“Maybe,” Lily said. “I can’t believe you didn’t ask him for an address or something when he moved away. I hope you’re punching yourself for that.”
“I was ten. It was awkward being friends with a boy at that age, and when he said he was moving back to Romania…he might as well have been going to Mars.”
“I bet he’s super hot now,” Lily said.
“Speaking of super hot,” Lana said, “have you seen Flynt lately?”
They talked about Flynt as they bowled but decided it was totally a good idea for Lily to be reckless and go for Seth.
After they finished their game, they put their real shoes back on and checked out some karaoke. It was awful, as always.
When Lily came home, Seth was passed out on the couch. She had wanted to still be out when he came home, because she wanted him to be able to have some alone time. It wouldn’t do for him to feel like she was just always there and didn’t have a life of her own. Now she felt bad though, because Seth had come home to an empty house and had to sleep on the couch.
He’d left the lights on too—probably for her—and the blanket was just below his nipples. She could see his strong arms, one of which was hanging off the couch and nearly touching the floor. He was out cold. She wanted to just stare at him, but what if he woke up and caught her? She risked it and looked for just a little bit, and then she went into the bathroom and got ready for bed.
Lily was incredibly tired, and as soon as she got undressed and lay on the bed, she fell asleep.
A loud grunting noise jolted her awake. She shot out of bed, and though she was wearing only a thin nightgown, she ran to the living room to make sure Seth was okay.
On the way to the living room, she heard another grunt—almost a growl. She started running, and she didn’t bother to turn on the light. Still, she could make out Seth’s outline in the moonlight through the window. He’d thrown the blankets onto the floor, and he was completely naked. One hand gripped tightly to the couch, and the other was extended out in front of him.
And he was hard as a rock.
Lily stared at it, stared at him, and didn’t know what to do. Based on what had happened last night, he wasn’t embarrassed about being naked, but if she was going to wake him from his dream, she should throw the blanket back on him.
She took the blanket from the floor, spread it out, and tossed it over his body.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Seth
His mate approached him. Again she was shrouded in fog, but she approached him now and didn’t run. He simply had to stand still and wait. He was shifted to bear form now, and he watched her with heightened senses.
He’d seen the dress on Lily, just like in the dream, and he was almost sure. Almost. He needed to see her in the dream, didn’t he? He thought seeing his mate in real life would let him know for sure, but he needed the dream mate to show her face, and then he’d know.
“And you call me a big dumb bear,” his bear said aloud. Apparently his bear had human vocal chords within this dream. “The most obvious sign in the world, and you still doubt it?”
“Look,” Seth said, “she’s coming!”
He realized then that while his bear’s voice was real, he was simply the floating voice in his bear’s head. It was the opposite of reality.
She came closer, but the fog was just as thick as ever.
“Is she holding something?” Seth asked.
“Take over,” his bear said. “Shift to human form so you can mate with her. It might be just a dream, but we can’t turn down the chance to mate with her!”
Seth tried, but he couldn’t shift. His mate was holding something in both hands. It was big and wide. She was only a few feet away now but still shrouded in mist.
“Ask her who she is!” Seth shouted to his bear. “I need to know!”
“I can’t,” his bear said. “She can’t understand me. You have to shift, use your human voice.”
Seth tried and tried, but he couldn’t shift.
His mate stopped in front of him and held the object up high. She threw it right at him, and he felt it wrap around his body. It was a net!
He jolted and found himself in human form. He threw the net off his body and onto the forest floor, and he could make out his mate’s mouth. It dropped wide open as he threw the net aside, and then it broke into a full smile. The lips were full and luscious, and the smile was for him, he knew it!
The fog was dying down, and in just a few more moments he’d be able to see her face, but he couldn’t wait. He needed to taste those lips. He grabbed hold of her and crushed his lips against hers. Her lips opened for him, and her tongue found his. She was warm and wet and wonderful, and that nostalgic scent he had only been able to get a whiff of now filled his being. He grabbed a hold of his mate’s full body. Her hips were wide and full of curves, and he ran his hand around and took a full handful of her. Her mouth pulled away from his, and a moan escaped her.
His manhood was so hard that it hurt, and he reached down with his other hand to find her wetness.
She was gushing wet.
“She’s so fertile!” his bear said. “Turn her over and fill her up!”
He wanted to see her face first. He had to know what she looked like so that when he woke up, he’d know if it was Lily or not.
He pulled back, pushed her away—as hard as that was—and looked at her.
Lily. It was Lily.
He looked from left to right, and his stomach filled with knots. He saw his kitchen and living room through the darkness. He wasn’t dreaming.... He had woken up already. Lily had woken him up, and he had...God, what had he done?
