“Ok, we’re ready to leave,” the paramedic called, closing the ambulance doors. And that was the last she saw of her ruined car and the aftermath of the accident that had almost killed them both.
Chapter Two
By the time Bruno Davis got home from work, it was already daylight. He strode through the forest until he reached his cabin. His bear pushed at his skin, desperate to go for a run. Not a cat’s chance in hell, he told it, and it retreated in a huff. He took off his filthy boots and left them outside, and he let himself in. It was so good to be home, in the house that he and his friends had built themselves. He didn’t need to be quiet as his nine-year old son was sleeping at his friend’s place, as he always did when Bruno was on call. He peeled off his jacket and pants and headed straight for the shower.
As the scalding hot water washed away all the smoke, sweat and grime from the night’s work, he allowed himself to think about what had just happened. When the fire truck had arrived on the scene, they weren’t expecting there to be any survivors in the middle car. It was too badly crushed at the front. He’d run to the window, throat tight with apprehension at what he was going to see. But, by some miracle, the woman in the driver’s seat was alive, and the baby in the back didn’t look hurt. And, incredibly, the woman hadn’t been badly hurt either. Getting them both out had appeared straightforward, but then they saw that the fuel tank was leaking. His boss had ordered them all back. It was way too risky to be close to the car. He’d stared at the woman’s pale, shocked face for half a second, and then he’d run for the cutting equipment. The other guys hadn’t stopped him. They’d known this was something he had to do. And so he’d cut them out, handling a three-man job all by himself. And not a moment too soon. He’d only just pulled them away before the car turned into a fireball. His stomach lurched at the thought that they could’ve burned alive in the car. It was too horrible to contemplate. The woman had been very sweet. But there was also something sad and pained about her that seemed to run deeper than the accident. Where had she been going with her baby, driving alone on such a nasty, stormy night? She was very attractive, with a shock of dark, almost black hair, big eyes that seemed more purple than blue, and a small, full-lipped mouth. She also had a nice, curvy body. Stop! he told himself, before his thoughts wandered off in all kinds of wrong directions. Her baby looked a lot like her too, like a tiny version of her. They’d seemed so lost and vulnerable, sitting in the ambulance together.
After they’d gone, it had taken several more hours to finish up with the accident site. The police had taken photos, collected evidence, and interviewed the firefighters. This was always a stressful part of any callout. When a fire was burning or somebody was trapped, he acted purely on instinct. It was difficult to recall exactly why he’d made each decision; he just did what needed to be done at the time. He’d be in trouble with his boss for disobeying his direct order not to approach the car but he knew he’d done the right thing. Then, they’d removed all the pieces of the cars from the road and loaded them up onto a truck. As they’d loaded the lady’s car up, he’d had big surprise: there were two suitcases in the trunk, and they hadn’t burned. They were crushed and mangled, but they were made of aluminum, and somehow this had been enough to protect them during the few seconds that the car had been a fireball. They took the suitcases back to the fire station and got hold of the woman’s address from the police. She lived in the national forest too, only a few miles from Bruno, so he’d volunteered to bring them to her the following day. Right now, they were safely locked up inside his truck.
Bruno finished soaping and rinsing his stocky, muscular body, and he turned the shower off and reached for a towel. That’s it, he told himself. He’d allowed himself a little time to process the night’s events, but he had to stop now, before those other thoughts came crowding in. The thoughts that would drive him crazy if he let them. Rescuing people from car crashes and burning houses was never easy, by any means, but the thoughts only got to him when he rescued a woman. Then they became almost too much to bear.
