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Chapter One
Ethan
“It’s this fucking town,” Rylan says as he quickly laces up his boots. “There’s like six girls in it and they’re all either taken or we’re related to them.”
The fire alarm is blaring through the firehouse as the five of us throw on our gear and get ready to move out.
“That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned,” Carter says as he gets behind the wheel. He closes the door and grins as he sticks his head through the open window. “Mates are more trouble than they’re worth. We’re better off without them.”
“You’re crazy,” Westin says as he runs by, looking panicked. “I can’t wait to find my mate and claim her tight little—Where the fuck is my coat?”
Our Chief, Blake, grabs Westin’s coat from where he left it on the floor and tosses it to him. “You’re not going to get a mate if you’re all burned up. Keep your shit where it’s supposed to go.”
“Sorry, Chief,” Westin says as he throws on his jacket and climbs into the firetruck.
I’m keeping my distance as I get ready. It never goes well for me when the subject of mates comes up.
“Let’s move out!” Blake shouts as he climbs into the passenger’s seat. “We got a hot one to put out.”
Carter barely waits for us to climb into the truck before he hits the gas and flies out of the fire station.
There’s silence for five wonderful seconds before the topic comes back up.
“You’re quiet back there, Ethan,” Carter says as he looks at me through the rearview mirror. “Are you on Team Mate or Team Masturbate?”
“So, that was you!” Westin snaps. “Stop clogging the drain with your spunk!”
Carter grins. “Never.”
I hate talking about mates. My jackass inner grizzly bear was cool all morning, and now he’s pacing around and about to take a furry temper tantrum. He’s nasty when he gets like this—all agitated and ready to make my life miserable.
“I’m thirty-six years old,” I tell them. “I’m done.”
Rylan turns to me with his forehead all scrunched up. “What do you mean you’re done? You can’t be done when it comes to finding a mate.”
“You heard him,” Carter says with a winning smile on his face. “He’s done. He’s on team masturbate. We can be on team masturbate together.” He turns around with his hand raised for a high-five.
I leave him hanging.
“I don’t think so.”
Rylan is laughing as he nudges my arm with his elbow. “Hear that, Ethan? You and him can masturbate together.”
“All right,” I say as I open the window. “I’ll see you guys at the fire.”
I grab onto the metal rails running along the roof and pull myself up with a grunt. We’re barreling down a mountain road and I nearly get whipped by a tree branch as I climb onto the roof of the firetruck.
“Come on, guys,” I hear Blake says as I pull my foot up. “You kno
w how his bear gets.”
I get comfortable on the roof and take a deep breath as I look at the stunning Montana mountains all around me. It’s early morning and the sun is still rising, casting the vast sky in hues of pink and purple. We were just about to have our morning coffee at the station when the alarm went off.
I sigh as I try to settle my inner grizzly bear. It can be hard working with five bear shifters, especially when they start yammering on about their fated mates. The younger guys, Westin and Rylan, are convinced that their mates are right around the corner ready to rock their world, but an extra decade on this planet has shaken that belief in me. I still haven’t found her, and believe me, I’ve looked.
I traveled the country for over a decade looking for my mate, but now I’m convinced that she’s not out there. Maybe she died young, maybe she was never born, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Whatever happened, I’ve given up on trying to find her.
Three years ago, I moved to Blackcloud Point in Montana to settle down and become a firefighter. That’s when I gave up the lifelong dream of finding her.
The only problem is, my bear hasn’t.
He’s not on board. In fact, he’s more committed to finding her than ever.
And it’s driving me crazy.
We’re constantly at each other’s throats. He hates that I’m not out searching for her every second of every day. Whenever I go to bed or crack open a can of beer to try and relax, he starts thrashing around like a rabid animal. The constant snarling and growling in my ear is really draining and it’s starting to wear me down. I haven’t slept well in months.
We’re going to a fire, I say to him. You have to chill.
He responds with a furious roar as he charges to the surface and tries to claw his way out of me.
“Fuck. You,” I grunt as I flex my body, struggling to hold him back. It’s like trying to stop a train, but somehow, I manage to push him back down.
I’m breathing heavily and I’m covered in a sheen of sweat as Carter turns the firetruck around the bend.
You have to stop that shit, I tell my grizzly. “She’s not out there. We’ve looked everywhere.”
I can feel him baring his teeth as he snarls at me.
Fated mates. It’s such a load of bullshit.
Whoever said there was one girl destined for each bear shifter didn’t know what they were fucking talking about. There’s five of us here that are proof of that. Not one of us have found our mates. Even Blake, and he’s fifty-two. If that’s not proof that fated mates are bullshit, then I don’t know what is.
I close my eyes and try to ignore the livid bear who is trying to hack and shred his way out of me and instead try to focus on the fresh mountain air that’s running through my brown hair.
I love Montana and I’m having a blast working as a fireman with the guys in the truck down below.
But this is ruining everything. My stubborn bear is ruining everything.
He won’t stop, and I don’t know how to handle it.
The smell of smoke hits my nose as we get closer to the fire.
I open my eyes and see it snaking into the sky in the distance. It’s coming from a two-story office building on the edge of town that’s engulfed in flames.
