Catch the Cougar: A Halloween Novella Read online

  She laughed, and then he drove Vanessa to the party, while Dan and Addie met them over there. Everything was decorated beautifully, with orange and purple lights, a wolf howling at the door—more of a scary one, not like the one sleeping it off in the clinic.

  As soon as they entered the party, they were met with flashing disco lights, tables of food and drinks, a big dance floor, and cougars wearing every costume imaginable. They paused to check out a bunch of Yuma Town’s residents’ costumes. This was so much fun, especially since Vanessa and William were together this time.

  Hal Haverton, the horse ranch owner and part-time deputy sheriff, was wearing a Clint Eastwood kind of outfit. His mate, Tracey, special agent with Fish and Wildlife, was Calamity Jane. Chase Buchanan, owner of the lake resort and part-time deputy was Captain America, and Shannon, his mate, Wonder Woman.

  Travis and Bridget from CSF were Robin Hood and Lady Marian. Nina and her mate Stryker, both full-time deputy sheriffs, were Spiderman and Spider-Woman.

  Deputy Sheriff Ricky Jones was a steampunk captain of a dirigible and nurse Mandy, his mate, was a steampunk detective. Ricky’s brother, Kolby, who worked out at Hal’s ranch, was Thor. The owner of the bakery in town, and retired CIA agent, Florence Fitzgerald, was a gypsy fortune teller and so was Ava Lamar, who worked at the bakery with her. Since Ava had psychic visions, just like her sister, Nina, it seemed appropriate. Ted Weekum, Hal’s ranch hand, was Zorro. Kate was Dr. Quinn and her mate, Leyton, was a mountain man, Sully, from the same show. CSF special agent, Jack, and his mate, Dottie, were Superman and Superwoman.

  And Vanessa’s own vet tech, Riley, was the Joker. It suited him. Her other tech, Missy was Little Bo Peep with a stuffed lamb, and Pamela, her receptionist, Little Red Riding Hood.

  Then everyone quieted down and waited to hear what William and Vanessa had to tell them and they revealed that they had a real werewolf at the clinic.

  Everyone laughed. Only for Halloween.

  * * *

  Then William was dancing with Vanessa and he couldn’t have been prouder of her for the way she was ready to jump in and take care of the wild wolf, though he imagined some would have put the wolf down. It was a good thing they hadn’t planned to put him to sleep permanently.

  He couldn’t believe he was actually dancing with Vanessa tonight at a cougar party instead of her standing off to the side, glowering at him like she was known to do at these functions in the past. She smelled of lilac and pumpkin, of she-cat, and sweet woman. They had danced to the fast-paced dancing and to the slower dances too, and all he could think of was that she wanted him to stay with her tonight. And how that would work out. He felt they’d been headed in this direction for days now, and he couldn’t be gladder. He wouldn’t mind the commute if he could just be with her. That’s all he thought about when he left her at night, or she left his place. But he hadn’t wanted to push things because of her previous engagements that had turned sour.

  He couldn’t be more thrilled that she was taking a chance with him. He would prove to her she could trust in him to be there for her through thick or thin. Everyone teased him about emailing her, texting her, or calling her every break he chanced to have at the clinic. Sometimes he went out to see her for lunch. When she had enough time, she would drive into town and see him for lunch.

  Every night, they would get together for dinner. But he wanted to be there with her for morning wakeups and when they retired for the night. He realized he wanted to be with her for long-term, as her mate. He wasn’t sure she would want to try for that again—at least not right away. But he didn’t want to wait that long.

  He was dancing close to her again, rubbing against her, smiling down at her, kissing her. “I don’t want this to end between us.” He whispered the words next to her ear.

  She smiled up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re not getting rid of me for a long, long time. What do you think’s going to happen tonight?”

  He was thinking she meant a mating. He was afraid to ask and well, what the hell? “You want me to mate you? Please tell me that’s what you want and I will be your humble servant.”

