted. “We’re on our way to first place.”

To begin with, Ava hadn’t even planned to paddle in the race. She had planned to swim. “So do you know what we’re going to win?” She hoped it was something they could split between the two of them—a cash prize would be nice.

“A weekend at one of the cabins, and breakfast at Mrs. Fritz’s bakery.”

Ava’s mouth dropped. Okay, that wasn’t what she had in mind when it came to sharing her prize with her partner.

“We’re going to win,” he said. “You were so right on your prediction.”

They reached the shore, and everyone was cheering them.

She was glad they’d won, if nothing else to prove her premonition was correct, though she still wished the prize had been something they could have divided up equally between them.

Chase and Shannon and the others finally made it to shore. “Hey, we couldn’t win because we own the resort, so we’re glad the two of you did.”

Maybe Chet could pay her for half his win, and he could find a friend he wanted to share the cabin with.

Tracey handed Ava the gift certificate. “You’re hanging onto it, right? Or is Chet going to?”

“She can hang onto it,” Chet said. “We’ll make plans later for our stay, when one of the cabins is available and we're both free to do it.”

Ava wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she curbed the inclination.

Some of the adults and kids were flying kites. Some of the little ones were taking well-deserved naps on quilts under shade trees.

“What are you going to do next?” Chet asked, as if he thought he should tag along with her the rest of the day, just because he was staying at her place for the next couple of nights.

“Swim.”

“You're not going to take part in the fishing contest?”

“Only if I got to do it as a cougar. I’m good at it, but not as a human.”

“I can teach you.”

“Are you lonely?” Did Chet think he had to keep her company because she was on her own? Or did he want to date her or something?

He chuckled. “I’m on my own. You’re on your own.”

“I’m going swimming.” She headed for her bag, left the gift certificate in it, then made her way to the water.

He didn’t follow her, but then said, “Do you want some company?”

She laughed, threw up her arms, and said, “Come on.” She swore that half of the cougars on the beach were watching them. It was a good thing she wasn’t thinking of dating some other guy she was interested in anytime soon.

Then Chet raced after her and she squealed. She was not a squealer, normally, but he just scared her in a fun way. She ran into the water and dove in. He ran through the shallow water, and where it dropped off, he dove for her.

They swam out to the floating dock and climbed onto it and sat down at the edge, kicking the water with their feet.

“I keep wondering if Jonathon has resolved the issue with the bear and his sister,” Ava said.

“Everyone seems to be on the beach. Otherwise, I’m sure there would be a number of us going out to help him. I’m sure he feels it’s a bear issue and a bear fighting a bear is a better match than some of us cougars.”

“A tranquilizer gun always works.” Ava noticed the kids were up from their naps and were building sandcastles.

“True, but sometimes the shifter kind have to take the rogue shifters to task using their animal instincts.”

“Do you often have to do that?” She didn't. Not while working in a bakery.

“Yeah. Since the CSF deals with rogue cougars, that’s often how they want to fight the special agents determined to take them down.”

“What about the case of the three men you just had to deal with?” Ava asked. “You had a partner, right?”

“No. Anyone who could have been a partner on the mission was on another case. And Leyton and Travis were working their own cases. Bridget is still home with the kiddos.”

“So you took on all three men at once?”

“We’re cougars. We learn to prowl, stalk, and take advantage of the situation. The three of them figured they had the lead. Three of them to one of me. They never thought I would get the best of them. It was a cat and mouse game for several weeks. I should say cat and mice—because I was hunting them.”

She was captivated by the idea, as much as she told herself she preferred baking to hunting, but it was in their blood—cougar blood. “Okay, so how did it all go down then?”

Chet rested his hands on the floating deck and looked over at her. “One of them was hiding in a cabin. The other two were waiting for me to come, sitting in trees, having the advantage of height.”

“But you still took all three of them down by yourself.” She figured he had to be really clever and outwit them to do that, not just stronger than all three cougars combined. She admired him for that.

“Yeah. I was wearing hunter’s concealment.”

“They didn’t need to smell you, just see you.”

“Right. I was at the cabin before they arrived. I overheard them talking about the cabin, its location and that was why they had to pick up food at the Chinese restaurant. It was the closest fast-food place to the cabin. Now, the problem was, were they telling the truth? Or did they know I knew they were going there, and it was a ruse?” Chet said.

“They weren’t that smart.” Ava figured it wasn’t a ruse because he got his men.

“Right, not a ruse.”

“But how did they know you were coming? I mean, they could have sat there for days before you caught up with them.”

