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

by J. K Harper

  Long self-protective habit made her nod coolly, despite her wolf's agitated whirling around in her mind. “Okay. Okay. Yeah. Sure.” She sounded like a mindless automaton. Smoothing out her words, she added, “I understand, Tanner. We knew this was coming.”

  He paused for a long moment, still gazing at her with his fathomless eyes. The sheer strength of his presence flooded over her. He finally nodded. “Yeah. We did know.”

  She had to take a moment herself to be sure her words would come out lightly. “Where are you heading? Did you get a new job?”

  He half shrugged, wiping away a trickle of sweat tracing down along the hard, gorgeous planes of his face. “Dallas.”

  Her heart thudded hard. Dallas. That was a long way from Colorado.

  “I spent about a month there last year. This guy I know, Jax, he works for Station 58. He's been bugging me to come back, and apparently there might be an opening soon. Just talked to him the other day about it.” Tanner shrugged again, his eyes still studying her. “Chief rode my ass again one time too many. I'm just not a good fit here, Jordyn,” he added in a low voice.

  She tilted her chin up at him. Even though they'd both known the score when they first began hooking up, they both acknowledged that their—friendship—her wolf snorted very inelegantly in her mind—went beyond just casual. She felt comfortable enough to challenge him somewhat. “This is your home. You do fit here.”

  Silence wrapped around them again. His eyes lightened a little more. A sure sign of his wolf pushing at him. Looking out of his eyes. Slowly, though, he shook his head. “Once it was. It's—just not the place for me.”

  The weight of ugly history dropped heavily between them. Keeping herself breathing evenly, willing her heart to stop thudding out of whack and her wolf to settle down, Jordyn finally just nodded back. It wasn't an argument open for more discussion.

  Yet, at any rate.

  “So,” Tanner went on more briskly. “See you there later? About an hour?”

  “Yes.” She nodded firmly, clenching her fingers together in the dark.

  He gave her one last hard kiss before turning to stride off back around the ambulance. Then he paused, looked back at her, and simply said "Thank you" before disappearing back around the corner of the vehicle.

  With a small smile, Jordyn locked her sigh inside her throat. Resolutely, ignoring the chills running down her skin despite the remaining heat of the smoldering ashes, she went back to work.

  Maybe after he shed some shifter blood tonight, and they spent some of their favorite sort of “quality time” together—and at that thought, a more genuine smile ghosted across her face—she'd get back to her own equilibrium.

  Or, feeling the restless pace of her upset wolf in her mind, maybe not.

  Chapter Two

  Around the other side of the ring, lumbering alongside the ropes like the giant pile of bumbling bruin he was, the huge grizzly shifter stared at Tanner with what was pretty much a crazy-ass grin on his face. Behind the bear, throngs of amped-up shifters growled, howled, shouted and chanted their support. This particular fighter was well known for being slightly unhinged. Known as Crazy Bear, he had a legion of fans. Tonight, he also had bloodlust in his eyes that promised he wanted to do some serious damage to his opponent.

  On the other side of the ring in his own corner, Tanner smiled to himself, although he kept his face outwardly expressionless. Good. He was itching for one hell of a throw down, and this crazy dude was just the one to bring it.

  Behind Tanner, another section of the crowd whooped and hollered their own encouragement for him. The shifter fight rings were underground only as far as humans were concerned. Obviously, if any human ever stepped into one of these rings they'd be killed simply due to the complete imbalance of strength between humans and shifters. In the shifter world, these fights were sanctioned, legal, and extremely popular. They offered an outlet for many shifters who needed to release their wild side in a way that was challenging to do in the modern world. These fights were also extremely lucrative. Encouraged and regulated, betting was the second highlight of the fights, after the violence. Tanner knew full well plenty of money would be exchanging hands this evening.

  He let a cold smile cracked across his otherwise granite expression. Crazy Bear saw it. He roared back his trademark rebel yell, the one that was some sort of mangled war whoop that was half human, half grizzly, and all crazy.

