Cougar Magic

by Terry Spear

  She looked out front again. "I don't see any out front—ohmigod. Your tires have sunk into the snow."

  He hurried to the front window and saw that his Jeep was sitting way too low to be normal. He got on his phone. "Hey, Dan, we're at the Robinson's house and we've got trouble."

  So much for not having trouble at Nina's aunt and uncle's house. Nina hoped she and Stryker could take the men out without getting her family's home shot up.

  "We stay in the house or shift and take them out?" she asked, ready to finish this.

  "We wait for backup." He was watching out the back window while she continued to watch out the front.

  "Did they cut the tires as a cougar? Or slash them with a knife?" she asked. Dogs could puncture tires with their teeth, so she was certain a cougar could.

  "I hadn't thought about that, but I suppose either could be a possibility."

  They heard a man shout, a cougar cry out in the woods near the house, then shots were fired.

  "No one could get here that quickly." Stryker began to strip off his clothes. "I don't know what the hell's going on, but you stay here. I'm going to see what's happening in case one of our people is in trouble."

  "No way. We go together." She began to yank off her clothes and he unlocked the cougar back door.

  As soon as they were both naked, he gave her a quick hug, and then they shifted. He waited a moment, listening for any sounds of anything, and then he dove through the door. She followed right after him, but they took different paths to lessen the likelihood of them both being caught in gunfire at the same time. He leaped over snowdrifts in the direction he'd heard the gunshots and she circled around the area to see who she could run across out here.

  The sun was beginning to set, the orange and yellow ribbons of light reflecting off the white snow. In hunting mode, she reached the woods and smelled for scents. She smelled blood and one man's scent. He was a cougar too, but she didn't know if it was Judd or Rudy or someone else.

  But she did find a man's tracks and a cougar's, so she knew there were two men out here, one wearing hunter's concealment, the other not. She found droplets of blood too. She assumed the one who had been shooting, shot the other. Were they Judd and Rudy, having a fight? She suspected, even if they were, that both men would have been wearing concealment spray.

  She moved silently through the snow, following the blood and then it stopped. She frowned, looked up, and saw a big male cougar sitting in a tree. He was watching her, but he didn't threaten her in any way. He could be one of the cougars of Yuma Town, though she didn't recognize his scent. But she hadn't met everyone either. She took a chance and jumped to a branch much lower than his, then climbed until she reached his.

  She nuzzled him in greeting. He licked her in friendship. He was an older cat, not as young as Stryker and her, and she assumed then that he was an innocent bystander. Maybe even the cougar that often ran by here at night and had reported to the sheriff's office that she was living in the house, which was why Stryker had come to investigate to see if his claim was true.

  She vowed to stay with him and protect him if the shooter came for him. She wanted to get him down to her family's house and take care of his wound, but he seemed to be holding on.

  Then she heard movement, someone's boots crunching in the snow, not a cougar's silent paws moving across the drifts. She suspected it was the shooter. The male cougar beside her stiffened as a prelude to leaping for the man if he got close enough. But she would take the shooter out, hoping that she wasn't wrong and that this cougar wasn't Rudy or Judd. Wouldn't that be ironic? She didn't know all the cougars in Yuma Town and someone from the town could very well be watching for the bad guys to show up, either as part of a plan Dan had come up with, or just doing it on their own to take care of the problem.

  She wished Stryker would come and help her identify who was the enemy and who was not, but he was still off prowling somewhere else.

  The snow-crunching footfalls were getting closer.

  Now she tensed, ready to leap to another branch and then onto the man, if he was carrying a rifle. She prayed she wouldn't be making a mistake in this. Then she saw the man, black ski mask over his face, gloves, heavy parka, boots, and a rifle.

  He was following the blood trail too, damn it. And he did the same thing as she did when she came to the end of the trail. Looked up. Except this man quickly raised his rifle to shoot at her, and she leaped off the branch. The gunshot went off, reverberating in the woods. The bullet grazed her shoulder and she landed on him before he could take another shot, but another cougar was tearing into him before she could do anything more. Her hero. Stryker. He knew the man wasn't one of their own, thank God. But she figured the guy wasn't one of the good guys when he'd tried to shoot her.

