His Prairie Omega Box Set

by MacKenzie Wilde

  Able to breathe a little easier, Kyle sped up the pace. “One, two; one, two.” He was happy to see that no new blood had stained the back of Jake’s bandage. Only the smallest patch of it was light pink.

  The pair was about to make their way across the parking lot when the fires that had been licking some of the trees that hedged it burst into flame. A shower of smoking needles peppered the valley below. The heat was intense, even this far away. He quickly packed Jake into the truck and then hopped in the cab. The Alpha’s head softly cradled against the supple leather and he tried to doze off.

  “Stay with me buddy, we’re almost out of here.” Kyle patted his hand and reached for the ignition.

  “No… fire’s too big. Radio…” Jake reached for the radio but couldn’t quite grasp it.

  Kyle turned it on and handed Jake the mic. The Alpha held down a few buttons until some of the lights on the dash began to rapidly blink red. A few moments later a voice emerged from the static.

  “…affirmative Jake… we’ve got you… go ahead?”

  “Water,” the words barely left Jake’s lips.

  Kyle offered him his canteen, but Jake shook his head and repeated the word again. He pointed to the sky.

  The Omega took the mic and spoke into it. “Uh, we need water down here.”

  “…go ahead for request access for Waterbomber Jake? Over.”

  Kyle froze. He had no idea what to do. “Yes… uh, use the waterbomber over MacKay Energy valley… please? And over!”

  A brief pause of static before the voice returned. “Jake… is that you? Go ahead for request access for Waterbomber…”

  Jake motioned for the mic and Kyle handed it to him. He weakly spoke into it. “Tango Alpha Niner Niner Zulu…”

  Hungry fires began to dance along the parking lot.

  “Affirmative Jake. Thanks fer takin’ your sweet time princess. Bird-Dog’s got eyes on MacKay, she’s en route in three. You all clear of the drop site? Over.”

  Jake just nodded, still clearly unsure of what was fully happening. Kyle panicked and grabbed the mic. In his best impersonation of his lover, he gruffly spoke. “Uh, that’s an affirmative here. O-over and out.” He cringed and hoped that the message would be garbled enough from the static to fool the dispatcher.

  “…umbrellas out son, we’re bringin’ one helluva storm your way. Over.”

  Jake lazed back in the seat and muttered something. Kyle buckled him in before securing himself. Seconds after the engine roared to life, he noticed that some burning logs had tumbled across the main access road coming into the facility’s lot. As did a good deal more behind them. Thinking quickly, he thought about trying to drive around them and dipping into the rocky low-lands, but that risked flipping the truck. Besides, even if they made it, one wrong gust would smothered them in fire and ash. That was to say nothing of the air-sapping carbon monoxide smoke that would pooled in the low territory.

  Jake’s eyes fluttered. The Alpha was clearly slipping into unconscious. Kyle had to do something, and fast. “Hey Jake, I hear that Alberta’s Firedogs are pussies compared to the ones we’ve got in Ontario. Ours train in downtown Toronto and have a latte fountain in their dressing room. What do you…” He spoke with a shitty smile.

  “Fuck. That. Shit. Like hell… they don’t…” Jake roared to life and pushed against the belt. Kyle smiled and kept up the rousing verbal assault for a few more minutes.

  As Kyle realized that they couldn’t escape, a serene calmness passed over him. With tears in his eyes, things began to move in slow motion. He felt himself drive the truck as close to the side of the facility as he could. He turned the ignition off and lay back in the driver’s seat.

  “Jake, I don’t know how a waterbomber works, but in case we make it, I want you to know that you’re going to be the best dad to your pups.” He held his hand tight.

  “…yeah? Fuckin’ A brother…” Jake smiled but his eyes remained closed.

  The Omega eventually heard something rising above the slow, burning roar of the flames. It was a deep, baritone hum that got louder and louder. Part of him wanted to look up, but he wasn’t brave enough. He sat back and closed his eyes as tears streamed down his cheeks. He was happy and with the man he loved, but so very sad that this might be the last time that they held hands on this earth. Kyle gripped Jake’s powerful hand with both of his and listened to the sound of the waterbomber become louder and louder.

