by Cecilia Lane
Nolan didn’t hear him. The vamp outranked him and would be sure to report him to his alpha, but those were problems for the morning. His insides churned and his bear savaged his mind. He had to find Becca. He would die if she didn’t make it out alive.
He slammed his mask over his face and didn’t wait for the rest of the crew before charging through the door.
“Fire Department! Call out!” he yelled.
Smoke was heavy in the air but thinned by the stairs. He leaned against the railing and twisted to see above him. He’d snuck out of the house a thousand times when he and Becca first started dating. No one would dodge the squeaky boards again. Flames snaked around the railing on the second floor and ate the carpet into nothing. It wouldn’t be long before hungry sparks tumbled down the stairs.
The hiss of spray caught his attention and he turned to the kitchen.
“Call out! By the Broken, Becca. Call! Out!”
Fear he didn’t want to acknowledge lodged in his throat. Training and determination pushed him to round the corner. Experience forced him to temper his expectations.
Becca clutched a fire extinguisher in her hands and bared her teeth at the flames consuming cabinets and counters. Flames clung to the wood beams of the ceiling and rained embers around her.
Nolan didn’t stop moving. He tore the extinguisher out of her hands, tucked his shoulder into her stomach, and hauled her out the door.
She struggled in his arms and beat at his back with her fists. “Put me down!”
He dropped her to her feet at the tail end of the ambulance. His bear roared to the surface and he ripped his mask off his face. “What were you thinking? You could have died!”
“I was doing what I could until the fire department arrived!” Becca bat away the oxygen mask the paramedics tried to hold over her nose.
He gestured wildly toward the flames fighting the pushback of water. “Did you miss the entire fucking house burning around you?”
“It wasn’t that bad from where I was standing!” Faith and Tommy appeared at the edges of the open ambulance doors, but Becca brushed them off, too. Her golden eyes didn’t leave his face.
“Not that bad?” Nolan choked on his words and passed a hand over his face, praying for calm. He managed to lower his voice, but only a fraction. “Not that bad? The smoke was thick enough to kill you if you’d stayed a few minutes more.”
Their yelling drew attention and faces turned toward them. Nolan took stock of them all. It wasn’t uncommon for an arsonist to watch the damage done.
Paramedics and the vampire firefighters all worked the scene. Flashing lights announced the arrival of the police—late and useless in a fire. His folks still stood vigil from their property. He spotted the new employee at Mug Shot mingled in with the handful of neighbors from the next street over.
Twice now, Becca had been attacked. His instincts pushed at him to take her back to his den at all costs. Too many people surrounded her. She wasn’t safe out in the open; that was where she’d been shot. She wasn’t safe in her own home; someone tried to burn it to the ground. His need to protect her was readying his bear to challenge every living thing in a five-mile circle.
He turned back to her. “First the gunshot and now this? Someone is fucking with you.” He kept his voice in check, but the sound was thick and gravelly even in his ears. The paramedics took a step back. Pushed back, more like it. The power of his bear was infused into every word and the force usually reserved in an alpha rolled off him.
She made a face and shook her head, utterly rejecting the idea. “You’re making something out of nothing. It was just a house fire.”
“You’re not making enough of it.” He had zero idea how she survived outside the enclave with such a blatant disregard for her own safety. “You have the shittiest luck if this was a coincidence. I’ll bet you anything we’ll find evidence of arson when we go over the scene.”
“Shitty luck for five hundred, please,” she snapped.
“When I win that bet, you’re coming home with me. Someone needs to keep an eye on you and I swear to all that’s holy, I will tear this town apart if something happens to you.”
Becca regarded him from under thick lashes. A smile spread across her lips and he thought for a brief moment that he’d won. He would keep her safe. She would be in his den. He stood a chance to fix everything between them.
Then her smile turned murderous and she gave him one word for an answer. “No.”
Nolan saw red.
