by T. S. Joyce
BEAR THE BURN
(FIRE BEARS, BOOK 2)
By T. S. JOYCE
Other Books in the Fire Bears Series
The author recommends reading this series in order for maximum reader enjoyment.
Bear My Soul (Book 1)
Bear the Heat (Book 3) – Coming Soon
For more of these characters, pick up the spinoff Saw Bears series
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Bear the Burn
Copyright © 2015 by T. S. Joyce
Copyright © 2015, T. S. Joyce
First electronic publication: May 2015
T. S. Joyce
www.tsjoycewrites.wordpress.com
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
For the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to fight fires and protect our communities.
Chapter One
Driving along Main Street, Dade Keller scratched behind the ear of the mutt sitting beside him in the passenger seat of his truck. Usually, he made Tank ride in the bed of his pickup, but today he’d taken pity on him and gave him a window seat. Tank was the firehouse’s mascot. Dade had meant to adopt a brave dog for the firehouse mascot, but Tank couldn’t even handle a yearly trip to the vet without losing his shit. A few shots in his furry butt made him howl like someone was ax murdering him.
Rubbing the brindle, short-haired hound-mix on the head, Dade muttered, “You know, if you stay still for the vet, we’ll get out of there in half an hour tops. You don’t have to make it traumatic for everyone involved.”
Tank cocked his head and slurped his panting tongue back in his mouth. One of his bottom canines caught on his lip. A honk sounded behind him and Dade waved an apology, then eased through the stale green light. Tank lived up at Fire Station 6 where Dade worked, but for some reason, he was always the one recruited for the dog’s annual vet check-ups. He didn’t really mind, though. He had a day off and nothing planned, and besides, he’d bonded with Tank over the two years he’d lived at the firehouse. As much as he hated admitting he had an attachment to anything, he loved that Tank followed him around and no one else when he was working his forty-eight hour shifts.
Secretly, he thought of Tank as his, but if he muttered that little gem out loud, Boone, one of his older brothers, would rib him relentlessly for going soft. And dammit, he was about as soft as a porcupine. IESA had done that—made him into a black ops weapon incapable of attaching to anyone. A vision of that day in the barn after Krueger had kidnapped Cody’s mate, Rory, played across his mind, and he winced. The memory caused him to touch the acid burn scars across his neck. A reminder that humans couldn’t be trusted with secrets.
A black sedan slid in behind him as he headed toward the vet clinic at the end of the main drag in Breckenridge. Dade narrowed his eyes in the rearview mirror at the familiar car.
It couldn’t be. Shayna couldn’t possibly be that dumb.
Dark, tinted windows hid the driver, but as he took the next right, the car behind him sped up and rode inches from his bumper.
“Shit,” Dade muttered, turning left onto a wooded dirt road. Tank growled. Nothing in Dade wanted to do this now, or ever, and he stifled his own snarl that softly rattled his chest. “Tell me about it, boy.”
He pulled off onto the shoulder and slid out of his truck, slammed the door behind him. Hooking his hands on his hips, he waited as Shayna took her time getting out of the sedan in sky-high heels and a short black skirt that was created to lure men to their deaths. This chick was a black widow if he’d ever seen one, and right now, with her brunette waves tickling her low neck line, lips painted red, and that cold, devil-may-care smile plastered on her face, she looked like a right proper little man-eater.
“What do you want, Shayna?”
Inside the truck, Tank was going mad, barking and lunging at the door. Impressive, since Tank liked everyone. Dade’s regard for the IESA operative sank further, if that was even possible.
“You know, when I went back to check on our little operation in the woods, all I found was a torched barn.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if I did, I’d say I regret that you weren’t there for the fireworks show.” Because Damon Daye would’ve definitely made sure she wasn’t here to blackmail shifters anymore.
“You fucked me once.” She leaned on the side of his truck and offered him a smile that failed to reach her eyes.
“I was drunk, and that was before I knew who you really were.”
“I want seconds.”
His single, humorless laugh cracked across the quiet woods. “That’s a hell no. Have a nice life, Shayna.” He turned and reached for his door handle, but she yanked him back with a strength she shouldn’t have possessed.
He swung around, but her eyes had changed from their emerald color to a churning silver. “What have you done?” he asked on a breath, dread slamming into him.
“It’s not what I did, but what one of your kind did for me. Everyone has a price.”
“I don’t.”
“Yes you do, Dade. Because I know who you’re sleeping with these days.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Lisa Warren.”
He took a step back from Shayna. “Who?”
Her eyes tightened and roiled like mercury. “I saw you leave her house last week.”
“The woman from the bar?”
Shayna drew up short. “You’re with her,” she said, less certain this time.