  The crowd went nuts. Glancing at the referee, another giant-ass shifter whose lineage Tanner wasn't quite able to decipher, Tanner gave a very small shake of his head to indicate he wasn't quite ready. The referee nodded at him, keeping his arms tightly crossed over his massive chest in the signal that meant nobody was to start nothing just yet.

  Casually, Tanner turned his back on Crazy Bear, which elicited another outraged bellow and an answering echo from the crowd behind the bruin. The insult of turning one's back on one's opponent was often used in these fights, although no one ever did it to Crazy Bear. Tanner didn't care. The usual red stream of rage was flowing through him tonight. He felt confident. Even so, he needed one thing before he started the fight.

  He needed to see Jordyn's face.

  There were far too many scents in the room, a mashup of aggro tensions, heightened pheromones, and razor wire anticipation. He wasn't able to single out her personal scent. But she had said she would be here, and Jordyn was always a woman of her word. Casting his gaze over the crowd behind him, he casually searched for her distinctive form.

  There.

  Tall, lithe, stunningly beautiful even in a crowd of shifters, who naturally tended to be attractive, Jordyn stood out like a beacon. The long sheet of silky dark hair flowed around her face, while her cool, assessing gaze that subtly said back off settled on her like a protective mantle. But as his gaze settled on her, she pulled up a corner of her mouth into that smile he knew was just for him.

  Her support for him during these fights always felt essential. She was a good luck charm that he needed each time. The thought that this would be one of the last times poured over him like frigid water. He took in a shuddering breath while his wolf snarled and snapped in his mind. His wolf was close to the surface, where Tanner kept him just barely leashed right now as per the sanctions of human form fighting in the shifter rings. There was an edge to the sound that went beyond his readiness for the impending fight. An edge that somehow seemed to dig at Tanner himself.

  Must protect her. Mine, his wolf snarled at him.

  She's not mine, Tanner thought back, gaze still caught on the woman in question. I'm not mate material. And she isn't either. There's nothing keeping me here.

  His wolf howled, flinging himself against Tanner's mind. Everything is here. His wolf abruptly hammered him with images of Jordyn. Of his puphood home, a few hours west. Of the local wolf pack that had raised him after the worst time of his life.

  Tanner inhaled again. He couldn't have this division between his human side and his wolf side right now. He needed to focus. His wolf knew that as well as he. Lip still curled, he simply murmured another firm, Mine, before turning his attention back to the fight almost at hand.

  Jordyn gave Tanner slow wink, standing still and unruffled in the charged masses around her. Tanner felt the blast of her cool strength reach out to him, surrounding him in a brief yet powerful wave that would help him in the fight to come. She always did this for him. She willingly shared her strength with him at these fights. Keeping him centered.

  He hoped he'd shared enough back with her over their months together as well.

  Keeping his face impassive so no one in the crowd would notice him looking at Jordyn and shift their unwanted attention on her, he dipped his chin the tiniest bit at her before swiveling back around. Looking at the referee, he gave a sharp nod. The referee nodded back at him, looked over at Crazy Bear, who nodded back with a savage grant, then unfolded his arms and stepped out of the center of the ring.

  The fight was on.

  Cra
zy Bear lunged, the hysterically screaming crowd behind him wildly encouraging him. Tanner was ready. They met in the middle of the ring, fists, blood, and grunts flying as they went to town on each other. The main rule of fighting in the shifter rings was no shifting into one's animal if it was a sanctioned human form fight. That was pretty much the gist of it. Being faster, stronger, and able to heal far more easily than humans, most of the sorts of rules that governed actual human fight rings did not apply here.

  Tanner let the roaring of the crowd egg him on as well, though he kept a somewhat cooler head thanks to Jordyn's presence. He parried, ducked, lunged, snapped out his leg for a devastating kick at Crazy Bear's torso. Somersaulted out of the way when the lumbering bear tried to mow him down by dint of his sheer body mass and strength. Tanner was smaller, but he was faster and far more agile. He also had a deep, burning anger that always fueled his fights. He was never angry at the other fighters. Hell, he didn't really know them. But the bone-deep fury he'd carried his entire life always gave him the extra edge in these fights.