Chapter 11
Becca did her best to ignore the seething bear that lurked close enough to touch. Even the paramedics checking her over didn’t turn their backs on Nolan. Her fox prodded her closer, urged her to reach out and put a hand on his arm. He needed calm, and there was no better solution than the touch of a mate.
But she wasn’t going to be that mate. To keep from giving in to her instincts, she sat on her hands until the paramedics gave her clearance to leave their anxious care.
She found Faith and Tommy nearby. All evidence of the fire had been wiped away from their faces and hands, and she wouldn’t have said they were doing more than taking a late night stroll if it weren’t for the fact that Faith wore a short robe and Tommy was naked from the waist up.
She wasn’t any better in shorts and a tank top. Her phone was stuffed down the built-in bra of her shirt with her headphones wrapped around it. She’d planned to be a good roommate and keep her music to herself while she snuck downstairs for a late night snack when the fire broke out.
She watched the firefighters work the last of the fire and shoved down her feelings of losing her childhood home. There was a time for grieving and the tears that would come with it, but standing in front of emergency workers and neighbors wasn’t it. She wanted to get somewhere safe, quiet, and miles from Nolan before she let herself feel.
Too many of the memories she didn’t want to wallow in revolved around him. He claimed many of her firsts—kiss, love, sex—and most played out inside the home that stood in a soggy, smoldering ruin.
Becca jerked her thumb at the ambulance. “They say I can go. Do you two need anything else before we leave?”
Her sister took a long look at her mate. “You know you’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you need,” Faith said slowly. “But Tommy’s cabin only has one bedroom and the couch isn’t a pullout.”
Becca drew herself straighter with every word. She chewed her cheeks and nodded. “I get it. No room.”
“Becks! That’s not what we’re saying. I’m just letting you know it’s going to be crowded.” Faith leaned a little closer. “Do you think what Nolan said is true? Would someone be trying to hurt you?”
Her inner fox nearly jumped at Nolan’s name. Becca dug her nails into her palms. She took a step back from her sister and ignored the second topic she raised. It wasn’t anything she would consider. “No, it’s fine. You two wanted your own place without me hanging around. Now’s the perfect time to part ways.” She spun on her heel, already hitting a button on her phone.
The abandonment stung more than she thought possible. There was nothing illogical about it. Tommy’s cabin was tiny, and she’d been promising to look for a place of her own for months. Logic wasn’t her strong suit when her emotions were high, though, and she felt like she’d been stabbed in the back and left for the wolves.
Or bear.
Nolan’s glowing green eyes tracked her as she stalked away from Faith and Tommy. She threw him a glare and dialed the last woman she’d texted.
“Hello?”
The sleepy mumble didn’t deter her in the slightest. “Rylee! Just the girl I wanted to talk to!”
“Becca? What time is it?” A deep male voice rumbled an answer to Rylee’s question in the background.
“Listen, short story. My house kind of burned down and I need a place to stay.”
Rylee repeated her words to Cole. “Cole says we’ll help any way we can, but Jacob is already taking up the guest ro
om tonight. We can work something out in the morning? We’ll even throw in for a room at the inn if you need it tonight.”
Strike two. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
She’d forgotten Jacob had basically moved in with the younger Strathorn brother. Cole was teaching the damaged wolf how to be a person again. And with their shared history with the hunters, Becca wasn’t sure if she wanted to be near him. He’d inevitably tear down the walls she built around her own trauma.
Becca loosened her grip on her phone. It was her sole possession now. She couldn’t afford to break it.
Leah didn’t immediately answer her cell phone. Becca dialed the bar and nearly collapsed with relief when her friend picked up on the sixth ring. What sounded like an off-tune sea shanty was being bellowed in the background.
“Leah, I have a favor to ask,” Becca announced loudly.
“What? Hold on.” Leah shouted loud enough that Becca pulled the phone from her ear to save her hearing. “Quiet! Can’t you see I’m on the phone?”
