Cougar's Mate (12 page)

Yvonne looked sympathetic. "We'll look out for you. Believe me. You have no need to worry about anything. Truly."

She swore Yvonne was trying to tell her that no matter what the circumstances surrounding Shannon's flight, they were behind her. But they didn't know her boyfriend's family.

Even so, at the thought that Yvonne and the others would take her in like that, she couldn't help the tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you. I… I believe you're sincere. All of you."

"But?" Yvonne asked.

Shannon shook her head. She didn't want to cause trouble for these people. Hennessey was sure to come after her here eventually. She suspected Hennessey, his brother, Roger, and their Uncle Murphy were all getting kickbacks on whatever illegal business they were involved in as close as they all were. And they most likely all had a stake in Ted's death.

Then suddenly she thought—what if they believed she knew all the details of their criminal activities? Maybe they knew her background. That her brother had been in trouble with the law and they felt comfortable that she hadn’t come from a law-abiding family. But then they worried that she knew too much. Well, besides that Hennessey murdered Ted in cold blood.

Yvonne patted Shannon's shoulder. "We'll protect you."

Shannon immediately was drawn out of her worrisome thoughts and at once felt self-conscious as everyone watched her reaction. She didn’t think they could protect her. Not always.

Then Dan began talking about the cougar hunting season coming up and how dangerous that was for their own kind.

She swore they were discussing it to remind her how dangerous it could be soon if she decided to run as a cougar. Not that some hunters didn't illegally kill cougars—or other animals—out of season.

She enjoyed the delightful dinner of spicy spaghetti, Italian garlic bread, and a salad while the conversation switched to the weather and fishing and then the chocolate cake was served up. She was amused to see both Rick and Chase take second
large
helpings and she was pleased they’d enjoyed it so much.

To Shannon's surprise, Rick talked about a mission that the three men had been on while in the army. She hadn’t realized he'd been a military man also. Unlike Chase and Hal’s, Rick’s hair was cut shorter, more military style like Dan’s was.

She remembered her father talking with her brother when they were little about having served in the army, and she wished that her father had known how proud she’d been of him for having done so.

“My father…” As soon as she spoke the words, she abruptly stopped and felt her face heat as all eyes were upon her. They were waiting anxiously, trying to appear not to be, while she gave them some hint of who she was. She was becoming too free with her words. Drinking the wine, eating the good food, having a nice conversation, and being so comfortable with everyone as friendly as they were, she almost forgot to keep her guard up. "Have any more of the men in the town served in the military?" Shannon asked, changing the subject.

There was a pause. They had to know she wasn’t about to say anything more about herself.

"Over the years, many have served in all of the major wars," Dan finally said. "Every year, in honor of our military, we have a grand celebration for the 4
th
of July and Armed Forces Day."

"Oh, speaking of celebrations, Thanksgiving isn't that far off,” Yvonne quickly said. “We haven't really discussed it, but usually Dan comes over, and we've asked Dottie if she'd like to come and bring her two children. We'd love to have you and Chase," Yvonne said to Shannon.

Shannon wondered then what Chase normally did for Thanksgiving. Surely, he didn’t sit at home alone. "I'm sure that I'll be gone by—"

"We'll have to decide a little later," Chase said, coming to Shannon's rescue, or maybe he was just rescuing himself from the holiday fare.

When the meal was through, Shannon offered to help clean the dishes, but Yvonne shook her head. "Thanks so much, but I have my own way of doing things. Takes just a second."

Shannon glanced at Chase, silently telling him she wanted to leave, but she didn't want to appear ungrateful. Even though she’d wanted to mix with their kind, she hadn’t realized how wearing it could be.

"We need to go, and we'll definitely get back to you about Thanksgiving," Chase said, sounding as if Shannon was staying that long, when there was no way that she could.

"It was so good to meet you, Shannon. I hope you are here for the holidays," Yvonne said. And then she, Rick, and Dan walked them out to the car.