“Crazy woman, listen carefully. I’m not with anyone. I’m not looking for a mate, and I’m sure as shit not looking for a casual fuck from a woman who works for IESA and has made my life a living hell. Now kindly piss off. I have somewhere to be.”
“I need a cub.”
“What?” He rounded on her, heart pounding with fury. “You would make a terrible mother.”
“I don’t give a shit about being a mother, you idiot. In light of Krueger’s unfortunate disappearance along with our men, IESA is rebuilding. Aw, look at your sad face.” Shayna pouted out her bottom lip. “Did you think your little killing spree was going to make the government forget about you? Krueger’s work needs to go on. You and your brothers were at the end of your usefulness on missions. You got too nosey and grew some morals. We lured you to the barn to take you for reproductive research, but you ruined our attempt to save at least some of you, you ungrateful dick. If you won’t be forced, I’ll buy you instead.”
“I’m taking a hard pass on this one, Shayna.” Dade’s voice cracked like a whip, but he didn’t care. He wanted nothing more than to strangle the woman for all the pain she’d brought. And now she w
as a fucking bear shifter, like him.
“I have agreed to bear a cub and was given a choice between you and your brothers for the other half of my future cub’s genetic material. IESA wants the Keller line, and since Gage won’t even look at me, and Cody is shacked up with that whore now, it’s between you and Boone. And quite honestly, you’re the better lay.”
Bile crept up Dade’s throat at the thought of her sleeping with Boone, too. It seemed the Keller boys had all been screwed. “I won’t be bought. Not by you or anyone else.”
“But you were fine with being blackmailed. When your family was in danger, you all flocked to do our bidding. Don’t make me go down that road again.” She turned and lowered his tailgate, then leaned on it and pulled her skirt up to expose her bare ass. She arched her back until he could see her pink, wet lips between her legs. “Now hurry, Dade. I’m ovulating.”
Dade looked around the woods, shocked. “This is what you want? A quickie fuck on the side of the road?”
“Well, no. I want lots of quickie fucks, lover. At least until you put a cub in me. Lucky you.”
“You’re crazy,” he whispered, disgusted.
“Oh, come on. You didn’t even know Lisa’s name. At least you know who you’re sleeping with this time.”
He huffed a blast of air and shook his head. “The answer is never. Now get off my truck before you give it an STD.”
Shayna spun, eyes blazing. “You’ll do this, or your entire family will pay. Anyone you get close to will have to look over their shoulder. IESA is coming for you, Dade. I was the one who convinced my superiors you were more useful to us alive than dead. I was the one who petitioned to have you spared for reproductive research after Krueger went missing. The only thing standing in between the Breck Crew and complete annihilation is me. You pissed off everyone when you killed Krueger and half of our damned corporation.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Liar!”
“You kidnapped Rory, tried to kill me, tried to take my brother’s for some fucked up science experiment, and IESA’s treachery backfired. If your people are missing, seems to me the blame lies with your agency. Not with me or my crew.”
“You’re monsters, Dade! Look at you! Look at your eyes, all gold and green and couldn’t pass for human if you tried. We can do whatever we want with you because you are monsters. What would the public do if we told them what we’re really protecting them from?”
“That’s bullshit. We aren’t dangerous to humans.”
“And who do you think they’re going to trust on that, huh? Some savage bear shifters, or the people entrusted to protect the public at all costs? Accept it Dade. I run your life.”
Screw the open tailgate, he couldn’t stand here and listen to this anymore. He hopped into his truck and rolled the window down as he turned the engine. “The only monster here is you, Shayna. My answer stands.”
“I own you!” she screeched as he spun the truck around her, kicking up dust with his tires.
Tank scrabbled toward the open window, snarling and barking at the woman who stood in the cloud of dust with her skirt up to her stomach.
Dade slammed his fist against the steering wheel and gritted his teeth until his face hurt.
Shayna was wrong.
No one owned him.
A couple more miles, and he pulled into the parking lot of the veterinary clinic, pissed as hell and ready to crack some skulls. Shayna was trouble, but as tempting as it was to use the skills he’d obtained from IESA’s forced missions on that woman, he couldn’t just go around killing everyone who threatened the Breck Crew. There had to be a better way to get IESA off their backs. He pulled his phone from the cup holder and texted Boone and Cody.
Shayna’s back, and someone’s Changed her.
His phone was probably bugged, but screw it. Whoever was tracking his messages already knew what he was and likely knew what Shayna was, too. Shoving the cell in his back pocket, he grabbed Tank’s leash and slid out of the truck with the dog following directly.
His cell buzzed back, but he ignored it. He’d meet up with his brothers tonight at the station and figure out their next move. For now, he was going to put a pair of sunglasses over his blazing eyes and get Tank through his exam, all while trying not to rip anyone’s head off.
Chapter Two
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dr. Voss asked.
