Flipping on the kitchen light as she went in through the back door, Alaina headed for the living room and turned on the overhead light. Her jeans were lying beside the couch. Shimmying into them, she zipped and fastened them as she shoved her feet into her flip-flops.
Sheriff Wilson commenced to knocking on her door almost before she’d slipped her shoes on.
Anger surged through her all over again. She was so damned sick of the ‘good old boys club’! The damned realtor that had sold her parents the place had said there was a hunting club on the adjoining property, but she wasn’t all that familiar with hunters. She’d assumed they would stay on the hunting preserve, not constantly be chasing animals onto her property and shooting up her place. There had to be laws that had been broken! Why the hell had he let that bastard go?
Unlocking the door, she pulled it open and glared at the sheriff. “You aren’t going to charge him with anything?” she demanded when he moved past her and into the living room.
“You want to show me the bullet holes?”
Pointing to the couch, she backed up and straddled the arm of the easy chair across from it, folding her arms over her chest and watching him sullenly while he studied the couch and dug into the hole in search of the bullet.
* * * *
Not surprisingly, Bobby was asleep when she called.
A woman answered.
It unsettled Alaina for a moment. “I need to speak to the vet,” she said finally.
She heard the rustle of bed clothes and snuffling and yawning. “Yes?” Bobby asked in a voice hoarse with sleep.
“It’s Alaina. Alaina McKinley. I’ve got a cat in my shed that’s hurt really badly. I hate to bother you so late, but I don’t know if he’ll still be alive in the morning. I think he’s been shot.”
There was silence for several moments. “Bring him over and I’ll have a look at him,” he growled finally.
“I can’t. I need you to come out here and look at him.”
“Why can’t you?”
Alaina chewed the inside of her mouth. “It’s a really big cat and I don’t think I can move him without hurting him worse. Please? You know I wouldn’t bother you if I had options.”
He uttered an irritated sound. “Fine. I’ll be over in about fifteen or twenty minutes.”
It was more like thirty. Alaina paced the floor and watched the clock for fifteen minutes before it finally occurred to her that she could probably at least make the cat more comfortable while she was waiting. Going to her linen closet, she found an old throw and tossed it over her arm and then went into the kitchen to find something he could drink out of. They’d been chasing him. He was probably dying of thirst on top of everything else.
She had reached the shed again when it dawned on her to wonder if getting out alive the first time had just been a fluke. Maybe the poor thing had just been in shock from the wound and weak and hadn’t been able to threaten her?
Easing the shed door open, she peered inside. The two glowing eyes winked at her, but he didn’t move, and he didn’t growl. Opening the door wider, she flipped the light on and inched inside slowly, trying not to make any sudden moves he might consider threatening.
He lifted his head and stared straight at the bowl, sniffing.
Alaina swallowed against the pity that welled in her. Setting the bowl down, she slid it within his reach watching as he gulped the water down thirstily until the bowl was bone dry. “More?”
He looked up at her when she spoke and she could see the pain in his eyes. Taking the bowl she refilled it at her laundry sink and set it down for him again. Apparently, he’d had all he needed at the moment, though, because he only drank a little before he settled again, his head drooping on his forelegs.
Sliding the bowl out of the way for the moment, she took the throw and spread it over him. A rumbling, sporadic purr issued from his chest. Feeling a mixture of relief and pity, and encouraged by that sign to think he appreciated her efforts to comfort him, she moved closer, stroking his head soothingly. He butted his head against her hand, arching his neck so that she could stroke that, too.
She didn’t know why she was so surprised to see him behaving like an ordinary house cat, because he was a cat, but she was. She was also intrigued, and drawn to him. Settling with her back against the wall, she stretched her legs out in front of her and lifted his huge head onto her lap, stroking her hand over his beautiful, silky coat.
He tensed slightly, but allowed it, resting his head in her lap, issuing a rumbling, broken purr from his chest from time to time.
He seemed to enjoy her touch. After a few moments, he turned his head. She thought at first that it was because he wanted her to rub a different spot. Maybe that was why he turned his head, but he nuzzled his nose against her crotch in the process. Gently, she shifted his nose away from her crotch and continued to pet him, but she discovered fairly quickly that he’d gotten the idea in his head to love her back. He nuzzled his nose against her crotch again and began trying to burrow deeper.
Not trying, doing. He pushed her thighs apart, running his nose right down her crotch. Goose bumps erupted all over her as his heated breath permeated the thick fabric of her jeans. Embarrassed and unnerved, she grabbed his head, trying to dislodge him. “What in the world do you think you’re doing?” she demanded with a shaky laugh mixed with consternation.
He ignored her insistent pull for several moments, exploring her scent she supposed. God! Animals weren’t the least bit inhibited about such things, she thought wryly.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing for him to learn her scent, though, she thought when he, thankfully, removed his nose and dropped his head to her lap again. She didn’t know what she was going to do with him, but it seemed likely she was going to have him a while until she figured it out.