After saying their good nights and thanking Yvonne for the meal again, Chase drove Shannon back to his place.

"What was that all about?" she asked, feeling a little wary.

"What do you mean?" Chase said, sounding cautious.

Shannon didn't say anything for a few minutes as he drove down the dark road through the woods to his cabin resort as she tried to think of what to say without sounding like she was being totally paranoid. "I… I feel like this is
The Stepford Wives’
town, except that everyone is too nice. Too caring. Too eager to be my best friend. Not just the women like in
The Stepford Wives
, but
everyone
."

"We're a friendly town—toward everyone—human visitors, cougars—but believe me when I say that a female cougar traveling alone the way in which you have has rallied everyone to want to take care of you. No secret agenda. Everyone wants to help you out, Shannon. We understand what it's like being a shifter in a human world. We know how dangerous it can be for one of us who has no support system. We want to provide you with that support system. No strings attached."

"All right. Thanks. I'm… sorry if I sound suspicious of people's motives when they don't know anything about me."

"I understand. We won't put you at risk.”

"Which means practically your whole town, right? Or someone could accidentally mention me to others." She couldn’t help worrying that someone would blog about her or put the story on Facebook, something that might alert Hennessey as to where she was.

"Our whole town. We work together, play together, take care of each other. If we didn't, who else would?"

Shannon sighed. "Sorry. It's just… so hard for me to trust anyone after all that's happened."

"I understand. You'll be all right here, Shannon. One thing about the people here is that everyone is aware of your dire circumstances. If anyone hears of anyone asking questions that could pertain to you, this information will be reported right back to Dan. He'll get in touch with me at once."

"Thank you," she said. Though she didn't entirely trust everyone. What if they learned the real trouble she could cause them and decided being one of them just wasn’t good enough?

Chapter 9

Later that night, Shannon was half dozing in the bedroom when she heard something—outside, she thought. She wasn't sure what the noise had been.

A scratching? She thought that once she was inside a cabin like this, she’d sleep better than when she had to attempt to sleep in the wilderness, fending for herself.

She got up and moved the table away from the door, then opened it. In the dark, she made her way into the living room and heard something bumping into something outside.

A trashcan?

Her heart racing, she peeked out the living room window curtains and saw a black bear trying to get into a bear-proof trashcan. She took a calming breath. She was safe, she told herself. Not like when she was running in the wilderness as a cougar. But her heart was still beating a million miles a minute.

A gun went off—a crash, and she made a small cry of distress. Not meaning to. She just hadn't expected the gunfire and it had scared her—the thought flashing through her brain that she could be the one being shot at and the reminder that Chase
had
shot her.

The bear quickly took off and Shannon saw Chase with his rifle at the ready, then he moved back into the shadows of the woods and disappeared.

For a long moment, she just stared out the window, then coming to grips with the fact that the bear was gone for good, and Chase would be all right, armed as he was, she returned to bed and closed her eyes, grateful again for everything Chase and the townspeople had done for her. If only someone could put Hennessey down, prove he had killed her boyfriend, and remove her from the family's hit list. Then… well, she could even stay in a place like this. With someone like Chase. And raise a family of her own. And then she drifted off to sleep, dreaming about making love to Chase and creating those babies with him when Hennessey’s knife-wielding figure transformed her dreams back into nightmares again.

***

Dan called Chase right after he'd scared the bear off. He'd seen Shannon watching out the living room window or he would have called her and told her it was just him and he'd been chasing off a bear. That must have been what Shannon had heard last night, too. But Chase had gone out, just in case, to ensure it truly was just a bear and not someone skulking around.

"Yeah, Dan?" Chase said, locking up the place again, and then locked his rifle away in the gun cabinet.

"Yvonne and Rick sure wished Shannon had said which branch of the service her father had been in. And wished we knew his last name. I’m sure she saw how much it killed us not to know as she nearly made the slip. But they'll use their resources to learn what they can about her. They said that the utensils she used and the wine glass were still too smudged to get any clear prints off."

