by Kim Fox
They all mumbled and muttered to themselves like this was the last thing in the world they wanted to do.
“So, you’re coming right?” Draven asked Gwen. “We need as many single ladies there as we can get.”
She was about to answer when the blaring of the fire alarm interrupted her, ripping through the fire station and burning her ears. The five men jumped out of their seats in a blur. Gwen stood there frozen, watching in shock as they flew around the station, grabbing gear, axes, and getting the firetruck ready at speeds that didn’t look human.
Before she could take a breath, the five of them were dressed and on the truck as it peeled out of the driveway. Her eyes never left the man with the sexy beard who was standing on the back bumper. Zane was holding onto the handle as the truck sped down the road with the siren blaring.
She kept her eyes on him until her pink truck blocked her view. “Damn,” she sighed as she stared at the penis on her cartoon face. “I can’t stop seeing it.”
One more reason to hate Zane.
Chapter 2
Zane
As soon as the fire truck turned the street corner taking Gwen’s shop out of view, Zane climbed along the side of the truck to join the guys inside.
His inner Kodiak bear groaned within, wanting him to jump down from the speeding truck and return to where his curvy neighbor was watching.
No muffins for you.
The bear growled back. The furry animal wasn’t interested in muffins, no matter how many times Zane pretended that was why his bear was always so agitated in Gwen’s presence.
“So how many birthdays is it really?” Gunner asked as Zane climbed through the open window and slid into an empty seat.
Draven laughed from behind the wheel. “I stopped counting after about four hundred.”
“How long ago was that?” Jax asked from the front seat.
Draven rubbed his red beard as he thought about it. “Probably around the time of Genghis Khan. God, that guy was a prick. Never showered. He always smelled like horse shit.”
“You knew Genghis Khan?” Gunner asked, staring at him in disbelief.
“Who do you think killed him?” Draven answered with a grin.
Gunner’s mouth dropped. “You killed Genghis Khan?”
“I wish,” Draven said with a laugh. “It was my half-brother, Valerius.”
“That the asshole brother?” Zane asked, staring out the window as they sped through the town.
Draven sighed. “You have to be more specific. All of my brothers are assholes.”
Their alpha and leader, Draven Park, was older than the oldest history books in the Colwood Library. His actions were even in some of them.
“Do we really have to be in this auction?” Jax whined. “You’re selling us like broodmares. It’s humiliating.”
“It’s for charity,” Draven said as he turned out of town. “And yes. You’re doing it.”
“I’m excited,” Axel said with a big grin. “I haven’t been laid in months.”
“This is a form of prostitution,” Jax complained. “I have rights.”
Draven looked back over his shoulder and grinned at the sulking lion shifter. “Not in my crew you don’t.”
“I’m not officially in your crew yet,” Gunner said. “I’m not doing it.”
Draven’s eyes narrowed on him. “If you ever want to be in the crew, you will.”
Gunner sighed as his shoulders slumped forward. Zane didn’t know Gunner very well but he knew that the lion shifter had a thing for the female alpha of The Wilde Crew. Joan was one of the tiniest women in Colwood, Montana, but she was hiding the strongest bear that any of them had ever seen. Even Draven said he had never seen a bear like hers. And he had seen a lot.
“It’s going to be fun,” Axel said. “And it’s for a good cause. We’re helping out kids.”
“Now I really don’t want to do it,” Jax said, groaning as he dropped his head back on the seat. “I hate kids.”
“The boss said you’re doing it, you’re doing it,” Zane said. He was the number two in the crew and had to enforce Draven’s rules no matter how much he sometimes hated them. He didn’t want to be in this auction any more than the two lion shifters did, but if the alpha said they had to, then he wasn’t about to argue. “Might as well put a smile on your face and pretend to enjoy it.”
Jax turned to him with a smirk. “Maybe I’ll get Pengwen to bid on me,” he said, pushing the second in command’s buttons.
Zane’s stomach hardened and his chest burned as he forced out a shrug. “Maybe you should.”
“Maybe I will,” Jax said with a widening grin.
Zane turned away from the shifter and stared out the window, trying to ignore his racing heart.
“Where the hell are we going?” Axel asked after a minute of tension-filled silence. Zane was so busy trying to calm down his agitated bear that he didn’t realize how far out of town they were. They were driving deep into the forest and Draven wasn’t slowing down.
“The forest rangers called in a forest fire,” Draven said, checking the GPS on the dash. “It’s probably burnt out by now, but we still have to check it out.”
After driving a few minutes in silence, the smoky scent of dragon filled the inside of the truck. Draven’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as the truck slowed to a stop.
“I don’t believe it,” he whispered to himself.
Zane opened the window and stuck his nose out, sniffing just to be sure. “Is that?”
Draven turned and locked eyes on him. His face was so pale, and he had a worried look in his orange eyes. “Outside. Now.”
The five shifters bolted out of the truck and stood back to back in a circle, ready to phase at the slightest sign of danger.
Zane scanned the trees while Draven, on his right, looked up at the sky. The wind was shuddering through the branches as the sun shined overhead. The birds were darting from tree to tree, singing as the five shifters started to relax.
