Rocky Mountain Miracle (17 page)

His blue eyes slashed her as she gave the order, but she didn't look away, staring right back at him, refusing to be intimidated.

Jase jumped up with determination. “I'm coming too.”

“You just don't want to do the dishes,” Cole said.

The two grabbed jackets and gloves from the rack just outside the door in the small mudroom as they followed Maia out. Cole hung back watching as she stood on the large covered patio looking out into the snow. She didn't call out, and he heard nothing, but she suddenly turned her head toward the north and stepped off the patio into the snow. He moved quickly, catching her arm.

“Maia, call whatever it is to you. You can't go out into this. Jase and I will hang back out of the way, but you stay undercover.”

The storm had let up some, but it had dropped several feet of snow, and with the next serious storm approaching fast, he didn't want to take any chances.

“I'm not sure it will come to me with the two of you so close,” she said.

“At least try.”

She hesitated a moment, glanced at Jase, then complied, whistling softly as if calling a dog. The sound of the wind answered her. Snowflakes fell in a continuous soft drift, muffling sounds of the night.

“I'm going to have to go out to it,” she persisted.

Cole retained possession of her arm. Something was moving just outside his range of vision, the fall of snow nearly obscuring it. “Stay here. I want you where I can see you at all times.” He whispered it, straining to see beyond the veil of white.

Beneath his fingers, Maia suddenly tensed and stepped away from him, moving to the very edge of the patio. “She's coming in.”

Cole felt the hairs on his body raise. He moved closer to Jase, shifting his body to place himself between the unknown and his brother. What he wanted to do was drag Maia back into the safety of the house. While the snow was white and seemed to sparkle everywhere, the clouds were dark and ominous with the continuing threat of the blizzard. He didn't know if that was what triggered his protective instincts or whether it was sheer self-preservation, but his warning radar was shrieking.

The mountain lion emerged out of the snowdrift, covered in flakes, ears flat, eyes alert and watchful. The yellow-green gaze settled not on Maia, but on the Steele brothers.

“Maia.” Cole reached out and caught the back of her coat, giving it a small tug to try to bring her to him. “Jase, back into the house. Come on, Maia. This is dangerous.”

“No,” Maia kept her tone low and almost crooning. “She's coming to us. She's feeling threatened, and any
movement on your part will have her running away. Just stay calm and don't move.” As she spoke, Maia knelt and patted the patio beside her.

Nearly belly to the ground, the cat inched its way to her, using a freeze-frame stalking motion, never taking its gaze from the men. The cat crouched rather than stretched out, presenting its left side to the veterinarian, but obviously ready to spring away quickly should there be need. Maia put her hand on the cat's back, fingers sliding into the rich fur.

Cole pressed one hand to his heart and slid the other down to his calf, where his gun was stashed.

Maia allowed the images from the mountain lion to crowd into her mind. Something moving through the air, nearly over the top of her. A loud noise that had the cat snarling. Men and horses. The scent of man invading her territory. The sting in her side that spread pain through her body and slowed her down, accompanied by the sound of the rifle.

“She's been shot,” she said quietly.

M
AIA TOOK A DEEP SLOW BREATH
. “It isn't as if I can keep her from going against her natural instincts. If you are going to watch this, please don't turn your back on her and don't stare directly into her eyes. I sometimes look them in the eyes, but I have some strange affinity for wild animals.” She kept her voice crooning, as if talking to the cat.

“The wound is in her shoulder which is a good thing. I'm going to give her both Rompom and Ketamine to knock her out. Jase, it's always much harder with exotics, particularly large cats. Normally you have to dart them, and the problem is, they are very hard to dart down because there is no set dosage even if they're the same age and height, the normal criteria for dosing an animal or even a human. It's different with them because their adrenaline is pumping very fast. It's rare to take a large cat down with one dart.” As she spoke she was preparing the shot.

“Maia.” Cole didn't like her in such close proximity, yet she was moving with confidence.

“Please don't talk. This is very hard on her. She trusts me, but not you. You have to look at the body language of
a cat to know what's going on inside of them.” She set the dose of Ketamine aside and withdrew a second syringe. “This is yohimbe, Jase. You
always
have it ready when you're working with exotics. The danger is, they'll fight the drug until they finally drop, but then, as they relax, they can go into cardiac arrest. I think she'll be fine, she isn't fighting it, but we have to be ready. Yohimbe reverses the Ketamine. I'm giving the injection in the muscle and it will sting, so expect a reaction and don't move. Once she's out, you can get close to her.”

Cole kept the gun hidden along his thigh. His heart was pounding in fear, and his mouth was dry, not for himself, or even Jase, but because the sight of Maia so close to the wild animal was terrifying.

Maia caught the head of the cat in her hands and leaned forward nose to nose, her face inches from the cat's teeth. She seemed to exchange breath with the animal, obviously communicating in some way, but Cole's fingers tightened around the gun. It took a tremendous effort to keep from aiming it at the animal. Maia put her hand on the cat's heart as if matching her own heartbeat with the mountain lion.

Maia pulled back to pick up the syringe. The cat yowled as she administered it. “I know, baby,” she said softly, “it stings, doesn't it? Just go with it and get sleepy for me.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I need to work fast, this won't keep her under for long.”

“Can we help?” Cole asked, shoving the gun back into his holster.

“Remember how I mixed the Betadine and saline? You can do that while I give her fluid. It's going to balloon up at the site, Jase, but the lump will dissipate as the
fluid is absorbed in the cat's body. I'm giving her a sub queue of lactated Ringer's solution for dehydration. It's hard to find a vein on the big cats, but they absorb liquid under the skin. I'm putting in the fluids right here in this area.”