I grin, expecting my bear to shrink down in fear like he always does when I’m near a fire, but the furry fucker doesn’t even give me that satisfaction. He’s as alert and focused as ever.
Buried in the thick heavy smoke is a sweet smell that suddenly sneaks through and hits me hard. My core clenches as a dump of adrenaline surges through my veins. It’s a scent I’ve never smelled before, but it’s so familiar. My body knows it intimately.
I breathe in deeply through my nose, trying to get as much of it as I can. It’s faint and barely detectable, but it cuts through me like a thousand knives. It sears its way down my throat like battery acid. It scalds and burns my insides, but it feels so fucking good.
My bear starts raging inside like never before. He’s acting like a mad dog as he thrashes around and bounds for the surface, desperate to get out. I drop to my hands and knees and scream out in frustration as I struggle to hold him in.
The nasty beast shreds his way to the surface until my arms are swelling up and my teeth are aching as my canines extend and sharpen.
I roll onto my back and grit my teeth as I fight him. “Fuck. Off. Cocksucker,” I hiss as I squeeze my entire body, trying to pull him back in.
He’s never been this strong. He’s never been this bold. My grizzly has always been a primal beast who doesn’t care that I’m trying to fit into society. He wants what he wants and right now he wants to get out and move closer to that scent.
But that sweet intoxicating scent is giving me strength as well and I manage to fight my bear back down. He gnarls and gnashes at me as I force him to return to the depths of my body.
With him taken care of for the moment, I turn back to the smell and breathe it in. The thick black smoke is overpowering the intoxicating scent as we get closer to the fire, but it’s unmistakable…
It’s her.
It’s my mate.
My hands are shaking as I climb up to my feet, riding the firetruck like a surfboard. My whole body is tingling as I get closer.
“What the fuck is going on up there?” Rylan asks as he pokes his head out the window and looks up at me.
“I’m on Team Mate,” I say as my heart pounds so hard that I’m worried it’s going to vibrate out of my chest. “That’s what’s going on.”
Carter turns the firetruck into the parking lot of the blazing building. Her scent is stronger than ever and my stomach drops when I realize that it’s coming from inside of the burning building.
I leap off the truck before it stops and land in a summersault on the pavement. I spring back up and sprint toward the building as fast as I can. Past the parked cars, past the stunned people standing outside watching, past the billowing smoke and broken windows.
Without stopping, I take a deep breath and run into the burning building, ignoring the thick smoke that’s searing my eyes and the hot flames that are licking my shoulders and back.
I have one focus.
Her.
I don’t care if I come out covered in flames. I don’t care if I take one step onto the sidewalk and burst into ash.
As long as she’s safe, I’ll die happy.
She’s my only concern now. Her safety is all I care about.
My mate is in trouble and my protective instincts have taken over.
I just hope I’m not too late…
Chapter Two
Chloe
I’m choking on the thick smoke as I kick the wooden leg of my desk over and over again, but the stubborn thing refuses to break. My wrist is slick with blood and stinging like crazy as the metal handcuffs dig into my skin.
Come on!
I can feel the heat of the hungry flames from the other room as they spread toward me, stalking me as they get ready to feast on my flesh.
You’re not dying like this. Come on, Chloe!
I give the thick oak desk leg a few more kicks, but it’s useless. Nothing can kick through that strong wood.
My eyes are watering down my cheeks and I can’t even open them as the thick gray smoke billows in through the open door.
My resolve begins to fade as I force my eyes open and see the flames in the other room. They’re traveling up the file cabinets that I was sorting through this morning and burning the files inside.
I guess I know now what I always suspected: Kirk Holdings Incorporated is a criminal organization.
The first time I suspected it was a few weeks ago when my boss, Aylwin Kirk, came walking into the office with a garbage bag full of loose bills. I was his personal secretary and I just pretended that what I saw was normal.
Why didn’t I leave then?
I keep asking myself that question, but I know the answer. I had nowhere else to go. I’m only nineteen and I’ve already been on my own for two
years.
Mr. Kirk paid well and I often turned a blind eye for that life-changing money. For most people, the paycheck wouldn’t be life-changing, but for me it was. It was the difference between sleeping at a bus stop after my stepfather kicked me out and sleeping in a bed. I chose a bed. And this is where it got me.
Yesterday, the FBI came to visit when Mr. Kirk was away on business. They began asking me and some other employees questions about some missing cargo ships in the China sea. I had no idea what they were talking about, but Mr. Kirk seemed pretty agitated when I called him on the phone to tell him after.
I came into work early today like I always do and was surprised to see Mr. Kirk tearing up his office. It looked like a tornado had ripped through it.
“I thought you were in Hong Kong,” I said to him as I put my coffee on my desk.
He looked on edge as he raced around his office, pulling out files and throwing them onto his desk.
“Something more important came up,” he said as he grabbed his laptop and broke it over his knee. I stared in shock as he tossed the pieces onto the floor.
“Anything I can help you with?”
His body stilled as he slowly turned to me. A shiver raced up my spine as his hard eyes locked onto mine. His eyes were normally bright green, but this morning they seemed to be glowing.
