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“Maybe it’s why they made me Fire Chief.” Pain lances through me. “I can’t watch someone lose their life because they let their emotions make them stop thinking.”

Sophie stumbles after me. “You’re cold.”

“Doesn’t your life matter? What about my crews’ lives? What about mine? The second you ran in here someone had to come after you. I damn well did.”

My head aches. It’s growing worse.

I blink, catching myself against the wall.

I take a slow breath. “Stay low. Move.”

“There’s a back door ahead,” Sophie says. “I don’t have the key because we never use it. Can we escape that way somehow?”

Thank God.

“Good.” I clutch Cornbread more tightly to my chest with one hand, while I feel across the wall. “The damn door is warped. Even with a key, I wouldn’t be able to open it.”

I strike the door with my palm.

Sophie catches on quickly. She drags off her T-shirt and wraps it around her fists. Then she pummels on the door, making as much noise as she can.

I radio Judd. “I’m at the back door in the kennel room. Can you hear? Get it open for us.”

Woozy now, I sink to my knees.

Have I done it?

Breathing hard, I struggle to keep my eyes open.

I imagine a sweet blackberry aroma, rather than the bitter stench of smoke.

I smile at the thought of waking in the arms of my naked Omega in a nest for the first time in my life.

Then I can sense the door being wrenched open from the outside. Light streams through the smoke.

Sophie pulls Cornbread out of my arms. “Are you still with me, bitch?”

“Go.” My tongue feels too heavy. I struggle to point at the gap through the door. “I won’t allow my Omega to lose anyone else from her pack.”

“Then I better haul your ass out of here too.”

What does she mean?

I’m the leader of the Cole pack, and as much as I can daydream about the beautiful Omega who is my scent match becoming a member of my pack, she never will.

Look what happened today.

I could have died and made her suffer a Shattered Bond.

My head hurts too much for me to say anything else, as I watch the Beta push the cat through the gap into the arms of my lieutenant.

Then Sophie is back at my side, dragging me by the arm toward the light.

Judd squeezes through the gap and grabs me by the shoulders.

I can’t focus on him. The world blurs.

Together, Sophie and the lieutenant start to haul me across the floor.