She stared at him, and he felt moisture on his fingers. Jesus, he’d touched her there? It hadn’t been a dream? He could still taste her in his mouth, and her face was flushed with blood.
He looked down and realized he was totally naked, and her face wasn’t the only thing flushed with blood.
“Seth,” she said.
“Lily,” he stammered, “I…”
A loud buzz filled the room. Fuck! A fire, now? Of all the times?
“Lily,” he said, “that’s the emergency phone. It only goes off if there’s a serious fire.... I have to go. We’ll talk about this later.”
Should he say he was sorry? Was he sorry? Lily was his mate, but what if she didn’t feel the same way?
Of course she feels the same way! his bear growled in his head. His bear that only thought of a woman’s body in terms of child-rearing capacity. She had to feel the same way he did. He had to be sure, and there was no time to talk it out right now.
She loves you already! the bear shouted in his head. How dumb do you have to be? And have you seen her—
“Quiet!” Seth shouted.
“I didn’t say anything,” Lily said, cheeks flushed. “Seth...you were awake, right? You knew it was me?”
“I…” he started. Was she hoping he thought it was someone else? Would she be furious with him if he said he knew that it was her? That he’d touched her like that? “God, Lily, I have to go. I promise we’ll talk this through.”
He rushed to his closet and threw on some clothes. Then he laced his boots as fast as his hands would go. He risked a look up at Lily, and he realized her nipples were hard.
I told you, his bear said, to look at them! You could have grabbed them…
He tuned his bear out. He had to get to the station and get suited up. There would only be a skeleton crew there now, maybe just one man. They couldn’t afford to staff the firehouse as much late in the morning, but everyone had an emergency phone like his. They were meant to be at the station, suited and ready to go, no less than ten minutes from when it first rang. If he wasn’t there in time, the fire truck would leave without him.
He was dressed and ready. He grabbed his keys and opened the door. “Lily—” he started, but she cut him off.
“Just don’t get hurt, okay?”
“Don’t worry,” he said and shut the door be
hind him. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, but there could be people trapped inside the fire, and he couldn’t let that go.
He made it to the station in four minutes, and he was suited up in two. Matt had been the only one to arrive later than him, but they were both on the truck and ready by the ten-minute mark.
“Roll out!” Shane shouted, and the truck began to wail.
Jessie briefed everyone as they drove. There was a fire in a lumber mill. There would be a lot of wood and chemicals inside. It was unlikely anyone was inside at this time, but they should be ready to go in either way.
When they arrived, the flames were concentrated at one end of the building. Two hose teams got to work on the heart of the flames.
“I’m going inside,” Seth said.
“Dammit,” Pat said, grabbing his arm. “It’s empty in there. No need to risk your life for some lumber and machinery.”
“I’m going in there.” Seth pointed to the side of the building with no flames. “I may be able to stop the fire from spreading. I’ll get out if it looks bad.”
Pat rolled his eyes. He knew he couldn’t stop Seth when he was like this, so he just slapped him on the shoulder.
“Be careful,” Pat said. “I need someone to beat at foosball.”
Seth grinned and ran toward the entrance. Pat had beaten him over ten times tonight. His new strategy had done nothing.
Seth pulled his mask down before stepping inside, just in case. He removed his glove and touched the metal door handle. It was cool to the touch, so he re-gloved and walked inside. The mill was big and open, but there was a catwalk with offices on the second floor. The flames were thickest at one of the offices, and they were quickly spreading through the rest. They needed to get a hose team inside to stave off the spread.
But the real reason he had come inside was to use his heightened senses to see if anyone was still inside. He took a deep whiff and smelled only wood, burned plastic, and fried electronics. Seemed empty. Then he listened closely, and he heard someone screaming.
The voice was coming from one of the offices up the catwalk. He knew he should go back, call the hose team in, and try to extinguish the flames. How long would that take? Couldn’t he get up there and pull the person out faster? Yes, he could.
He ran as fast as he could in full gear. His tank and axe were heavy on his back, and his mask fogged up as he exhaled. As he ascended the catwalk, he started to really feel the heat.
In and out, he thought. Don’t do anything stupid. Lily is waiting for you.
He reached the door, and now he could definitely hear someone inside.
“Help me! I can’t breathe! Smoke everywhere!”
He tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He kicked it with his full strength, and the door split down the middle, but something massive was behind it. He swung with his axe three times and then kicked the door again. It splintered into pieces, and he saw huge logs stacked against the doorway.
What the hell? Did they use this office to store lumber? Why would someone be in here?
He didn’t have time to think, and he didn’t have enough strength in human form to clear the doorway. He pulled off his mask, and without thinking about what a bad idea it was, he shifted.