  She laughed and rubbed her body against his in a way that said yes! He was already hard with desperate need and ready to leave the party and return to her home right now. Or to his place. It was closer.

  “Hmm, do you want to mate?” she asked, sliding her hands up his shirt.

  “Hell, yeah. And we can end all this speculation.”

  “Yours?”

  “Yeah, and everyone else’s.” He wanted to leave right this very minute. “I guess it would be noticeable if we left the party too early.”

  “We’re both off tomorrow. It’s the first time since we’ve been dating each other. I thought we would stay here and enjoy the party until the end, and then the rest of the night and day tomorrow are ours. It’s time to do this, if you’re game. Besides, I love Halloween and I met the two men I was engaged to at Halloween parties that eventually ended up in marriage proposals and disasters. I know you’re really the one for me, and this time, I want to make the Halloween night truly memorable.”

  “I’m up for that.”

  “I know,” she said, rubbing against his steel-hard erection.

  “Just for you.”

  “I’m more than ready.” She kissed him on the mouth, then tongued him.

  “Are you sure we can’t leave earlier?”

  She laughed. “Not while we’re having so much fun here.”

  That meant a lot more dancing, a quick trip to the table to eat some more Halloween-themed food: Mummy dogs, deviled eggs made to look like spiders with black olive strips for legs, ghoulie punch, vampire punch

  And then it was back to dancing. He was enjoying the slow moves and the fast ones, knowing they were going to culminate the night with lovemaking.

  He couldn’t believe she had decided this was what she wanted so quickly. He figured he would have to date her for months before she felt she was ready for this. And he was surprised that she had met both of her ex-fiancés at Halloween parties. No wonder she hadn’t been really enthusiastic about going to this one, until she began dating him.

  Chapter 7

  At the medical clinic, Marcus was reading a mystery thriller in the break room while the wolf shifter was sleeping when the nurse call button was pushed. The wolf was the only patient at the clinic tonight, so Marcus figured he’d woken up and maybe was in pain. He probably had a million questions for them as much as they had for him.

  When Marcus reached the room, he saw the man sitting up on his bed, frowning.

  “Do you need some more pain medication?”

  “No. I need to know where I am.”

  “You’re at the clinic in Yuma Town and suffered a broken femur.”

  “Where’s the doctor?”

  “He’s at a Halloween party. I’m supposed to call him when you woke. What’s your name?”

  “Roger Heston. I want to see the doctor.” Roger rubbed his head as if it was paining him.

  Marcus had his phone out, but Roger interrupted him. “I’ll meet him there.”

  “He might want you to stay here.”

  “You can take me. Just call him.”

  “All right.” Marcus called Dr. Rugel and said, “Hey, he’s awake. Roger Heston is the wolf’s name and he wants to see you at the party.” Marcus smiled and glanced at Roger. “He’s been rubbing his head, but he doesn’t want any more pain medication.”

  William said, “We can’t keep him against his will. Just bring him here then.”

  “All right. I’ll set him up with crutches and bring the wheelchair. I’ll need someone to be here, though, in case we have a walk-in or emergency.”

  “Hold on for a sec. I need to talk to Mandy, since she is your backup.” Then William was back on the line. “Okay, Mandy and Ricky are on their way. You can either bring him and they’ll stay there, or you can stay there, and they’ll bring him here. But Mandy says she hopes y
ou’ll come here so you can eat and have some fun too.”

  “Okay, thanks, I’ll be there as soon as they arrive here.”

  “They’re already on their way, be just a couple of minutes.”

  Marcus got Roger some crutches and a coat to wear over his scrubs, then helped him into a wheelchair.

  “What’s your name?” Roger asked Marcus.

  “Marcus.”

  “The Black Panther.”

  Marcus smiled, but the wolf didn’t. He looked a little woozy still.

  “Tell me what the deal is here. That doctor and the female nurse—”

  “Uh, Dr. Vanessa Vanderbilt is our veterinarian.”

  “I was an injured wolf and that’s why a vet was taking care of me at first. Gotcha.”