  “I love you Jake. I always have,” Kyle whispered.

  “Love you…” Jake trailed off weakly, just barely audible over the hum of the planes above.

  For one brief second, there was a terrible crashing noise unlike anything that Kyle had ever heard before in his life. It was the rumbling, piercing howl of an entire planet dying. Thousands of gallons of water fell from the heavens and saturated the burning grounds below. The pickup truck was tossed against the building as if it were a toy truck. The very last thing that Kyle remembered was an airbag that appeared in the blink of an eye before everything went black.

  Thirty

  Nothing.

  It lasted at least for what seemed like an eternity.

  And then, something.

  Kyle felt like he was floating in a long, hazy tunnel. Was he dead? He could hear sounds around him. Voices were speaking but it was too hard to focus on what they were saying, or who they were. Electronic beeps that were all too familiar. Was he in an ambulance?

  He gradually felt the world assembling around him as he reached out to sense it. He realized that his throat was rough and scratchy, but cool. Something was on his face. A mask? Against his back he felt something soft, yet stiff. A bed. Something draped across him. Some sheets? A tightness in his hand bothered him but he didn’t care about it too much. He knew that he was too drained to open his eyes, so he tried to push some words out of his mouth. He wasn’t sure how successful he was but some of the voices were closer, maybe even addressing him.

  “…sweetie… easy…” One that he didn’t recognize spoke kindly. It touched his arm briefly. He tried to speak again and the words came easier this time.

  “Wherearewe … whereameye?… Jjjjake…?” He opened his eyes but was greeted by an uncomfortably bright world. The room was white and there were at least three other people in it. He was too tired to look around but a young woman looked back at him. She was pretty, with her hair cutely bobbed. She wore bright pink scrubs and a nametag around her neck. Filipino maybe? She smiled and held his hand, and hushed him to relax. While she clearly was no Alpha just by appearances, the oxygen mask that he wore prevented him from scenting whether she was a Beta or an Omega.

  “Just relax… take… easy. He’s… okay…” She smiled and squeezed his hand.

  Kyle smiled at the news. They clearly made it out okay. His eyes shot wide as his hand covered his abdomen. Seeing his panic the nurse smiled at him and gave him a thumbs-up. Just then, Kyle realized that the rest of the nurses wore a rainbow of colours, similar to the soft and playful designs that adorned the walls.

  The aperture on his world became more focused as he realized that he was in the pediatrics wing of a hospital. He was going to give the friendly nurse a thumbs-up in return but she had already moved on to a series of charts and readouts from one of the machines that he was connected to. He glanced around and saw a pitcher of water cooling on a table slung over his bed. It took a while but he managed to reach for it. The nurse helped him and he drank the refreshing water luxuriously slowly. It cooled and quenched in the most satisfying way. He coughed a little. The ache returned but not as severely as before.

  Although he felt like he’d been run over by a cement mixer while binge drinking, within ten minutes he was up and talking. The nurse explained that he and Jake had been brought in by Sheriff Briggs and his “frantically screaming wife” maybe an hour or so ago. They were found in a truck that had been indirectly hit by a Waterbomber that was putting out the fires at MacKay Energy valley. They’d both received concussions and
been treated for smoke inhalation, but as Kyle was of the age where he could have a child, the hospital ran some hormone tests to determine if he’d recently ended a heat.

  “I assume… that you knew about your child?” The nurse smiled happily.

  He nodded.

  Her grin slowly vanished. “Oh, uh, the Sheriff wants to talk to you when you wake up. I was told not to mention it, but I don’t think that you were supposed to be at MacKay Energy. Between you, me, and God, I’m happy that you were. You should know that you saved your handsome friend’s life.” She gave him a little wave and scooted off, out of the room with a clipboard.

  He leaned back against the plastic-like pillow and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Kyle didn’t have to wait long for Officer Briggs to arrive. The Shale River Sheriff strode into the room, hat in hand. Stubble graced his broad chin, and he looked weary, as if he hadn’t slept in days. Kyle suddenly felt less empowered than he did the last time they spoke.

