Dallas Fire & Rescue: Fire Wolf (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black Mesa Wolves Book 6)

by J. K Harper

  Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Paige Tyler. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Dallas Fire & Rescue remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Paige Tyler, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  Fire Wolf

  J.K. Harper

  A Black Mesa Wolves Crossover Novella

  After suffering an unspeakable childhood tragedy, firefighter Tanner Canagan uses his wolf shifter powers to rescue other helpless victims. But no matter how many people he saves, the dark history of his past prevents him from getting close to anyone. He doesn’t deserve to fall in love, especially not with a woman as gorgeous and amazing as Jordyn.

  As a paramedic, Jordyn Lowe saves lives on a daily basis. As a wolf shifter, she’s dedicated to her pack. And as a woman, she’s head over paws in love with Tanner. Despite her own painful past with men, his tortured soul doesn’t scare her away. They just might be able to forge a union destined to last forever—if only they can trust that their broken hearts can heal one another.

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  Table of Contents

  About This Book

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About J.K. Harper

  J.K. Harper Books

  About This Book

  Fire Wolf is a crossover novella between the Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindle World and my Black Mesa Wolves paranormal romance series. Wolf shifters live alongside humans, but shifters are secret from humans. They live in pack structures with some exceptions, although they may live in their own separate housing within the general pack territory. Wolves have mates, can shift at will, and sometimes view their wolf side and their human side as being somewhat separate from one another, although they are still the same being.

  It is not necessary to have read any of my previous Black Mesa Wolves series books to understand this one, but doing so will enhance the experience. Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

  Cover Art Design by Jacqueline Sweet

  Chapter One

  Tanner's gut churned at the sight of the charred, smoking remains of what used to be somebody's home. He hated it when they lost a house. When a family was devastated.

  “I'm just trying to help figure out who did this.” There had to be a reason this fire had started, and he was damn well going to discover it. “Which is the job you're supposed to be training for. Want to help out?”

  Zach raised an eyebrow. He was in the fire investigation training program. While Tanner was not, he had personal reasons to always help out the investigations. Reasons Zach knew well. With a short head shake, Zach said, “Sure. When my chief tells me I can start. It's his call, Tanner. Not yours.”

  Tanner blew out a harsh breath. "If I start now, I can maybe pick something up.” With their wolf senses, both Tanner and Zach had a distinct edge over the rest of the human crew. Not that any of the other guys knew about the existence of shifters. Still annoyed at being called out by the chief as well as Zach's reluctance to get going, he added in a curt voice, “Waiting doesn't help. I got this side." He walked away to examine the scorched remains of the house, trying to soothe his irritated wolf by extending his senses to see what he might pick up.

  There was no answer behind him. He figured Zach was giving him another look, and probably shaking his head at him this time, too. Tanner didn't care. This was his self-appointed job, and he was doing it. He'd found clues before that he'd given to Zach to pass on to the investigation team. It wasn't like he was putting himself or Zach or anyone else in danger. The fire was contained. He was just doing his job.

  In the end, that was all that ever mattered.

  Acrid smoke clogged up Tanner's lungs when the wind violently shifted. Coughing, he jammed his mask back on and sucked in the filtered air.

  The chief leveled a dangerous glare at him through his own mask. "You know the damn rules, Canagan. Keep it on. Next time I see you pull that kind of dumb move, you're getting written up."

  Anger dropped over Tanner in an icy sheet. He opened his mouth to give an angry retort, but the chief thrust his head forward, neck tendons bulging out. “Not a word, son. Don't you make me regret giving you a shot here.”

  The look in his eyes said Tanner had better not even take a breath right now, let alone say anything. Slicing his hand across his throat in a sharp cut it out motion, the chief turned on his heel and headed back toward the engines parked in the little cul-de-sac in front of the house that had just burned to a crisp.

  Standing next to him, mask and helmet still firmly in place until they were given the go-ahead to remove them, Zach shot Tanner his own disapproving look. “He's the chief, man. Treat him with a little respect, won't you? You've been pushing the damn envelope too much lately.”

  Glaring back, Tanner ignored his lifelong friend's advice. He had a hell of a lot of respect for human firefighters. They were brave, strong, and tough. However, they weren't wolf shifters, so that meant every single one of them ranked below him. Even the chief. He had to follow human law and order, but holding his temper in was getting to be harder and harder the longer he stayed at this fire station.

  Slamming his own glare after the boss, wolf pacing and huffing, Tanner made up his mind in a split second. As usual, he wasn't fitting in with the crew here. This firehouse had Zach, anyway. There were other places that needed Tanner's help. It was well past time for him to move on, anyway. He'd been here closing in on a year. It made him feel edgy as hell.

  Even though this was as close to home as he'd lived since he was a pup.

  “Chief, hold up a sec. I need a word,” he called out after the rigidly departing back of his chief.

  Behind him, Zach muttered, “What the hell are you doing?”

  As Tanner headed toward the chief, who had turned around, he gave a single glance toward the paramedic vehicle parked down the street. Looking through its windshield, he caught the flash of dark hair and smooth skin of the woman seated inside, lit up by the interior lights.

