by J. K Harper
"Jordyn," he started slowly.
She tensed slightly beneath him, alerted by his cautious tone. "Yes?" Her voice sounded a mixture between deliciously sated and cautiously questioning.
"I'm not sure—" he managed to get out before his phone suddenly went crazy, quickly followed by Jordyn's.
"Damn," he swore, pressing a firm kiss against her neck before gently easing out of her to spring to his feet.
She was moving just as quickly. But when he glanced at her he saw the regret in her eyes. Both their phones blared out with the special alert that was calling them in. These sounded when there was a really bad fire for which the department was simply asking for anyone who was available to show up to report to the station immediately.
People's lives could be in the balance right now.
Yanking on his clothes while Jordyn raced over to her closet and did the same, Tanner said through his shirt as he pulled it over his head, "I've got something to say to you, babe. After we finish this call, though, okay?"
She nodded at him, darted back over to give him a quick, sound kiss on the lips that they both lingered over for just a moment. Then she rushed back to continue shoving on her own clothes.
Together, they ran out the door and downstairs, heading straight to the station and their life-saving work.
9
Gouts of flame sliced out through the open windows of the building. Smoke billowed into the sky. Sirens, people yelling, the enormous rush of water from the hoses and an official-sounding voice through a megaphone sharply commanding bystanders to get back and allow the fire department do its job all added a sense of enormous urgency to an already acute situation.
"Tanner! Over here!" Zach's shout got Tanner's attention. Tanner ran over, still tugging on his oxygen tank over one shoulder. Small knots of the fire house crew had gathered near a side entrance, each of them calmly and efficiently working as they prepared to go in.
"People still inside?" Tanner dodged around a visibly shaken woman being escorted back to the fire trucks and presumably paramedics as he called out his question.
Zach nodded, jerking his head toward the front of the building and jabbing his thumb into the air. "Upstairs. Two men. We only saw one, he was shouting to us through that window.” He pointed at it. “He said his father has a heart condition and is having a lot of issues with the smoke. He couldn't get them both down on his own but he said he thinks there's still a clear path up to the back. Fire's moving fast, though. We need to get to them."
Tanner nodded, situating his tank and making sure his helmet was jammed firmly on his head. "Let's do this."
Behind him, a newly sharp siren drew his attention. The ambulance. Turning, he watched for a brief moment as it pulled up and Jordyn and Sean jumped out. Jordyn, focused on her job with the businesslike precision that had insured her steady career rise and cemented her place here, was sexy as hell as she went about checking on the dazed woman Tanner had brushed past moments earlier. Jordyn's touch was gentle yet thorough as she checked the woman over, her expression professional and genuinely caring.
His wolf, utterly focused on the job at hand yet also definitely aware of Jordyn's presence, give a sharp bark of incredible pride in Tanner's mind. Agreed, Tanner thought before he turned back to Zach and the burning building. "I'm right behind you," he called out, striding quickly to enter the building behind Zach and the chief.
Inside, it was dark, smoky, and what Tanner knew must be terrifying for those still trapped upstairs. Luckily, they weren't actually trapped. The narrow yet perfectly serviceable staircase marched up ahead of them, free of flames, heat, and all but the barest wisps of smoke. The chief called behind him as he took the stairs two at a time, "Looks all clear, boys. It'll be a clean run. Everyone stay in position."
Tanner bristled slightly at that. Everyone here damn well knew their role in a fire rescue. That warning was aimed directly at him. The chief was still sore at Tanner's supposed insubordination.
Angry to lose teammate, his wolf thought in a short, sharp staccato in his head. Knows each one is strong and smart. Important.
Huh. That was interesting. His wolf was often far more attuned to the hidden intricacies of other people. Their body language.
Or maybe, he allowed himself to think in stark honesty, it was just that Tanner himself had been so focused on his own personal blind spots he didn't want to allow for the inherent humanity in his chief. Or his own.
