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Chapter One
Rylan
We’re all sitting in the fire truck waiting for Blake as the alarm screeches in our ears.
“Bye, lover,” Kimberly says as she climbs onto the truck and gives her mate Westin a kiss. I have to turn away.
I’m happy for Westin but it’s hard to see all the happy couples around here when I’m pinning for my mate. Every kiss, every holding of hands, every look, and every smile—each one is like a knife through my heart that twists and twists and twists.
“You’re not allowed on the truck,” I snap at her when the kiss goes on longer than I can handle.
Kimberly pulls away and looks at me funny. “I was just saying goodbye.”
I know I should just shut up. Let them enjoy their love. Not be a total dick. But I can’t.
It’s been torture around here with all of the mates showing up. First Ethan and Chloe, then it was Carter and Aubrey, and now Westin and Kimberly. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do if Blake finds his mate before me.
I’ve been feeling lonelier than ever and it’s starting to make me miserable. I hate that I’m like this, but the pain has to come out somehow.
“The alarm is going,” I tell her. “That means there’s an active fire. That means we’re technically in the field. That means no kissing.”
It’s an asshole move, but I just can’t handle watching anymore mate-love. I’m spared from having to deal with it when we’re on a job. It’s the only time I can get some peace.
Blake comes charging into the fire hall and leaps into the truck. Carter is behind the wheel and takes off before our fire chief Blake can even close the door.
I glance out the window at Kimberly and she gives me the finger.
She looks annoyed and I feel bad. I like Kimberly, I really do, but I just can’t handle seeing her and Westin so happy this morning.
My inner grizzly bear has been extra agitated lately. I was up again all last night with him pacing around and acting all grumpy. He wants our mate here by our side with our mark on her neck and with my cock buried between her legs.
I want the same thing as well, but it’s not in my control. I try to tell him that, but the furry fucker can’t get it through his thick skull. So, he drives me crazy instead.
“What the hell was that, Rylan?” Westin asks as his eyes narrow on me. We’re sitting in the back with Ethan. Carter is driving and Blake is beside him up front. “I can’t give my mate a kiss before we head out on a job?”
I grit my teeth as I stare out the window. The fall is here and the leaves are starting to change colors. It’s gorgeous in Montana during these colorful weeks but all I’m seeing is death and decay. The leaves aren’t changing colors. They’re dying. The selfish tree is sucking the nutrients back and the leaves are shriveling up and suffering a slow painful death.
Westin kicks my boot. “I’m talking to you, asshole.”
My eyes dart over to his. “The alarm was on.”
“So?”
“So, it’s protocol. We have to stay focused on the task at hand.”
“Waiting for Blake to get out of the bathroom?”
Blake turns around with the mention of his name. “What happened?”
Ethan chuckles beside me. “Kimberly was giving Westin a kiss goodbye, but Rylan didn’t like it.”
“He should be focused on the job,” I say with a little too much force in my voice. Really, I should just shut up. “And not on his mate’s tonsils.”
“Fuck you, man,” Westin snaps. I think I might have gone too far. “I’m always focused on every job. It’s not like we’re headed to a five-alarm fire. It’s a car accident.”
“Whatever,” I mutter as I turn back to the window. I should have just kept my mouth shut.
My bear starts grumbling inside me as we pull onto the two-lane expressway. Carter is speeding with the alarm blaring and we get there in no time.
Shit. It’s a big nothing burger.
I was hoping for an intense fire, a radioactive spill, anything to get my blood pumping and my mind focused on something other than the fact that my mate is not in my life and may not be for another few decades.
But instead, I got this. A motorcyclist skidded off the road. His bike is flipped over in the dirt and he’s sitting on the side of the two-lane expressway with a few people around him. Traffic is a mess. There are four cars parked on the shoulder and everyone keeps slowing down in both directions to see what happened.
“Rylan,” Blake shouts as we all pour out of the truck. “You can take traffic duty. Maybe that will calm you down.”
He gives me a look and I just shake my head as I walk over to the oncoming cars. I start waving them through but they keep slowing down anyway to get a glimpse of the upside-down motorcycle.
They all want to see the wreck. The disaster. If they want to see a real wreck, they should be looking at me.
Having all these mates around has really started to mess with me. Even now on the job, when there’s no possible way I’ll find my mate, my bear is getting all amped up and crazy. He’s spinning in circles inside me and growling so loud that my chest is vibrating.