The scent was definitely a dragon’s, but it was cold. Whoever it was had left a while ago.
“That’s your scent, boss,” Axel said, looking confused. His large brow was furrowed but his body was still tense and rigid, ready to let his polar bear out the second his alpha said the word.
“No,” Draven said, keeping his eyes on the clouds. “I think it’s one of my brothers, but I can’t tell for sure.”
“Coming to wish you a happy birthday?” Jax asked.
“I doubt that,” Draven said, finally relaxing his fists. “Probably coming to make sure it’s my last.”
The shifters spread out and walked through the forest looking for any signs of the departed dragon. Zane tried to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, but he kept thinking of his sexy neighbor and their fight this morning. He didn’t want to fight with her, but he knew it was the best way.
She deserved better than to be with someone who was living with an inner monster. Zane knew that humans would never accept him.
He had learned that hard lesson multiple times over the years. The first was when his human parents abandoned him at that dreadful orphanage after he first phased into a bear cub at age five.
The second was when the humans at the orphanage dropped him and Jax off in the woods, claiming they would lose their funding if their ‘unfortunate condition’ was discovered.
Gwen deserves another human. She’s too good for you.
Zane was so preoccupied with thoughts of Gwen that he didn’t notice the pile of ashes until he stepped into them. “Draven!” he called out, taking a deep breath as he looked around.
There had been a dragon here all right. If the charcoal smell wasn’t enough to give it away, the singed trees and bushes were. Half a dozen trees in the area were sliced in two, cut on angles with the inside of the remaining trunks seared black. Definitely the work of a dragon.
“Shit,” Draven cursed as he arrived and took in the scene. His head was hung low as he walked throu
gh the forest. He picked up a burnt elk skull and held it up for the crew to see. “He was hunting.”
Jax walked over and took the skull from his alpha, looking at the black antlers as he turned it around in his hands.
“You guys stay here,” Draven said, removing his shirt. “I’m pretty sure he’s long gone, but I’m going to have a fly around to see. I also want to make sure he was alone.”
Zane took a deep breath as Draven took off his clothes, gritted his teeth and let his dragon come.
His eyes glowed an intense orange as his muscles strained, and his body swelled. His deep grunts turned into high pitched shrieks as red wings exploded from his back and his skin melted away into red scales. His hands extended into long claws and with a shivering rip, he exploded into a huge dragon.
Zane grinned as he watched Gunner, the latest recruit, step back as he looked up with his thick jaw hanging wide open. It was the first time the lion shifter had seen Draven phase, and he looked how Zane had looked the first time he saw it.
Dragons were rare and they really were magnificent to see. Zane chuckled as he turned back to the red dragon, watching as he took off, flapping his wings, each the size of the fire truck. Two flaps and he was higher than the trees, two more and he was gone.
“Wow,” Gunner said, still staring up at the empty sky. “I’ve been waiting to see that for a long time.”
“Pretty cool, huh?” Axel said with a grin. “Now you know why we listen to his every word. He’d smoke us like a cigar if we ever disobeyed.”
“Still,” Jax said, looking annoyed. “This auction shit is fucked up.”
“Watch yourself,” Zane warned, narrowing his eyes on him. As much as he agreed with his oldest friend, he wasn’t about to let him run his mouth about the alpha behind his back. That’s what second in commands were made for.
Jax turned to him and grinned mischievously. “It won’t be so bad if I go with Gwen.”
Zane tried to brush off the words that were aimed at him, but his Kodiak bear wasn’t so quick to ignore. A low rumble escaped from his throat as his bear paced within, demanding to be released.
“Guys,” Axel said, looking up at the sky nervously. “If Draven sees you two fighting while on a job, there will be hell to pay.”
But the two shifters were beyond listening. Jax’s inner lion was growling in his chest, responding to the challenge with eagerness.
“What are you doing?” Zane asked, feeling his control over his bear start to slip. Jax’s lion was growling at him, which his bear was taking as a direct challenge for his number two position.
“Will you two stop?” Axel said, looking from shifter to shifter in a panic. “Draven is going to smoke all of our asses if he sees you two at it with a potential dragon enemy flying around.”
Gunner was watching with interest from the sidelines. He was too new to the crew to get involved.
Gwen’s beautiful face with the round cheekbones popped into Zane’s mind and it was enough to set his bear off. Heat surged through him as his body swelled, snapping bones and tearing muscle. With a roar, his Kodiak bear exploded out of him.
Jax grinned and then let his animal come. A golden lion burst out of his skin, landing on the charred ground of the forest. Long deadly black claws slowly stretched out of his paws as Jax’s cat shook his head, sending the long hair of his golden mane flying side to side in waves.
The two shifters had grown up together and had done this dozens of times over the years. Jax was in the same orphanage as Zane, and the two of them had been abandoned together. They had stayed together ever since.
“You fucking idiots,” Axel said, running a hand through his mohawk as he stared in disbelief. “The reptile is going to vaporize us.”
Zane barely heard him over his roaring bear. The furious lion in front of him lowered his head and barred his long teeth, growling back.