Despite the tension, Becca snorted a laugh. She gave it a fifty-fifty shot of the bar’s patrons quieting down or telling Leah to shove off.
“What can I do for you?” The background noise didn’t lessen in the slightest.
“Can I stay with you and Callum for a few nights?” Becca held her breath. She didn’t know who else to call if Leah didn’t have a spot for her.
“Hold up. Callum is shaking his head at me and muttering something about keeping the peace. Give me fifteen minutes to settle out some tabs and get to a quiet spot and I’ll call you back. I suspect some she-man-igans are afoot.”
Becca ground her teeth together. A slow spin shoved Nolan into her line of sight. And he had his phone to his ear.
She balled her hand into a fist. No. He wouldn’t sabotage her to force her to stay with him. Would he?
Nolan finished his call and threw her a smug smirk, complete with a maddening dimple in his cheek.
He absolutely would.
“No need,” she spat out. “I think I know who’s behind them.”
She ended the call and marched straight for Nolan. Becca shoved at his chest. Warmth spread through her hands and up her arms at the touch. She hated the hold he had on her and hated his stupid need to protect her and hated that he went around her back to fuck up her life even more than a house fire already did. “Are you kidding me? You’re the reason why I can’t get anyone to take me in.”
He caught her hands before she could push him again. “I’m trying to protect you. You’re my mate and I need to keep you safe when you’re being too stubborn to admit you’re in trouble.”
“You don’t know that!” She threw her hands in the air and stomped away a handful of steps before rounding on him again. “Even if you did, even if you knew something that the police didn’t, who appointed you to be my keeper? What fucking century are you living in where you think you can just order me around?”
He couldn’t be right. She wouldn’t accept it. She pushed back on the memory of blood on her hands and screams in the night.
If she believed he was right, then her nightmares would be real. She was hardly holding it together with just the memory of threats on her life. She couldn’t go down the rabbit hole of darkness and stains on her soul again.
“You’re my mate—”
“I reject you, Nolan Byers.” Her fox whined in her head and tried to snatch control. A shift and a run would prevent her human side uttering those hateful words. Becca yanked hard on the little beast’s leash and shoved her behind imagined thick bars and soundproof walls. “I will not be your mate and I will not be shacking up with you so you can protect me. I’m not the damsel in your story and you sure as hell are not my prince.”
His scent turned cold. With patience or fury, she wasn’t sure. He grabbed her before she could turn away again. “You want to self-destruct, sweetheart, fine. You’ll be dragging me down with you.”
“Promise I get to watch?” She yanked her hands out of his and stalked away from the man who wasn’t her mate.
Chapter 12
Becca’s head pounded as she stared at the ceiling of her room at Muriel’s Bed and Breakfast. Her eyes and throat hurt from the smoke of the fire. Her limbs felt sore from an uncontrolled shift in the middle of the night brought on by a dream of that man. That made her cheeks warm with the embarrassment of a teenager. She was twenty-eight years old. She shouldn’t be having the shifter’s equivalent of a wet dream.
But most of all, she felt like she’d been through an emotional wringer. She lost her home and been blocked from her support system in the matter of an hour. While she couldn’t blame the fire on Nolan, he wasn’t making her life any easier.
She kept bungling her way into his path. No matter how hard she insisted they would never be together, he was in her line of sight at work or seated next to her at the bar or entered the bank right before her. There was no escaping Nolan in the entire enclave.
It was enough to want to leave all over again.
The possibility that she was being targeted sank into her thoughts after the fifth time she jerked awake with the imagined sense of fire licking at her skin. She’d been shot with a silver bullet. The side of the house that held her room appeared to be the most heavily damaged. None of her things were salvageable.
She was one of two shifters inside Bearden that escaped the grasp of hunters. She’d removed her tracker, sure. But how many pictures had been posted in articles all over the world after Bearden was revealed? Maybe someone recognized her and wanted to eliminate her once and for all. She wasn’t entirely innocent, after all. She had blood on her hands.