  And then Stryker looked at her and nuzzled her. She nuzzled him back, but glanced up at the tree, worried the wounded cougar might have taken off. But he was still sitting there, watching the two of them.

  Was he one of the bad guys then? Or too wounded to move?

  Stryker snarled at him, then shifted. "Come on down. We'll take care of you."

  He didn't use a name and she was certain then that Stryker didn't know who the man was either, especially when the wounded cougar didn't come down right away.

  Or maybe he was too wounded to make it down from the tree on his own.

  They waited, conscious that another man could be in the woods or nearby, ready to kill them, if this wasn't one of the bad guys.

  The cougar finally leapt to a lower branch, and then to the ground and collapsed.

  Stryker shifted, and though it was dangerous for him, both from the standpoint of the cold and with the possibility of another cougar or shooter out here, he lifted the wounded cougar off the ground and trudged back toward the house. Nina moved away from them, listening for any sign of another rogue cougar in the area, ready to attack if anyone tried to harm her mate and the wounded cougar.

  She heard vehicles pulling into the drive, Hal's pickup truck and Dan's car. Vehicle doors opened and slammed shut and people ran toward the house.

  She let out a cougar cry to let them know where they were, about the same time as Stryker hollered, "Over here! Back that way are a couple of dead shooters." He set the wounded cougar down on the snow and shifted.

  She saw Dan first, Addie, and then Chase, Hal, and Ted Weekum, guns out, running to join them.

  Dan and Addie reached the wounded cougar first and he lifted the cougar into his arms and headed for the house. Addie was already calling both Kate and the vet to join them at the Robinson's house to provide emergency treatment to a GSW, unknown male cougar.

  An auto repair truck drove up into the driveway with spare tires. And Nina had the ridiculous thought—what about dinner with Stryker's mother? Worse, what about her roast? She didn't know how long it had been since they'd been here.

  The other men went looking for the dead shooter, while Nina and Stryker followed Dan and Addie into the house.

  She hurried to get a blanket out of a linen closet and set it on the floor. Dan carefully laid the cougar on it and the cougar shifted. Everyone was staring at him for a moment.

  He looked a lot like an older version of Stryker and his brother.

  "Henry Hill, I mean Reynolds," Stryker said, after shifting and began pulling on his clothes as Dan grabbed a few hand towels from the kitchen and applied pressure to the man's leg wound.

  "Yeah," he said, his steely gaze fixed on Stryker's.

  Then they heard Leyton's truck drive up, and Nina shifted and was getting dressed.

  In the meantime, Addie got a first aid kit out of their car and hurried back in to help stop the older man's wound from bleeding.

  Leyton and Kate came into the house and Leyton called Vanessa, the new vet. "We've got this under control. You don't need to come in." Then he frowned at the man and said, "Hell, Henry Hill?"

  The man smiled up at him. "Reynolds. But it seems I'm the proud father of two twin, gr
ownup boys."

  "Hey," Hal said, coming into the house. "We found two dead men, both cougar kills. We know one was Stryker's from the scent."

  "The other was mine," Henry said. "I would have taken out the other if the little she-cat hadn't leapt on him first."

  Stryker was bandaging Nina's shoulder for her.

  "From the ID we found on them, one was Judd and the other Rudy. Rudy was the one you took down, Stryker," Hal said.

  "Damn glad they've both been taken down. And that's the end of it. We just need to show the police their bodies and give them the videotapes that prove that Ava is in the clear and make up a damn good story that we killed the vicious cougar that eliminated these men."

  The man who had brought them the new tires, poked his head in the door. "You're set to go, Deputy, uh, Deputy."

  Nina didn't know the man, but she was sure glad he had come to their rescue. "Thanks so much. And, Stryker, I'm sure you'll want to go with your dad to the clinic. But your mom's due to arrive any minute and I need to make sure the roast is okay."

