Saving the White Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 9)

by Terry Spear

  "No. See, if I had seen a rare white cougar, I would have gotten a picture of it. Instead, what do they want to do?" Stella asked.

  "Shoot it."

  "Right. Then if they truly had seen a white cougar and killed it, they'd take pictures of the dead animal and share it all over," Stella said.

  "Morbid."

  "Exactly." If nothing else, maybe Stella could impress upon the ladies that the cougar could be a thing of beauty, not just a predator to kill.

  "Did they kill the rattlesnake? The ranch hands?" Tori asked.

  "Oh, I don't know. I never asked." Nope, the rattlesnake had only been protecting himself, and there wasn't any reason to kill it. "They might have rehomed it."

  One of the women shivered. "Hate snakes."

  "Think of it this way, if someone can capture it, they can have antivenom for someone who might need it later."

  "True," Tori said.

  Stella couldn't quit thinking of Ted though, and taking her for a fun horseback ride, playing with the kids, and she couldn't wait to go to the party.

  "Hey, so some of us are going to a Halloween party on Friday night. Did you want to go to it?" Tori asked, changing the subject.

  "I've got one to go to."

  "Oh, who's hosting it? Maybe it would be more fun than the one I'm going to. Or I could go to both."

  Stella shouldn't have mentioned it. "It's a by-invitation only."

  "You leave for three days, get shot up, and come back with an invitation to a special event. So where is it being held?"

  "Yuma Town."

  "It's been a while since I drove through there. Who's giving the party?"

  "The Havertons." Stella hoped Tori wouldn't ask her any more questions about it. It was an all-cougar event, and she was thrilled to be going to it, and it really was a private event, by-invitation only. Then she had a notification on her phone showing that she had a package.

  She glanced at the email.

  "What's that?" Tori asked.

  Stella showed her the email that had a picture of the item she had ordered. The beautiful gown for the western-themed Halloween party.

  "Ohmigod, that's beautiful. Not a vampire and witch affair, then."

  "No, it's my favorite party theme too."

  "Oh, yeah, I know. You want to watch westerns mostly. That's okay, I'm going as a witch to the Halloween party I've been invited to. You can still come if you want. And be the belle of the party." Tori smiled, then answered the phone for work.

  By lunchtime, Stella had received ten messages from Ted, all photos of the activities they'd participated in that she hadn't realized anyone was taking pictures of—her riding Celestina, the beautiful appaloosa with the white bottom and chestnut colored body and spots all over her backside. She was such a sweet horse and Stella loved that Ted had picked her out of the stable of horses to ride for the very first time.

  Then he'd taken a picture of her watching the waterfall, and she hadn't realized he'd taken that either. One of the nurses had snapped a shot of them leaving the clinic as if to commemorate their time together, which Stella thought was sweet.

  She noticed no one had taken a picture of her as a wounded white cougar, and she was glad for that.

  When Stella went home that night, all she could think of was Ted grilling steaks for them, roasting marshmallows at sunset, and hearing the owls hoot off in the woods and how much she missed being with him. And being shot at by hunters while running as a cougar!

  Ted sent another text as she was getting ready to make herself a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner: Missing you terribly. I didn't realize we were being documented together, except for the one photo I took of you at the waterfalls. But I wanted to share them with you.

  She texted back: I'm missing you too. It's not the same being here at my apartment now that I'm all alone. I had such a wonderful time with you at the bunkhouse and everything we did together. I can't believe I forgot to say goodbye to Celestina when I left.

  Ted: I'll give her an apple and say it's from you. I wish you were here too.

  She smiled and texted: It's a deal.

  He texted: How did things go at work for you today?

  Stella: Oh, no one believed I had been shot. I mean, it wasn't that they thought I out and out lied about it, but there was nothing in any news reports about it—everyone had looked when I called in sick—and of course they were curious how bad the injuries were. So that meant I had to show them off to satisfy their curiosity.

  Ted: And they finally believed you.

