by Terry Spear
Cougar Magic
Heart of the Cougar, Book 6
Terry Spear
Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Terry Spear
Cougar Magic
Copyright © 2018 by Terry Spear
Cover Art by Terry Spear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
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Discover more about Terry Spear at:
http://www.terryspear.com/
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ISBN-13: 978-1-63311-036-6
Introduction
Synopsis
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She doesn't think she needs a hero, but he's taking the job.
Deputy Sheriff and cougar Stryker Hill is not on duty when the sheriff asks him to check out a possible break-in of a resident's home while they are away on a cruise. What he doesn't expect is to find the beautiful and mysterious cougar he'd seen at a Christmas charity where he was showing his abs off as Santa Claus. But she's got some moves to rival his own as she takes him down and he's left wondering who she really is and how he's going to keep her from leaving Yuma Town before he learns the truth.
Cougar shifter Nina Lamar has to protect her sister from the pharmacist who laid the blame on her for his thievery, and Nina has to help clear her sister's name. But now Nina's got the sexy Santa on her case, and she needs to deal with him first. She has to admit he's just as hot as when she'd first seen him, but the guys who are after her sister, are after her too now. She to needs save them both before it's too late. Too bad Stryker thinks she's one of the bad guys, unless she can prove otherwise. That's hard to do when her visions are the only proof of why she's there in the first place. But time is running out, and she has to save her sister—nothing else matters…except the sexy deputy sure can be a hot distraction on the cold, snowy nights.
Dedicated to Lisa Bradley and Tonya Michelle Kaelin for the wonderful job you all do while bringing so many characters alive in the RPG group. You all do a terrific job bringing my cougars to life and we all thank you for your dedication!
Prologue
Cougar shifter Nina Lamar might be on the run while searching for her sister, but she had to eat and when she saw a tea shop—nothing else in Yuma Town that featured a fast food drive-through, shop and grab—not even at the service stations, she decided that the tea shop was the next best thing.
As soon as she walked into the beautiful, Victorian tea shop decorated in antiques, she smelled cougars. Lots of them! That shocked her to the core.
A few women were seated at tables having sandwiches, soups, and salads. But other women dressed in holiday sweaters and skirts or dresses were heading into a separate room, where women were laughing and whistling. Intrigued, she walked over to see what was going on. In the large room filled with banquet tables, a ten-foot Colorado spruce decorated in red, gold, and green balls and bows was sitting in the corner. Nina got a welcome eyeful of one sexy Santa sitting high on his ornately-decorated, gold-gilt and red-velvet throne. He was wearing red pants and black boots, and a fur-trimmed Santa jacket that was open, showing off his bare, sculpted abs. His rugged face was completely free of facial hair. It appeared to be a special Christmas social for cougar women in Yuma Town. She didn't smell any sign of humans in the banquet room.
Though Santa wore the traditional Santa hat, jacket, pants, and boots, he was a hot cougar shifter and better than fine.
“Who is he?” Nina whispered to one of the women standing in line.
The pretty, black-haired woman glanced at her, then gave her a cheery smile. “You're not from around here.”
“No, I just stopped in for a quick lunch on my way through town.” Nina pulled out her camera to take a shot of the sexy Santa, just for posterity sake, before another eager woman sat on Santa’s lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.
“Aww. Well, that’s Stryker Hill, Deputy Sheriff of Yuma Town, and a bachelor, I might add. The money gathered from this charity event will be given to families in need for Christmas.”
“That’s wonderful.” Nina knew just what she wanted to ask the hunky Santa for Christmas, if it didn’t get her arrested. Not that she dared to hang around to meet him, or anyone else in law enforcement, at the moment.
Even so, she caught his eye as she took another picture, his dark eyebrow rose, and this time he smiled. She actually liked his look, his dark hair cut short, probably because of his occupation, his blue eyes studying her, as she still held the camera in front of her face. She didn’t pull the camera away from her face until she turned and headed for the door. Any law enforcement officer could create problems for her if her face had been posted on any flyers.
She returned to the main dining room and glanced at the sign that said Santa would be there for two more hours. Good. She thought she’d have to drive on when she was starving. She’d grab something to eat. She smiled at the knowledge that the deputy sheriff was playing Santa and wasn’t watching for criminals on the run while she was in the next room having lunch.
Not that she was truly a criminal on the run, but some seemed to think so.
Stryker Hill caught a glimpse of a new woman in town when she spoke to Shannon Buchanan, wife of Chase, part-time deputy sheriff and joint owner of Pinyon Pines Resort. Stryker's gaze had been riveted on the beautiful blond stranger. She hadn't been dressed like any of the other ladies that had come to the Santa party, wanting to get a picture with him—not dressed in Christmas finery. Instead, she wore jeans, a pretty blue sweater, and snow boots. She didn't have a coat, and her long, blond hair was curling about her shoulders, and a large, black-leather bag was hanging over her shoulder that she had pulled a camera out of.