Snorting slightly to himself at the touch of irony of having his wolf force him to consider his humanity, he followed quickly behind the others, slamming through a door that opened into a hallway. The smoke was definitely heavier here, but still not bad enough to be instantaneously hazardous. At the end, he saw two figures. One was seated on the ground, leaning against the wall, breathing into a mask. The other figure knelt beside the seated one, but he jerked his head around and jumped up at the sound of the burly firefighters quickly heading down the hall toward them.
"Thank god," the guy said as they approached. Probably in his fifties and relatively fit, he still clearly wasn't capable of hefting the weight of the far larger, definitely not-in-shape man seated on the floor next to him. "Dad's having trouble breathing."
As Zach and Max knelt down beside the older man to quickly assess him and get him into position to carry out, the chief said, "You sure the two of you are the last ones up here?"
The other guy shrugged even as he shook his head. Coughing slightly, he said, "I think everyone else got out, but I can't say for sure. I pounded on a couple doors, but when dad went down, I ran to the window to yell for you guys, then I came back here to stay with him. There are only six apartments on this floor," he added, pointing farther down the hallway. "That one belongs to my folks, across from it is empty. The one next to him and this one I knocked on. The other two, I don't know. My mom is outside already," he added. The relief on his face was palpable.
The chief looked at Tanner. Tanner was already nodding and moving down the hallway. "I got the north apartment," he said, knowing the chief would check the other one while Zach and Max got the guys out. Pounding hard on the door, he shouted, "Fire department! Anyone in there? We need you out now."
Behind him on the outside of the hallway, he heard the chief doing the same. Zach and Max's voices faded along with those of the two men they were rescuing as they descended the two brief flights of stairs to the ground floor, the hallway door slamming shut behind them. With a practiced aim, aided a bit by his wolf's strength, Tanner kicked down the apartment door and ran inside to check it out.
No one. Nor could he sense any terrified pets with his wolf's keen nose. He actually hadn't scented any on the entire floor.
Heading back out to the hallway, he looked over at the chief. "It's clear. Yours?"
The chief nodded. "All clear. Good work, Tanner,” he added, his voice short but approving.
Well, that was a first.
“Let's get out of here." The chief headed with purposeful stride toward the exit door. Just as the began to head down the first stairwell, he turned his head as if to say something else to Tanner. The words never came. An enormous explosion rocked the building, quaking through the walls. The chief, unbalanced by the rolling floor, stumbled forward.
Straight toward the stairwell. Pitching over it, he fell with a sharp yell before landing in a motionless pile.
"Dammit!” Tanner swore as he was flung violently off his feet back into the hallway. Hurled into the wall, he swore loudly again as his shoulder smashed into it. His wolf barking in surprised pain, he kept still for a second, quickly assessing the damage to his body. It didn't seem major. Shoulder hurt like the devil, though. He tried moving it a bit, and immediately winced at the surge of pain. Broken.
Whatever the hell had just exploded might happen again. No time to worry about his shoulder right now. He didn't even have time to race to a window and yell for assistance in hauling the chief's unconscious, hopefully not dead, body down the stairwell
.
Without waiting to see if another explosion would rock the building, Tanner jumped downstairs, his shoulder furiously protesting, leaving him sweating from the pain. Leaning down, he quickly checked the chief's vitals. The chief was definitely out cold, his helmet knocked off his head, but alive. There was no time to assess for broken bones or potential internal injuries.
Tanner had to get them both out of there before anything else happened.
The explosion had jolted doors out of their frames. Smoke billowed down the stairwell. Reaching both arms forward to grab the chief, Tanner half howled, half screamed when his right arm felt like a thousand volts of electricity had touched it. Pain lanced through every nerve ending. Even his accelerated wolf shifter healing couldn't help him at the moment. Shifters healed fast, but not that fast. Clenching his teeth, savagely calling on all the strength of his wolf that he could, he did his best to ignore the shocking pain as he hoisted the chief over his shoulders and stumbled down the stairs.
Hoping like hell he got them both out of there before it was too late.