  Stella: Yeah. And I'm sure they felt guilty if they had some notion I had just made up a wallop of a story to have a three-day vacation.

  Ted: We decided not to put the news in the local paper because we don’t want to have droves of people coming here, looking for a dead white cougar. We’ll try to keep the lid on the story about the white cougar and just say the men were shooting at a cougar.

  Stella: Okay, good. How are things going on the Halloween party preparations?

  Ted: Good. It's a lot of work but I'm sure you'll really enjoy it. Let me know if you want me to pick you up and take you there. How are you feeling? I should have asked that of you first thing.

  Stella: Good. A little sore. I won't be running as a cougar for the rest of the week, though maybe by Friday I could do it.

  Ted: Only if you're here with us.

  Stella: Yes! I'm not going to look for a new place to run for now.

  Ted: Kolby's made us dinner, so I'm going to go eat with him. But I just wanted to check on you, send the pictures, and make sure everything's okay at work.

  She smiled and texted: Thanks. It is. And thanks for the pictures. Night, Ted. See you soon.

  Chapter 9

  With all the texts Ted had sent Stella, he hoped she wouldn't think he was bugging her all the time while she was back in Grand Junction, but he couldn't help himself.

  He had an important mission today. He had to go in and talk to Larry Pierce about drawing up a will to give everything he owned, should he die, to his niece and nephew and grand nephews. But he had an ulterior motive too. He had to find a job for Stella so she could live in Yuma Town and be among their kind.

  As soon as he went into the office that located between the bank and the newspaper office, he saw Roberta Barrington, Larry's receptionist, on the phone and she smiled and motioned for him to take a seat.

  Normally, Ted figured the lawyer wouldn't be that busy with business here in Yuma Town, no one seemed to get divorced, no custody cases, but a lot of folks had been going to Loveland for other legal business and so Larry was swamped.

  "He has got you down for your appointment," she said to Ted, "but he's got a potential client calling from jail and he needed to speak with him."

  "Sure, no problem." Then Ted frowned. "From our jail? Yuma Town? You mean Jeffrey Sims and his buddies?"

  "Yeah, I know." Roberta rolled her eyes. "Mr. Pierce won't take the case, you know, but he had to take the call. If he took the case, he would make sure they didn't get a finding of innocent. In fact, he said he's ready to take Stella White's case concerning them to trial in civil court."

  "That's good news. Actually, I came to speak to him about Stella also."

  "Oh." Roberta smiled. "Good. Larry, uhm, Mr. Pierce is so grateful to be here, he wants to prove to the community that he'll protect us like no other lawyer can."

  "Actually, I wanted to talk to him about hiring Stella on as a paralegal."

  Roberta's eyes widened. "Oh, yes, he so needs a trained paralegal. Stella's one? I've been muddling through for him, but really, all I can do is take phone calls and I've been managing his finances and filing for him. Which is a lot, actually, but the other stuff? A paralegal needs to do the research and filing motions and stuff like that." Then she smiled. "You want to date her. You are dating her. My brother told me you were. Jack said you were the first one to give her emergency medical aid."

  "Yeah, I'm dating her. But she needs to be with us,
with the cougar community. And she needs to be employed by another cougar. The whole set up couldn't be more perfect."

  "I'll say. Poor Mr. Pierce is just swamped. He had a paralegal all lined up to come down here—she's a cougar who was working in the human legal firm he was working at in Denver. But she got cold feet. I think her family didn't want her to move so far away. Anyway, so when she backed out, he had to go on his own, and he thought maybe eventually I could get the training to be a paralegal, but it would take so much time. He really needs one now."

  The phone rang and she had to answer it.

  Then Larry stepped out of his office and motioned Ted to come into his office. "How's Ms. White doing?"

  "She was feeling well enough to return to Grand Junction to work for Brown and Sons."

  "The legal firm?" Larry asked, taking a seat while Ted sat in a leather chair across from his hardwood desk.

  "Yeah, she's a paralegal with Brown and Sons, and I wanted to see if you were in need of one."