  “And Dr. Rugel is a family physician.”

  “You’re all cougar shifters? I mean, you smell like a cougar I fought one once as a wolf, but I remember the woman, veterinarian, saying they were cougars.”

  Marcus folded his arms. “You bit her.”

  Roger smiled a little. Marcus raised his brows. “You planned to turn her?”

  “I had to do something to get her to quit sedating me.”

  Marcus chuckled. “I’m sure Dr. Rugel would have something to say about that.”

  “I take it they’re together.”

  “You could say that. Not to mention the whole town is cougar-run so you could be on the wrong side of a bunch of us, if you’d done anything more.”

  “Point taken. Who’s your pack leader?”

  Marcus smiled. “No pack leader. We’re independent, work together, play together, more like a family of cougars. Not like a wolf pack. What about you. Where are you from?”

  “I’m a lone wolf. Looking to settle down with a mate.”

  “You’re the first one we’ve seen around here.” Then Marcus heard a car pull up. “That’s my replacement. Come on. I’ll wheel you out to the van.”

  * * *

  “I can’t believe the wolf is coming to the party. He can’t be in very good shape to enjoy it,” Vanessa told William when he explained what was going on.

  “Yeah, he should stay at the clinic, but we can’t really force him to stay there if he really wants to leave.”

  “I could have sedated him again.” Vanessa smiled up at Marcus.

  “That may be what he’s afraid of.”

  Vanessa laughed, and then they saw the wolf, well, Roger, being brought into the hall in a wheelchair. She was glad at least he had enough sense to allow that.

  William shook his hand. “Sorry about hitting you with my car.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Then Roger smiled boldly at Vanessa. “Sorry for biting you. I guess I should be glad you didn’t put me out of my misery.”

  Vanessa shook her head. “I would have taken care of you.”

  “I thought I was going to be stuck with you for a mate.”

  She smiled and didn’t believe that he felt he would be “stuck” with her the way the smile played on his lips. He was kind of a rogue. “It was a good thing you couldn’t.”

  “You were fast with a needle.”

  She smiled again, but she didn’t say anything about what he had planned to do to William. She suspected he wouldn’t want to turn him in case he was competition for her affection. It was too late for that, even if he could have turned them both.

  “What were you doing running as a wolf out here?” William asked.

  “Full moon. I’ve been doing really well for the last few months during the full moon. I thought I was through with the shifting issues.”

  “It’s too close to Halloween,” Vanessa said.

  Roger smiled at her.

  “We found your car parked off the road some distance from Vanessa’s home,” Dan said. “We checked the registration and found it belonged to you, but no sign of you. Once Marcus told William what your name was, we realized you were the owner. We’ll have the vehicle towed into town for safekeeping.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where are you from?” Vanessa asked. “Can someone come and get you?”

  “I’m from Montana. I had taken a trip to Texas to see a friend and then I was headed back when I had all this trouble.”

  “Would you like something to eat?” Addie asked. “I can get you a plate and something to drink, if you’re feeling up to it.”

  “Yeah, sure. The food smells great.”

  “Do you have a pack member who could come and pick you up and take you home?” Dan asked, when he didn’t answer Vanessa question about that.

  “I’ve got a friend with a pack in Green Valley, Colorado. I’ll see if he can help me out,” Roger said.

  “Any of us can put you up if you don’t feel you need to stay overnight at the hospital for observation,” Kate said. “You can stay with us. My house is right behind the clinic and since I’m a doctor, I can give you any help you might need in the middle of the night.”

  “Yeah, you know, I might need to do that. The trouble is if I suddenly have the urge to shift in the next day or so with a cast fit for a human leg, it’s not going to be good. I hadn’t thought of that.”

  None of them had.

  “Okay, you stay with us and we’ll deal with it if the time comes,” Kate said.

  “All right, once I’m through a couple of more days of the full moon, I should be good. I’ll call my friend in the meantime and see if he can help me out.”

  “Good.”

