Hungry Like the Wolf

by Hungry Like the Wolf

  "Maybe we're overreacting. It doesn't have to be gasoline she smelled. She could be wrong."

  "Let's hope she is, little brother. Let's hope she is. I prefer for her to be wrong and us be there than to have made a mistake and be cooling our asses back at home."

  Seeing that they'd almost reached her address, Byron stuck his head out of the window. "I can smell smoke," he said curtly.

  "You're shitting me!"

  "No. It's dense, as well."

  "Fuck."

  Hugh pulled the truck up outside of Nicole's house and immediately they saw the thick black rolling waves of smoke erupting from some of the open windows. The smell was acrid and overwhelming to their sensitive noses. The question was, why wasn't Nicole outside safe from harm?

  * * * *

  "Those bastards just can't leave well enough alone, can they?" Joe murmured to himself as he watched the Jakmans' truck pull up haphazardly outside the burning house.

  Hidden behind a tree, he realized that if they managed to save Nicole before the house burned down entirely, then he was fucked. Maybe he was fucked anyway, but this was just too much.

  Cursing, he watched as Hugh ran into the burning building and listened as the younger brother called for the cops, the fire department, and an ambulance. He grimaced as he heard his name mentioned in conjunction with arson and damned the fact that no matter how this evening ended, he was going to be questioned by the police, probably at the actual station. It was something he'd hoped to avoid if possible.

  Sure, he'd realized they'd visit him with condolences for Nicole's demise and maybe ask him a few questions at his leisure. He would be grieving over the death of his ex-wife after all.

  But to be hauled to the station in a cop car was demeaning, and, more than anything, Joe hated to feel demeaned or looked down on.

  To be on site and actually have lit the curtains made this whole situation ten times worse. He'd orchestrated this entire event, and, what pissed him off, was that he shouldn't have had to. He'd paid some bastard to do it for him, but the guy hadn't been available this evening, and Joe had realized it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

  Nicole had been alone in the house.

  It was a perfect time to set the house on fire and disable her sufficiently so that she died with the damned property from hell. The mother fucker had cost him a goddamned fortune and left him with only this option to recoup his fucking losses. It was a shame, as well, because by the end of the renovations it had been a very promising property investment.

  All that was in the mud now. Once more, thanks to those bastard Jakman brothers. He damned them, their mother, and any future offspring they might have, although he was determined to try and prevent that from happening. Hell, if he was lucky, he'd be able to get rid of Nicole and the Jakmans!

  Unfortunately, luck hadn't exactly been with him so far this evening. Why should it go any further?

  With a grimace and a maudlin sigh, Joe realized he was going to have to further dirty his hands with this mess. It had been a long time since he'd been involved with anything of this nature, and, he had to admit to himself, he was rusty. The whole setup seemed amateur to him, but he'd been rushed and had had no other alternatives.

  The rest of the neighborhood hadn't realized there was a fire in the area. The houses were set too far apart for it to easily become apparent. Only the sounds of sirens would probably make them aware of the blaze.

  So seeing Byron end his call and rush into the building, Joe made his move. Trying to stick to the shadows in case anyone happened to be passing by, Joe hurried to the front door and tried to lock it. For some reason, the damned key stuck in the lock. Trying not to curse out loud in his frustration, he tried to jerk the door handle, tried to jerk the key in the lock, anything to make the damned thing work.

  Realizing that Hugh must have damaged it when he burst into the house, Joe swore under his breath but quickly thought of a way to keep them in the house for a little bit longer. Even if it was just a minute, smoke inhalation would hopefully make them collapse and give him enough time to get home before the cops arrived.

  He decided to try and jam the door shut. The awkward angle of the broken door handle meant it was easier to hold shut than he'd originally thought, and, while he would have preferred to have been able to lock the damned thing, this was a reasonable alternative.

  If they would just do him a favor and die, then he could call an end to this farce before he was dropped even deeper into the shit!