  Swallowing hard, he resolutely turned toward the chief. His wolf suddenly whining inside at the determined whirl of Tanner's thoughts, he ignored both it and the soft, sensuous pull of the gorgeous female wolf shifter inside the paramedic vehicle.

  The one who squeezed at his chest and confused the hell out of his mind every time he thought of her. The one who would have to understand the decision he was about to make.

  ***

  Sean watched something through the front window of the rig, shaking his head. "Damn, there he goes again. Acting just like the lone wolf he is.”

  Jordyn Lowe snapped up her head. Following Sean's gaze, she saw one of the soot-marked yellow-clad members of Durango's firehouse peeling off on his own to check the perimeter of the burn. She had a strong feeling she knew who it was. Casually, side-eyeing her partner, she said, "Lone wolf?" Inside, her heart took a couple of extra beats, setting her own wolf to even more focused attention.

  "Yeah, look at him." Sean's voice took on a disapproving tone. "He's always doing that kind of stuff. Don't get me wrong, Tanner's
an awesome guy. He can shoot some mean hoops and play a good hand of poker. But that's about it. No one really knows anything about him, you know? He just hangs out on his own all the time." Sean shrugged. "Lone wolf."

  Jordyn and her wolf both relaxed. Of course Sean hadn't meant it literally. He was human. He had no idea that shifters not only walked the world's population, but that Tanner was one of them. Or that Jordyn was. "He and Zach are friends," she pointed out. "Since they were kids."

  "Yeah, but Tanner hasn't lived here since he was a kid. I'd say they're not that close anymore. He's pretty buttoned up about most things."

  Shrugging a shoulder, looking back down at the paperwork on her clipboard, Jordyn let that go. Sean definitely did not need to know about the existence of the local wolf pack. But his next words had her hackles rising up again.

  "Unless, of course, he shares things with you." Sean elbowed her teasingly in the ribs. "Pillow talk. Spilling all his deep, dark secrets to his lady love." He ended his words on a singsong note.

  Jordyn rolled her eyes as both annoyance and that usual sizzling tingle when she thought of Tanner flashed through her. "I'm hardly his lady love. We just like to hang out together sometimes is all." As she said that, her wolf whined in her mind. Frowning, Jordyn shoved away the images of zipping through the woods with Tanner, both of them in wolf form. The images of talking with him, laughing, and plenty of quality "hanging out" time in bed together. With a small sigh, her wolf lay down, resting her chin on her paws and sighing. Even so, she still sent a last quick barrage of images at Jordyn: Tanner smiling up at Jordyn in bed, running with her as his wolf in the hills and desert to the west of town, and kissing her so soundly it shortened her breath and scrambled her thoughts.

  Taking a long breath in, Jordyn firmly thought at her wolf, No. Then she pointedly raised her eyebrows at the tablet in Sean's hands. "Hurry up and finish that, would you? I'd like to get out of here sooner rather than later."

  Not to be fazed, Sean lightly retorted, "And why would that be, huh? Got a hot date tonight with Mr. lone wolf? Aroooo!" he howled, dissolving into stitches.

  "Seriously, Sean," Jordyn snapped, "you have the maturity of a second-grader. It's amazing that you have advanced medical training and can keep a cool head in life or death situations."

  Still chuckling, Sean said, "Darlin', you know that's the only way to stay sane in our line of work." Teasing grin still on his face, he bent his head back to his tablet and finished filling out his notes from their call to the fire.

  Jordyn responded only with a muttered "Hmm" as she turned her attention back to her own tablet. He was right. Every day on the job, they were faced with the presence of death when they raced their ambulance to respond to 911 calls. Everyone in the medical profession knew that sometimes humor was indeed the only way to stay sane and still manage to live a somewhat normal life when dealing with the tremendous pressures of their everyday work life.

  Unlike Sean, Jordyn had the advantage of being a shifter. Her genes insured a long lifespan, quick healing, and a natural aversion to illness. It kept her somewhat removed from the realities of dealing with human trauma on a regular basis.

  Deep inside her, her wolf murmured, Humans important. Good to care.

  Quirking up an eyebrow and wrinkling her mouth into another slight frown, Jordyn thought back, Of course I care. But distance is required for this job. At that, her wolf lifted her lip to bare her canines, huffed with irritation at Jordyn, and padded toward a back corner of her mind. When Jordyn was in wolf form, she let her wolf lead the way. But she was in human form now. Her human mind was in charge.

  She and Sean sat in silence for several minutes, filling out their reports. Luckily, there hadn't been a single real injury on this call. Mild smoke inhalation and some scrapes from where a neighbor had tripped over a garden hose while trying to douse the initial flames. But the homeowners had all escaped with their lives and their pets. It was not one of the heartbreaking calls.

  Thank god.

  A sudden rap at the window on her side made her jump. Turning her head, her heart stampeded again. Tanner stood there, helmet tucked under his arm, face covered in soot and sweat, hair plastered to his head.