Quinn Copeland nodded her head and swallowed the sob in her throat. “I’m fine. Really.”
“The first time is the hardest.” Dr. Voss’s sad blue eyes bore into Quinn as she sidestepped out of the room.
“I’m just going to take a moment before I get to the next patient,” Quinn said with as much of a smile as she could muster. It came out a lip tremble, so she didn’t wait to see Dr. Voss’s reaction to her obvious weakness. She just turned and left the room without another word.
Geez, she was so not cut out for this. Her face crumpled, and she rushed into an empty room before the other vet tech could see her breakdown. She’d taken the courses and gotten a job here because she had wanted to help pets, not kill them. Okay, the poor dog, Daphne, was too far gone and in such pain, but still. Witnessing the end to her life was heartbreaking.
And her owner had sobbed the entire time, snuggling the little poodle until long after it had drawn its last breath.
Quinn slid down the wall of the empty room, shoulders shaking as the water works really began. Poor little Daphne. And her owner! She would go home tonight without her pet, and it would be awful. Just thinking about something happening to one of her own dogs brought on another wave of grief.
She hiccupped and drew her knees up to her chest, then rested her face on her forearms.
When the door burst open, Quinn looked up and froze as a giant man dragged a whimpering dog inside.
“Stop being such a pussy, Tank,” the man growled out, pulling on the leash as the dog locked his legs.
His nails scrabbled on the tile floors as the man got him past the door and closed it behind him. He turned and Quinn gasped.
From her place on the floor, it looked like his head was almost touching the ceiling. His jaw was covered in short, blond stubble, but not the unkempt kind. The designer kind that belonged on billboard models. Chiseled jaw and lips set in a grim line, he jerked to a stop as he spied her sitting on the floor like a weirdo.
“Oh, God,” he whispered, as if he’d stumbled upon a king cobra instead of a crying woman. “I’m so sorry. The lady at the desk said room three. This is room three, right?” He was backing slowly toward the door, his work boots echoing across the tile with every powerful step.
“No, it’s fine. You’re in the right place.” When she realized she was staring at a horrific scar across his neck, she forced herself to look away. Except when she did, her gaze traveled down the perfect indented line between his pecs exposed by his gray V-neck shirt. The thin cotton fabric clung to his sculpted torso before the shirt loosened and hung over his light-washed, holey-knee jeans.
Intimidated, she stood clumsily and wiped her tear-stained cheeks. The blush in her face was burning up to her ears now, and she cursed her fair skin. “Is he here for a check-up?”
“Yeah, but you can’t tell from the way he’s acting. He always bawls like a baby during his annual visit, like we’re putting him to sleep or something.”
The mention of putting anything to sleep conjured a vision of the owner leaning over her poodle, crying as the little elderly dog took its last breath, and the imaginings buckled her. Overwhelmed with emotion, Quinn spun and left the room. But when she went out to the hall, Dr. Voss was talking to the other vet tech, and Quinn slunk back into the room, completely trapped.
“Are you okay?” The Sasquatch was hovering in the corner like a phantom now, and behind his reflective sunglasses, his face had taken on a combined look of terror and acute suspicion. Tears did that to men.
“This is so unprofessional. I’m sorry.” Quinn g
rabbed a box of tissues from beside a jar of dog biscuits and yanked out three before blotting her weepy face. “I just started this job, and I took it to help animals, and now…”
“What happened?” the man asked, voice softer now as he let his dog’s leash slip from his hand.
“I can’t talk about it,” she rasped out, throat thickening with emotion.
“Okay. Shit.” He didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. “Okay,” he repeated. He straightened his spine and jerked his attention to the door. “Someone’s coming.”
“What?”
“Will you get fired for crying?” He looked so confused.
And now she was confused. “I don’t think so. I don’t know.”
“Here,” he rushed out. He snatched up his dog and put the poor frozen critter up on the table.
Quinn gasped when she saw her monstrous reflection in the man’s aviator sunglasses. Raccoon eyes thanks to the double helping of mascara she’d used this morning and her nose was as red as Rudolph’s. Which would be fine if she wasn’t staring into this sexy Adonis’s face.
The door behind her opened, just like the man had said it would, and she jumped. The man’s giant hand clamped on her upper arm when she began to turn, stopping her.
“So, you see, I think it’s his diet.” The stranger gave a friendly smile to whoever had just wandered into the room.
“Quinn, are you taking this one?” Gertie, the other vet tech asked. “I could’ve sworn Dr. Voss told me to take room three.”
“I want Quinn,” the man said in a tone that brokered no arguing.
A chill washed over her skin at the authority in his words. No longer was he the man fighting for dominance with a scared hound mix who was apparently afraid of weeping women. Now, he was a man who knew his place in the world and expected others to react accordingly.
“Right,” Gertie said. “I’ll just get the next one then.”