by Maia Dylan
He look startled for a moment then he threw his head back and laughed. “Well far be it from me to step in for a member of my team when I’m not wanted.” His grin dropped a little when he turned to her mates. “Never thought I’d see the day that I’d be jealous of you two assholes.” He looked back at Lucy and winked at her. “You know, Lucy, if it doesn’t work out with these two…”
Lucy giggled as she heard Cody tell AJ to do something she was fairly sure was anatomically impossible and Brendan flipped him the bird. This usually started a verbal abuse war between them all that would eventually have Lucy in fits, but before it could start a pager started to alert. The change in all three men was immediate.
They almost snapped to attention and their faces became serious and concerned. AJ pulled the pager from his pocket and read the display. “A blaze has been reported at the base of Red Ridge. They’re activating our team.” AJ pressed the buzzer under the bar that rang in the staff quarters. Within seconds he had someone covering the bar and was reaching for his truck keys.
“They haven’t mobilized EMTs or we would have been paged,” Brendan said, even as he checked his own pager.
“Nah, no one has a boo-boo. They’re calling for the real men to come fight the fire before it spreads.”
AJ shot him a grin as Cody punched him in the shoulder as he walked past. Sam came running down the stairs that lead to their upstairs living quarters carrying two large bags, one of which he threw at his brother. “Let’s roll.”
He didn’t even stop as they headed out the door, just grinned at them. Those two volunteered as smoke jumpers, she was sure, predominantly because of the adrenaline rush associated with it. Excitement glittered in their eyes of both of them and they practically vibrated with energy.
Before they made it to the door Lucy yelled out, “You two be careful. Look out for each other and come back safe!”
Both looked back with a wave and a grin then were gone.
“Come on, Luce. Let’s get you home. Brendan’s gonna cook dinner for us, and we’re gonna relax in a bath.” Cody plucked her off the bar stool and placed her on her feet with a smacking kiss to her lips that made her smile.
“Hey, it’s your turn to cook! Lucy and I’ll relax in the bath.” Brendan grabbed her hand and they started walking out to the truck.
The familiar bantering of two brothers trying to win an argument started up and had Lucy smiling. “You know, guys, I think it might be my turn to cook, so why don’t I do that and you two relax in the bath.”
The boys looked at each other in horror, and Lucy gave herself a mental high five at her stoke of comical genius, cursing the fact that she didn’t have a camera to catch the look of pure horror on their faces. Then in unison they muttered, “We’ll cook.”
Lucy still giggled about that periodically throughout the evening earning mock growls and spanks on her bottom, which she had to admit she liked more than she let on. The boys did the cooking and she relaxed in the bath by herself. After dinner they sat watching a movie on TV, with her curled up between them on the couch. She was about to suggest an early night with an eyebrow wiggle to show her true intentions when Brendan and Cody suddenly sat up straight. Tension rolled off their bodies in waves.
Lucy jumped when Brendan suddenly shot to his feet and ran from the room yelling. “Fuck! I’ll get our kits, met you at the truck!”
“Cody!” Lucy grabbed his arm when he was about to leap up, too. “What in the hell is going on?”
Cody’s face looked like it was carved in granite. He was so tense that if she hadn’t recognized the thread of fear along their bond, she would have thought it was rage.
“That was Ty. The blaze where they sent the jumpers has flared before they could get control. There are some casualties out there as well as two missing on the ground. Brendan and I have been mobilized. We’re going to head out there now.”
“Oh my God,” Lucy gasped. “AJ and Sam?”
“They’re the two missing. Ty can’t feel them through his alpha link. Pet, we just don’t know any more than that.”
Brendan ran back into the room carrying their first-responder kits with them. “Come on, let’s get going.” He stepped up to Lucy, wrapped her in his arms, and gave her a hard kiss. “Kitten, we’ll be back when we can. Keep your link open to us, okay? We’ll keep you across everything we know.”
Lucy nodded then turned to throw her arms around Cody and lift her face for his kiss. “Everything will be okay, pet,” he whispered, and then they were gone.
Lucy stood there long after the sound of their truck had disappeared. Dread filling her heart as she thought about AJ and Sam and what the fact that they were missing and that Ty couldn’t link to them could mean. Then she squared her shoulders and shook all negative thoughts from her head.
Those boys were too strong, were larger than life, and were much too smart to be anything but fine. Boy would she give them an ear bashing for the stress they were causing everyone. Then she moved to call Faith. She couldn’t stand around doing nothing! Faith would be doing something to help the pack, and she was pack now, too, damn it, so she would be right there beside her helping. A beam of pride, joy, and love shot down her link from her mates, who had obviously picked up on her determination and plan.
Not wanting to distract them, she shielded her thoughts and emotions a little, grabbed the cell phone Brendan had given her, and headed toward Faith’s.
Chapter 8
Brendan brought their ambulance to a shuddering halt beside one of the county’s fire-rescue control units. The air was hot and thick with smoke and ash. He could hear the unmistakable roar of the fire and the snap and crackle as the tree gum boiled. There was a large explosion as a tree imploded, shouts followed, but the fighters on that line held.