“True, but they knew I was only a short distance behind them. Every time I caught up to them, they got out of my reach by the skin of their teeth. This time, I was going to be ahead of them. I reached the cabin first, looked it and the surrounding area all over, and then picked my hiding spot. As much as it doesn’t sound very brave, I hid under the bed, waited while they ate Chinese dinners at the cabin, and then they split up. Two went outside to sit in the trees on either side of the cabin to have the vantage point where they could see the door to the cabin and the windows in front and back. They planned to trade off, keep watching for me, and take me down. No more running.

“That worked for me. I was ready to finish this. I was tired of hunting them down.”

“So you took out the man in the cabin first.”

“Right. He was pacing across the living room floor as a cougar. He was the ringleader of the three men, murderers, all of them. When I was sure the others were gone, I came out and took him out before he warned the others.”

“It wasn’t a fair fight for you when you had so many to take on,” she said, knowing she would never be able to do something like that. Managing even one male cougar on her own would have been difficult enough.

“Yeah. No doubt about it. I waited for a while, thinking that maybe one of the cougars would come into the house, but remember how I told you that the one inside was the gang leader? I suspected that they were waiting for him to give them the word to switch off.”

“But if you went out the front door, the cat would look and know you weren’t the boss man. And then he would warn the other.”

“Exactly, and then I would have been facing two cougars instead of one. I might have still come out on top, or I could very well have been dead. The only thing I could do was wait for one of them to come into the cabin to see why the boss didn’t replace one of them on duty. He was supposed to go out there in three hours. So I had three hours to wait. Waiting can be the toughest job.”

“Then one of them came to the cabin?”

“Yeah, the cat out front. He waited fifteen minutes after the time he was supposed to be replaced. I figured he thought the boss was sleeping too long because he didn’t alert the other cat. Anyway, he came in by himself, I’d hidden the boss under the bed, and then when the cat closed the door and called out for the boss, I attacked.”

Though they healed twice as fast as humans, she noticed claw and bite marks on Chet’s shoulder and neck. She ran her hand lightly around the wounds. “He got you here?”

“They’re fading already. But yeah. The other cougar got me elsewhere.”

“He came inside?”

“No. I waited for about twenty minutes, recuperating from the last fight and then went outside and around the cabin to take on the other. He cried out to the others, telling them to come join them and take on the sole cougar.”

“But he was alone too.”

“Yeah.”

“But you had already fought two cougars.”

“I had. Which is why he had gotten a bite on my flank.”

She glanced down at his board shorts.

“It hurt like the devil, but it’s feeling better now.”

“And you did all that swimming and rowing? You poor thing.”

He smiled. “You know we heal fast.”

“Ava. Chet. Come have some birthday cake,” Shannon called out.

“Okay, coming,” Ava said. Then to Chet, she said, “Do you want me to return with a canoe for you?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Has Dr. Kate or Dr. William looked at your injuries?”

Chet smiled, rose to his feet, and dove into the water.

She still didn’t believe he was perfectly okay, or he would have answered her about seeing a doctor. A cougar doctor preferably so that he or she would understand the faster healing genetics and human police wouldn’t get involved in trying to locate where the cougar was that had bitten him. Male cougars were so macho and the worst patients. Ava was going to tell Kate as soon as she could locate her.

* * *

Chet was amusedthat Ava wanted to have his wounds checked out. He wasn’t about to see the doctor about it. The bite marks would go away soon enough. Ava could sure be persistent.

He was ready for cake and ice cream and singing happy birthday to the little ones—Bridget and Travis's twins, Theo and Phoebe, and Addie and Dan’s twins, Mitchell and Maddie.

Then there was the fishing contest, and he was ready to challenge the competitors on that. Later tonight, a big barbecue and fireworks were on the schedule.

As soon as he reached the shore, Ava was right behind him.

They all sang happy birthday to the two-year-olds, then everyone began getting cakes and cookies and ice cream.

“Chocolate?” Shannon asked.

“You made all these?” Chet asked Ava.

“Yes.”

“Which is your favorite?” Chet asked.

“Chocolate cheesecake.”

“That sounds good to me.” Once Chet had his slice of cheesecake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and Ava had hers, they went off to sit at one of the resort tables that Chase had made.

She was watching Chet when he sat down this time and he was amused. Was she making sure he hadn’t fibbed about his injury? It was higher up than that and he wasn’t sitting on it.

Ava was looking around at all the cougars gathered, then suddenly spied someone who got her attention. He looked that way and frowned. Dr. Kate. Ava better not call her over. The doctor was here to enjoy herself just like everyone else. She didn’t need to give resort beach doctor visits to potential patients when he was all right.

As soon as Ava caught Dr. Kate’s eye, she motioned to her to come and see her, and Kate nodded, finished talking to someone, and then headed their way.