  "Oh, yeah, I sure am. I'm just swamped with work to do. I never figured I'd be this busy." Larry smiled. "But I'm glad to be as long as I can help my fellow cougars out. Was she inquiring about a position with me?"

  "Uh, no, but I wanted to see if you even needed anyone, before I talked with her about it."

  "Ah, you want to date her."

  "I'm dating her." Ted wanted everyone to know that!

  Larry smiled again. "Yes, I would love to have her work for me. And I still intend to talk to her about making a civil case against the men who shot her. Ballistics haven't come back to prove which man, or if more had done the deed, but they were all shooting, so they're all culpable. And there will be no charge to her for my services."

  Ted nodded. "I'm sure she will be glad to hear the news." Now if only he could convince her she needed to work for Larry Pierce.

  "Okay, thanks. If you need me to call her up and beg for her to come work for me, just let me know. Roberta can tell you I'm a nice guy to work for."

  "He is," Roberta called out, "and I'm not just saying that to keep my job."

  Ted chuckled.

  "You said you needed an updated will."

  "Yeah." Of course if Ted ended up mating with Stella, it would have to be updated again, which was another good reason for having a lawyer right here in town. "The last time I had one done in Loveland, my other nephew wasn't married. They're expecting twins in the spring. I want to include them too, in addition to my niece and my grand-nephews."

  "I can take care of that right away."

  Ted handed him the old will and began filling him in on details of how things needed to be set up.

  He was feeling good about talking to Larry about hiring Stella. He just hoped she wouldn't be annoyed with him for doing so without talking to her first. But he felt it would have been foolish to mention her working for Larry Pierce if he hadn't been interested in hiring her, either because he already had a paralegal coming to work for him, or because he just didn't need one. What did he know? He was glad Larry did need one and that both he and Roberta were eager to have Stella work in his office.

  "Oh, and thanks for not taking on Jeffrey Sims' and his buddies’ case," Ted said.

  "Yeah, that would be business suicide for me if I had. And my sister and brother-in-law would disown me." Larry shook his head. "Not that I would ever take a case where I would have to defend a human hunter shooting any of our kind. There could be a case, if I thought about it hard enough, where a cougar was at fault, but I just couldn't do it. Not to mention I was there when all the shooting was going on and so was a witness." Larry let out his breath. “Which means I couldn’t be Stella’s lawyer in a civil case either. But maybe her current employer would do so.”

  If she was working for Larry by then, maybe not. "Did you ever have to handle a rogue cougar case in Denver?"

  "No. Those of us who are shifters stayed out of trouble. If any had done some major crime, I would have called on a CSF agent to deal with it and move the cougar out of our jurisdiction so he, or she, wouldn't be in our prison system. Too scary to think of the consequences of that."

  "I agree with you there."

  Once the legal documents were prepared, Ted signed them and the lawyer signed them, and then he got a copy and Roberta filed the other. "Thanks, Mr. Pierce."

  "Larry, please. We're all like family here and I'd like to keep it that way."

  Ted shook his hand. "Larry then."

  Roberta got a call and said, "That's for you, Mr. Pierce."

  Then Ted was out the door and headed back to the ranch. He thought he would wait until tonight to call Stella with the job opportunity. He didn't want to interrupt her work and he didn't want to text her when he was afraid she might be annoyed with him. So he needed to talk to her upfront about it.

  It was lunchtime when he arrived home and he was glad Kolby had made lunch for them. He smelled the spicy, sausage spaghetti as soon as he walked in the door. He loved Kolby's spaghetti.

  "Thanks for making lunch for us." Ted hung up his Stetson.

  "No problem. I know how much you like it." Kolby set the plates of spaghetti on the table. He had learned to cook and take care of his younger brother, Ricky, which made it nice because Ted and Kolby switched off on cooking meals. “You know, you remind me of a lovesick pup.”

  Smiling, Ted set the silverware on the table.

  "I've never seen you texting like it was going out of style." Kolby took his seat at the table and Ted joined him.

