Mated in Flames: An Australian Ranch Shifter Paranormal Romance (Burnt Skies Book 1)

by Jade Alters

  Dane grumbles something under his breath and stalks away. Luciana and I look at each other and then swiftly look away, not wanting to dissolve into giggles while he was in earshot.

  “We should probably clean up,” Luciana says, standing and futilely trying to brush mud off her pants.

  “You go have a shower first,” I say. “I’ll get the pig.”

  “Are you sure?” Luciana asks.

  “The quicker you go, the quicker you can see my surprise,” I say with a smile.

  She laughs and heads back to the farmhouse. I watch her go until she disappears inside. I feel bad for letting Dane down, even though the issue was easily fixed, but I’ve got a very important afternoon promised to Luciana today.

  It’s been just over a month since we met, now. The weeks have slid by, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt this happy. When I don’t see or speak to Luciana for a day, I find that I miss her, and that tells me, more than anything, that this is it for me. There will never be another like Luciana in my life, and I don’t want there to be.

  That’s why I’ve planned this afternoon, to finally show her a part of myself that I’ve been holding back for some time. I smile as I turn back to the paddock, ready to chase down the pig once more.

  It takes us several hours to clean up and finish the chores. As mid-afternoon hits, Luciana picks up the backpack we’ve packed with a smile. Somehow, along the way, we’ve started associating picnics with dates, and the backpack holds our late lunch today.

  “Where are we heading?” she asks as she locks her door.

  “I’ll drive us there,” I grin.

  It isn’t a long drive, but neither of us wanted to toil several miles when we could easily drive it. Five minutes later, I reach a tall hill that plunges steeply over the other side, overlooking the bushland.

  “Up to the top?” Luciana asks as she turns her face up and shields her eyes from the sun.

  “All the way up,” I laugh. “It’s good exercise.”

  I grab the bag before she can reply and head off, hearing her fall into step behind me seconds later. I’m excited and nervous. I don’t know how she’s going to look at me after this. It’s one thing for her to know that I’m not exactly human, and for her to see small parts of me that prove it. What I’m going to show her today, though, is a massive part of myself.

  “So?” Luciana asks as we reach the top and I set the bag down. “Why did we come all the way up here?”

  “Actually, I wanted to show you something,” I say, turning to look at her. “I know we’ve spoken a lot, recently, about what it means to be a phoenix. You’ve felt how heated my body is, and I even turned my hand into a talon when we took blood, remember?”

  “Yes…” she says slowly, giving me a questioning look.

  “There’s more I want to show you,” I reply quietly.

  I unbutton my shirt and shrug it off. Dane and I are lucky that we’re able to hide our wings, tucking them away beneath our skin until we need to use them, because it helps us merge among the humans, only our increased temperature giving us away.

  But, today, I want to show them. I close my eyes and concentrate, feeling something behind me unfurling carefully, each feather straightening and flaring out. I can’t hear anything from Luciana, and I don’t dare open my eyes as, bit by bit, my wings come into being.

  Only when they reach their full span do I hear a little gasp from Luciana, and I open my eyes. She’s staring at my wings in awe, no fright or disgust on her face. I glance to the side. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my own wings, due to how dangerous it is. They gleam in the sunlight, yellows, reds and oranges glittering over them until they look like dancing flames every time I shift.

  “Amazing,” Luciana breathes. “They’re beautiful, Warwick. Do you stretch them out often?”

  “Not as much as I would like,” I say, relaxing; I’m more pleased than I can say by her reaction. “It’s too dangerous.”

  She looks up sharply. “Is it dangerous now?”

  “We’ve been at peace for years, Luciana; only those poachers have found us,” I assure her. “If the Supernaturals were going to find us, they would have already done so.”

  Dane would say I’m being reckless. But I’m fairly confident, now, in our safety. It’s been so long since we settled down in Mundaring. Nothing is going to happen to us.

