Catamount Ridge Read Free

attacked her the previous day, were all jumbled together. Jessie frowned and mulled over the episode.
    In all her years with the Forest Service, there hadn’t been a single account where a second lion interrupted a kill. The large cats were solitary by nature. Nocturnal hunters, being out at midday was not the norm. The devastating drought had depleted the area’s resources and might have been a contributing factor, but the odd behavior went against everything she knew to be true.
    The memory made her shudder. Instead of being sore from too much sex, her body could have been a lifeless mangled mass. The cat would have hidden her remains in the underbrush. Between the lion and other scavengers, it wouldn’t have been long before her bones were picked clean and her family would never know the cause of her disappearance.
    Lucky didn’t come close to describing Jessie’s narrow escape. Facing off with a full-grown mountain lion, poised for attack, Jessie raised her arms above her head, trying to look as large as possible. She bellowed at the top of her lungs hoping to frighten the animal off, but the look in the blue-gray beast’s steely eyes told her he wasn’t falling for her bravado. His lips curled into a sinister grin, and his body settled back onto his powerful haunches. The cat was waiting mercilessly for her own fear to make her incapable of action.
    Jessie knew she might not survive the day, but it would not be because she failed to act. She shifted her weight in preparation of the assault. The fast, rhythmic, thumping of her heart pulsated through her head, and kicked her senses into high alert.
    The cat caught her slight movement and adjusted his oversized paws accordingly.
    Jessie saw it, and the very instant the mountain lion leaped, she dove to the side. A blur flew overhead and a searing pain raked down her arm.
    Another lion had attacked the first and knocked the blue-gray animal off its deadly trajectory.
    Wrapped in the other’s clutches, the two animals, rolled across the floor of the forest and refused to release the other.
    Jessie wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. She scrambled to her feet and ran for the road and the safety of her old, but dependable, Ford F-150. In a blind panic, she tripped over roots and slipped on poison oak. Finally, after sliding down a hill, she landed on asphalt. Jessie was on Catamount Ridge Road, but her truck was nowhere in sight. She assessed the situation and decided to keep running. The direction didn’t matter since she didn’t know where her truck was parked. Her only thought was to get her butt out of there as fast as possible.
    She was at a serious disadvantage being downhill from the cats. No matter how fast she ran she could be taken down. At any moment, the cat’s powerful jaws could clamp down on her jugular, and drain the life out of her.
    Jessie heard the rumbling of an engine coming up from behind. She turned and saw her beat-up lump of a truck heading towards her. In her terror, she thought the figure seated behind the wheel was the mountain lion coming to chase her down, and Jessie ran faster.
    A fellow ranger pulled up beside her. Relieved, but confused, she grabbed the handle, and scrambled inside.
    “Drive,” she yelled.
    “What happened out there? I heard a scream.”
    The adrenaline levels racing through her veins weren’t releasing fast enough for her explanation to sound the least bit coherent. She needed to get off the mountain, and she needed to do it now. Jessie slammed a balled fist into his shoulder and barked out a direct order. “Drive! Go! Now!”
    The ranger cut her an odd look, but thankfully didn’t argue. He hit the gas, and the truck lurched forward. With his knee pressed to the steering wheel, he shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it into her lap. “Put some pressure on that arm.”
    Jessie looked down and saw her blood soaked sleeve. Her eyes widened at the sight. Warm red fluid oozed out from under the tattered