The Firefighter's Mate

by Jayne Ripley

  Together they finished feeding the goats. It was something that Gabriela rather enjoyed, much to her surprise, and then they headed back inside. Luke was in the kitchen drinking a soda and eating a pork chop while lounging against the counter.

  “Are you eating all my meat again?” Nicole asked.

  Luke only grinned around the chop.

  Gabriela’s stomach growled at the smell of the meat, and so Nicole would hear of nothing else but cooking up some steaks. Gabriela excused herself to go take a quick shower, because she’d been too long on the road and even food couldn’t outweigh the promise of steaming water. Nicole filled her arms with fluffy, soft towels and showed her the bathroom.

  The hot water felt divine on her skin. For a long time she only stood under the rain-shower head and reveled in the heat and the sensation of the water trickling all over her body.

  She’d done it. She’d made it here. She’d escaped Philly and the old pack that had wanted to force her into a kind of modern indentured servitude for the alpha. She’d discovered that she still had friends here in Cadillac Falls. Nicole was only an older version of the teenager she’d known in high school, and that lifted Gabriela’s spirits higher than they’d been in months.

  And then there was Luke.

  Dammit, the man was both kind and smoking hot. She grinned at her clumsy metaphor because using it on a firefighter like Luke seemed like cheating. Still, the description fit. Her wolf wanted him to own her. Wanted to run by his side. To mate with him. The primal part of her wanted him touching her. Wanted his cock deep inside her. Now.

  Her hands slowed their movement over her body, becoming less concerned with getting herself clean and more concerned with making herself feel good. With a little creative imagination she could fantasize that it was Luke touching her with those big strong hands of his. It was his fingers tracing her nipples until they pebbled and stood up hard and tight. It was Luke who quickened her breathing, caused the warmth to pool deep in her core, made her hot and wet and aching for him to fill her. She could almost see him, naked, muscled, handsome, with those friendly blue eyes and his ready smile. She could imagine touching him, running her hands over the ridges of his muscles, stroking down to his hard cock. Taking him in hand. Making him tense with pleasure. The pleasure of her touch. Oh the power that would give her, bringing him that pleasure.

  And then he would spread her open wide in every way. Claim her. Own her. His eyes would burn with lust. He would barely be able to contain himself, murmuring that he needed to fuck her. That he had to have her. That her hot pussy belonged to him and him alone. He would posses her completely. He would claim her mouth, claim her body, claim her love. It would be ecstasy when he slid his cock into her pussy, the thick head pushing past her slick lower lips, filling her. His heat would be wonderful, dizzying, hot and hard and thrusting deep into her wet channel.

  She slipped her hands down from caressing her breasts, lower along her sides, and finally to her pussy. She was soaking wet down there, her arousal stoked to new heights by picturing everything she wanted Luke to do to her. She gently spread her pussy lips, teasing up to her clit, circling it, and then thrusting into her pussy with her fingers. She was so turned on that it only took a few of these strokes to shove her over the edge, rocking her with an orgasm that curled her toes and left her gasping as the hot water streamed and splashed against her.

  Still shuddering, she leaned against the tile wall of the shower until the bliss of the orgasm faded enough that she could stand again on her own. That had been good and had taken the edge off…but it was still a poor substitute for the real thing.

  God help her, she wanted the real thing next time.

  And she was damn well determined to have him.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “You like her,” his sister said flatly, her eyes narrowing as she looked him over. “Don’t you?”

  Luke considered fending her off with a few half-truths, but quickly dropped the idea. This was his sister. She knew him too well.

  He listened to make sure the shower was still running. The image of Gabriela rubbing soap all over that delightful curvy body of hers invaded his thoughts, momentarily distracting him. Damn, what he wouldn’t give to be in there with her. He’d pin her to the shower wall, spread her legs, and pleasure her until she screamed his name. And then he’d really show her how much he wanted her—

  “If you’re going to drool on my countertop, I’ll have to get you a bib,” his sister snapped.

