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Chapter One
Blake
“Watch it, Blake,” Ethan warns as I get in close to the flames. “You can heal from the fire, but you can’t get rid of the scars.”
I take off my jacket and start beating the flames with it. I can handle getting burned. I’ve never minded pain. And about the scars…
What does it matter anyway? I’m fifty-four and I still haven’t found my mate. At this point, I don’t think she’s ever coming so I might as well get some scars if it means saving this nice family’s house.
My inner polar bear roars as we feel the heat. Sweat breaks out all over my skin as the hairs on my arm turn to ash. I’m hitting the flaming carpet with my jacket, trying desperately to fight the flames back, but they’re growing everywhere.
We got a call about a chimney fire in a house and we rushed over. It’s not just the chimney. The whole damn living room is on fire and if I don’t move fast, the whole place will be engulfed in flames soon. And those sweet people outside with the crying kids will be stuck in a hotel for months.
“It’s too much,” Ethan says as he coughs from the thick smoke. “It’s going to take the hose for this one.”
I know what’s going to happen if we start unloading water in here. The whole house will be ruined. If I can just get it under control, then they’ll only have to renovate one room rather than restart from scratch.
“Go set it up,” I say as my throat burns and my eyes water. “Wait until my word before you open the pipe.”
Ethan nods and then rushes out. Carter and Rylan are outside and Westin is back at the station. It’s just me against the fire now.
I can’t get the image of that poor lady outside in the snow with her two kids out of my mind. Seeing her husband’s arm around her shoulders as she cried really got to me. I know he would do this for his girl if he could, so I’m going to do it for him.
I wish I had someone like that to fight for. A mate to die for.
I’m coughing and hacking away as I beat back the flames. I put out the fire on the carpet and kick in a couple of walls to find the flames hiding behind.
Ethan comes back in with a fire hydrant and tosses it to me. I catch it and let it rip, pouring it in the walls, then up the chimney. I open the window to let the smoke escape and get some of that fresh winter air in. I stick my head out and take a deep breath of the chilly mountain air. It feels like ice in my searing lungs. It feels so good.
But nothing feels as good as seeing the reactions on the family’s faces when I walk back outside a few minutes later and they realize their house is going to be okay.
“Thank you so much,” the man says as he gives me an unexpected hug. “What can I do to repay you?”
“Take good care of that family of yours,” I say as I slap his back. Because not all of us are as lucky to have a family to take care of.
We fix up the house as best we can and then make sure the family is safe in a hotel for the night. Everything they have is going to smell like smoke for a while, but at least it’s intact.
There are burnt holes all over my t-shirt so I just take it off and toss it in the garbage when we get back to the station.
It’s late, but Mila is there to greet us. She runs over to her mate Rylan and jumps on him, kissing his face as she wraps her arms around his back. I look away.
I’m happy for them, but I can’t. It’s just too hard.
“I was hoping I was going to get to see you,” Mila says after they kiss. She’s a doctor and always working weird hours. “Are you almost finished?”
I feel Rylan looking at me. He doesn’t want to ask, but I can feel the question burning into me.
“Go,” I say without looking at them. “Have fun.”
Mila squeals in delight and they race off into the night to do whatever mates do.
I look at my arms, trying to focus on the burnt hairs and not on the jealousy that’s burning through me. That jealousy is a killer. Believe me, I know.
I’ve had to watch with a smile on my face as all four of these guys found their mates. All of them are younger. Carter didn’t even want a fucking mate for Christ’s sakes and he got one.
I’ve been waiting for five decades for my girl to come into my life. For my heart to be complete. To be whole.
My inner bear starts grumbling and I take a deep breath, wishing I had some comforting words to tell him. She’ll be here soon. We’ll find her. That’s what I used to tell him but I don’t believe it anymore.
I’m losing faith.
Shifters grow up thinking there’s one person destined for them, but what if we’re wrong? What if some of us are destined to be alone? And what if that’s my destiny?
The door swings open and I’m expecting to see Rylan coming back, but instead, it’s someone I haven’t seen in a while.
Lincoln Graves, a wolf shifter who lives in town walks in with a serious look on his face. I haven’t seen him since our brawl with the two dragons. We would have gotten our asses kicked if it wasn’t for him, his brother, and his two cousins joining us.
“Blake,” he says in a no-fucking-around voice as he walks up to me. He’s big for a wolf shifter, but I got a polar bear hiding inside me and that means I got at least fifty pounds on the guy.
