She chuckled and felt her face warm with embarrassment."Hal said we could build a home on the ranch's acreage.I'm good with that if you are."
"Are you sure?That makes it a bit of a drive for you."
"Yeah, it's like having a family here, and then we can go in and visit Granddad and do activities in town just like everyone else does.I don’t mind commuting to work."
"Did you tell Hal we already mated?"
She smiled."No.He just said when we did."
Rory hugged her."I guess the truth is out then."
"Yeah, I was going to wait for us to tell everyone at the same time."
"I blew that."
She kissed him.
"It was inevitable," Hal said, laughing.Then he gathered everyone around."Okay, we're going to hunt down Timothy, if we can find him," Hal said."I want two volunteers to ride horses.The rest of us will run as cougars, and if we find him, we take him down."
"Permanently?"Rory asked.
"Yeah.We can't have him attacking Lacy, Rory, her grandfather, or any of our people further.He won't realize we have such a force to track him down," Hal said."I'll go as a cougar.The rest of you decide who will ride the horses."
"I'm running as a cougar," Lacy quickly said."I need to learn how to ride a horse."
"I'll be a cougar and stay by your side."
"I'll ride a horse," Wyatt said.
"Me too," Blaze said.
Then police cars drove up.More reinforcements.
Stryker, Travis, Chase, Ricky, and Leyton got out of the vehicles."We're ready to go on the hunt.Dan is staying with Frank, and Nina is at the coffee shop with Ava and Mrs.Fitz," Stryker said.“Chet and Addie are searching for Timothy around town.”
Blaze and Wyatt took off to saddle up a couple of horses.
"We're all going as cougars," Hal said."You can use the bunkhouse to shift in.I'll meet you out here."Then he headed for the main house.
Everyone else went into the bunkhouse.Rory and Lacy went into his room and removed their clothes.They were still bandaged, and they just shifted.The bandages would most likely fall off when they ran, as they wouldn't stick to their fur very well.But she felt okay.
Rory seemed all right, too.
Then they all took off and fanned out, covering more territory.But Rory stayed close to Lacy.She knew he wasn't letting her out of his sight, and she loved him for it.She always felt so much safer with him around.
It had snowed a lot last night, so there were no tracks but one, and it wasn't a cougar's.It confused her.It was definitely a black bear's.
He should have been hibernating.She hoped they didn't run into a grumpy bear and have to deal with it.
She glanced at Rory, and he licked her muzzle.She licked his back, and they continued on their way.She noticed all the guys were standing in a line, as if they were searching for a crime victim or a missing person.
No one seemed to see anything, and they continued covering the land until they reached the forest below the cliffs.Now it would be more challenging to see each other as they continued to search for any sign of the cat.She kept glancing at the trees, making sure Timothy wasn't sitting on any of the branches near them.She kept smelling for his scent but didn't catch any sign of it.
They finally reached the base of the cliffs, and she looked to her left and right.Everyone was there, all having moved together to begin to navigate the cliffs.But then she saw movement in a cave up above.She stared at it, thinking it wasn’t Timothy, but it was too big, dark brown, and furry.
The bear.
Everyone had been climbing the cliffs as cougars, but she couldn't believe it.Didn't anyone else see the bear peering out of the cave?