“Do you want me to put this in a syringe like we did for the horse?” Jase asked. He crouched quite close to Maia, almost nudging her out of the way.

“Yes. Use it to flush the wound site. The wound is on the trapezoid muscle, but it looks like the bullet just sliced it rather than penetrated.” Maia turned her head toward Jase.

Cole could see they were nearly nose to nose. For some reason it put a lump in his throat. Something deep inside him shifted. Moved. Melted. He saw his young half brother, so starved for love and attention, turning to Maia. She seemed so willing to give the boy the things he needed. It came naturally to her. She imparted knowledge casually, and Jase soaked it up.

“You lavage it, and I'll debride the area. We want it sterile, just like with Wally.”

“She's so big,” Jase observed. “I've never seen a mountain lion other than in pictures before.” There was awe in Jase's voice. Unable to help himself, just as curious as Jase, Cole crowded closer to see what they were doing.

“They're solitary animals, Jase,” Maia explained. “The females are smaller than the males. This one probably weighs in around ninety-five pounds and most are somewhere between seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five pounds, so she's average and healthy. A female will keep her cubs with her about year to a year and half. This one is still young, maybe two years old.”

“Can I touch her?” Jase was already reaching out, his expression lit up with excitement. Cole had never seen him as fascinated or intrigued with anything. The boy moved even closer, actually bending over Maia to peer at what she was doing. She didn't seem to mind in the least, showing him what she was doing next.

“Sure, it's safe. She's out. Her eyes are open, but she's out.” Maia squeezed ointment into the cat's eyes to prevent them from drying out. “She can't blink like this, so we have to do it for her.”

“I've heard them scream before,” Jase said. “It was like something out of a scary movie.”

“Mountain lions purr, rather than roar like the other big cats do, and yes, they have a phenomenal scream,” Maia said, guiding Jase's hand along the cat's back.

Cole watched the way her hands moved through the mountain lion's fur. He tasted envy in his mouth. Need. How did he become a part of such a thing?

Maia glanced at Cole over her shoulder. “You don't hunt them on this ranch, do you?”

“It's legal here in Wyoming,” he said. His voice was strangling around the lump in his throat. “But since I've been here we certainly don't hunt them, and we wouldn't unless they went after our horses or cattle. Most stay in the high country.” Forcing his mind to concentrate on details, he studied the cat, trying to determine, from the lacerated muscle, the angle the shooter had shot from. “How old is that wound?”

“It's fresh. Maybe twenty-four hours, a little longer, but not by much. Damn hunters. It's makes me so mad, they wound an animal and leave it to suffer.”

“You're saying she was shot on this ranch yesterday or
the day before?” Cole's body touched hers, as he bent over her to get a closer look at the wound.

Maia glanced at him, recognizing the edge in his voice, the sudden alert interest. “She definitely was shot somewhere on the ranch.

“There was no one here but Al and me,” Jase said. “I didn't hear a shot.”

“It was probably miles from the ranch house,” Cole said.

“I'm going to give her an injection of antibiotics, then we'll put them in her food and try to keep her here over the next few days,” Maia deliberately changed the subject when she realized Jase was becoming agitated. She sent Cole a warning glance.

Cole shook his head. “Maia, this is a working ranch. You have any idea how dangerous that is? If you feed her, and you'll have to, she might want to come around here. And then we're going to have to shoot her anyway.”

“I'll make certain she knows to stay in the high country.”

He stepped even closer. “Fine. If I have to have it here, I want to pet it too.” He felt stupid asking, but it was the chance of a lifetime. There was breathtaking beauty in the animal and a sense of raw power. The moment his fingers sank into the fur, he felt connected to it, and in some strange way, the mountain lion solidified his connection to Jase and Maia. He dropped his other hand on Maia's shoulder, needing to touch her as he took the unique opportunity to get close to a live mountain lion. Jase beamed at him. They exchanged a small grin. Maia was magic and mystery, and it was becoming difficult for Cole to focus his mind on anything else.

Maia's hand covered Cole's as he petted the cat's deep fur.

“Amazing. I've never had an experience like this.” There was wonder in his voice, a boyish excitement, much like Jase's, yet there was that underlying dark sensuality he couldn't suppress. Seeing Maia with the cat, getting so close with Jase, just being herself seemed to bring it out in him.

Reluctantly, Maia pulled her hand away to reach for the needle. She had to avoid looking at Cole. Sharing the experience with him was a fantasy she'd always kept secret, sharing her love of exotic cats with a man she . . . Abruptly she pulled her mind away from the thought. “I'm suturing the wound, Jase,” Maia continued. “If it were any older, there would be too much bacteria in it, but I'll leave a drain and use dissolving sutures. Hopefully we can keep as much air getting to it as possible.”

“How'd you learn all this?” Jase asked eagerly. “This is what I want to do.”

“I specialized in exotics as well as smaller animals. I actually interned in both Africa and Indochina,” Maia said. “I may go back to specializing, but for the time being, the mobile clinic works for me.”

Jase looked up at his brother, a grin on his face. “I know I could do this, Cole.”

“I know you could too, Jase,” Cole encouraged. Because Jase was so excited, the boy didn't even notice he was shaking with cold.

“Large cats can't be treated lightly, Jase,” Maia said as she worked. “You always have to be aware that they are wild creatures, even the ‘domesticated exotics.' You have to
pay attention to body language all the time. And you have to be aware of what ‘zone' they're in. I have a five-zone gauge I use to determine the risks of working with a wild animal. Things like bad weather, such as we have now, high winds, tornadoes, and such will drop them into the zone, and we're very much at risk. As she comes out from under the ketamine she'll be at her most dangerous because she'll be dopey and fearful. We don't want to be around for that.”