  * * * *

  Byron pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911 and immediately demanded all three of the emergency services to come and assist them.

  Hugh left him to field that call and tried to open the door. Strangely, it was locked. He had to break the door down to gain entry. Immediately, he began to cough as smoke started to billow out of the doorway and almost instantaneously began to flood his lungs. It was enough to make a weaker man panic, but he managed to contain it. His wolf was jittery and nervous at the thought of his mate in danger, and it was very hard to keep it all together and begin the search for her. The wolf made him stronger than most men under normal circumstances, but fear of loss almost made him break.

  Not having seen Nicole waiting anxiously outside for the fire department to arrive set his heart fluttering in panic. If she wasn't outside, then she had to be inside. And if she was inside, then there had to be a reason for her not escaping the fire. Hell, it had hardly been any time at all between the phone call and their arriving here. For there to be so much smoke, it meant that the fire was a hell of a doozy.

  He just prayed that she was alright, that she hadn't already been burned, or wasn't lying somewhere dying as he struggled to find her.

  The thought of something bad happening to her made him feel physically sick. Only the need to find her and haul her ass back to safety made him run through each and every room on the ground floor. It took longer than it should have to investigate each room, first of all, because he couldn't see a damned thing, secondly, because he had to check every inch of the room to make sure she hadn't collapsed in an awkward area that made her partially hidden from sight.

  It all added to his nerves, and the smoke was beginning to attack his lungs. At twenty, he'd first tried a cigarette and had disliked the burning sensation in his chest. This was like smoking two thousand of the little bastards.

  He had managed to search the entire ground floor when he heard Byron coughing in the entrance hall.

  His voice gruff and hoarse now from the smoke, he yelled, "First floor's clear."

  "The fire department is on their way. They said it would take them five minutes max."

  Nodding, Hugh ran up the stairs with Byron fast on his heels.

  Together they searched the second floor, but neither of them saw Nicole. They did see that the source of the fire was on this floor. The heat that was being ejected was immense, but, thankfully, it had contained itself to three rooms on that floor. Fully aware that the fire's close containment meant that the floors weren't safe, Hugh and Byron ran upstairs to the third floor, hoping that Nicole was on the third floor and hadn't already perished in the rooms that were blazing below.

  They saw her almost immediately from the top of the staircase and were hard pressed not to sink to their knees in relief. She was laying awkwardly on the floor.

  Straight away, Hugh realized she'd been positioned like that. Had she fallen, there was no way her body would have been like that.

  By her side lay an empty gas canister and a lighter. Even in this mire of thickly black smoke, Hugh could see the nasty bruise on her forehead.

  Joe was obviously a bully and an arsonist. He must have thought that fire investigation officials would determine that she'd started the fire on the second floor and rushed to the top floor to start another. He must have thought that her body would burn up and that there wouldn't be any evidence of a concussion. He'd laid Nicole out on the top floor in an attempt to pass the blame on to her shoulde
rs, probably in the hopes that help wouldn't arrive until it was too late and they couldn't reach the top floor to save her life. With no witnesses around, blame would naturally have fallen on her shoulders as the ex-wife who was taking revenge out on her ex-husband by burning down his house.

  That the bastard had set fire to the house, tried to lay the blame on his mate, hit her, and planned on letting her die in a fire made fury rocket through his system. The wolf practically demanded he shift and find the fucker who had dared to hurt his mate. Only the fact that Nicole's life was still in danger stopped the shift from taking place, but their wolves were almost totally in control now.

  Hugh grabbed her shoulder and tried to jolt her awake, but she didn't wake up. Obviously, he'd been right. She did have a concussion because she didn't even stir when he shook her. Lifting her limp body into his arms, he coughed as Byron opened the door he'd closed earlier to prevent excess smoke from entering the room as they were examining Nicole. The whoosh of the acrid cloud of burning materials sat heavy on his lungs.