He went to his bedroom and put on a pair of black boxer shorts and a white v-neck t-shirt, then went to the kitchen to make food. He fried up a huge plate of sausages, bacon, eggs and tomatoes and made some toast. He opened a bottle of craft beer and took everything through to the living room. He flicked the TV on and turned it down low, and forced himself to concentrate on happy thoughts. Like Tad. Tad was the epicenter of every happy thought he had. He loved his son dearly. He was the perfect kid. He was smart and full of fun. He played little league in Hope Valley every week, and he was just starting basketball as well. Bruno was so proud of him that he thought his heart would burst when he looked at him sometimes. Looks-wise, he took after his mother. He had her fierce green eyes, and unruly, golden-brown hair. Whatever Bruno did, he could never get it to lay flat, so he’d given up, and it often stood straight up, in an adorable tangle. Character-wise, Tad was more like him. And he wanted to become a firefighter too. Bruno sighed and swigged his beer. He loved his job, and loved the camaraderie with the other guys – especially the ones that were part of his clan. But it was a dangerous job. There was no getting around that. And he didn’t want it for his son. He wanted him to live a happy, carefree life. The poor kid had been through so much losing his mother at the age of four. Bruno didn’t want him to suffer ever again.
He finished his meal and took another beer from the fridge. He didn’t usually drink much after his shift, well aware that it was a bad habit to get into, but it had been the most grueling night he’d had for a long, long time. His thoughts floated about, always threatening to pull him back to that dark place. His PTSD counselor had taught him some coping strategies that usually helped – ways of forcing his mind to concentrate on the future, not the past. But if he didn’t keep working on himself, darkness flooded in again.
Fifteen minutes later, and he was two thirds of the way through the bottle. He looked at his watch. It was almost 9am. Tad’s friend’s mom would take him to school, so he just needed to make sure he was awake in time to collect him later that afternoon. He swigged the last of the beer and went to the bathroom to clean his teeth before climbing into bed. He set his alarm for 3pm. He never slept well during the day. His bear’s circadian rhythms were too strong for him to sleep at weird times, and he always had nightmares and woke up with a sore head. Oh well. Broken sleep was better than no sleep. He lay down and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
*
At 4pm, Bruno was waiting at the school gates for Tad. He’d slept straight through, but his dreams had been terrible. He’d been in a forest, but it wasn’t the national park. It was a dark and sinister one, full of tangling vines and rotting vegetation. He’d been chasing his mate. She was wearing a white nightdress, and she was flitting through the trees, always just out of reach. It was his fault he couldn’t catch her. Voices in the trees whispered, “It’s your fault”; “you’re to blame”. Everything’s your fault.” He’d run faster and faster, as a man, and then as a bear, but it was no use; she was getting further and further away from him, and the vines were trying to entrap her. He woke up panting, his fresh t-shirt now soaked in perspiration. The dreams never stopped. He was so used to them now that they were almost a part of him.
A bell rang, and a stream of kids came out of the school doors in brightly colored jackets. Bruno looked for his son’s messy golden-brown hair and new red jacket. There he is! At the sight of him, Bruno’s heart leapt, and he had to stop himself from rushing over to him. Tad came up, all bright eyes and glowing cheeks and threw his arms around him.
“Hey, little guy!” Bruno said, ruffling his hair.
“I’m not little!” Tad protested, pummeling Bruno’s stomach. Bruno cuffed him playfully.
“Say that when you come up to my underarm at least!” Tad groaned. Like all kids, he couldn’t wait to be bigger. He yelled goodbye to his friends, and they began to walk to Bruno’s truck. “How was your day?” Bruno asked. Tad
shrugged.
“It was ok. I made a picture of a fire truck in art class. The teacher said I always paint fire trucks, and I should try to paint something different, so next time, I’m going to do a bear instead. It’s my favorite animal.” Bruno grinned and put his arm around his son’s shoulder. Tad had only recently found out that his father was a bear shifter. Since he went to a mainstream school, Bruno had to keep it a secret from him until he thought he was old enough to know the truth, in case he let it slip to the other kids. Tad was half shifter, and Bruno had no idea if he’d be capable of shifting. He strongly suspected that he would be though; not least because of his passionate liking for bears.
Tad ran his hand along a fence, making the metal posts ring, just as Bruno had done when he was a kid.