  “Can I…?” Luciana asks, gesturing to the wings.

  “You can touch them,” I say encouragingly.

  Luciana steps forward, reaching out to gently brush her fingers down my left wing. The light touch of her fingers makes a shiver down my spine that surprises me. I didn’t know my wings were that sensitive. Or perhaps it’s just her touch that does it.

  “They’re soft,” she says quietly, moving her hands further down. “Can they hold you?”

  “My bone structure is a little different than yours,” I reply. “And my wings are strong. I can fly with them.”

  There’s awe in her eyes. And, seeing the amazement and warmth on her face, the words leave my mouth before I can think more about it.

  “I could carry you, too.”

  Her head jerks up. For a moment, I wonder if I’ve gone too far. But then a smile spreads wide across her face.

  “Can you?” she breathes.

  In response, I step back. I hadn’t planned to fly today. Dane will be incredibly upset. But I need to. There’s no way I can refuse Luciana this, not now that I’ve put the offer on the table. I flare my wings wide.

  “You’ll need to hold on,” I say, reaching out for her.

  She steps willingly into my arms, her curves fitting perfectly into my body. For a single moment, I imagine what it would be like to stay here like this forever, holding her close and savouring the feelings that sweep me.

  Then I wrap my arms around her as she loops her arms around my neck, and hold her as securely as I can. I have no intention of going too high or fast with a passenger, but that doesn’t mean it would be okay to drop her.

  “Ready?” I murmur into her ear.

  “Ready,” she says, breathless.

  I start to flap my wings, slow, powerful beats that stirs the ground around us and makes the grass rustle. Luciana’s arms tighten as, carefully, we lift off the ground.

  It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten. As a young phoenix, learning to fly was only secondary to learning to walk. Once, before the threat of the Supernaturals came into our lives, I spent my days swooping through forests, daring myself to go faster and faster without hitting any trees.

  Flying after so long feels like coming home, and it’s even more perfect that I have Luciana with me, her breath on my neck as she looks down at the ground we’re slowly leaving behind.

  “This is amazing!” she gasps. “You can really fly?”

  “You thought I was joking?” I ask with a laugh.

  She looks up at me.

  “No,” she says. “But there’s so much about the world that I just didn’t know about, Warwick. Even though I travelled the world and did my best to help people, there’s an entire community, now. That would have stayed hidden to me for the rest of my life if it wasn’t for my father leaving me his property. How is it possible that it remains unseen?”

  “We make it that way,” I say. “Because there are people in the world that would use our powers for greed and power, and those that would hunt us like dogs because we’re different. We can’t take that risk. So, we hide, and almost no one thinks to look for us.”

  She sighs and lays her head on my shoulder. We’re several feet over the ground now and I hover there as we look down at the countryside, which seems so much smaller all of a sudden.

  “I wonder how my father found it,” she says. “He was out here for almost as long as I knew him. How did he know to start his farm?”

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “And, knowing what I do about the farm, I wonder if he knew about us. He never cam
e looking for the escaped phoenix creature, almost as though he knew it was safe.”

  I think of the old man that once lived across the road. Dane and I kept our distance, but he had always been friendly. When Luciana smiles, I can see how she was related to him, and it’s strange to me to realise that I probably knew her father better than she did.

  Then Luciana shifts, and I feel her eyelashes against my skin as she closes her eyes.

  “Thank you for showing me,” she says.

  I smile down at the top of her head. She has no idea just how special she is to me, not yet. But, one day, I hope I can tell her.

  Luciana

  The next day, I’m still riding on the high of flying with Warwick. We didn’t go very high, or very fast, but it had felt almost like we were dancing in mid-air. With his arms wrapped securely around me and his heart beating against my breast, I had no fear despite my lack of control in the situation.

  It would be enough to carry me through the day without seeing him. I wonder, as I slide out of bed and yawn, if Dane will actually keep his promise and come around to help me, despite how obviously he didn’t want to. I don’t really want him to come around, because I don’t want to push him into something he’s uncomfortable with.

