by Terry Spear
She just watched him.
He sighed and shivered. "You're malnourished. You can't run forever. Cougar hunting season begins in two weeks. We'll talk. You tell me what's wrong. We'll figure out a way to help you no matter what the trouble is."
She looked back toward the forest.
"The sheriff's on his way. Since he’s on foot, human style, it'll take him a while." He didn't want her to think they were going to gang up on her if Dan suddenly made an appearance.
She swung her head around to look at Chase again, panic in her expression.
"We're buddies from the war. Special Forces. We’ve known each other forever."
She again looked warily at the forest.
"He's a good guy. He's the reason I returned here after my family died. The whole place is cougar shifter run. We all do our own things, but we all watch out for each other also. You're safe here. We might have to take it a little slow on the return trip, though."
She stared at him now.
"After you knocked me down, I think I suffered a bit of a concussion. When I shifted so I could talk to you, the pain in my head was so great, I guess I passed out. I kept seeing two of you. I ran into trees, and before that, I missed the last ledge I meant to jump down to get off the mountain. Luckily, the drop was only about fifteen feet or I could have killed myself."
He really hadn't meant to mention that part, either. It didn't sound macho enough. On the other hand, he really wanted to impress upon her that he wasn't in any shape to chase after her, she wasn't in any shape to run, and they'd all be better off sticking to his plan—going with him to his home.
So when had he forgotten the part about how Dan was supposed to take her home with him?
Maybe because Chase thought the she-cat might be beginning to trust him a little and hadn't run off, and because he did have a separate place for her to stay so she didn't have to feel closed in or smothered. Or that she was a prisoner of sorts, her every move being watched.
"The places I rent are all empty now with the tourists gone. So it's quiet. The grocery store is already closed for the night, but I can run into town and get you some food for tomorrow. You'll have everything you need, free of charge. Kitchenette, hot showers, and a comfortable bed. What do you say?"
She heard movement in the trees, and he prayed it was Dan and not someone else who might think the cougar had injured him. Even though she had.
Then he saw Dan stalking out of the trees. He was carrying Chase's rifle, a backpack, and Chase's coat was tucked over that so that it appeared he'd retrieved all of his things. Chase hadn't relished climbing back up the mountain and back down again, in the event his head was still not quite right.
“Thank God, you’re here.” Chase turned to tell the woman he was shifting back into his cougar form, but she’d bolted. “Hell and damnation.” He was so cold and stiff that he welcomed the change in his skin and muscles and bones, the warming effect and the fur protecting him from the chilling night breeze. At least he didn't pass out this time. His head still throbbed, but he was seeing clearer now.
He swayed a little on his feet, but then he went after her.
“No!” Dan said. “I’ve got all your stuff. Here, change, I’ll run her down.”
Chase was on it. He didn’t want to run as a human, though he realized he wasn’t quite moving at his usual cat-in-a-rush speed. He heard Dan dump everything and run after him, and even as a human, he caught up to him.
Then he saw her up ahead, lying on her side, panting, her eyes closed. Was she faking being knocked out? He never would have imagined she could have lasted this long though. Still, as he approached her, he used caution.
Dan’s footfalls were heavy behind him as he ran to catch up.
“Is she out for good?” Dan asked, drawing up close to Chase, but waiting for his say so.
Chase growled a little. He moved up close to her, meant only to nudge her, but licked her cheek instead. She didn’t growl, snap, or react in any other way. She was completely wiped out.
“Okay, I’ll carry her back. You grab your stuff and we’ll take her into town,” Dan said.
Chased waited while Dan lifted her into his arms. Then he turned around and loped toward his gear, still feeling a little under the weather, his head pounding, and he hoped he was running in a straight line or else Dan wouldn’t go along with his plan—to let the woman stay at one of his cabins.
When he reached his gear, Chase hesitated to shift. It was bad enough he had passed out the first time in front of the she-cat. He really didn't want to do it in front of Dan. Then he realized he probably shouldn't drive his vehicle, either.
He shifted, felt his head splitting in two, and sank to his knees. Damn it.
Dan was at his side in a second, crouching with the sound asleep cat in his arms. "What the hell's the matter?"
Chase realized then despite Dan carrying the cat, he had still moved nearly as fast as Chase had in his cougar form.
“I’ll be all right,” he grumbled. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”
“Like hell you will,” Dan said, now sounding just as annoyed. "Hey, buddy, we go a long way back. I know when you’re not all right. Are you gonna be okay?"
Chase let out his breath in a rush. "Yeah, yeah. Hell."
“What’s wrong?”
"Nothing. I just got a little dizzy."
Chase took forever to dress, having nearly the same difficulty in buttoning his shirt, getting his feet into the right pants leg, and tying his boots.
“Talk to me,” Dan said.
“I fell. All right?” He didn’t want Dan to think badly of the she-cat. She had only been protecting herself. She hadn’t bitten him.
“All right.” But Dan looked him over, trying to see where he’d been injured, and Chase knew he’d insist on sending him to see the doc.
“I’m fine,” Chase said again, and stood. So far so good, but when he bent over to grab his backpack, the blanket, rifle, and the climbing equipment, he felt the earth tilt on end.