The fire had spread up the ridge, but the fire teams were fighting it from three sides, slowly beating it into submission. There were crews from the surrounding counties all fighting shoulder to shoulder and by the looks of it starting to win the battle.
Brendan raced over to the other ambulance to see what needed to be done. He desperately wanted to reach out to Ty to ask about AJ and Sam, but he knew that his alpha would let them know something as soon as he did. Reaching the other ambulance they took in the action from the inside and ascertained that it was mainly smoke inhalation and a couple of lacerations in the make shift triage tent.
“Brendan, Cody!” He looked over and saw Ryan Mather, one of the other EMTs from their firehouse, putting an oxygen mask on a soot-covered firefighter. “We have things under control here. We had a couple with burns and one with a suspected broken femur but they have already been evac-ed to Grey River. Go see about your cousins.”
With a nod of thanks, they left the tent and made their way over to the command support unit, confident that Ty would be there. As they opened the door, his shouting eluded them to the fact they were right.
Ty spoke loudly into a radio. “Kyle, tell me that you have the south side shored up!”
“That’s affirmative! We got the bitch to back up a little! We are heading to the last contact point now!” Kyle was shouting to be heard over the noise of the fire around him.
“Roger that, Kyle. Be careful.” Ty turned to look at Brendan and Cody. Brendan wasn’t at all surprised to see that Ty’s eyes were blazing blue. His wolf would be close to the surface frustrated that this was happening and even worse, members of his pack were hurt and missing.
“Okay, here’s what we know.” Ty started talking even as he turned, walked to the back of the unit, and stopped at a huge screen that had a map of the immediate area loaded on it. “The fire started in this area.” Ty pointed to an area north of their position and halfway up the ridge. “Kyle and his team are trying to get in there now. The jumpers landed and communicated back that the fire was growing in strength but that they were making inroads. Then about an hour after they had landed, the rest of the teams arrived in by road and started to make their way in to me
et them.” Ty indicated the arrival points and where the crews had entered the fray.
“The jumpers called in that there was something odd about the fire, something that they had never seen before. The fucking thing was shifting and moving against the direction of the wind!”
“What!” Brendan thought his outburst was justified considering what Ty had just mentioned actually defied the laws of physics, unless…
“And no, there were no signs of an accelerant used in that part of the blaze. Just a fire that seemed to jump around on them. AJ and Sam were halfway through telling me what the fuck was going on when I lost them.” Ty growled the last three words.
“What the hell do you mean you ‘lost them,’ Ty?” Cody threw his hands up in exasperation.
“Just fucking that, Cody! I lost them from my pack link. Trent’s the same. He’s over in the command unit on the west side helping to coordinate things from that side, but he can’t feel them either.” Brendan felt his legs buckle a little. Jesus Christ this was going to kill his aunt and uncles.
“Stop that right now, you two.”
Ty stepped forward and Brendan could feel rage in their alphas, not grief. His wolf, which had been howling in his head at the news that he had lost his cousins, now whined in confusion.
“They aren’t dead! I would have felt the link sever, but I haven’t felt a fucking thing. When I look down the link to them, all I get is darkness. I have no idea what the ever loving fuck is going on here, but they are alive and I am going to find them and bring them back!”
Brendan rocked back a little on his heels as he fought to understand what that could mean. The link was there. Ty knew it was still intact, but they couldn’t communicate through it. Brendan suddenly realized what Ty had said just moments before. “You said that accelerants weren’t used in that part of the blaze. Does that mean that there was some used elsewhere?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. Some of the boys who arrived in on the forest road recognized the signs at the flash point for the blaze. Some fucker started this fire and somehow is manipulating it to burn erratically. And I would bet my left nut that the same bastard has somehow blocked my link to AJ and Sam.”
Brendan wanted to reject the idea that someone out there would do this maliciously, but even more terrifying that, that someone out there had the ability to do it in the first place! Fucking hell, the psychic ability to shut the link down alone must be huge!
“What the hell are we doing to find this fucker?” Cody said from beside him, his voice rough, his wolf near the surface.
“Right now, nothing. All efforts are on getting this fire out, and then finding our boys and bringing them home.” Ty suddenly punched the wall of the van, cracking the metal paneling and rocking the unit itself.
Brendan felt the intense pressure of his alpha’s dominance burst into the room.
“But once we’ve done that,” he said, his voice garbled as he turned from the wall and looked back at them, eyes burning blue fire, canines extended, more predator than man, “we go hunting.”
* * * *
Lucy coordinated the packing crew while Faith directed those in the kitchen with the force and precision of a drill sergeant. The town had rallied together knowing that a lot of the firefighters from their town were placing their lives on the line trying to get the blaze under control. They had all converged on Country Blue to make sure their men had the energy to do what was needed. There were giant pots of chili bubbling on the stove; fresh, fluffy biscuits in the oven; numerous bottles of water and energy drinks; and enough cakes to start their own bakery.
It was three in the morning, and Lucy’s team was packaging them all to transfer with the next shift crew out to the site. She had kept the mating link to her mates open, but only to a point. Her fear of distracting her mates and causing them to be injured was enough to have her keeping a slight hold on it.