  Vanessa heard William sigh audibly. So did several other people. She wasn’t about to tell anyone what she and William planned to do tonight—not until after the fact.

  Then Roger told them about how wolf shifters mated for life. Vanessa was impressed.

  After Marcus wheeled Roger over to a table, Addie brought him a plate of food, some punch, and a bottle of water. Several cougars came over to talk with the wolf in their midst and William quickly led Vanessa back to the dance floor where they rocked to the music until the bewitching hour. After Kate assured them that she and Leyton would look after their wolf patient, William drove Vanessa back to his house.

  That was one thing about having a cat. Midnight was self-sufficient, though Missy, Vanessa’s other vet tech, offered to pick her up and take her home with her for as long as she needed.

  So much for keeping what Vanessa and William planned for the night secret! Though Vanessa was glad Midnight would have company tonight too. She knew Missy would spoil her terribly, but she deserved it while the cougars were at play.

  “You’re so eager for this you don’t want to go to my house?” Vanessa asked William, as they drove to his townhouse.

  “Right. Unless you want more privacy at your place. I figured we could go there in the morning and spend the rest of the day there, just in case you have an emergency pet case to handle.”

  “That’s why I love you, you know. You’re always thinking about my patients too.”

  “You’re at a disadvantage,” he said, pulling into his driveway. “At least Kate can cover for me. You don’t have anyone to help you out. Well, me, for now. Though I’m going to have to read up more about the subject matter.”

  She laughed, figuring he was pulling her leg. He couldn’t really practice veterinarian medicine unless he had a license, but to assist her in an emergency? She suspected he could, and he would be a real help. No one would tell anyone at least in the cougar run community.

  “So the question is,” he said, as they left his car and headed for the door to the townhouse, “do you want me to move in with you now, or wait until after we’re married?”

  That was the thing about cougars. When they mated, they were mated, but not for life, like the wolves were. Even if the big cats married, they could change their minds about being together and divorce. They were more like humans in that regard.

  “Oh, you’re moving in with me. And we’re getting married as soon as we have time off to plan for it and do it. Besides, I feel like we are a family already—between you and
me and Midnight and Buddy.”

  He smiled down at her and shut the door to the garage. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.”

  “Hey, it’s for keeps.”

  He chuckled. “Good. I feel the same way about you.” He took her hand and pulled her into the house, looking like he was ready for business and couldn’t delay this any further.

  She was glad because she didn’t want to wait any longer either.

  Chapter 8

  First, Vanessa and William had to take care of Buddy. He wouldn’t understand that she and William were on a mission to mate.

  They took him for a long walk, and then returned home to put him to bed in his crate for what came next between the cougars.

  In the bedroom, Vanessa pulled off the pirate’s scarf on William’s head and tossed it through the air. Then she began to slide up his pirate shirt, exposing his chest, kissing his abs as soon as she moved her mouth up his body. “Hot, hot, hot.”

  “You are too.” He tugged off her peasant’s blouse and ran his hands over her breasts and they felt so good on her silky, sheer bra. “Hmm, if I had known you were wearing something this sexy underneath your shirt, I would have brought you to my house sooner.”

  She smiled. “No way. I had to dance with you and end the night at midnight, perfect for Halloween. You are much too impatient.”

  His thumbs stroked her rigid nipples making her whole body tingle with need. His eyes were already darkened with lust, and when she ran her hand down the front of his trousers, she found the bulge there. He was ready for her, had been since they had been dancing close at the end of the party. No wonder he had wanted to end things early and come here with her.

  She knew this was the right thing to do. Their chemistry mixed and matched and enticed them to want more.

  He moved her bra cups down so he could caress her bare breasts with his hot hands. But then he reached around her back and unfastened her bra while she rubbed her body against him, eliciting a half growl, half groan from his lips. When he dropped her bra on the floor, she sat on the bed and began pulling off her boots, but he was right there, helping to take them off. Then he massaged her sock-covered feet and she leaned back on the bed and purred her pleasure. He pulled off her socks and then sat down on the bed.