* * *
"Did you ever fall down while you were in there? Any possibility you hit your head at any time?"
The woman, who was pale and shaking despite otherwise seeming fairly healthy, shook her head. Jordyn couldn't blame her one bit. Being in a building that suddenly caught fire would be terrifying to anyone. Calmly, she methodically went through her questions as she assessed the woman.
Sean, who had been checking out another of the residents who managed to get out shortly before they arrived, said, "You're good to go. If you would please go back behind the police line, that would help everyone out."
The young guy he'd been helping nodded, looking just as shaken as the woman. A sudden commotion around the corner of the building caught their attention. Zach and Max came out of the door, carrying a heavy older man while a slightly younger one followed behind them, face anxious. Jordyn's elderly patient immediately noticed. Standing up, she called out, "Brian! Brian, honey, I'm here!"
"Hey," Jordyn said, gently grabbing the woman. "Stay here. They're bringing him over here. You know him?"
Trembling, the woman nodded. "My husband. He has a heart condition.” Her voice shook. “Our son was over having dinner with us when the fire started. But there was too much smoke for Brian with his heart. Michael made me leave.” Her chin trembled as she spoke. “He said the firefighters would help them."
Jordyn smiled reassuringly as she could. "And that's exactly what happened. I just need you to sit tight until I'm done checking you over and then we'll get to him, okay?"
The man's eyes caught sight of the woman as he and the firefighters carrying him approached. A huge expression of relief spread across his face as he croaked, "Marge, honey, I was so worried about you."
The other man hovering behind them rushed over to the woman and put a strong, supportive arm around her. "Don't worry, mom. I told you the firefighters would get to us just fine."
Tears trickling down the woman's face, she clapped her hands together and effusively thanked Max and Zach. They offered her good-natured smiles, Max murmuring something about it just being their job. Jordyn bit the inside of her lip, which trembled suddenly at the scene. She'd seen this type of tearful reunion so many times before, but today it was really hitting her in all the feels.
Every time she spent stolen moments with Tanner, she ended up feeling open and loving and vulnerable to all the heart-tugging scenes in the world.
As Jordyn and Sean examined the man, they decided his condition demanded he needed transport, although he wasn't in imminent danger. "Any others?" Jordyn asked Max.
He shook his head. "Don't think so. Tanner and the chief stayed back to clear the other apartments." Catching her suddenly alarmed gaze as she flicked her eyes at him, he quickly added, "Don't worry. The floor is pretty clear. The restaurant where the fire started is on the other side of the building, so it was just their adjoining doors that the smoke was getting through right now. But it wasn't that much smoke, and the worst of it is on the front side where the rest of the team is. Everyone in the restaurant got out in time.”
Relieved, even though she knew Tanner knew exactly what he was doing, Jordyn went back to pulling out the gurney to get the patient onto it. With Max's help, and both Zach and Jordyn surreptitiously adding some of their wolf strength to the situation, they got the man onto the gurney and easily loaded him into the back of the ambulance. Shutting the doors, she headed around to the driver's side while Sean stayed in the back with the patient.
"We're heading in with this guy," she told Zach.
Zach nodded, smiling in reassurance as he opened his mouth to answer. Before he could say a word, a short, sharp explosion shattered through the apartment building, setting off car alarms in the street and drawing gasps and screams from the watching crowds. The strong blast knocked the fire crew members who stood next to the building right off their feet.
Her wolf dancing crazily in her mind, rigid with fear, Jordyn blindly screamed, "Tanner! Tanner!"
Heedless of anything else in the world, she bolted toward the building. But strong arms caught her around the middle, holding her back. She turned and snarled, angrily swiping at whoever it was. Zach's wolf strength was an easy match for hers, however. He tightly held her back. "You can't! You don't have the right equipment. He'll get out."
Still fighting against him, screaming Tanner's name, Jordyn stared in utter terror at the flaming, explosion-rocked building in which the one person in the world she cared for most was inside.
Tanner. Her mate.