  Also, I cannot think of anything worse than having to spend my entire day with someone who has made it clear that they don’t like me being around.

  Unfortunately, my wish didn’t come true. Just as I finish breakfast, still nursing half a cup of coffee, there’s a hard knock on the front door. It isn’t like Warwick’s playful taps, and I close my eyes with a sigh as I steel myself.

  Still, maybe this will be good for us, I try to think optimistically as I make my way to the door. Dane doesn’t know me, so maybe us spending time together will at least get him to relax a little.

  On opening the door and being met with his scowl, however, I realise that hoping for a tiny change in attitude might be too much.

  “Come in, Dane,” I invite. “I was just about to head outside and feed the animals.”

  “I’ll help,” Dane says, ignoring my invitation and turning to go around to the back of the house.

  Well. This is going to be fun. Not.

  I sigh and follow him around the side, closing my door as I go. He’s Warwick’s brother, I remind myself. And, since Warwick and I have been growing a lot closer recently, I need to at least make an effort to get to know Dane better and to convince him to trust me, even if I probably have a better chance at convincing rocks to cry than that.

  I grin to myself at that. I’ll just have to do my best.

  Surprisingly, Dane isn’t a bad companion. Unlike Warwick, who’s talkative, likes to crack jokes and messes around until he gets himself into a bind, Dane is a hard, quiet worker who instantly gets sucked into the work. We finish the morning chores almost a whole hour sooner than I would have had Warwick been here.

  “Wow, you’re much faster than your brother,” I try.

  To his surprise, he actually responds.

  “Warwick can be flighty,” he grunts, rolling his eyes. “He’s just as bad at home.”

  Then he claps his mouth shut, as though he had felt that he’d said too much, and looks away. Still, it’s progress. Who would have thought we’d find common ground in exasperation at Warwick’s antics?

  “It doesn’t surprise me,” I reply, determined to get something more from him. “He messes around so much that sometimes we have to redo the same chore because of him. The other day he managed to knock down a fence.”

  An unwilling snort bursts from Dane. To my disappointment, however, he just shrugs, apparently done with the conversation. I stand there awkwardly, holding an empty bucket, not sure what to do now.

  “You were planning on working on the poison today?” Dane asks finally, glancing at me.

  “Right!” I say a little louder than necessary. “Come inside and I’ll show you what I have!”

  Even if Dane is far more efficient, I can’t help but miss Warwick. Warwick might be a prankster at heart, and frustrating at times, but at least I can relax around him. With Dane, I’m constantly on edge, wondering if I’m saying the right things. The last thing I need is to make his opinion of me worse.

  Though I have no idea how I managed to get a bad rap in his eyes anyway. As far as Warwick knows, it’s just because I’m a stranger and Dane is automatically distrustful of people he doesn’t know.

  I close my eyes briefly. I don’t even want to imagine what Dane must have gone through in his life.

  “Do you want a drink or something to eat?” I ask.

  “I’m fine,” he says shortly.

  Despite him saying that, I grab a packet of cookies, a jug of water and a few glasses to take with us. We’ve worked hard this morning, and we definitely need something to revive us a little.

  “If you feel hungry or thirsty, take whatever you need,” I offer, leaving them on the table and turning away, toward my little lab set-up in the living room.

  Hearing a hesitation and then the crinkle of the plastic packet open, I smile to myself. I think I might be getting the hang of interacting with Dane.

  “You built this?” Dane asks as he steps closer.

  I eye my setup. It isn’t the largest lab in the world, but I have the proper equipment and just about everything I need to test the poison and try to draw out the elements I need for an antidote. There’s a petri dish under the microscope now, though it’s empty and a vial of a bluish liquid sitting to the side.

  “Actually, I think I’ve cracked it,” I muse.