“I hope you are asking her something about yourself. It better not be about me.” Chet took another bite of his ice cream.

Once Kate had joined them, Ava motioned to Chet. “He has an indelicate cougar bite mark that his board shorts are hiding.”

“It’s going away and healing. There’s no need for you to check it out,” Chet said.

Kate smiled. “All of you guys are the same. We’ll run over to the clinic right after we finish eating our cake and ice cream. I’ll grab mine too. And then we’ll be back here before the fishing contest. You’re fishing against the others, aren’t you?”

“I am. I know Leyton is fishing and I have to beat him.” Chet and Leyton were always in competition. He still couldn’t believe Leyton would get himself wounded, then he would take Kate hostage and end up mating her. Some guys had all the luck.

Ava was eating her ice cream before it melted, looking as innocent as could be.

He wouldn’t tell her any other war stories, if he ever had the chance, about current wounds he’d received in combat. He wouldn’t trust her not to tattle on him to a cougar doctor again.

“It’s really not any big deal,” he said to Kate when she returned with her apple pie and vanilla ice cream and sat down next to Ava.

“I will be the judge of that. Did you tell your boss and give him an incident report?” Kate said.

“He gave the orders to have a cleanup crew take care of the bodies.”

“That’s not what I asked you.” Kate wasn’t going to be bamboozled.

“I told him that I had been scratched. I didn’t tell him I was bitten. What do you think would have happened? I wouldn’t have been able to come and play with the rest of you at the party today. After what I went through, this was all I could think of.”

“I won’t report that you need further time off, if I look you over and determine you’re fit for duty.” Kate took a bite of her apple pie.

Chet gave Ava a cross look. Ava cast him a small smile. “Just think. After Doc looks you over, and says you’re well, you won’t have to worry about it any longer.”

“I haven’t been worried about it. Just about getting a room for the next couple of nights. And since you said yes, that solved that problem. But that’s the only thing I was thinking of.”

Dr. Kate finished off her pie and ice cream. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

“Are you coming too?” Chet asked Ava. “You instigated this.”

She chuckled. “Of course not. I’m not a nurse. Good luck with him Doc. Don’t let him give you any grief.”

“You’re going fishing with me,” Chet said to Ava. “Payback.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

Then he left with Dr. Kate. “You know this is a waste of your party time.”

“Are you kidding?” Kate said. “I would be up half the night worrying about you.”

He chuckled.

Kate smiled.

When they arrived at the clinic, he saw Mandy. She was glowing.

“Was the pregnancy test result positive?” Chet asked Mandy as she showed him to an exam room.

“Yes. I think Ricky’s still in shock, but hopefully by the time we have the twins, he’ll have come to terms with it,” Mandy said. “What are you in here for?” She weighed him, took his temperature, and checked his blood pressure.

“Cougar bite in the ass.”

Mandy tsked. “You guys sure know how to play rough. I hope the other guy paid for it.”

“He did. But I don’t really need to have this looked at.”

Kate came into the room wearing scrubs and looking like she was going into surgery. He could face any foe, but seeing a doctor who looked like she was ready to operate on him? That was another story.

“Okay, drop the shorts,” Kate said.

Chet smiled. “I bet you tell Leyton that all the time.”

Kate smiled.

Once Chet was up on the exam table with his ass on display, Kate said, “Oh my.”

“What?”

“That’s one nasty bite. It’s healing, but it’s showing signs of infection.”

“No way. I’m going fishing and I’m beating Leyton.”

Kate readied a syringe and gave him a shot in the butt cheek.

“Hell.”

Kate smiled. “Antibiotics. I’ll give you a prescription for more and I’m going to drain the infection, so I’ll give you a shot to numb the area.”

He might be all tough about some things, but when it came to cutting on him, he was ready for any numbing she would give him. As long as he could still fish.

Kate and Mandy worked on him, cleaning up the infection, suturing it, and bandaging it.

“No more swimming in the lake. If you go for a run as a cougar tonight, someone needs to bandage your wound again. The same thing with showering tonight. If you begin running a fever, come in to see me right away.”

“It’s going to heal up, Doc.”

“It sure is. If you do as I say. We might heal faster, but little things like an infection can cause real problems, even for us.”

“Congratulations, Mandy,” Chet said, “and thanks, Doc. I’ve got to get back to the party.” He pocketed the bottle of antibiotics in the pocket of his board shorts.

“Let’s go.”

Okay, so he might have been a little annoyed about having the doc check him out and felt it was all Ava’s fault when he didn’t need any help, but he realized she had good instincts. Then he frowned as Doc took him back to the party. Unless Ava had already had a sixth sense that something had been wrong.