  It was difficult to breathe through the quagmire and as both he and Byron attempted to walk down the stairs and pass the second floor, it was nearly impossible to inhale at all. It was difficult not to rush in the vain attempt to reach fresh air quickly, but they couldn't. Almost blinded by the dark smoke, it was too hard to see the steps. Rushing could cause a fall, and, with the precious bundle in his arms, he couldn't risk that.

  They managed to reach the first floor and rushed to the front door only to discover it had been closed.

  Byron hurried in front and tried the handle. "It's not locked. It must just be jammed," he yelled

  He kicked it and the door gave way some. Frowning, he realized that someone was standing behind it, pulling it shut.

  The entire situation made it hard for both men to stop the shift. It took all of their control to remain in human form. Knowing that someone was actively hindering their efforts to save their mate, merely made a bad situation even worse.

  Byron's wolf came to the forefront, and he smashed the door down with a roar of anger.

  The door caved in and thrust Joe a few yards away and directly on to his ass.

  * * * *

  It wasn't long before Joe heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and heading into the hall. He felt them hold the handle that he himself was holding, felt them try to jerk it open. Hoping that they'd be passing out any time soon-maybe that was too much to hope for-he held the door shut and leaned back, using all of his weight to hold the door closed.

  He hadn't foreseen the possibility of them kicking the bottom of the door in, which immediately weakened his grasp from the shock of it. He certainly hadn't foreseen the door actually giving way as it was shoved from its hinges, hadn't realized that was even possible.

  The force of the door hitting him actually lifted him from the ground and threw him a few feet away.

  Seeing Hugh lay Nicole on the ground gently and watching Byron glance over her to make sure she was alright, he made his next move. He grabbed a piece of wood that had splintered off from the door. Silently, he rushed up and attempted to stab it into Byron's gut.

  It wasn't the best weapon, but he'd hoped to at least wind the guy. It didn't work. The wood swung wild as Byron knocked it away. He tried to use that momentum to injure Hugh a little. He, too, ducked down before he practically lay atop Nicole like a protective blanket.

  As Joe watched, Byron moved away from Nicole. He rushed after him with his weapon in his hands, silently damning his lack of foresight. If he had brought his gun, this would have been a much easier match, but he hadn't, and he almost cursed at his lack of preparation for this evening. He'd been so damned eager to get the whole thing over and done with that he hadn't thought the whole thing through, which was what was causing him so much trouble.

  Totally frustrated and pissed off with the inefficiency of his attack, he tried to focus that rage on his fight with Byron. But it was no good. He was at least twenty years older than the guy and not in nearly as good a shape.

  Byron punched Joe in the gut.

  Immediately he bent in two. When he got a kick up the ass, he realized that he was totally fucked. He couldn't fight one of them and win, never mind two of them. He was no match for them, and he knew it.

  The next minutes were some of the most painful in his life. The rage both brothers were feeling was behind each and every single hit and kick they aimed at him. He felt his nose break but was too dazed to even squeak out a cry of pain. Blood flooded his mouth as a tooth broke and the fluid poured over his cheeks and pooled in his ears.

  His stomach felt as though it were caving in from the kicks it was receiving, and he was sure his wrist was broken from being stepped on by a steel-toed boot.

  Altogether it was with relief that he heard the police sirens. He almost felt like welcoming the police as they stopped the fight and hauled the brothers away from him.

  Seeing that he was finally safe from further injury, he passed out.

  * * * *

  Only the presence of men grabbing his arms and physically lifting him away from Durst stopped Byron from continuing to kick and punch the bastard. He had realized that the emergency services were there, his eyes and ears had registered the flashing lights and sirens, but until he actually felt them, he hadn't acknowledged their presence.

  He shook the two guys that were holding his arms off and ignored their shouts of warning. Immediately he ran over to Nicole and grabbed her to him before Hugh even had a chance. Clutching her, he held her close to him and rushed over to the E.M.Ts. He pressed a kiss to her temple, her cheek, and her lips before finally relinquishing her to what he hoped was above average medical care.