  His grin felt a little sheepish. “My wolf found his mate.”

  She gaped at him. “Are you sure?”

  “Sure as hell. It was like someone dropped a car on me the moment I scented her. Like being punched the instant I saw her. I have to have her, Nic. It’s been hell keeping myself contained. I don’t want to scare her off.”

  “You’re all rattled.” She said it with a note of wonder in her voice.

  He shrugged but didn’t bother denying it.

  “You probably won’t scare her off…unless you act like even more of an ass than usual. Which is always a possibility with you. So…she’s not claimed?”

  “She didn’t smell of any other male. I think she likes me. Just a bit. That’s why I think I’m on solid ground going after her.”

  “Scent that, did you? That she likes you?”

  He nodded and shrugged. It certainly didn’t mean everything was in the bag or would be easy. She might be attracted to him, but women definitely had minds of their own. They were always an unpredictable challenge. That was part of what he loved about them.

  Nicole fixed him with a scowl. “Most annoying thing in the world, how a werewolf can scent out how a girl really feels. A woman is supposed to be mysterious. Inscrutable. Enigmatic. Unfathomable. Other words that mean mysterious.”

  “Come on. Everybody needs a little direction now and then. I could use the help. That way I don’t feel like I’m fumbling around in the dark. Like I did when I was a kid.”

  “You did have one huge crush on her back then…” She leaned back against the counter and stared out the window. “She’s a good person, Luke. I don’t want her hurt.”

  He nodded again. “She’s fallen on some rough times, looks like. She limped into town on fumes, with her car a half step from the grave. Now it’s dead.”

  “Think you can fix it?”

  “For her? Of course.”

  His sister smiled at him. “You’re as transparent as wet toilet paper.”

  “Transparent as…? Wait, what? That’s not transparent at all.”

  She ignored him. “She say anything about belonging to a pack?”

  “Nothing. Makes me a little uneasy too. A lone wolf in Cadillac Falls territory? A bunch of horny males are going to be sniffing after her. Not just from our pack either. I can make it known throughout Rescue Company Pack that I have a claim on her—unless of course she tells me to take a hike. But there’s those rich, stuck up jerks in Cadillac Falls Pack. Not to mention those Sturmwulfen thugs. I could end up having to kick a lot of ass to discourage a biker gang.”

  “Men.” But although her tone was a mix of amused and disgusted, her scent had turned to…not to fear exactly, but to very concerned at his mention of the Cadillac Falls Pack. It had sharpened even more so when he’d mentioned the Sturmwulfen motorcycle gang. “What about the mayor?”

  His lip curled. “He’s more concerned about bear shifter politics with Oaktown and the shifter politics at the state capital. Oh, and don’t forget about the mayor’s full time job sucking up to billionaires like Roger Ainsworth for campaign donations. Ainsworth owns his furry ass. The mayor doesn’t give a damn about us ResCo wolves until voting time rolls around.”

  “But a lone wolf. She won’t have the protection against the other shifters… I might trust everyone in our pack, but ours is just one of three in town. You can’t throw a tennis ball without hitting a shifter around here.”

  “I’ll take care of her,” he said. “I promise.
”

  He could see that was good enough for Nicole because she immediately relaxed a little and her fear scent went away. He felt a helpless wave of love for his sister. She was just as fierce with her love of her “little pack”—the kindergarteners she taught. She might be a bit quirky with her goats and her obsession with canning things, but she had one of the biggest hearts he’d ever known.

  The water shut off in the bathroom. Nicole busied herself cooking the steaks. He sat himself at the kitchen table and chitchatted with her until Gabriela came out again, dressed in fresh clothes from the suitcase he’d brought in. Her hair was wet and pulled back in a ponytail. She seemed more relaxed and at ease than she had since he’d first spotted her standing next to her overheated car. She smelled of shampoo and clean. He had to stop himself from simply closing his eyes and breathing her scent in…because that would be weird. Tempting, but weird.