  That, and the sliver of coolness Jordyn lent him. The part that let him keep the edge he needed.

  Twenty heart pounding, sweat-spilling, blood-streaming minutes later, Tanner delivered a slamming blow to Crazy Bear's face. It knocked the bear out cold, sending him crashing to the floor of the ring. Screams that were a mixture of exultant winning along with enraged howls of the despair of loss mingled together. They pounded into Tanner's head. His wolf peered out of his eyes, howling and snapping his glee at having won again. The referee grabbed Tanner up, yanking his hand above his head in the classic sign of officially declaring a winner.

  Inside Tanner, the outraged flames that were always present banked down to embers. For the moment at least.

  Another ten or so minutes later, he'd collected his winnings, been congratulated by a happy throng of shifters who also clutched their winnings in their hands, and hustled out the back door to his car. Dammit, his hands stung and his face throbbed. That bruin definitely had quite a punch on him.

  As he headed toward his truck, the beautiful woman leaning against its hood shook her head at him. "You know, one of these days a fight isn't going to go so well for you." Jordyn's tone was light. No disapproval underlay it. She was a shifter too. She understood the need to let things get crazy sometimes.

  Yet he also heard another tone in her voice. The one of sweet, slick arousal. It wasn't that she got turned on by watching him fight. She wasn't like that. It was just that Jordyn was always looking for his embrace the same way he sought hers. She was always ready for his touch—the same way he was always, always ready for hers. All Tanner had to do was look at the woman to go harder than steel and want to spend the next week with her, exploring every possible position. To hear all the different notes of her gasps each time he touched her.

  “So.” Her voice still casual, he nevertheless caught the slip of darkness over her expression for a brief moment. “You got your bloodshed. Feel better now?”

  He snorted as she peeled away from the truck and came toward him. “I do. Needed it after today. C'mere,” he added.

  She nestled into him. The top of her head nestled just below his chin. Her long, slim, yet strong shape fit his. She relaxed into him, holding him back just as strongly as he held her.

  They stayed that way for long moments, letting their heartbeats play against one another as they breathed in and out as one. The sounds of the other fights going on inside occasionally rumbled out as the door opened and closed, shifters slipping in and out under the careful observation of tonight's bouncer. The nights were getting cooler as they got deeper into fall, adding a pleasantly sharp tang to the evening.

  Tanner felt the ugly, sharp stab of something kick at him again. The one that had rustled through him the second he decided to go to the chief and give his notice. Frowning, he pushed it away. With a growl born more of arousal than anger, he murmured, “Let's go.” The heat rose in him as anticipation of the rest of the evening suffused him. He wanted to lose himself in Jordyn.

  She nodded against him, turning her face to trace his neck with her lips. Feeling the heated shiver ripple over him from her touch, he squeezed her against him again before releasing her. Getting into their respective vehicles, he followed her to her home.

  Mine, his wolf again thought, sharp interest focusing him on the taillights of Jordyn's truck. Mine.

  Taking a long breath, Tanner brushed aside his wolf's assertion with a single response. For tonight. And that's good enough for now.

  His wolf forcefully disagreed as Tanner followed the sexiest, most intriguing woman in the world to her bed.

  The woman he'd be leaving much sooner than later, regardless of the cost to either of them. But it was the only way to protect her from his own fragmented soul and the relentless anger he couldn't seem to shake.

  ***

  Jordyn held tight to Tanner's shoulders as she rode him. She knew her fingers dug sharply into him, but the sparking red fire of her climax had her in its grip. She was incapable of worrying about hurting him too much right now.

  "Jordyn!" Tanner's voice ripped through the room in a half yell, half howl of exultation.