Her mate. Trapped inside a burning building, possibly about to burn to death.
Jordyn screamed his name again and again, her words a wild, desperate prayer driven by the agonized panic of loss.
* * *
10
Tanner half stumbled, half slid down the stairs, the chief's bulk an absolute deadweight. Leaning heavily against the wall with his good shoulder, he tried to hold as much of the chief's unconscious body on that side as he could. His other shoulder and arm were half useless. The only reason he actually could move at all was his wolf shifter strength. No normal man with a busted shoulder could hoist a guy the chief's size, wearing all his equipment. Anyone else could only try to drag the guy downstairs. Even so, Tanner's strength ebbed low due to the surprisingly tremendous pain. He suspected he was doing more damage to it with every move he made, but he had no choice.
Behind him, fresh, dark billows of smoke pulsed down the stairwell. Dammit. He was still breathing just fine because of his gear, but despite his training, every instinct he possessed screamed at him to get out of the building. To get into fresh, clean air. To make an all-out run for it just in case the building blasted out again.
The second landing materialized in front of him through the smoke. Almost there. Still carefully stagger–step–sliding his way down the staircase, he swayed briefly under the chief's weight, but managed to stay upright and still moving. Wondering how bad the blast had been on the other side, wondering what it was like outside, feverishly hoping that Jordyn was okay out there whatever she was doing, he forced himself to struggle on. A few ominous creaks in the building caused his breath to stutter in alarm. Inside, his wolf lent him all the strength he could, keeping him focused and steady. Keeping him and the chief alive.
“Keep going, Canagan,” he rasped to himself.
Five steps away from the door.
Four steps away.
Three steps away.
One step away.
Tanner reached forward, relief flooding through him as he grabbed the door handle and twisted, pushing open the door. Stepping outside, he started to mutter to himself and the unconscious chief, "We made it. Hell, yeah. Made i—"
A huge, shuddering boom rattled the entire building, pitching Tanner and the chief hard forward onto the pavement. Trying to lunge and twist so the chief didn't land on his unprotected head, Tanner heard yells and shrieks
from outside. Then a sudden tangle of legs and arms met him as he and the chief fell straight to the ground.
Landing directly on Max's body, who stared at him dazed from where he'd been thrown to the ground by the blast just as he'd apparently reached from outside to open the door at the same time as Tanner.
Inside the building, the ominous roar of the fire gaining strength charged the atmosphere with manic frenzy.
"Move!" Tanner barked, grunting at another agonizing blast of pain through his injured arm.
Heavy running steps alerted them to the arrival of several other crew members. Rough, quick hands grabbed them up. Howling in pain, Tanner forced himself to get up and stagger along with them. They grabbed up the chief as best they could and ran with him back toward the vehicles.
Uniformed officers of all sorts were blowing whistles and waving people away. There was a stampede on the sidewalk and the streets as all the bystanders fled in panic.
Head down, Tanner about ran into the guy in front of him who stopped suddenly. Looking up, he saw the ambulance.
And Jordyn.
Zach was holding her from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist in a pose Tanner knew perfectly well was one meant simply to keep her from running forward pell-mell. Even so, he couldn't help the snarling lift of his lip at the sight of another man's arms wrapped so intimately around Jordyn.
Around his mate.
Catching his eye, Zach managed to roll his own eyes despite the situation, instantly letting go of Jordyn. She lurched forward, straight toward Tanner.
“Tanner! Tanner, I love you! Don't you dare leave me!” Jordyn's voice blasted out as loud and clear as if through a megaphone, hurtling through all the frenzied activity, straight to Tanner as she ran for him. The words washed through him, buoying him even amid the chaos and the pain.
“I love you, too, babe,” he whispered, knowing the words barely made it past his lips. Everything was disappearing into a long, black tunnel. Frenzied and scared, his wolf snarled and snapped inside him as Tanner swayed. Safe, he thought in a dazed muddle at his wolf. She'll keep me safe. My mate. This is where I belong. This is home. With Jordyn.