“How was your day, dad?” he demanded, in his cheerful, piercing voice.
“It was a little challenging. There was a car crash, but luckily we got everybody out without any serious injuries.” Tad’s eyes were huge as he listened. He was always very drawn to the drama of it all.
“So you saved their lives, dad?” Bruno shrugged.
“I guess so. Actually, we also saved their suitcases from the car, and I took them home with me. I thought you might like to come with me when I take them over to the people later?”
“That would be cool, dad!” Tad replied, with his typical enthusiasm for doing absolutely anything at all. Bruno grinned at him. He was so lucky to have a kid that was so positive and excitable, and preferred running around outside to playing video games.
*
Bruno and Tad had an early dinner of chicken legs, mashed potatoes and greens, while Tad filled him in on the rest of his day, and then they drove over to the address of the woman who’d been in the accident.
She lived in a beautiful house. It was a very stylish wooden cabin, made from reddish-brown wood, with two stories and a balcony running all the way around it.
Bruno blinked when the woman opened the door. She looked different, somehow. A little taller than he’d remembered, and her eyes weren’t as large and soft.
“Lori?” he said, a little hesitantly. She laughed.
“No, I’m Andrea. She’s my younger sister, but people mix us up all the time. You must be the firefighter who saved her and Nancy’s lives?” He nodded bashfully.
“I’m Bruno, and this is my son, Tad.” Andrea shook their hands.
“We’re so grateful to you. Please come in,” she said, and opened the door wide. He carried the suitcases into the house, with Tad helping him.
Then Lori appeared with Nancy in her arms and met them in the hallway. Bruno did a double take. She and her sister did look remarkably alike. They had the same unusual violet-colored eyes and turned up noses. Lori’s long hair was loose and she was wearing a v-neck sweater in the same shade as her eyes, and a black skirt. Her left leg was bandaged from ankle to knee. She looked fragile, with shadows under her eyes, and, before he could force his thoughts under control, he registered that she looked very pretty too. She looked from him, to Tad, to the suitcases, and she let out a gasp.
“Oh my god! You saved them!” she exclaimed.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied. “We didn’t look at the contents in detail, of course, so we don’t know if any of your stuff has suffered heat damage, but we’re hoping not.”
“Oh, there’s nothing much to get damaged really. And I didn’t expect to see these things again. I thought they would have burned to a crisp in the fire. Thank you so much! They’re the only things I have left in the world, beside this one, of course,” she said, looking at her child. Bruno frowned, wanting to ask her why that was, but politeness prevented him.“Would you mind if I take a look inside now?”
“Of course not,” he said. She passed the baby to her sister and bent down in front of the suitcase Bruno unfastened the string that he’d used to hold it together after he’d levered it open beforehand. Her clothes looked fine. Some of her toiletries had burst open and spilled their contents everywhere, but he guessed she could wash them out. There were some papers in there, which seemed undamaged, along with some photographs.
“It’s all ok, thank goodness,” she said. “I told myself it didn’t matter that I’d lost all this stuff, but honestly, I’m so, so happy to have it all back.” He muted a gasp as she stood up and threw her arms around him. “Thank you, a million times over!”
“It’s ok,” he mumbled, unable to say any more as an electric current charged through his body. He looked down at her, and the look on her face indicated that she’d felt the same thing. They stumbled apart, dazed, and shot flickering glances at each other.
“Can you stay for a drink?” Andrea asked.
“Uh, we should probably get going,” he said.
“Dad, please! Please can we stay and have a drink? I want to see the baby!” Tad exclaimed. Tad was looking up at him with wide eyes, and his most appealing expression. Bruno rubbed his head.
“Ok, if you're sure we’re not putting you good people out?”
“Of course not!” Andrea said, and she showed them through to the living room. It was tastefully decorated, with plenty of wood and a mix of modern and rustic furniture. He picked up the scent of lion. He’d been certain that the house had been built by members of his clan, and the fact that a lion lived there made it even more likely.