And he woke to find himself planted face down in the grass again.
Chapter 4
Dr. Kate Parker raised her brows at Chase as he found himself lying in a clinic bed, railings up. Her red hair was pulled up in a bun as usual when she was on the job, her green eyes studying him closely, her peach-colored lips turning up a tad.
“You sure had the sheriff all shook up. He called his dispatcher and then had everyone on the emergency roster notified of the situation. I swear he thought he was in the Special Forces again, ordering everyone about as if he were on the battlefield and ready to lose a couple of men. Or in this case, you and a she-cat. How are you feeling?”
“Better.” He tried to sit up, but a jolt of pain crashed through his skull. He collapsed back on his pillow.
“Just lie back. Take it nice and easy. You’ve suffered a concussion. No brain damage that I can see.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine how the cat got the best of you.”
“Where’s the woman?” he asked, not wanting to admit the trouble the cat had caused him and everyone else on the alert roster who had been called to assist. Everyone in town probably knew about it by now.
The doc motioned to the curtain shielding the other bed. “She’s sound asleep. I put the two of you in here together because I was certain you wouldn’t stay in bed unless you knew she was close by and you could watch her for me.” The doc smiled again, but then she grew serious. “That doesn’t mean you’re to leave that bed for anything. Just ring me or Helen. We’ll come and get anything that you need.”
That was the nice thing about a clinic for cougars. The doc saw to minor emergencies, but everything else was shipped off to the hospital two hours away. She was mostly here just for their shifter kind. So they had two nurses and one doctor on staff at the six-bed clinic.
“You’ll be better before you know it. I just want to keep you overnight for observation. Do you want me to pull the curtain aside and let you get a look at her?�
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“Yeah, thanks.”
The doc pulled the curtain aside. He expected to see the woman still in cougar form. Instead, she was in her human form, her dark brown hair spilling in curls against the white pillow, her eyes closed in sleep, her breathing light.
“She shifted some time ago. She woke to find herself in a hospital bed, and I think she got scared that someone might see her as a cougar, shifted into her human form, and fell asleep. I don’t think she realizes she’s in a cougar-run town. I’ve got her on an IV as she was dehydrated and malnourished. When she wakes, I want her to eat well.”
“Hell, my stew,” Chase said, trying to get up, worried that it had burned up, but Kate grabbed his shoulder and eased him back into bed.
“Dan ran by your place to drop off your rifle and lock it in your rifle cabinet, then found your stew simmering in the crock pot. He said he had to sample a little to ensure it was still all right.” Doc smiled.
Frowning, Chase didn’t mind if Dan ate some, but he had hoped to “sample” some himself.
“He said he left most of it in there for you. And he put the rest in the fridge for you. The stew will be there when you’re ready to return home. So, did you learn anything about the woman? Who she is? Where she’s from?”
“No. She was in her cougar form the whole time, except right after I shot her.”
The doc smiled a little and shook her head. “Not a great way to start a relationship.”
He snorted.
She chuckled. “See you later.” The doc left the room, closing the door behind her.
He wasn’t certain if the doc’s closing the door alerted the she-cat that she was gone, or if it had just awakened her, but she turned her head in Chase’s direction, looked at him for a moment, then groaned and closed her eyes at the same time.
“You,” she said under her breath. “What are you doing here?”
He smiled. “You pounced on me and gave me one hell of a headache.”
Her eyes remained shut, but she smiled a little. Then she frowned. “Why did you shoot me?” She looked at him then, her golden eyes narrowed.
“Sorry about that. I thought you were a wild cougar,” he said.
“I… am.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I kinda learned that a little too late.”
“Where are we, exactly?”
“Yuma Clinic. It specializes in our kind. I’m Chase—“
“Buchanan,” she said, running her hand over her forehead.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, considering that you drugged me.” She sat up in bed and groaned, then lay right back down. “Dizzy. I guess I need to eat something. I couldn’t convince you to take me to your place and get a bite of that Irish stew, could I?”
“They’ll be serving us something to eat soon here, Doc said.”
“I’m fine. I’ll get something on my own.” She sat back up and started to get out of bed, then realizing she was hooked up to an IV, she removed it.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” He sat up quickly and wished he hadn’t as a wave of dizziness rushed through his brain.
“Didn’t I already say that I was fine? Oh, wait, you want me to pay for a stay here that I didn’t authorize or need? Isn’t that against the law? Forcing someone to be a patient against their will? If that person had been awake enough to object?”
“Town’s taking care of the bill. Let me give the nurse a call and see if she’ll get the doctor to release us.”
“Just me. You probably need to stay here a while longer.”
“I’ll take you home.” He tossed the cover off him and realized the gown had bunched up to his lap.
She studied his legs and smiled.
He got out of bed. “You can’t go anywhere until you have some clothes.”
“Then give me yours. You can get some others.”
He chuckled and shook his head, which was a mistake. The pounding had renewed as soon as he sat up in bed, then worsened as he stood.
“I can use your coat again.” Then she shook her head. “Won’t work. You didn’t drive yourself here, did you?”