And that was another tick against resuming anything with Nolan. He thought they could pick right back up, but that was impossible. She’d been hurt and scarred on top of the pain they suffered together. She woke in cold sweats and tears. She wasn’t going to put that baggage on anyone.
It was with a weary heart and body that she hauled herself out of bed and readied for the day. She was down to nothing, but it wasn’t the first time she’d had to rely on complimentary toiletries to wash away evidence of the previous night. At least the clothes she had weren’t covered in blood.
Slapping on a brave face, Becca opened the door and stepped into the hallway, only to find Nolan doing the same.
He, too, was freshly showered and shaved. Soap and aftershave mingled with his natural scent. She wanted to press her face into the crook of his neck and stay there. He paired an old metal band shirt with a checkered button-down with rolled sleeves. Dark jeans clung to his legs. That pull she felt for him was dangerous and distracting.
He held out a white bag with the Tommy’s Diner logo facing her way. Another inhale brought all the scents she discarded when she first took him in and her stomach rumbled. Fresh hash browns were inside that bag, and an eggs and bacon sandwich, too, if her nose didn’t lie. Her favorite items on the menu.
She narrowed her eyes. She wanted to yell at him to leave her alone. Pushing him back into his room and finding a trace of comfort in his arms was an equally strong desire.
She was as fucked up as Jacob. Maybe she should ask Cole to teach her how to act human again, too. She bounced from one extreme to the next and tried to hide it all behind a smile and a snarky response.
For once, she kept her mouth shut. She directed another glare in Nolan’s direction, snatched the bag out of his hands, and made her way out of the inn.
She couldn’t escape him. He trailed after her without a word.
Leah and Rylee were already inside Adore Apparel. Becca was surprised at how much the shop had changed in just a few short weeks. Margaret, the owner, had been forced to change up her offerings for the influx of scientists and government officials after the disaster of a military occupation. The typical country workplace attire of jeans and t-shirts were still available, but a bevy of cute sundresses hung near an expanded business casual section.
&
nbsp; Leah picked up her scent and advanced on her quickly, with Rylee right on her heels. There was a rush to hug her and squeals enough to hurt Becca’s sensitive ears. Both women hurried to explain they’d make room for her in the homes they shared with their mates if she still needed a place to stay.
“Muriel’s is fine,” she insisted when she could fit in a word. “It’s nice, actually, to have my own space. I don’t need to invest in new soundproof headphones to drown out the sounds of my sister boinking her mate.”
Leah laughed. “Leave it to you to find a bright side about your house burning down.”
“Fire is cleansing and I’m open to new beginnings.”
“Did you steal that? I’m certain you stole that.”
Becca mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.
Faith and Tommy were able to pick through some of the wreckage for clothes. It all needed a good wash, Faith said when they spoke early that morning, but it wasn’t destroyed. Not like Becca’s room, which looked like the epicenter of the burn.
Nolan won that bet but she had zero intentions of paying up. He could stay in the room at Muriel’s for as long as he liked. She wouldn’t be moving in with him.
She moved toward the sundresses and threw a couple over her arm. She needed more clothes than cotton shorts and a tank top before she started her day of fighting with bureaucrats. She stared down the barrel of spending all damn day locked inside Bearden Town Hall to replace her IDs to prove she was herself when she stopped in at the bank to reissue her debit card. Just thinking about the hoops she needed to jump through made her head hurt.
“And it’s just you…?” Rylee asked in a whisper.
Becca glanced over to what had caught Rylee’s eye. Nolan chatted with Sylvie, Margaret’s eldest daughter, at the counter.
Fighting back the sinking, sickening feeling in her stomach, Becca turned her back on them. Every instinct told her to march right over and bite the woman hard enough to leave a reminder to keep her grubby hands off her bear. Her fox agreed with a chorus of high-pitched yips and enough flips to rival a gymnastics team.