Lori tried to go to the kitchen to make drinks, but Andrea made her sit down instead.
“Relax, you’ve been through enough in the last few days. You need to take it easy,” she said sternly.
“Ok,” Lori said, and sat on an armchair. Tad sat on the arm of the chair and stared at the baby in fascination. He wasn’t too used to babies, Bruno realized with a stab of guilt, and felt sad all over again that he hadn’t been able to give him a baby brother or sister.
Bruno gave Lori a questioning look. He suspected that Andrea had just been referring to something more than the accident. Lori met his eyes then looked away quickly.
“My husband left me three days ago. We lived in Turnersville and I just didn't want to live there anymore. Yesterday I packed up some of our belongings and drove across two states to come back home to Hope Valley and stay with my sister until I get back on my feet. We were coming to the end of our journey when we had the accident.”
“You’ve had some awful experiences,” Bruno said simply.
“Yes,” she replied. “The whole thing has been a terrible shock.”
“How could your husband have left you?” he said, the words out of his mouth before he had time to think about them. She laughed bitterly.
“Oh, he’s got himself a younger, thinner model.” Bruno stared at her in confusion. She was gorgeous. She was so curvy and pretty. Any bear would be overjoyed to be with her.
“Because he’s a giant loser, that’s why,” Andrea said, coming back into the room with a tray of coffees. “And if I ever get my hands on him, he’s going to be a very, very sorry loser!” I’d happily get my hands on the guy as well, Bruno thought.
“How’s your leg?” he asked Lori.
“It’s fine. It was pretty superficial. The doctor says I might have a little scar, but nothing major. I still can’t believe how lucky I was.”
Just then, the front door burst open and a fast, sure tread crossed the hallway. Bruno locked eyes with the man who entered the room. It’s always intense when shifters meet for the first time, figuring out who’s higher up the food chain, who owns which territory. And this time was no different. Bruno was staring at a tall, well-built lion shifter. He sensed that he was very dominant, and at ease with himself, and that he was well disposed towards others. They communicated non-verbally. The lion told him that he knew that he was a bear, and he was very welcome in the house, and Bruno thanked him for his welcome.
“This is my mate – uh – partner, Magnus,” Andrea said. “Magnus, this is the brave firefighter who rescued Lori and Nancy yesterday.” Magnus broke into a grin as he strode across the room and shook Bruno’s
hand.
“I’m very glad to meet you,” he said. “We’ve heard how you risked your life to save them both, and we’re so grateful.”
“It was all part of the job,” Bruno muttered, eager to move the conversation on from the topic of his bravery. “This is a new house, isn't it?” he said sitting down again. “And unless I'm very much mistaken, it was built by my clan?”
“Yes, Logan and Connor supervised the build, and Niall and Ryzard worked on it too,” Magnus replied. “They did a great job.”
“I was actually wondering if they could build one for me too,” Lori said. “It's early days though. I need to settle back into Hope Valley and get a job first. I guess I also need to go through a divorce and get the money that's owed to me.” She stared down into her cup of coffee.
“It's too much to think about now, honey,” Andrea said. “You can stay here as long as you like. We've got plenty of space. And then just take one step at a time.”
“Thanks, Andrea. I owe you guys so much,” she replied.
While Lori’s attention was taken away from him, Bruno used the opportunity to study her face. He felt magnetically drawn to her, in a way that he hadn't felt towards anyone since he’d lost his mate. In different circumstances, he might have asked her out on a date. But now it was impossible.
Everyone carried on chatting, until Nancy woke up and started crying. As Lori got up and excused herself to go and do a feed, Bruno decided it was time to go as well.
“Come by anytime. And bring Tad to hang out with Nancy,” Andrea said warmly.
“Thanks, I will. And I hope you settle into Hope Valley very quickly, and things get easier for you,” he said to Lori.
Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Lori) BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Hope Valley BBW Dating App Romance Book 5) Page 2