She was bright. He’d give her that. “I’ll call the sheriff.”
Her expression changed from playfully teasing to worried. She had to be on the run.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s wrong, but I swear to you that you’ll be safe with me, with…” He motioned to the town. “With us. Trust me, all right?”
Her expression said she didn’t trust him. He feared the worst. She had killed someone and the police were looking to arrest her.
“No matter what you’ve done, I swear we’ll figure it out.”
“I’ve got to use the bathroom,” she said, then moved slowly, as if she was still groggy. She finally reached the bathroom, the back of her hospital gown open as her cute little ass was on full display.
He told himself to look away, that as out of it as she was, she hadn’t held her gown closed. But he also told himself that he was watching her in case she crumpled before she reached the bathroom, in which case he had every intention of rescuing her.
When she made it into the bathroom all right and shut the door, he quickly called the nurse. He wasn’t leaving without letting everyone know what he intended to do. Besides, he needed to secure a ride.
Hell, he didn’t even know what to call the woman. “My roommate and I are checking out,” Chase told the nurse at the nurse’s station.
“Let me get the doc.”
“All right.” He called the sheriff. “Dan, can you spare a minute to take me back to my place?”
“One of the men left your hatchback in front of the clinic. I left your keys in your jeans pocket. I figured you might want to leave sooner than the doc suggested if you were feeling well enough. How’s the woman? Is she awake yet?”
“Yeah, she wants to go to my place.”
Dan didn’t say anything and Chase didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.
“I had offered to feed her some of my famous Irish beef stew. She’s hungry. What can I say?”
A long pause ensued as if his friend was considering the ramifications of him doing such a thing. Then Dan finally said, “She has no clothes.”
Chase smiled a little, forgetting that scenario. Then he sobered. “Yeah, well, I can get her a pair of scrubs, and she can wear my coat over them.”
“Okay. We can fix her up with some other clothes later. No word as to what’s going on with her? Who she is? Where she’s from?”
“No, but I’m hoping to learn something soon.”
“She could be real trouble, Chase.”
As if reminding him just the trouble she had already been, he felt another stab of pain in his skull. “Tell me something I already don’t know.”
“When you learn something, call me.”
“Will do. Talk later.” He ended the call just as the woman left the bathroom.
“It’s free if you need to use it. Did you get permission for us to leave yet?”
“It’s coming. And I’ve got a vehicle to drive. So we’re all set. I’ll get you a pair of scrubs you can wear, and you can use my parka to stay warm.”
He headed for the bathroom and closed the door.
A few minutes later, he heard one of the nurses say, “Chase? Are you in there?”
“Yeah, be out in sec.”
“Where’s the woman?”
***
As soon as Chase Buchanan entered the bathroom, Shannon seized his parka and tugged it on, and fumbled in his jeans pockets to locate his car keys, if he’d had them on him. Her hands shook as she pulled them out, trying not to let them jingle before she clamped her fingers around them, and then rushed out of the room.
She felt disembodied—she suspected partly from the drug and partly from not having eaten for so long. She hated to have to do this, but it was all his fault she was here. She noted no nurses were manning the station, thank God.
Shannon hurried down a hallway past se
veral hospital rooms, their doors closed, to what looked like a back door, a lighted exit sign displayed overhead. She pushed open the door, thankful it didn’t set off any alarms, and stalked outside. The chilling wind swept across her bare feet and legs. Shivering, she poked at the keypad, desperately trying to find the right vehicle. No car headlights came on. Damn it.
Then she realized this was probably the staff parking lot and Chase’s vehicle would be out front. She hurried around the side of the building.
At least the parka kept some of her warm, but her legs and feet were freezing. Unfortunately, the “cute” penguin gown she wore looked too much like a hospital gown, and she had to hide it pronto. She hated to take Chase’s car also. Then again, she wouldn’t have it for long. Only as long as it took her to reach a wilderness area where she could park it, then ditch the clothes, shift, and get the hell out of Dodge, or technically, Yuma.
Shannon had to admit she admired the deputy for chasing after her when she must have hurt him worse than either of them had suspected. She really did feel bad about that now, since it appeared he'd only wanted to help her. But after all that had happened to her in the last few weeks, she couldn’t really trust anyone that easily. Before that, she was way too trustworthy.
She knew she didn’t have much time to do this. That every second that went by meant Chase would learn she was gone, that his parka was gone, that his keys were gone, and he could guess all the rest. Then he’d call his sheriff buddy who would put an APB out on Chase’s car, and she wouldn’t get very far at all.
Her heart was jackhammering as she poked the buttons on his key pad again, frantically trying to figure out which vehicle was his—there, a black hatchback’s lights flashed on. She stalked toward it, forcing herself not to run as much as she wanted to. Every second wasted meant he could be sounding the alarm and coming for her.
A couple of men leaving a drugstore across the street glanced in her direction. She worried that they might know the black hatchback she’d targeted was Chase’s. And maybe recognize the deputy’s parka. They saw her bare feet and the bottom part of the hospital gown and could easily put two and two together: wild she-cat who had knocked out deputy was now stealing his parka and car and escaping the clinic.