  “Relax Kyle, I’m just here to talk.” He eyed the reclined Omega warily.

  Kyle softly agreed with him.

  “So, you’re technically in a whole heap of trouble, but nothing will really come of it. I just got off the phone with the Ministry, and they’re losing their Goddamned minds that they may have accidentally killed a Firedog and a civvie with a Provincial waterbomber. The report’s going to kick over to my department so I’m going to recuse myself from the investigation. After our call, I never told my guys to go for a coffee run, and since I was out taking a shit a hundred feet in the bush, I didn’t hear you drive past. You did what you did entirely on your own. You’ll get a slap on the wrist for unlawful use of municipal resources, and I probably won’t get a nice raise this year – so thank you for that.”

  Kyle nodded while Briggs continued.

  “The upshot is that I spoke with MacKay Energy and they want to avoid another PR nightmare. No trespassing charges, and between you and me, they’re pretty happy that you saved them from having to build a new facility. The mayor got me on the horn and is painting you as some kinda hometown hero. Told all the newspapers and rang the CBC. It’s an election year, so he’s suddenly your best friend. All in all, I’d say that you’re just fine. Well, except for Jess – she’s even more mad now than she were before.” He grinned and tipped his hat.

  “What about Jake?” Kyle asked weakly.

  Briggs nodded slowly. “He’ll be okay. We brought you both in at the same time. Best we can figure out he couldn’t get the emergency shut-off closed, so he forced it and the pressure that’d built up knocked him back something fierce. Crazy son of a bitch probably saved us from another Fort Mac, but he got a pretty bad knock on the head. Lots of smoke too. Shit, if you hadn’t found him when you did, we’d be having another memorial after the fire.”

  A radio blared to life with crackling static. Briggs spoke back into it and frowned. “Well, that’s me. I’ve got to get going but let’s just, ah, keep what I’ve said between us.” He tipped his hat and walked through the door.

  Over the next hour nurses filtered in and out of the room. Kyle enjoyed juice and some snacks, and preformed some breath tests on a machine that he mostly recognized. One of the nurses admitted that he’d probably be discharged tomorrow if he displayed no other symptoms. She wheeled away the device connected to his breathing mask. That none of them would answer any more questions about Jake made him nervous. He was about to accost a tall, handsome doctor about Jake’s condition when his sister bounded through the door. She looked like she’d been crying since last week, and was dragging Chelle and Marco behind her. They started screaming with joy when they saw him sitting up and happy in the bed.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, are you okay?” Jess was understandably livid.

  “Yeah, they said I’ll probably get out tomorrow with…” His words were cut off by a firm, stinging slap from Jess.

  “Don’t you fucking ever fucking do anything like that a-goddamned-gain, you fucker!” What little remained of her composure collapsed and she leaned heavily on the bed and began to sob. She tried to speak but was ugly-crying and weakly hugging her brother. Chelle beamed a nervous smile and held up a little tote from the hospital gift shop, while Marco awkwardly waved. He pointed at the pitcher of water in an attempt to make himself more useful to his friend.

  “Jess, really, I’m fine, honest.” Kyle spoke with a slight wheeze from the pressure of his sibling.

  “Dad doesn’t even k-know yet,” she sobbed. “What the fuck are we going to tell him?”

  “Well, that as an emergency responder, I tagged along with Jake and we fought a huge fire and saved basically all of Shale River. It’s probably the safest version of the truth for him, right?” He grinned as he realized that the words that he spoke were for the most part true.

  The four of them exchanged pleasantries for a good while and many tears of joy were shed. Jess never once left the bed, and held his hand tightly for most of their visit. Chelle and Marco had brought him a small bag of chocolates and magazines for his stay, but as she handed it over, Kyle noticed a sparkling rose gold band upon her ring finger. He was overjoyed. Jess started laughing at how long it took him to notice.

  Chelle blushed as she explained that as she and Marco had been best friends since high school, they just took things a step further. Marco added that as soon as there were reports of another fire, he just up and made his move. While the girls happily gabbed, Marco whispered to Kyle that his brother Chris had helped him “just a little” with the financing. He wasn’t sure if his pal was happy, or just nervous about the eventual payments on the ring. When dinner came, his sister and the newly engaged lovebirds excused themselves and let him eat in peace.