Of course, he first wondered whether she was a cougar or not.
Then he was distracted when Mrs. Sorenson, the cat woman, was eagerly waiting for an invitation to sit on his lap. She was always calling on him to extract her cats from the trees and he really got a kick out of her. When he looked again at the woman with the camera who caught his full attention, she was holding the camera to her face, photographing him.
U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Services agent Tracey Haverton was there, and her twin sister, Jessie Whittington, photographer and author, was their official photographer for the event, but, luckily, no one told the blonde she couldn't take pictures. As soon as Stryker did his job, patting his lap and smiling at Mrs. Sorenson, inviting her to take a seat, he noticed the mystery woman turned and left.
He desperately wanted to follow her out the door, but instead asked Mrs. Sorenson what she would like for Christmas.
"Oh my, Deputy, good-behaving cats. That's all."
"Well, I know you love them all, whether they are or not."
"You know, I think they climb the trees out front, just so they get to cuddle with you when you rescue them."
He chuckled, knowing it was more of a case of the older woman being lonel
y and wanting his attention. Her son, Mick Sorenson, was the Director of the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Services local branch and wasn’t able to visit her that much.
Then Stryker helped Mrs. Sorenson to stand. All the ladies had come out to see him, paying money to the charity fund, and all the guys had been giving him a hard time. Payback for all the times he had done the same thing to them: Dan Steinacker, the sheriff, the part-time deputies: Chase Buchanan and Hal Haverton. He swore some of the agents for the Cougar Shifter Force, the CSF, should have to bare their chests next year, for the honor, but everyone insisted he was one of the few bachelor males available in Yuma Town, and, hey, what if he got lucky today?
When Dottie Brown, their dispatcher, sat on his lap, he smiled up at her. “So, did you get her name?”
“Who?” Dottie cast him a knowing smirk.
“The woman who was taking pictures of me.”
“The pretty blonde? No. I didn’t think to ask. She said she was just dropping in to grab lunch. I guess the crowd caught her attention.”
“Was she impressed?”
Dottie laughed. “She did take pictures of you, you know. She’ll probably plaster your pictures all over Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.”
He chuckled. “So what do you want for Christmas this year, young lady?”
Dottie smiled. “That you find your mate in the new year. Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. Hey, Mrs. Fitz set this up. Do you know if it allows for bathroom breaks?”
“Only after it’s over.” Dottie looked back at the long line of women eager to see him. “I could see them grabbing you and ripping your clothes off if you tried to slip away.”
“But I’m a deputy sheriff.”
“Today, you’re just one hot, sexy Santa.”
By the time he was done with his mission, Stryker knew the woman would be gone if she was only here to grab a quick lunch and head out. Even so, he asked the waitress if the woman had paid in cash or used a credit card.
Cash.
Stryker had only one wish for Christmas—that he could find the mystery she-cat who took his pictures and learn what she wanted for Christmas.
1
A year and a couple of days later, Yuma Town
Stryker was having one of those weird days on the job. Because of a recent snowstorm, they'd had a number of fender benders. And Stryker was asked to help with traffic control at the ribbon cutting for the new veterinarian's office opening, even though she'd been seeing animal patients for a week now. As soon as he was done with that, he returned home to take his two dogs to the vet for their annual shots. Dr. Kate Parker had been tending to everyone's pets on her off-duty hours, so she was relieved she would only have to take care of her cougar patients now. Dr. William Rugel had joined her in the practice last year, but he really preferred working on cougar patients. Everyone was glad they finally had a vet for their pets too now.
When Dr. Vanessa Vanderbilt met with Stryker, she said, "Mighty fine-looking dogs you have. Do you use the Australian shepherds to herd?"
"No. One came from the same litter as Hal Haverton's dog and they use theirs for herding out at the horse ranch. The other was from a puppy mill and I found homes for all but this one."
"Oh, that's so good of you. I've started a pet board for lost and found pets and for anyone selling or buying pets or breeding them too. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's really great to be living among our kind."
"It's great finally having a vet! Thanks for joining us. You’ll find we’re a tightknit community of cougars and we love to have cougar celebrations."
“That’s just what I like to hear.”
“If you need anything, just holler,” Stryker said, then he left the clinic with the dogs in tow. Both were trying to check out pee spots where other pet patients had left their mark on the snow-covered grass in front of the clinic.
Once the dogs were settled in his brand-new, red, Jeep Wrangler, Stryker thought about how a puppy was supposed to help him to find a missus. It hadn't worked out as he'd planned. He loved them, and he was glad they were his family too, anyway. He climbed into his Jeep.