  "Marybeth?" Henry said.

  "If you could, you're welcome to join us," Nina said, not sure how bad his injury was.

  "The bullet didn't hit any vitals and went clean through him. He'll need to be in the hospital though, at least overnight," Kate said.

  "Do whatever you've got to do, Doc, but I'm going to have dinner with my son, his mate, and catch up with my old girlfriend."

  Kate was frowning.

  Leyton and Stryker were grinning. "Hell, now I know who you take after, Leyton," Stryker said.

  Kate tsked. "All right, and yes, you and your dad are peas in a pod. After dinner, you can stay with us and Marybeth, if that's okay with you. That way I can still keep an eye on your recovery."

  Henry smiled. "I like your mates, sons. You both did all right."

  "How did you end up here and trying to take out these guys?" Nina asked Henry.

  "Chet told me all that was going on and where he thought it might all go down—here, at your family's home. So I thought I'd use some of my army training and wait for them. My present to my sons and their mates."

  She loved him already.

  Nina was worried that Henry would be all right at the New Year's Day dinner, but she swore Stryker's dad was so glad to see Marybeth, the way they touched, kissed, and smiled at each other, that she was the best thing for his speedy recovery.

  "This has been the best New Year's ever," Marybeth said, clinking her glass of champagne with Stryker's, Nina's, and Henry's glass of orange juice, before they ate their roast.

  And everyone agreed.

  That night when Leyton picked up his father and mother to take them home, Nina couldn't have been happier for the way things had turned out. It seriously looked like Marybeth and Henry finally had a chance to be together after all.

  "I wonder," Stryker said, helping Nina to put things away in the kitchen before they retired to bed, "why you saw your sister and my dad together in a vision."

  She smiled. "It will happen. Just wait and see." Then she chased him to the bedroom and tackled him to the bed. "For now, only this matters."

  Them, loving each other, saving the world, or at least their little part in it, and enjoying their family and friends. She loved him and he loved her and everything else could be sorted out later, visions, or no.

  Epilogue

  Seven Months Later, Fourth of July, Yuma Town

  Ava, Henry, and Marybeth were watching the fireworks when Nina noticed Henry point to the pond where the lights were reflecting off the water and Ava looked down at them with him. That was the vision Nina had of them. Even though it was summer, a cold front had ripped through the area and everyone was bundled up for the festivities that night.

  Nina and Stryker were watching the fireworks with all their friends, but she was keeping an eye on Bridget. Nina knew she’d been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, but in the middle of one of the most spectacular fireworks, Nina envisioned Bridget’s water breaking and she grabbed her hand. “Your water broke. We need to get you to the clinic.” She knew it was shortly after that when Bridget would have her babies, and Nina began looking for Dr. Kate.

  Bridget frowned. “No, I’m okay.”

  Another firework went off and Bridget said, “Ohmigod, my water just broke. Sorry, one of these days I’m going to learn to trust in your visions.”

  “I’ll find Kate,” Nina said, worried about Bridget.

  “Okay, thanks, it’ll probably be a while.” Bridget was holding her belly and Nina’s arm. “Ohmigod, Travis, get me to the clinic.”

  “See you at the clinic,” Nina said, as Travis hurried Bridget to his car.

  Stryker was already on his cell trying to get ahold of Kate but she probably couldn’t hear her phone because of the fireworks. They couldn’t see her and Leyton anywhere. Then Stryker saw their new vet. He headed for her, Nina chasing after him. “The vet, really?”

  “In your vision that you had of Bridget, you said she shifted into a cougar when she had the cubs.”

  “Oh, no, maybe that’s why!”

  “Hey, Doc, we’re in need of your assistance!” Stryker said.

  “Sure,” Vanessa said, following them to the parking area. “Is one of your dogs ill?”

  “Bridget’s having her twins.”

  “Oh.”