  Hugh hurried over to him and managed to kiss Nicole before the E.M.T shooed him off. They both stood there uselessly, watching as the medics treated her.

  "Will Nicole be okay?" Byron asked in a voice rough with emotion, his throat sore from the smoke and the unmanly tears that were gathering there. He couldn't lose her. He just couldn't.

  "She'll have to come to the hospital for further tests. But her blood pressure is steady and her heartbeat is strong. She could have some lung damage. A lot of smoke has collected around her mouth and nose. Was she in the building for long?" the woman asked as she placed an oxygen mask over the lower half of Nicole's face.

  Hugh nodded grimly.

  "Okay, we'll definitely need to run further tests then. Is she allergic to anything?"

  "I don't know," Byron said miserably. "Do you, Hugh?"

  Hugh shook his head with a grimace.

  Seeing the misery, the focused E.M.T relented. "Hey, don't worry guys. Unless there are any unforeseen complications, I think you got her out in time to prevent any further damage. She's not burned, which is a Godsend. So be thankful for small mercies. I'm sure she'll be okay," The woman said, smiling reassuringly.

  But both men continued to look at her soberly.

  "Wow, I wish my boyfriend cared about me the way you obviously care about her!" she said, her tone entirely non-judgmental. "She'll probably need some chest x-rays. Could she be pregnant?"

  Byron coughed and looked at Hugh, before replying. "Yeah. She could be. I don't think she was on the pill, and we never used anything. Could there be any damage to the baby if she is?"

  The E.M.T shrugged. "I can't say until we run further tests."

  "Are you going to the hospital now?"

  "Yeah, but you can't ride with us. The police are just behind you and obviously want to talk to you!"

  "Dammit," Hugh swore and spun around to face the officers that were indeed right behind him. "Can't we at least go with Nicole to the hospital and discuss this shit there?" he asked the police officers that were now standing before him.

  "No, we need immediate answers I'm afraid, sir."

  Hugh had to bite back a growl. Instead of releasing it, he stood back from the ambulance and nodded a goodbye to the E.M.T, who almost immediately shut the doors an
d began the journey to the hospital.

  Their mate was traveling without them.

  Fuck.

  "I'm Detective Connallson and this is Detective O'Hara. Can either of you tell me what the hell is going on here?" One of the cops muttered gruffly as Byron and Hugh continued to watch the ambulance roll further and further away from them.

  Byron spun around with a glare. "Joe Durst set the goddamned place on fire and tried to kill Nicole," he spat furiously.

  "How do you know Durst set the place on fire? Mr. . . . ?"

  "Jakman. I'm Hugh and this is my brother Byron. We have no official evidence," Hugh muttered stiffly. "We've believed for the past few weeks that he's been planning on setting fire to the house. We're the construction company that's been renovating this house. At one of the meetings we held before the project really got underway, he was really interested in the safety of the house, in case of fire. More than just really interested at that."

  "Nicole told us that she was inviting Durst this evening to remove some cameras he'd installed to check the progress of the work. In the past, he's been abusive towards her, so we didn't relish the thought of leaving her alone, which is why we phoned her about thirty to forty minutes after we left. I heard her say that Joe was still there and that she could smell something weird. She told me to wait, and then I heard her call up the stairs to Joe to ask if he was okay and whether he could smell something weird, too. There was no reply. She rushed back and said she'd call me back later because she thought she smelled gasoline.

  "We've been thinking about Durst's interest in the fire safety of this house for a while. We've been seeing Nicole, and, if I'm honest, there's always been something suspicious about him. I don't know what set me to thinking he could be out to burn the place down, but it stuck fast in my mind. When I heard her say that Joe was still there and she thought that she smelled gasoline, I knew I was right about him. We rushed over here and hurried in. The fire was pretty much contained to the second floor …."

  As he spoke, a huge explosion rocked the house and shattered almost every window. Smoke poured out of the exits and flames licked at the window openings.