  “What?” Dane asks, startled; it’s the first real emotion I’ve gotten from him.

  “When I had a close look at the poison I got from Warwick,” I say, ignoring the mutinous look from Dane as he hears that, “I found that the particles within the poison were not as complex as I’d originally thought. On top of that, this poison bears a lot of similarities with cyanide, surprisingly. So I looked at the properties of sodium thiosulphate to get some inspiration.”

  I can feel Dane watching me, possibly caught by my enthusiasm. I can’t help it. I simply love toxicology. The only thing I regret about leaving Doctors Without Borders is that I have fewer chances to explore toxins and their antidotes.

  “Since the sodium and the thiosulphate compounds have a 2:1 ratio, I experimented with different ratios as well as different elements that could be used to counteract your poison,” I continue. “Obviously, your poison is not the same as cyanide, even if they’re similar. I’m not entirely certain that sodium thiosulphate could actually stop death being caused by your poison, but there’s a possibility that it could either slow death down, or even halt the progress of the poison enough that further treatment could occur.

  “Additionally,” I add, and part of me wonders why Dane is just letting me talk so much, “I didn’t want a stop-gap measure. I want an antidote. And, so, I’ve developed a possible formula. Unfortunately, we’ll have no idea if it actually works until someone is poisoned… and I don’t think any of us would want to try that.”

  “Warwick would,” Dane says after a moment, eyeing me.

  I can’t help but laugh.

  “One of the reasons that I’m really glad that he isn’t here,” she says.

  “Warwick said you might need help,” Dane points out, glancing at my equipment. “But I’m afraid I understood very little of what you just told me.”

  “That’s normal,” I say with a grin. “I don’t think Warwick understands it, either. I tell him I need his help because he likes to feel useful, but then he just stands there and listens to me talk, and fetches me coffee if I need it. You really don’t need to be here, if you have anything else to do.”

  I honestly thought Dane would take the out. But, instead, he pauses. There’s an odd, considering look in his eyes, and his expression isn’t as frosty as I’m used to.

  “No,” he finally says, stepping forward and sitting in the armchair. “Let me know if you want coffee. In
the meantime, I’m interested to hear more.”

  I blink. Did I just make progress without meaning to? Perhaps, on hearing how hard I’ve worked on this, some of his attitude actually started to thaw.

  “Right,” I say, and shake myself enough to smile at him. “Just stop me if I start to ramble too much. Now, where was I…”

  I had thought I would eventually drive Dane away, but he ended up staying until the afternoon, and helped me do my chores. When I asked him about his farm, he replied that he and Warwick did a majority of their chores last night, and that Warwick had fed the animals that morning.

  Despite being cooped up all afternoon, listening to me talking about animals, he seemed more than happy to stay a little longer. I’m pleased, because he’s been a little less stiff. I’m almost sorry when he straightens and says he has to go.

  “Thanks for coming by and helping,” I say.

  “It’s okay,” he says. He glances at me. “I didn’t have to, but part of me is curious about what Warwick sees in you. I think I’m starting to get an idea. There’s something interesting about you, and I’m not surprised Warwick couldn’t resist.”

  He walks away before I, taken aback by his words, can reply. I close my front door and frown. What did he mean by that?

  Not wanting him to catch me watching, I sidle to one of the front facing windows and watch as he trudges down the long driveway. Dane is definitely curious. Though I’m happy that I’ll be able to tell Warwick that Dane and I got along today. Who knows? Maybe, one day, Dane and I will even manage to be friends.

  It’s as I’m smiling at that thought, that it happens.

  Dane reaches the road, which was as quiet as always. As he steps onto it, however, prepared to cross, a black car screeches out of nowhere, barrelling toward him. Shocked, Dane leaps backward in a bid to not be hit, but the car skids to a half right beside him and a door opens. Arms reach out and pull him inside; Dane too surprised by what’s happening to resist. Then the door closes and the car speeds away.