“What is it?” I ask.
Ethan and Westin flank my sides as he rubs his chin. “I caught his scent. In town.”
Shit. I don’t even have to ask him who.
In that brawl, we killed the blue dragon shifter Reginald, but one got away. The third and last brother, Sperling Kirk, has a red dragon that’s as big as a firetruck. And he’s pissed that we buried his two brothers in the mountains.
It’s been months since we’ve seen him, but there’s been no doubt in my mind that he’d be back.
“You sure?”
He raises his eyebrow at me, insulted that I’m questioning his sense of smell. Wolf shifters always get sensitive about that kind of thing.
“I’m never wrong with my nose,” he finally says.
“Okay,” I say as Carter joins us. “Let’s all watch our backs
and keep our eyes open.”
Audrey walks into the room, wiping her eyes and yawning as she rubs her pregnant belly. Carter hurries over to her and starts speaking softly to his girl, telling her he loves her and that he’ll take her home soon.
I shake my head and exhale long and hard.
This is the problem with mates.
They’re distracting.
There’s a dangerous red dragon flying around with vengeance on his mind and I can’t afford for them to be focused on anything but that.
I just can’t let him catch us off guard.
Because none of us will survive that.
Chapter Two
Lily
“Goddamn winter,” I mutter as I try to force my rental car onto the pile of hard snow beside the sidewalk. This town is already full of snow and it’s still coming down. It’s annoying as hell even if it is really pretty as it falls against the night sky.
I live in Miami and can’t imagine living in a small town like this. Blackcloud Point, Montana. Well, maybe I could…
I spot a young couple walking down the sidewalk pulling a little kid in a sled. The little girl is all bundled up in a snowsuit to the point where she can’t move her limbs. Her arms are out to the sides, making her look like a human star and her hood is standing straight up with a big adorable pom pom flapping around. The happy look on the couple’s faces as they hold hands sends a jab aching through my heart.
My mother’s words come floating back into my head…
You work too much. You should work on getting a man and getting me some grandkids instead.
I’m thirty-three years old and lately, I’ve been getting those stabbing pains a lot more whenever I see people in love.
I’ve always been so focused on my career in the FBI, but in the past year or two, I don’t know… sometimes I think that I’ve focused on the wrong things in my life.
Would I be happier if I was married with a little bundled up ball of joy like that of my own? Maybe. Probably…
But this is good too!
I shake those unhelpful thoughts out of my head and get my mind back in the game.
“Come on, Lily,” I whisper to myself as I turn off the car. “You’ve got three killers to catch.”
I turn back to the file on the passenger seat of the car and see my writing on the cover.
The Kirk Brothers.
I’ve been chasing these bastards for years. I finally built a case and got warrants for their arrests, but now I can’t find them anywhere.
Montana is the twenty-ninth state I’ve been to while looking for these guys. At this point, I’ll chase them to the moon to catch their scaly asses.
I take a deep breath and sit back in my seat as I pull out my phone. My hands are trembling as I play the video. It’s from last spring, nine months ago, but it’s the last known location of any of the Kirks.
It’s a grainy black and white security video that the mechanic down the street gave me. It’s nighttime and the whole town is quiet. Nothing moves until a rocket slams into the glass roof of the fire station and disappears inside.
My heart is pounding as I watch. The footage only gets a little bit of the station in the distance. Most of it is cut off, except for the roof. I can see the occasional flash that I know is a stream of fire shooting out of the dragon’s mouth.
A few tense minutes later, Sperling’s red dragon hobbles out of the roof, looking beaten and bruised. He flaps his large wings and flies off.
And nobody has seen him since.
I turn the phone off and stare at my reflection in the dark screen. How long am I going to chase these guys? It’s been ten years. I’m tired.
“Until the end,” I whisper to myself. Life isn’t always fun. Some people have to sacrifice everything to get the monsters off the streets and keep society safe for that cute little bundled up kid who just passed.
The Kirk brothers - Aylwin, Reginald, and Sperling are the worst kind of monsters. They’ve committed murder, extortion, robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, treason, arson, among others. Their misconduct isn’t even regulated to the United States. They don’t respect borders, flying through countries at will, and have bribed government officials from other countries and have been making things messy in global politics for the US since before I was born.
Sometimes I just wish I didn’t have to be the one to sacrifice everything.