"All right, but I wished we could just let her tell us what was going on for herself."

"I'm afraid we don't have the luxury of time. We might, but if someone is after her who can track her, they'll learn where she is eventually. Not that any of our people will give her location away, but if whoever is after her smells her scent, he'll know."

"She has trust issues."

"I understand, Chase. But we have to know what this is all about. We have to learn what we're going up against. Listen, several of our people have started making up a cover story for her also."

"So it sounds like she's lived here always?"

"Right. Only… well, the word that is getting out is that… she's your wife."

Chase stared at his living room floor, not really seeing it as he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That won't work. You know it won't. She's not about to go along with it."

"Okay, look. I didn't figure you'd like it. But think of it this way. If she's your wife, that's going to look a lot less suspicious than any other scenario we could come up with. A single woman, staying at one of your cabins, who's the age that she is automatically calls suspicion to the situation. Everyone else in town either has a mate, is too old to fit the bill, a lot too eager, or too young. And you have the military and police training to keep her safe. Besides, she’s already staying with you and you're my deputy sheriff."

"Part-time."

“Right. Which is perfect because you’re free to watch over her. If I need extra help, I’ll call Hal or Rick. Besides, she already trusts you."

Chase ran his hand through his hair. "What if this scares her into running?"

"I'm certain you can convince her how sound the plan is. As long as
you
are all right with it.”

Chase knew his friend was worried about him being okay with it because of having lost his wife and baby daughter. He would never forget them and often thought of them, but he didn’t have a problem with this. He just worried that Shannon would.

“I've considered every possible candidate and unless you're completely against it, or she is, I really think it's for the best. You know Hal would jump at the chance, but he’s moving to that ranch and he’s got a lot on his mind right now. My deputy would, too, but he’s got to keep his mind on business. He has a job to do. You’re free up there at your cabin resort to protect her 24-7."

"I'll speak about it to her tomorrow. If she's agreeable, we'll do it. But we need to learn what this is all about."

"Agreed. And tell her Dottie has a birthday party for her kids tomorrow afternoon, and she wouldn't want Shannon to miss it."

"I thought her kids' birthdays were closer to Thanksgiving."

"She's having it early just in case Shannon decides to leave."

Chase suspected that meant Dottie was going to try and learn something about Shannon in a woman-to-woman way. Then he thought about the party for a moment. “What if she’s not into kids?”

"Just ask her, all right? The Kretchens's thirtieth wedding anniversary is the night after that."

Chase smiled. "And the day after that?"

"Their wedding anniversary
is
at
that time."

"All right." Leave Chase to have forgotten the date.

"We’re still trying to come up with something for the next day."

Chase chuckled. "Remember, she's tired."

"She needs to feel as though she's part of the community. The more she can be around our people, socializing and making a connection with them, the more she’ll fit in. She won’t feel she’s an outsider and hopefully she’ll stay and trust we’ll help her out."

"Then maybe she'll want to stay through Thanksgiving and beyond." For the first time since he’d moved back home, Chase thought spending Thanksgiving with Shannon at the Muellers’ place had real appeal.

"Right. We'll have to determine why she's run, but yeah, that's the plan. She's a cougar shifter without a home. We're ready to take her in. All of us. If she's free and available, someone's got to be just right for her."

Chase shook his head. "Which is another reason to encourage her to attend all of the social gatherings." He wanted to say that if Dan started to invite her to single cougar gatherings,
he
wasn’t going for it.

"Right. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Dan said.

After they ended the call, Chase thought Dan's plan had merit. But he wasn't sure that Shannon would agree.

***

Every little sound woke Shannon that night. She thought the bear had come back and was snorting around outside in the middle of the night. Just about the time she had drifted off to sleep, something screeched in the distance. Much later that morning, Shannon climbed out of bed and headed to the kitchen for a glass of milk.