Hell, he’d even volunteered to be Santa again this year so that he might see the woman he spied last year, hoping she’d make a repeat performance. Of course, all the guys had teased him mercilessly about volunteering for the job this year, saying they would have him do it again next year. Nope, it was time to draw straws, since it didn’t get him what he wanted. He’d even made his birthday wish earlier in the year, asking to have the mystery woman deliver his birthday cake. He knew her being inside of the cake was too much to hope for.
Sheriff Dan Steinacker called Stryker before he reached home, and he suspected it was a call for a job, not an invitation for a meal with him and Dan’s lovely mate, Addie.
“Hey, I know you had the afternoon off to take the dogs in for shots. And I hate to ask anything of you when I gave you the time off, but I’m tied up with a four-car pileup on the highway because of the snow, an hour north of here. Chase is working a B & E south of town. Hal’s busy with a couple of new foals. Anyway, it’s probably nothing. Just the Robinson’s house is vacant for the holidays. They’re not returning until January 12th, and Arnold Hickson said he swore he saw a candlelight flickering in the house.”
“Hickson? A candlelight.” Stryker turned his Jeep around and headed east of town.
“Yeah, you know he has to call in some nonsense on a daily basis. Even if he’s seeing purple aliens, we have to check it out.”
“I know. Once in a blue moon he’s right." Stryker figured Arnold's PTSD was kicking up. The poor sergeant had seen too many buddies blown up in Viet Nam. "Did he see it in the daylight?” Stryker liked the old guy, who lived alone out east of town. He often ran past the Robinson’s house in his cougar coat, so it was possible he saw something. Or not. Sometimes Stryker thought he just needed someone to take him seriously.
“Late last night. He went out for a run as a cougar, and he said he saw the light moving through the house and then it was gone.”
“Did he check the place out?”
“Yeah. He said he couldn’t hear anything and didn’t see anything more. He said he figured he had just imagined what he saw, but then he thought about it over and over again and decided he needed to let us know so we could check it out.”
“Okay. I’m headed out that way. I still have a three-day weekend off, right?” Stryker asked.
“Yeah, you need it. Everyone’s pulling some of your duty so you’ve got the time off. I wouldn’t even ask you to do this, except you know how Arnold is. He’ll keep asking if we checked into it, but if you want, I can ask Jack Barrington if he can drop by there. He lives close to the Robinsons. Or I can do it after I take care of this mess.”
“No, I’m on it. Jack could have CSF business anyway. I’ve got the dogs with me, so they can take down anyone dangerous.” The Cougar Shifter Force wasn't part of the sheriff's department, but they policed cougar shifters and protected cougars that were all cougar.
Dan laughed. “Right.” Then he paused. “You have your gun with you, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but I’m wearing civies and I’m in my Jeep.”
“Call for backup if you need it.”
This time Stryker laughed. There had never been a time when one of Arnold’s calls ever meant danger had come to the outskirts of Yuma Town, so he wasn’t in the least bit worried.
Lately, Nina had the worst darn luck. First, she’d gotten a nail in her car’s tire and since she’d been close to her aunt and uncle’s home outside of Yuma Town where she’d been headed anyway, she’d managed to limp to the house and secure the car in their garage. Luckily, they must have driven to the airport and left their car at a hotel when they went on their cruise so she could hide the fact she was here. She’d even hoped she might find her sister hunkered down here but no such luck.
Then the electricity went out when s
he was trying to charge up her laptop. Then she found the circuit breaker and everything was fine until she'd had her reoccurring nightmare in the middle of the night about drowning in an ice-cold river. She'd never been able to figure out why she kept having that nightmare. Maybe it was because when she was younger, her sister and she'd played near one and she was always worried about falling in. Even more so, Ava had always been more of a daredevil and Nina had worried she'd slip into the icy water and drown. Then Nina couldn't get back to sleep.
In the dark, she’d just lit a candle after her cell phone died on her, and she was looking for an outlet to plug it in when she thought she saw movement outside, a cougar and now, she felt like she was on drugs that made her paranoid. Pacing back and forth, peering out the windows, attempting not to be seen. Had the cougar seen the candlelight and wondered why her aunt and uncle’s vacant house now had a small light on inside and then…didn’t?
She knew she should have lit the candle in the bedroom where blackout curtains covered the windows. They had them in the living room too, she figured so they wouldn’t have sunlight glaring through to cast light on their TV screen. The calendar on the office wall showed they wouldn’t be returning until January 12th and she really needed to be here for her sister, if she showed up. If Nina resolved matters and left before they returned home, they would smell her scent and she’d clean up everything and leave an explanation for why she’d taken refuge at their place. They knew she was a former FBI agent and that she'd even given therapy sessions for people with psychic abilities. Not to mention both the FBI and police had called on her to help them solve cases. So it wasn’t like she was part of a criminal element. They’d know she was looking into something that needed looking into.