  Jess had sent five texts before she’d even left the building. He was lucky to have her.

  After a nurse in yellow scrubs arrived to read his vitals, he asked her where Jake was. After she explained where the wounded Alpha was recuperating, Kyle shot off toward intensive care as fast as his legs could take him.

  Thirty One

  Kyle was overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing his Alpha laying in the hospital bed. Jake was sleeping peacefully. He had a few more machines hooked up to him than Kyle cared to see. A breathing mask was hooked up to a respirator and his head and ankle were bandaged. The small table to the side of him bristled with cards, flowers, and bottles of Alberta Premium. Little red Firedog flags stuck out from the four corners of his mattress, and a hand-knit woolen blanket, all the colours of leaves in autumn, kept him warm.

  The Omega walked into the room and sat down wordlessly beside his Alpha. It hurt him to see the mighty man so weak, but he was so happy to know that he was safe, healthy, and loved. He reached out and held Jake’s hand. Still asleep, Jake softly squeezed back. The two of them remained like that for a good, long while before the Alpha began to rouse.

  “Kyle…”

  “Hey there mister.” Kyle said softly and traced a loving hand along Jake’s stubbly jaw. “You had us all worried.”

  Jake smiled and shook his head. “You had me so worried…”

  “I think that some wires got crossed and we left on a bad note. I’m sorry that I’m such a horse’s ass most of the time.” He playfully tapped his fingers along Jake’s face.

  “Nah, don’t be. I love it. And I mean, you weren’t supposed to be at the fire… but, I’m glad that you were,” Jake replied, and squeezed Kyle’s hand for reassurance.

  “Well, you know, someone had to pull those cute buns from the barbeque. We make a pretty good team, wouldn’t you say?” Kyle’s eyes were damp with happiness and adoration.

  “Yeah, I’d say. Look, bud, I’ve got to come clean. There’s something that I never got to tell you about the night we lost Tyler.”

  The words resonated with icy clarity across Kyle’s mind, like the first pinprick of a stinging winter rain. He could already smell the changes in Jake’s scent and knew that whatever he had to say, it was causing a great deal of distress
to the proud Alpha.

  “Go on,” Kyle stammered cautiously, as he placed a reassuring hand upon Jake’s muscled forearm. He knew parts of the story from friends, family, and the media, but had never heard it from the Alpha himself.

  “Well, Tyler, he…” Jake looked off into the distance. “Everyone has always commented on how big I am, how tall I am, the whole nine. I could usually beat Tyler in an arm-wrestling match, right?”

  Kyle nodded, his mind wandering back to the lazy summer days of happily watching the macho boys try to out-man one another.

  Fear and shame hung about the room even before Jake cleared his throat. “But the thing is, he was the bravest, most loyal son of a bitch that I had ever known. If you were to measure a body in heart, rather than strength, Tyler was a thousand times stronger than me.”

  Kyle was surprised by the tenderness of the wounded warrior.

  “Anyways, that night, we got in and out with the rest of our pack. Fires hosed, people saved. But then we get a call that one of the gas lines coming from the Northern Pump basin wasn’t turned off during the evac. The emergency reservoirs had been drained dry to keep the fire at bay, so if the wildfire made it to those lines…”

  Jake was having trouble finding his words.

  Kyle nodded solemnly as tears welled in his eyes, and he squeezed his Alpha’s hand for support.

  “It was supposed to be my run. Everyone knew that. But as soon as the winds changed and turned on the valley, we all knew that it was going to be a one-way ticket. I tell the crew to help the hill folks so that we can go and shut off the gas line. But you know Tyler.” He chuckled. “He weren’t having none of it. He tells me to head back and that he can take care of things on his own. I told him it was a suicide run and he damn well took a swing at me, that hot-headed son of a bitch.” Jake smiled painfully as he relived the bittersweet memories.

  Kyle softly patted Jake’s arm. It was incredibly difficult for the proud Alpha to discuss matters so close to his heart.