  “Thanks for letting me borrow the shower,” Gabriela said. “I feel a hundred percent better now.”

  “Any time you want,” Nicole replied. “You hungry?”

  “Starving.” She sat down at the kitchen table with Luke.

  “Speaking of meat,” Luke said, knowing that was a horrible transition, but willing to run with it anyway. “The guys down at the station are putting on a big barbecue this weekend. There will be so much food. Most of it meat.” He looked Gabriela in the eye. “I’d love to take you to it.”

  She beamed at him. “Good food and good company? Count me in.”

  “Hear, hear!” Nicole said. “Now I don’t suppose you have any of that world-famous Puerto Rican rum stashed in your suitcase, do you?”

  Gabriela’s grin widened. “Sorry, no. All out of rum.”

  “I can’t drink on duty anyway,” he said, frowning at his sister.

  “Who cares about you?” Nicole replied. “I was asking for me.”

  Gabriela laughed, and he realized he loved the sound of her laughter. She leaned forward and covered his sister’s hand with her own. “Nicole, do you remember that time we stole a bottle from my dad’s liquor cabinet?”

  “And we hid out in the forest and got completely drunk? How could I forget that? It was my first time falling off a log and puking on moss-covered rocks.”

  “That’s a beautiful image, sis,” he said, unable to help his amusement.

  “You don’t even know what you’re missing,” Nicole shot back. “That’s good rum.” She loaded up the plates with the steaks she’d just cooked. “Now, who’s hungry?”

  It turned out they all were starved. Nothing bonded wolves like sharing a meal, and he’d figured he could hang around for a few minutes more because they had enough coverage back at the station. He couldn’t help but steal an occasional glance at Gabriela. His day had gone from common, normal, and boring to filled with intriguing, exciting possibilities, all thanks to her unexpected arrival.

  Life was wonderful and life was strange.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “You ever see anything like it?” Luke asked Fire Chief Carlson Smith as they moved through the smoking wreckage of a house that had burned almost completely to the ground. Their boots were covered in wet ash from the puddles left by the fire hoses. The air stank of char and smoke. Luke’s inner wolf was restless and irritable.

  The fire had happened late last night, long after he’d helped Gabriela settle in at his sister’s house and returned to the first station. They’d battled the fire until a few hours before dawn. Then after a back up crew had relieved him, he’d come back out on hotspot watch duty to make sure the fire didn’t flare to life again. The chief had shown up early in the morning to do a preliminary walkthrough of the scene before Michael Corey, the county’s fire investigator, showed up.

  “You mean how fast the fire moved?” Chief Smith said. “Nah. Not from a natural fire. Unless that house was carpeted wall to wall in gasoline-flavored carpeting.”

  Chief Smith scratched at his chin and frowned at the burned-out wreckage. The chief was an athletic, grizzled man in his early forties, looking as though he’d stumbled out of some old time western. Not only was he the fire chief, he was also the Rescue Company Pack alpha. ResCo had been started by werewolves at Fire Station Six, but had since expanded to incorporate spouses, and soon to other wolves who fit in with their code. The code was simple. Family. Pack. Community. A triangle of supporting values. Chief Smith had been single since his wife had died six or seven years back from cancer. Good man, tough wolf, but always fair.

  Luke turned back to stare at the fire damage along the few remaining scorched beams and charred walls. He shook his head in dismay. The house belonged to Cindy Breller, one of their wolf pack. Damn shame that something like this had happened, even more so because it had happened to a ResCo pack wolf and a friend. Cindy had escaped through a window when the smoke detectors had gone off, thank God for that. But her house had been engulfed in flames by the time Luke and the Station Six firefighters had arrived. Even a five-minute response time hadn’t been enough to save much of the house.