Zane knew this was a bad idea, but he couldn’t stop himself. Jax knew Zane better than he knew himself and the lion shifter was convinced that he was in love with their neighbor Gwen. He loved to bug him about it, but for some reason, this time his bear refused to take it in stride.
Just the thought of her name had his bear charging forward on thunderous paws. Jax’s lion crouched back on its hind legs, ready to pounce, but the furious Kodiak bear was too fast. He tucked his shoulder down and plowed into the cat like a train, sending him somersaulting backward.
The cat landed on his back, quickly rolled to his feet, and then lunged at the bear. The lion hit him in the face with two hard paws, but the Kodiak shook off the two heavy strikes like they were nothing.
The lion landed on his paws and reared back for another lunge, but Zane and his bear weren’t playing around this time. They didn’t like Jax messing around in the middle of a job, they didn’t like him talking shit about the alpha, they didn’t like the teasing, but most of all, they absolutely hated him even mentioning Gwen’s name.
Jax’s lion lunged right into a hard smack of Zane’s paw. The lion flew to the ground, his face smashing into the dirt with a thud before skidding through the ashes and grass as Zane charged forward.
An ear-piercing shriek ripped through the forest just as the Kodiak was about to make Jax pay for the challenge. Zane’s bear skidded to a stop.
Shit. What are you doing?
Zane fought forward, taking control of his bear and pulling him inward. His body began to shake and convulse before bursting back into his human form.
He looked up at the sky and saw Draven’s red dragon returning, flapping its enormous wings as he landed in the small opening. Jax had phased back as well, grabbing his clothes and yanking them on before the alpha could ask any questions.
Zane threw on his clothes as Draven phased back into his human form.
“All okay, boss?” Axel asked, looking around nervously.
But the alpha looked shaken. His eyes were focused on the ground and he was walking back to the fire truck with a concerned look on his face. “Let’s go,” he mumbled.
Zane cringed as they hurried back to the truck. Something was wrong. Draven hadn’t even mentioned their fight, and Draven never missed a beat.
Zane ran up to his alpha and walked alongside him. “Everything okay?” he whispered.
Draven just sighed. “You kids have to stop fighting each other,” he said with a defeated breath. He looked up at the sky and cringed. “You’re going to need all the energy you can get. We all are.”
A cold shiver snaked through Zane as he followed his alpha’s eyes up to the clouds overhead. Draven was the smartest and most powerful shifter he had ever met. If he was scared of something, then the rest of them should be absolutely terrified.
Chapter 3
Gwen
Gwen was pasted to the window like a suction cup Garfield as the boys next door pulled out of the firehouse and rolled down the street in their pickup truck to get some drinks. She craned her neck, trying to see who stayed behind, but the inside of the pickup was too dark. She could pick out the orange tint of Draven’s hair, but she already knew that he was going. It was his birthday they were celebrating.
Someone always stayed behind in the firehouse in case there was a fire, and she wanted to know who was walking around, probably shirtless, only a few feet away from her.
I hope it’s not him. But as soon as the pickup truck disappeared down the street, she ran to the window in the back kitchen to see. It was the only window that looked into the firehouse and Gwen found herself looking through it more often than she would have liked to admit.
The firehouse was dark with only the light over the sink on. She narrowed her eyes and swallowed hard when she saw the man she was looking for walk by wearing nothing but a pair of jogging pants.
“Ugh,” she said as her heart started racing. Her breath quickened as she watched him walk to the fridge and open it. Her nerve endings tingled as the soft light inside lit up his muscular body in a warm glow.
“Worst neighbor eve
r,” she muttered to herself as she admired his huge arms and massive chest, feeling her head get lighter with every second. “I can’t stand that guy.”
Without warning, his head jerked around and his eyes locked on hers in an instant.
“Shit!” she shouted, dropping to the floor with her eyes squeezed shut. Her heart was hammering in her chest while she prayed that he didn’t see her. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
She crawled along the floor like a Navy SEAL, as far away from the window as possible.
“This is ridiculous,” she told herself, feeling like a fool. “Get up.”
But she didn’t want to get up. She wanted to crawl under the sink and hide there until the firehouse shut down or moved.
“You’re a human, not a rat,” she told herself. “Get up off the floor and start acting like it.”
With a deep breath, she climbed to her feet, dusted herself off, and casually walked by the window, glancing out of it as if she were just walking by. “Yup, totally normal over here,” she muttered to herself as she looked out the window.
Zane was standing in his window staring right at her.
“Crap!” She forced out a thin smile, but he just stared at her in all of his shirtless glory. So she gave him the finger instead.
“Screw him,” she said to herself, trying to put that awkwardness behind her. She pulled down the curtains and turned all of the lights in the kitchen on. “I have more important things to do,” she muttered as she turned the ovens on.
And she did. Gwen was working on something new. Something big. Something that would transform this town and have everyone in it racing to her muffin shop, desperately trying to throw money at her.
She just didn’t know what it was yet.
But she had to figure it out soon, or she wouldn’t have a shop for very long. The bills were starting to pile up and she just didn’t have enough volume of sales to cover them all. If something didn’t change soon, she would be forced to close up shop.
That thought broke Gwen’s heart. She had worked so hard for this place and sacrificed so much.