  Even though Val was a veterinarian, if Bridget shifted into her cougar form, the doctor shouldn’t have any trouble delivering her little ones. But Nina suspected she hadn't expected this as part of her job at Yuma Town. Dogs, horses, little cats, not big cougars.

  Stryker had a key to the medical clinic and let everyone in so that the vet could deliver Bridget’s cubs in a hospital bed while he continued to try and call Kate.

  Travis helped Bridget strip off her clothes, then she shifted into her cougar and leaped into bed.

  Nurse Ellie was making Bridget comfortable when the first cub emerged, the little female, Phoebe, just like Nina had predicted. While the vet was putting drops in her eyes, Kate had gotten word and rushed in to assist. Nina was running her hand over Bridget’s head to comfort her while they could hear the boom, boom, boom of fireworks still being fired off overhead.

  “I’m so sorry, Bridget. I couldn’t hear my phone at all,” Kate apologized, but she needn’t have. Everything was well in hand.

  Bridget just growled, unable to do much else in her cougar form.

  Kate smiled and delivered the little male cub, Theodore. Theo was just as cute as his sister.

  But the excitement wasn't over. Dan rushed into the clinic with Addie, and Stryker and Nina went to see if they could offer their help.

  Dr. William had been at a summer doctor's symposium to keep up with his credentials, so he missed out on all the fun.

  When he was normally calm and collected through any crisis, Dan was one panicked daddy-to-be as he rushed with Addie down the hall. "Where's Kate! Addie's water just broke. Where's Kate?"

  One of their other nurses had arrived, Helen Kretchen Stuart, and she immediately took them into a room. "We've got both the vet and Kate here, so it's up to you how you want to do this," Helen said to Addie.

  "Cougar." And she began stripping off her clothes as Dan helped her with her sandals. "I'm so ready for this."

  Helen laughed. "Good, because so are the babies."

  Stryker wrapped his arm around Nina, smiled down at her, and kissed her. She wondered when they might have their own cute little cubs. But not for a while. She wanted to enjoy Stryker in all his hotness without having kiddoes around…for a while. She loved him for always being there for everyone—and realized he seemed to have a key to every place in Yuma Town, for which she was glad. She knew his parents were eagerly waiting to have more grandkids to love on though.

  Stryker loved how Nina had so quickly become an integral part of their community. Most of all, he’d gotten his Christmas and birthday wishes, albeit a little late, but better late than never, he alw
ays said. Even now, seeing her offering solace to Bridget and loving on the tiny babies, and then with Addie's little ones, Mitchell and Madeleine, Maddie for short, he thought she’d be the perfect momma when they had their own. He loved her with all his heart, and all he could say was he was so glad Dan had sent him to check on the Robinson’s house that day and from that moment on, his life was changed forever. For the better. It wasn't just that she'd come into his life, but she'd brought his parents home to him, who had mated and were living happily ever after, just like they should have been from the beginning, providing for their newborn babies.

  It wasn’t long before others popped in at the clinic and wished the new daddies and mommies all the best as well: Chase and Shannon, Leyton joined Kate, Jack and Dottie, Mrs. Fitz, and more.

  As a cougar, Bridget showed them her canines, smiling in a perfectly satisfied way as the proud papa showed off the kittens bundled in blankets, blue for Theo and pink for Phoebe.

  And Addie wanted to bunk with Bridget, so she was in the same room, celebrating the birth of her twins at the same time. Dan was holding their baby cubs, Mitchell and Madeline, Maddie for short, just like Nina had predicted for them too.

  They would all remember this day and celebrate the twins' birthdays on the fourth, making it even more special.

  “Ready to go home?” Stryker whispered in Nina’s ear.

  “For more fireworks?” she whispered back.

  “Hell yeah.”

  And that would be another first of many, many special holidays they would share with each other in the future. Though every day seemed like a holiday for them, truth be told. The guys were still talking about who would be this Christmas's sexy Santa. Ricky wanted the job, because Stryker got the girl. Ted had offered. Even Kolby had put in his bid.