The sound of a trunk door slamming brought her head up.
It brought the panther’s head up, too. He stiffened.
She caught his face between her palms. “It’s all right. It’s just Bobby. He’s a real asshole, but he’s a good vet and you need somebody to take care of that wound. I’m not going to let him hurt you.”
The hinges on the door creaked as Bobby jerked it open briskly, placed one foot inside the shed and froze.
The panther uttered a low, deep chested growl, tensing.
Alaina felt her jaw sag in surprise and uneasiness at his sudden aggressive behavior. Her fingers tightened on him. “It’s all right. It’s just the vet.”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Bobby muttered in a hoarse whisper, dropping his medical bag from suddenly nerveless fingers. “You said it was cat.”
Alaina looked at him. “He is a cat. He’s tame.”
Bobby looked the animal over doubtfully, but she could see he was only standing in the doorway because he was afraid a sudden movement in any direction would precipitate an attack. “Why’s he growling and looking at me like he wants to take my head off if he’s so fucking tame?”
Alaina frowned. “Hunters were chasing him. It’s probably because he thinks you might be another one.” Catching hold of the throw she’d covered him with, she pulled it up until Bobby could see the panther’s hip. “Somebody shot him, I think. That’s why I called you. He’s so weak. He must have lost a lot of blood.”
“I’m not coming near that damned thing,” Bobby snarled.
The panther snarled back at him.
Alaina leaned down, looping her arms around the big cat and rubbing her hands over him soothingly, though she seriously doubted, even as weak as he was, if she could hold him down if he decided to get up. “Shhhh. It’s all right boy. He’s going to make you all better. Come on, Bobby. You’re here now. Look at him, at least. Tell me what to do for him. I don’t know what to do.”
“Call animal control.”
Alaina glared at him. “They’ll probably just shoot him.”
“You’re damned right. He’s a dangerous animal. I can’t fucking believe you’re wallowing all over that
damned thing!”
“Because he is not a dangerous animal! You’re a vet, damn it!”
Bobby glared at her, but after a moment he bent down very slowly and opened his bag, searching it for several moments. Finally, he pulled out a syringe and a bottle.
“What’s that?” Alaina demanded suspiciously.
“Something to sedate him.”
She didn’t trust Bobby. “You won’t give him too much?”
“I didn’t bring anything strong enough for a two or three hundred pound mountain lion, damn it! You said it was a fucking cat. I’m just hoping this is strong enough to keep him quiet while I have a look.”
The panther shifted uneasily when Bobby approached him, but he didn’t try to break free of Alaina. He jerked when Bobby injected the sedative, glaring at Bobby through narrowed yellow eyes.
Sweat was running down Bobby’s face when he drew back. After studying the cat for a moment, he slowly moved back toward the door. “I need to get him to my clinic to run x-rays.”
“No,” Alaina said. It was a gut reaction, but even as she said it she realized she didn’t trust Bobby to take the cat to his clinic. “I’m not letting you take him anywhere.”
Bobby stared at her in disbelief for a moment before he scowled at her. “The longer you stay way out here by yourself, the crazier you get. You know that? Whether you like it or not, this is a wild animal and you can’t keep him.”
Alaina glared at him. “I’m not your girlfriend anymore. I don’t have to take orders from you. I don’t doubt in the least that you thought this was some kind of ploy just to get you out here, you conceited asshole, but it wasn’t. I called you because you’re a vet. Now, take care of him and earn your pay, or get the hell off my place!”
His lips tightened. She could see from his expression that she’d hit the nail on the head. He had thought she was just trying to get him out to her place. “It’s going to be a healthy bill. Surgery’s always expensive and I’ll have to charge you more for hazard.”
“Fine!”
His eyes narrowed but after studying her a couple of minutes he got his bag and moved closer to the panther again. Alaina looked down at the cat. He wasn’t asleep, but she could tell that the sedative had knocked him for a loop, probably because he was already weak from the blood loss.
Stroking him, she watched Bobby as he shaved the area, deadened it, and then began to fish around in the hole for the bullet. The cat tensed, but allowed her to hold him still.
She was feeling woozy and downright sick to her stomach by the time Bobby extracted the bullet, cleansed the wound and pulled out another bottle.
“What’s that?”
“Antibiotics. I’m guessing he must be somewhere between two and three hundred pounds, but it’s just a guess. I don’t know how much good it’ll do him. I’ll give you a bottle to dose him with,” he said absently as he injected the panther with the medicine and then placed a couple of sutures in it to close the wound, which was still bleeding sluggishly.
When he’d finished, he tossed his supplies back into his bag. “I’ll bill you,” he said shortly, pushing himself up and leaving the building with the air of somebody shaking the dust.
Alaina stared after him speculatively. “Asshole,” she muttered, looking down at the cat and stroking him. “He’s going to go straight to animal control. If there’s one thing I’ve learned to count on with Bobby, it’s that he can always be counted on to be a total jerk about everything.”
Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis Page 17