I take a deep breath, push down those unhelpful thoughts, and step out of the car, right into a pile of snow.
“Shit!” I say as I slam the door closed. Why couldn’t they have last been spotted in Hawaii?
My pulse starts racing as I walk toward the fire station. I’ve learned to follow my gut over the years and it’s almost pulling me to the place.
I walk in, kick the snow off my boots, and immediately look up at the ceiling. The glass roof is gone, obviously. I see they replaced it with steel instead. Maybe in case they’re expecting Sperling to come back?
I have a million questions for these guys. Why was he here? Why were they fighting? But most of all, how the hell did they not die? What are these guys that they can send a vicious bloodthirsty dragon packing with his tail between his legs?
“Hello,” a good-looking fireman says as he walks over to greet me. He’s got blond hair and blue eyes and a body that looks like it could bench press a dragon. “Can I help you?”
I narrow my eyes and put on my best bitch face. It can be hard being a woman in the FBI, but acting intimidating usually gets the best result.
“Are you here to buy a calendar?” he asks as he glances around. “Because I think we’re all sold out.”
“A calendar?” I hiss in an I’m-not-freaking-amused voice. “No. I’m from the FBI.”
I flash him my badge and his Adam’s apple does a little jump as he swallows.
“What’s your name?”
“Westin.”
“Well, Westin. I have some questions for you. Were you here the night that Sperling Kirk’s dragon burst through the roof?”
His face stills as he stares at me, suddenly realizing that I’m here for a lot more than a calendar (although I really wouldn’t mind getting one of those too).
“You better talk to the Chief,” he finally says with a shake in his voice.
“I guess I should,” I say in a firm voice. “Where is he?”
“In his office,” he says as he runs a nervous hand through his blond hair. “In the back.”
“I’ll take you there,” he says.
“No. I’ll go by myself. I want to take a look around first.”
And I want to catch him by surprise. It’s a lot easier to get answers when you’re talking to someone who’s on their heels and caught off guard.
I walk past the truck, careful to step around the gear that’s placed on the floor, ready to jump into at the sound of a bell.
For some reason, my nerve endings start tingling as I walk to the office in the back. The air feels electric as I get closer. I must be close to what I’ve been looking for. For what I’ve always wanted. I’m close to finding my man. Sperling Kirk. That asshole is going to be behind bars. Him and his two evil brothers.
I peek into the office, but I’m not prepared for what I see.
Sitting at the desk is the most alluring man I’ve ever laid eyes on. The guy outside, Westin, was hot, but this guy is scorching.
The silver fox has salt and pepper hair and a gorgeous face that’s concentrated on the paper in front of him as he scribbles something furiously onto it. I take a few seconds to quickly look him over from his mouthwatering forearms to his broad shoulders that I would like to take a ride on.
I’ve always been more attracted to older guys, but never like this. My heart is pounding. My palms are sweating. I’ve never craved wanting to touch or be touched by another person before. Not like this.
I’m thirty-three but I haven’t dated much. I haven’t done much of anything actually. I’m still a virgin and have barely even kissed an
other man before. I’ve been focused on work and that’s it.
But something about this man is pulling me toward him. I get an irresistible urge to strut into his office, sit on his lap, kiss him on the lips, and then see what happens next.
Instead, I swallow hard, trying to get back into FBI mode, and straighten my back. This is not the time for whatever the hell this is. I have to stay professional even if my knees are buckling. I have to stay focused even if I can only focus on that massive chest and those big round arms. And I have to stay firm even if I feel like my whole body is turning into jelly.
His face twitches and he starts coughing. He grabs a glass of water off his desk and downs the entire thing, but it doesn’t stop him from choking out a dry cough after.
I’m standing in the shadows like a creeper getting off on watching this guy in a coughing fit. Every time he coughs, his big muscles ripple and tighten. He’s so fucking hot.
I try to ignore the heat flowing through me and settling between my legs as I gather my thoughts. But the only thoughts coming to me are erotic and dirty.
I want to be on his desk with my clothes on the floor, watching as he steps between my spread legs and introduces me to his fire pole.
No. Not happening. Kirk brothers. Sperling. Aylwin. Reginald. Your life’s work. Focus.
Bad guys off the street. Deadly dragons. Big sexy biceps. Those lips…
“Oh, fuck it,” I mutter as I just start walking forward.
Chapter Three
Blake