His clothes tore to pieces as he grew, and as soon as he reached full size, he roared and pushed at the logs with his full grizzly bear mass. The logs tilted slowly, and he realized he should have shouted for whoever was inside to back up.
Shit. Too late. The logs crashed to the ground, and he saw smoke but no fire, just some cubicles and a window. But behind the cubicle he heard the voice cry out again.
He rushed toward the wall on all fours, and as soon as he turned the corner, searing pain bit into his hind leg. He growled in pain and toppled to the ground. He looked down and saw a bear trap snapped shut around his leg. The metal teeth were blood-soaked, and he felt sticky blood oozing through his fur.
“Help me! I can’t breathe! Smoke everywhere!”
Wasn’t that exactly what the voice had said last time? Even the tone sounded the same.
He listened and heard it again. “Help me! I can’t breathe! Smoke everywhere!”
It was a fucking recording. And a bear trap?
Jesus. Now he knew he’d seen someone the night of the fire at Lily’s house. Someone had seen him the night of the fire at Lily’s house. They knew he was a shifter, and they’d set this fire tonight. To trap him. He had to get out of here. It had to be one of the wolves from the splinter pack. They’d resorted to arson before, and now that Darius wasn’t their pack leader, they were taking their long-awaited revenge out on Seth.
And what if they found out about Lily? What then? Had they even started the fire at her place?
He looked back down at the bear trap and then at the door. Flames covered the doorway, and they were spreading inward, enveloping the office. With his leg like this, there was no way he could get through and back down the catwalk.
The window was his only option, but his mass in bear form was too great to survive the fall. He doubted he could even fit through the window without shifting back to human form.
But if he shifted, he might lose his leg. His human legs were big and thick with muscle, but a bear trap could still cut one clean off.
On the other hand, the fire would surely kill him. As long as he didn’t lose the leg, it would heal. He’d have to risk it.
He limped to the window, and with his claw he tried to unlatch it. Without an opposable thumb, it wasn’t happening, so he simply smashed the glass out. Then he smashed out the jagged shards, and some stuck into his paw. It was better they stuck into his paw now than into his stomach when he tried to jump out.
With the window smashed clear as well as he could manage, he took in a deep breath, held it, and shifted.
The trap tightened as he shrunk back down to human size, and the steel teeth dug deeper and deeper into him. His vision turned red as they cut into his bone.
He felt his consciousness drift as the pain surged through him, but then he thought of Lily. He held onto consciousness for her, because if he lost it now, she would be in grave danger.
Red surged and filled his vision. A woozy cloud assaulted his mind and nearly forced him asleep. He fought the red filling his eyes, and it faded to black, and finally it receded. The tiredness still hung like a thunderhead over him, but with effort he could stay awake.
“Fuck!” he shouted. He had won the battle to stop from passing out, but now he had to jump out the window with a bear trap digging into his bone.
It was only the second story, and normally he’d aim to land with his legs beneath him and then drop into a roll as he landed. Yet with the bear trap digging into his shin, landing on his leg and rolling was just about the worst thing he could do.
What then? He couldn’t land on his head.
He struggled to remember if there was a concrete foundation or if the mill was right on the grass. He was pretty sure it was grass beneath the window. He’d have to land on one leg and then roll onto his shoulder. It sounded dumb, but it was the least dumb thing he could think of. There was no real good way to jump out of a second-story window.
He probed the window with his fingers, found one jagged piece of glass, and pressed it outward. It broke and fell, and he ran his fingers along the opening. No more glass.
He pulled himself up with his arms, and he hoisted his good leg up through the window.
“Help me! I can’t breathe! Smoke everywhere!”
That fucking recording, taunting him still.
Seth’s trapped leg dangled down, and his good leg straddled the outside of the window. There was grass below, and none of the firefighters were on this side of the building. Had they been there, he could have asked them to throw up a ladder. The bear trap was going to raise so many questions, but whatever was playing the recording would hopefully burn up in the fire.
Stop thinking and jump, he thought.
; And then he jumped.
The angle and positioning was as good as was possible for such a stupid idea. His uninjured leg would hit first, and his body had a slow rotation going as he fell. The leg made impact with the ground, and he immediately began his roll. In his mind, he’d planned to absorb as much of the impact as possible with his leg before rolling in order to evenly distribute the shock to his body. In reality, he just slammed into the ground and rolled automatically, and it all happened so fast that he simply felt as if a dozen sledgehammers had pounded into an entire side of his body.
The breath flew from his lungs, and he gasped. He looked down at his trapped leg, and blood was everywhere, but it wasn’t spurting. He hadn’t cut an artery, and the trap was stemming the blood loss. He hadn’t hit his trapped leg at all on the fall. Maybe he’d make it.
Unbearable Heat (The Grizzly Next Door 2) Page 7