  She responded with the long, low keen of her gasp. His eyes, wide-open, nearly black from the power of his release, stayed locked on hers as they clung to one another. In the back of her mind, Jordyn's wolf howled in deep approval along with them. She knew Tanner's wolf joined them as well, both their animal sides close to the surface, pushing them together in this ecstatic union. Jordyn knew her mouth was open, her face completely exposed and vulnerable to Tanner's, but she didn't care. This one moment in time was the same one in which he was completely open and vulnerable to her as well. The feral joy and openness on his face matched hers as the echoes of their ragged cries filled the room.

  "Babe," he groaned, his hand still holding her hips tightly to his where they fused together. The last tremors shuddered through him, as evidenced by his last convulsive small thrusts inside her.

  She just nodded, the tangled dark curtain of her hair covering her face, clinging to her neck and cheek with the sweat of their earlier exertions. The bright tang of their combined scents mingled into the room with a familiarity that soothed her.

  I'm leaving. His stark words from earlier fell unwelcome into her head. She blinked as a wave of sharp regret slammed through her. Still shaking from her orgasm, she knew the hollowness of impending loss slid across her face. It broke the magical lust spell, as they jokingly referred to it. Tanner smiled at her, a slight coolness now slipping over his face as well. The mask he wore. With a brief smile, Jordyn finally released her grip on his shoulders and sank down onto him, nestling her head into the hollow of his neck, her cheek against his slicked chest.

  She couldn't blame him. It was part of their unspoken agreement. Don't get too close. Never get too close. Because what was happening now would always happen.

  Someone would leave. Willingly or not. And neither one of them was good mate material. They were damaged goods, and no good in a relationship.

  Her wolf smacked her mind with an angry paw. Jordyn blinked again, a small grunt of surprise catching in her throat.

  "You okay?" Tanner's deep voice eased over her, just as one of his hands rubbed slow strokes over her back, his other arm pulling her even closer against him.

  The dichotomy of what they each said and did to one another struck her as painfully ironic. Despite herself, she huffed out a stiff laugh. "I'm good. That was good," she added, running her free hand over his shoulder and winding it beneath his neck. "It's always good.”

  Redirect, she ordered herself. “So. What did your dad say?"

  The hand rubbing her back abruptly stilled. "About what?" Suspicion laced Tanner's voice.

  "About you moving to Dallas.” Her voice came out steady. “He said he enjoyed having you back."

  This time, it was Tanner's turn to bark out the ghost of an irritated chuckle. Blowing out a brea
th that ruffled her hair, he nodded against her head. "He does enjoy having me here. But I haven't told him yet."

  Well, that was interesting. Jordyn pushed herself up and off to one side so she could lean on her elbow and look at Tanner. He looked back at her, dark eyebrows slightly raised. Challenging her. Twisting her lips a bit, she shook her head at him. "I'm on your side. You said you came back here for him. I just thought you would have already discussed your decision with him."

  Another pause held them as Tanner studied her. She saw his wolf looking out of his eyes, which were bright with the peculiar glow shifter eyes got when their animal was very close to the surface. She felt the longing of her wolf, answered by his. But unlike her wolf, she knew it was for the best. For her, at least. Ignoring her wolf cuffing her again inside her mind, she added, "Will he be okay with you gone again?"

  She held Tanner's gaze, not backing down an inch. Although neither one of them was suited to being a long-term mate to any wolf, she still knew she was closer to Tanner than almost anyone else on earth. She could ask this sort of question. It was fair.

  Tanner finally relaxed another fraction. "He'll be okay. He's been doing a lot better the last several years anyway. Besides, he's got Tessa nearby. She'll look out after dad.”

  Jordyn had to nod. Tanner's sister lived with her pack a few hours west, close to their father.

  “The firehouse here just isn't working for me, Jordyn. Dallas will be a good new place for me. I liked all the guys there, and the local pack is really decent. This—" he broke off, shaking his head. Jordyn knew him well enough to know he was done with the touchy-feely of the conversation.

  But he surprised her by adding in a low voice, very gently brushing his finger across her cheek, "What about you? What's my favorite badass she-wolf gonna do in Durango without me to entertain her by patching him up after fights and listening to his stories about the dumb rescue calls?"