  "I was sending Stella photos that everyone took of her and of us." Speaking of which, he needed to take pictures of Celestina and send them to Stella for the rest of the week.

  Kolby forked up some of his spaghetti. "Ahh. Did it convince her that she needed to return here sooner than later?"

  "I hope everything I do will."

  "See, that's what I said. You're like a lovesick pup."

  "Tomorrow—" Then Ted thought better of it. He would ask Tracey to help him out.

  "Tomorrow, what?" Kolby asked, his interest piqued.

  "Nothing." Ted wished he hadn't brought it up.

  "What?" Kolby wasn't letting it go.

  "I want someone to take a picture of me feeding Celestina an apple."

  Kolby looked puzzled for a minute. Then he smiled. "Stella rode Celestina with you and Pablo to the waterfalls. She's missing the horse? Not you?" He laughed.

  "She regretted not saying goodbye to her before she left. So I told her"—though Ted didn't know why he was telling Kolby all this—"that I'd give Celestina and apple for her. And it wouldn't be the same if I didn't actually send a picture of Celestina—"

  "And you."

  "—feeding her the apple." Ted took a bite of the spaghetti.

  "Right. Sure, I'll do it unless you think Tracey would take a better picture."

  "You can do it. The kids would probably want in the picture and then it would be a shot of all the kids and the horse and that might not be as conducive to convincing Stella she wants to be here."

  "Permanently." Kolby smiled.

  "This is great, by the way. Your spaghetti is always the best."

  "Thanks. That's why I always make it. I'm making the pirate spaghetti for the Halloween party too."

  "I can't wait to see how that turns out."

  "So when do you want me to take a picture of you feeding Celestina an apple?" Kolby asked.

  "After dinner."

  Kolby smiled.

  Ted shrugged. "That way Stella can sleep well, knowing Celestina got her apple from her."

  Kolby chuckled. "All right. Hey, did you talk to the lawyer about hiring Stella when you went in to change your will? I hope you did. I heard that he had a paralegal hired to do the job and then all of a sudden, she changed her mind. You didn't have anything to do with it, did you?"

  Ted laughed. "No, but I'm glad it happened if Stella wants the job. According to Roberta and Larry, the paralegal from Denver had family up there and they convinced her not t
o move to some out-of-the-way place like Yuma Town, even though we're cougar run. I'm sure they worried she'd meet someone and then end up mating him and not wanting to leave. And the family didn't want to have to move here to see her. Anyway, yeah, I talked to Larry about the job and he definitely wants to hire her. So I just need to talk to Stella about it tonight."

  "It's the other paralegal cougar's loss. Though, come to think of it, what if I'd had a chance to date her? Stella's for sure already taken." Kolby shook his head.

  Yeah, that was for certain, Ted thought, if he had any say in it.

  Chapter 10

  Stella was researching the background of a client her boss was representing when Ms. Brown came out to speak with her. "Jeffrey Sims called to tell us that he needed representation for a shooting incident at a horse ranch near Yuma Town. The one you were involved in."

  Stella practically held her breath. She couldn't imagine the lawyers from this firm would represent the bastards.

  "I didn't take the case," Ms. Brown assured her. "I told him it would be a conflict of interest because the victim, whom they shot, works for me. Then he proceeded to tell me you had been trespassing illegally on the Havertons' ranch, but we know that isn't true since you went horseback riding there, according to your own testimony."

  "Right." Though not before the shooting, of course. And cougars running on the property would never have been considered "trespassing."

  "I just wanted to warn you that they could end up getting another lawyer to represent them and he might be able to release them on bail."

  "What? They shot me!"

  "I know, but when we researched their background—well, you did—for the previous charges they'd incurred for trespassing and illegally hunting, you couldn't find anything on the men that would indicate they had been convicted of any criminal charges before that."

  Yeah, Stella couldn't. But that didn't mean they hadn't done a bunch of illegal stuff. Just that they'd never been caught at it or been convicted of the crime—because they'd never been convicted of criminal charges before that!