“Shut the fuck up,” I hiss through my clenched teeth as I wave another car on.
It’s bumper-to-bumper traffic in both directions along the two-lane expressway now.
My throat starts tingling and then it quickly builds to a burning. I clear my throat as my eyes start watering.
What the fuck? Who the hell needs a new car? This smoke is killing me.
I look around but there’s no old beater with black smoke pouring out of the exhaust.
My grizzly starts going nuts. He’s charging forward and trying to break out. I flex my body, grit my teeth, and force him back down. He’s so powerful today tha
t he almost slips through.
“What are you doing?” The words come out all scratchy and broken. My throat is on fire. It feels like I swallowed a red-hot charcoal briquette.
A blue car rolls by and the intense scent of the woman inside is overpowering. It staggers me. I clutch my chest as my legs wobble.
I try to catch a glimpse of the girl inside but all I can see is blonde hair and a round shoulder.
My bear tries to surge through again and I fall to a knee. I take off my helmet and grab a fistful of my hair, grunting like a freakshow as I fight him back down.
The next couple of cars that roll by are looking at me instead of at the accident. I told you I was more of a wreck.
Finally, I get my bear back down and it hits me like a slap in the face.
That was my mate.
The intense smell… it’s still flowing through me in a sweet pain. Only now the burning has turned into a warm comforting glow that seems to be radiating through me.
My heart is pounding. My pulse is racing.
I have to find her. I need to get her.
The only problem is, her car is gone. Once the traffic passes the accident, it picks back up and the cars zoom away.
I look around in a panic. I can’t lose her. Not after I’ve spent my life waiting for her.
I didn’t even get to see her beautiful face or curvy body. Did she have a curvy body? I didn’t see…
I feel twitchy all over as I look around in a panic. A brown car rolls by and I grab the door handle, trying to yank it open. It’s locked. The guy speeds off when he sees the panicked look in my eyes.
The next three cars have locked doors as well. I don’t know what I even plan on doing… ripping the people out of their cars, getting behind the wheel, and going after her?
That’s crazy, but it’s the best idea I can think of.
She’s getting farther away and I’m still here. I start to feel sick. I want to throw up.
I look around and my breath stops when I see the crashed motorcycle. It’s upside-down and covered with mud but I bet it still works.
Without a second of hesitation, I sprint over to it.
Carter is checking the motorcyclist for a concussion while they wait for the ambulance to arrive. He looks at me funny as I run past him.
“Maybe someone should check him for a brain injury,” I hear him say.
I grab the bike and pull it out of the dirt. The handlebars are a little bent, but it’s better than nothing.
“Rylan!” Blake snaps as he starts walking over.
I ignore him as I climb onto the bike and start it.
He starts running. “Rylan! What in the hell are you—”
The sound of the engine drowns him out and I take off, flying down the road to catch my mate.
It’s a two-lane expressway, one lane for each direction. There’s a row of traffic on my left and the guy in front of me is going too damn slow.
I start to get all panicky and twitchy when I try to pass him and I can’t.
“Come on,” I growl as the fierce wind hits my face.
Finally, the traffic in the opposing lane stops. I turn into it and swerve between honking cars as I race to catch up to my girl.
I crank the throttle and go even faster. The muddy bike roars under me as I swerve around an oncoming minivan and back into my lane.
My eyes are four cars up but I still can’t see her. The expressway reaches the mountains and the road becomes windier with more blind turns.
I don’t let up. My mate is up there and I’ll do anything to find her. I just want to see her face. I need to know what color eyes she has. What her lips look like. Will she recognize me when she sees me?
“Yes!” I shout when I eventually see her blue car in the distance. I rev the bike even harder and race to catch up with her.
She’s all I can focus on as the cars and trees whizz by.
My bear is deathly quiet. Completely still. He wants to find her as much as I do. It’s our sole purpose in life—to find the girl we’re going to claim, breed, and mark as our own.
She’s so close…
I swerve around the last car and then drive up beside her. My hands are shaking and my heart feels like it’s going to explode as I ride up alongside her car.
There’s a gym bag in her backseat and I grin as another whiff of her intoxicating scent hits my nose. The wind is taking it away too fast. I want to breathe it in slowly, savor it, revel in it, but I can’t. Not yet anyway.