“Lucy! I think that’s everything for this round, how’s the packing going?” Faith came in from the kitchen wiping her hands on a tea towel, flour dusting the fitted black top she was wearing.
“We’re good to go. Sophia and your mother-in-law are finishing up the last box now, and the next crew will be here in ten minutes to collect it. I have my team moving them out to the front to make it faster.” Lucy wiped her arm across her brow gathering the perspiration that had formed there.
Faith threw her a bottle of water as she collapsed onto a chair at the table Lucy had been using as a desk with a groan. “I am never eating chili again in my life! My God, we must have made a million gallons of the stuff. And they have it hotter than all hell as well!” Faith grumbled as she laid her head in her arms.
Lucy chuckled after she took a swig of water from the bottle. “Have you always been prone to over exaggeration?” She giggled even more when Faith, without even raising her head, flipped her the bird. They sat in silence for a while as the helpers they had gathered all took a seat to wait on the arrival of the next shift who would be transferring their goodies up to the ridge. Once it was gone, they were going to get started on some steak sandwiches for the next lot.
Sophia and Faith’s mother-in-law, Judy, sat down at the table. All four women were quietly absorbed in their own thoughts. Lucy realized that this is what family and community was all about. Coming together in a crisis to support each other, being there for each other and making sure that everyone had what they needed. It gave her chills to think that she was very much a part of all that.
She took a peak down her link to her mates. Both were tense and there was a significant amount of anger, but they were safe and well, so she slipped back without a word. When she looked around the table she caught all three women smirking at her. “What?” she asked with a frown.
“Baby girl, you get this dreamy, goofy grin on your face when you reach for your mates. It’s so sweet.” Faith grinned.
“Faith, you’re the same. Sometimes worse when all three of you get to doing your mental lovemaking and all that stuff,” Sophia shot back with a grin of her own.
Lucy knew some of her story and marveled at how strong this young woman was and how much she had blossomed having only been in the town for a few short months. She was only seventeen, but her eyes and soul were older, speaking of experiences that had aged her beyond her years.
“You shut up, brat.” Faith shot her tongue out at her. “I’ve been mated for months now. I don’t get all moony and goofy over my mates.”
Judy suddenly looked up at the ceiling and started to shuffle her chair over and away from Faith.
“Mom? What are you doing?” Faith asked with a frown.
“Well, Faith, love, I figure that with the size of that bald-faced lie you just spoke, the good God Almighty wouldn’t be able to let it slide, so I don’t want to be in the way when you are struck by lightning,” Judy deadpanned.
There was silence for a moment and then raucous laughter. So much that Lucy had to hold her side and lean forward wheezing “Owie, owie, owie.”
When they had calmed down Faith wiped her eyes and giggled. “Everyone’s a comedian nowadays. It’s good to laugh, though, right? I just hope the boys will get this fire out soon and find AJ and Sam and bring them back safe.”
Lucy froze a little at that word safe. She recognized that she hadn’t let herself think of Mani and where he might be for a while now. Until they knew where he was and he was caught for Seth’s murder and whatever other crimes that he may have committed, then she would never be safe. Heck the whole town would never be safe. All because of her.
Faith suddenly reached over and pinched her arm, startling a “Hey!” out of her, as well as a glare as she rubbed the tender spot.
“Well, you deserved it!” Faith grumped back, folding her arms and leaning back into her chair to glare back. “You think I can’t guess that you were sitting there thinking about that asshole Mani? Possibly thinking you placed this town in danger? Well, get the fuck over yourself!” Faith threw her hands in the air. “
For God’s sake, Lucy, you think you’re the only one with a crazy bastard coming after you? Join the fucking club!”
There was uncomfortable laughter from those closest to them, obviously waiting on Lucy’s reaction. Faith was sitting under the guillotine of the crazy cult leader who had abducted her coming for her, so she knew what it was like to wait for the other shoe to drop.
“Well, okay then. Shall we get T-shirts made? Perhaps saying ‘I was targeted by a crazy man and I survived’?” Faith collapsed into fits of laughter and Lucy grinned.
Sophia suddenly raised her hand. “I’m thinking I can get in on that as well.” Then she grinned, her eyes dancing.
It felt good to have kindred spirits, even if it was because of something she wouldn’t have wished on her worst enemy yet alone people as lovely as these.
A loud air horn sounded, signaling the arrival of the fire truck that would be taking their care packages up to Red Ridge. The four women leapt up and moved into action, everyone in the room working together to get everything onboard and the truck off as fast as possible.
Lucy stood and counted off all the containers going on board, ticking them from the list on her clipboard. Faith headed back into the kitchen to start the next round and once the truck was loaded, the rest of the volunteers filed back into Country Blue to start all over again.
Lucy stood alone in the parking lot for a moment, looking up at the area in the distance where the glow of the fire lit up the night along the ridge line. Closing her eyes she sent a little prayer out into the universe that everyone up there remained safe and sound.
Ironically, she should have probably included herself in that prayer, because the moment she became aware that there was movement coming up fast beside her and opened her eyes to see what was happening, all she saw was a fist flying toward her face, then nothing but darkness.