  None of that mattered. He was the most gorgeous man on the planet. Her wolf leapt back into the forefront of her mind, interested and intensely present again. Tanner motioned for Jordyn to roll down her window. The engine was off, so she just opened her door instead.

  “Hey, do you have a second to step out? Need to talk to you real quick. Alone,” he added, giving Sean a severe look.

  Sean shrugged, smiling, still working on his tablet. “I'm paying no attention,” he said cheerfully.

  “Whatever,” Jordyn muttered, cuffing him on the shoulder, then sliding out of the vehicle. Closing the door with a deliberate thunk, she walked to the back of it.

  Every part of her body felt aware of Tanner's presence as he followed her. The dark, brooding intensity he carried around with him was always there as well. That, and the way he could just arouse her like crazy without even touching her.

  Mine, her wolf whispered at her.

  Jordyn went behind the ambulance, which was tucked into the shadows on one end of the cul-de-sac the darkness of the night. Turning around, she began to ask what it was he needed. But Tanner had already stepped up to her, pulling her into his arms and pressing her against his long, hard body. "Just needed to taste you," he murmured before his lips crashed down on hers.

  Startled only briefly, Jordyn wrapped her arms around him. She opened her lips to his, welcoming his questing tongue and even the smoky, salty taste of him. The efforts of the past hours he'd spent fighting the fire exuded through his skin as he kissed her, the tension and stress making his mouth shake on hers, his arms hard bars as he leaned into her, pressing her back against ambulance's bay doors.

  She didn't mind in the slightest. Jordyn always needed what Tanner offered her. The hardness, even sometimes a harshness. The wild, sometimes close to rough sex they both reveled in and demanded from one another on a regular basis. He didn't see death on the job as often as she did, but the demons of his own past haunted him every time he got called out to an ugly fire that ended in brutal tragedy.

  They both offered one another release and relief. She gave to him as eagerly as he took, then flipped it around and took for him what she needed as well. Even though this one had been a clean call, no loss of life even though the property loss was total, she knew every fire reminded him. Just like every time she went out on a call, even though she kept herself at a remove from the emotions of the victims, the adrenaline always spiked through her. Always.

  For being nothing more than bed buddies, she and Tanner were damn well matched.

  Is more than that, the thought of her wolf unfurled like a snapping pennant through her mind. Need him. He is mine.

  Losing herself in the wild edges of Tanner's kiss, Jordyn just let her wolf's thoughts go in the moment, chalking them up to the need for physical release. Her wolf muttered something else at her, but Jordyn pushed it away, letting her body stay pliant and eager against Tanner's under the cover of the night that sheltered them from nosy eyes.

  Long moments later, the aching hardness of his cock pressing against her with the neediness she wanted to answer right then, he reluctantly backed away from the kiss. Her lips felt swollen. Tender. As always, with him, she wanted more.

  "That was a nice surprise," she said, managing to keep her voice cool and steady. Tanner was awesome, but she'd gotten a good enough sense of him and his natural restlessness in the past ten months that she was wary of feeling anything more for him.

  One heartbreak in a lifetime was enough, thank you very much.

  He nodded against her head, the scratchy roughness of his bristling cheek and chin scraping against her face with the deliciousness that always made her tremble in response.

  She expected him to make his usual offer next. To meet at her apartment in town after both their
shifts were over for a long night of pleasure and the oblivion they both craved. The words he said instead startled her, causing her to drop back and look at him in the darkness with her wolf-enhanced sight.

  "I need to fight tonight. Come with me?" He sounded tentative for a second. "You know I always fight a lot better if I know you're watching me," he added in a low, almost off-handed growl.

  Jordyn's wolf paced and whined throughout her mind, worry and a funny little sense of protectiveness emanating from her. Jordyn stared at Tanner for a long moment, trying to read his face. But he'd reverted back to being just as contained she was. She rarely saw what was really going on with him play across his expression. Only when they were in bed together.

  But a wicked smile lanced his mouth into a lascivious grin. "I'll make it worth your while afterward, sexy."

  Despite herself, Jordyn laughed, shaking her head. "You're incorrigible. But of course I'll be there. Why tonight? It's not your usual m.o. after a fire." Tanner usually worked off his steam at fires, needing only the sensuous bubble of the two of them wrapped together afterward rather than a fight.

  He stepped back. Glancing down, he took a breath before looking right back at her with his stunning mahogany brown eyes, clearly visible to her despite the darkness. She felt herself melting all over again.

  Until his next words.

  "Jordyn, I'm leaving.”

  It was like a gut punch. Her wolf sat up and howled in her mind. Jordyn knew she looked out of her eyes, which would be close to glowing with her wolf so close to the surface.

  Tanner exhaled, hard, keeping his eyes locked hard on hers. She could see his wolf in them as well. “I just gave the chief my notice. It's time for me to move on.” She heard a ragged beat in his tone as he added, “So I really need to beat the crap out of someone tonight. Then I just want to lose myself in you afterward.”