I roll up beside her door and the sight of her blonde hair snatches my breath away. She’s stunning. I haven’t seen her face, but I already know.
A car flies past me in the opposite direction, honking angrily as his side mirror grazes my elbow. I can’t take my eyes off her. I need her to see me.
I reach out to knock on her window as we approach a sharp turn in the mountain road, but I’m forced to keep my hands on the handlebars.
A rush of adrenaline hits me when I move up a little faster. This is the moment I’ve been waiting twenty-eight years for. The moment I’ve dreamed of and thought of whenever I stroked my hard cock.
I’m finally about to see my mate.
There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s her. I can feel it with every aching cell in my body.
I can’t peel my eyes off of her.
That’s why I don’t see the eighteen-wheeler truck speeding around the bend that’s headed right for me.
I hear the horn and I snap my eyes away from her just in time to see the bug-splattered MACK on the big metal grill.
After that, everything goes black…
Chapter Two
Mila
“Thank you, doctor,” the elderly man says as he helps his wife off the examination table. They’re so cute and I can’t help but smile as I watch them. He’s been so attentive to her needs.
It makes me realize what I’m lacking in my life.
I wish I had someone to look at me like that. To hold my hand like that.
“Why are you scaring me like this, Maureen?” he asks as he takes her purse. “What would I do without you?”
“Probably go partying in Florida for Spring Break,” she says with a wrinkly grin. “Wouldn’t you like that, Harold? Dancing and partying on the beach with a bunch of younger girls?”
I’m grinning as I pretend to read my chart.
“My dancing days are done,” he says with a laugh. “It would be more like Spring Break-a-hip if I tried.”
They thank me again as they leave, laughing and holding hands. Harold was worried she was having a heart attack so he called an ambulance. I was happy to tell them both that it was just indigestion.
I step into the hallway and sigh as I watch them leave. I’m such a sucker for old couples who still hold hands. It gets me every time.
They turn the corner and I get back to work. It’s quiet today at the hospital. I just started work and there’s not much going on.
A nagging feeling in the back of my mind starts poking at me again. It’s calling me to room 76.
I check my chart and I’m not due in that room. In fact, the patient in there is assigned to my colleague.
Rylan Young. 28 years old.
The name doesn’t ring a bell, but for some reason, my body is urging me to go there. To check it out.
I take a deep breath and head over to grab a coffee while I still can. As I’m pouring my milk in, the pull to the room gets stronger, heavier, and pretty soon I can’t ignore it anymore.
I’ll just go check it out and see.
My heart starts racing as I walk over. It’s filled with big muscular men.
But not just any men…
Firemen.
No wonder I was drawn to this room. My libido probably sensed the testosterone from down the hall and sent an emergency appeal up to my brain.
The four large men turn to me and I take a step back and swallow hard. They’re enormous.
All of them are wearing their fireman pants wi
th tight navy blue shirts. Everywhere I look I see round biceps, massive chests, flat stomachs, and broad shoulders.
They make me feel incredibly tiny, which is a hard task to accomplish with all of my extra curves.
“Are you the nurse?” the one with tattoos running up and down his thick arms asks.
“Dude, that’s sexist!” another one says. He’s the youngest looking one out of the four of them. “She’s probably a doctor. A brain surgeon even.” He looks right at me. “Right?”
I gulp. “Just a doctor,” I say. “Dr. Matthews.”
“Great,” the older looking one with the gray hair says, looking relieved. “Is our boy okay?”
They move to the side and for the first time, I see the patient on the bed.
He’s unconscious and breathing, but he looks like he’s on the verge of death. The machines he’s attached to are beeping steadily, but from the way he looks, that could stop at any second.
My feet start moving on their own and I walk over to the bed, feeling drawn to him like a bee to honey. I can’t take my eyes off his face.
It’s gorgeous even though it’s been obliterated. His eyes are swollen shut, his jaw looks like it’s been shattered and his skin is a mess. Where it’s not torn up and shredded, it’s covered in dried blood.
“What happened to him?” I whisper as tears start flooding my eyes.
One of the guys laughs. “He tried to make out with a Mack truck while it was going 80 miles an hour. He flew back fifty yards and landed on the ground like a crash test dummy.”
I spin around and glare at him. That shuts his smart mouth up really fast.