  Fire was one of the few things that unnerved him. That wasn’t anything he’d ever admit to anyone. But fire was so destructive and so fast—and the smoke was what killed most people. You’d have to be a fool to see, day after day, what fire could do and then not fear it a little. He’d worked fire crews in California for awhile, too, battling fires that were miles long and eating forests and houses, jumping fire lines when the wind kicked up. It wasn’t as if he was afraid for himself either. He’d charge into a burning house, same as any other firefighter on the crew, human, werewolf, or whatever. But he was afraid for the people he cared about. His mother and father in their ranch house outside of town. His sister. His packmates. Sometimes he had nightmares of responding to a call and finding that it was his parent’s house on fire and he’d arrived too late…

  “We’ll get Mike out here to run tests,” Chief Smith continued. “See if he can sniff out any accelerants.” He shook his head. “Thank heavens Cindy got out okay. Could’ve been bad.”

  Luke nodded. Working smoke detectors were a godsend, saving thousands of lives a year. Cindy lived alone, but last night he’d seen her wrapped in a blanket over by the EMTs, crying as she watched her home burn. The entire Rescue Company pack had shown up, all the off-duty firefighters and their mates, all the townsfolk who belonged, and they’d gathered protectively around her. She’d be taken care of. The pack would make sure of it.

  Cindy was long gone from the scene, taken to stay with one of the pack families. Only the fire crew remained, spraying down a few remaining hotspots, making sure the fire didn’t burst back to life. Luke noticed a plain brown sedan drive up and park near the fire engines. A huge, burly man with an aggressive beard climbed out of the car. The car’s springs groaned as he removed his bulk from the vehicle.

  Luke caught the chief’s attention and nodded toward the man. “Looks like Detective Carpenter is here.”

  The police detective ambled over to them from his unmarked car. Both of them eyed the detective in silence as he approached. Detective Carpenter seemed a decent enough guy…for a bear shifter. But werewolves and bear shifters were always on uneasy terms. Luke suspected it was because the bear shifters were so outnumbered, with the three organized packs of wolves and the handful of loners in town. Most of the bear shifters were involved either with law enforcement or politics. It made for some strange tensions between them, the other shifters, and the human population of Cadillac Falls.

  “Gentlemen,” Detective Carpenter said, nodding to them and then squinting at the charred wreckage of the house. He didn’t seem to mind that he’d soaked his shoes and pant cuffs in water and covered them in ash while walking through the site.

  “Detective,” Chief Smith said right back with a return nod.

  “Find anything funny?”

  “Nothing official. But we have Mike Corey on his way back from his Tahoe vacation to do the walkthrough. We’ll have more for you soon enough.”

&nbs
p; “How about something unofficial, then?” Carpenter asked.

  The chief nodded to Luke, giving the go ahead to share his impressions of the fire.

  “The fire moved fast,” Luke said. “The place was engulfed when we arrived.”

  Detective Carpenter looked at him, his expression a guarded neutral. “How soon did you respond?”

  “Got the call at eleven forty-two p.m. On scene at eleven forty-seven.”

  “Quick response time. And you’re saying the fire was already out of control when you rolled up?”

  “It had moved up into the attic and was burning through the roof. We read the fire and got hoses on it right away, but once we established no one was trapped inside, we held back and dumped water on the fire. My first guess? Some kind of accelerant was used.”

  Detective Carpenter nodded slowly, rubbing his chin and letting his gaze roam around the few charred walls that still stood.

  “Well, gentlemen,” he finally said, hooking his thumbs in his belt and sighing. “I’m also going to speak off the record and outside of my official capacity. I’m talking to you as bear to wolf, if you get my meaning. Cindy Breller reported seeing a man hanging around her neighborhood a few hours before the fire.”

  Luke went cold and felt a snarl build in his throat. Not only did he care about Cindy, an attack on Cindy was an attack on the entire pack.

  Chief Smith’s expression darkened. “She didn’t mention anything to the pack.”

  “She may not have had the chance, or she may not have immediately connected the two.” His smile was a bit cynical. “I am a bona fide police detective after all. I asked her some detailed questions this morning. She claims she spotted a male in a hoodie around nine p.m. He kept walking past her house, glancing her way. It was enough to raise her hackles a bit, if you know what I mean.”