He lay on the rocks for a moment, catching his breath and wondering if he had just signed his own death certificate. The last thing he had seen as he fell away from the helicopter had been Ian’s shell-shocked face. Hunter had never even come close to defying his alpha before, and jumping away from the helicopter had clearly been against Ian’s wishes. But Hunter hadn’t had time to really think about what he was doing. Some deeper force was driving him now. He sniffed the air again, and started heading in the direction of the human’s scent. Whoever she was, she needed his help. Hunter would not let her down.
Chapter Two
How the hell did I end up in this situation? Riley Hughes thought to herself as she ran through the thick smoke. She had no idea which direction she was heading anymore, but she figured any direction had to be better than toward the fire. Her brilliant idea to use her cell phone’s compass app to find her way had turned out to be not so brilliant once the battery died. And with a wildfire nipping at her heels, her solo trip into the wilderness to regain her Zen was quickly turning into a nightmare.
Last month, she had lost her longtime job and longtime boyfriend all within the span of three days. She moped for a week, and then decided to make the best of the situation. She had enough savings to last a few months, and she had no time commitments anymore, so she decided to take a solo backpacking trip into the Northern California wilderness. She’d spend a week reconnecting with nature, and with herself, and then she’d return to her job search with a new vigor.
The idea of searching for a job made her stomach tighten into a tight knot. She had worked as a baker for a large pie shop for years, working her way up through the ranks until she was the chief baker. She had a knack for baking, and she could also do a decent job of managing people, so the owner had been thrilled to have her aboard. He raised her pay several times, and told her more than once that she was like a daughter to him. But, when he passed away, his actual daughter didn’t see the need to keep paying such a high salary to an employee, and let her go.
At first Riley had been devastated. So devastated, in fact, that she hadn’t told anyone she’d been laid off—not even her boyfriend. She figured she would break the news to him gently on the weekend, after the initial feeling of being punched in the gut had passed. Instead, he had added to her unhappy circumstances by breaking up with her. Of course, he felt awful when he discovered he had broken up with her right after she had lost her job. But the damage had already been done, and Riley wasn’t the type to beg a man to stay when he clearly didn’t want her. She had done her fair share of groveling in her lifetime, and she had grown past that. She refused to give a man the satisfaction of knowing he had devastated her by leaving.
But the hard truth was that he had devastated her. She’d had visions of a house and babies, and a backyard complete with a white picket fence and a golden retriever running around. And all of that had been taken away from her in an instant. She’d drowned her sorrows in pints of ice-cream and late night television. During the day, she tried to apply to a few jobs, but she couldn’t quite force herself to put her heart into it. What she really wanted to do was start her own bakery. She had the experience and the talent. But she didn’t have the funds. A business loan wasn’t likely to happen, thanks to a bad deal on a car a few years ago that had turned into a repossession. She’d been going through a rough spot, and she’d lost the car and let a few credit cards go into delinquent status. It had been a while since she’d been late on any payments, but banks still didn’t want to talk to her.
So Riley packed up her camping gear and headed out to the wilderness. Alone. She wanted time to think and contemplate her next move. She planned out a week of hiking and camping, alternating time at official campsites with a few days of true backwoods camping. Everything had been chugging along fantastically until she woke up this morning to a strange smell. She knew even before she stuck her head out of her tent that she was in trouble.
The sight that greeted her made her heart sink. The sky was blanketed in a gray cloud of smoke, and the forest had become quiet. Too quiet. The only sound was the distant crackling of flames, and Riley’s stomach flip-flopped nervously when she realized that a giant wildfire was overtaking the trees in the distance. Riley was two days into the backwoods portion of her adventure, and she had gotten a little turned around. She didn’t know exactly where she was, but she knew the general direction she needed to head. And that general direction seemed to be straight into the distant wall of fire.
So, Riley turned around. She would try to backtrack. Surely, she would reach a campsite or ranger station or something soon enough. They could help her get out of the forest before the wildfire got too close. Riley quickly packed her tent and gear into her large hiking backpack, and took off confidently in the direction from which she had come.
But by late afternoon, her confidence was waning. She had no idea where she was, or where she was going. And the fire that had seemed so far away this morning was quickly creeping closer. Riley tried not to panic, but as time ticked by and she saw the gap between her and the fire closing, she struggled to remain calm.
She walked quicker, as if somehow power walking through the forest would help her outrun the fire. She wanted to break into a run, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep a running pace up very long with all the gear she was carrying. She thought about ditching the backpack, but she needed her supplies. The tent wasn’t all that important, but if she lost her food and water she might die out here, fire or not.
As the minutes ticked by, Riley could feel the smoke getting thicker and the heat rising. She finally decided that taking her chances on starving would be a better idea than burning to death, and she ditched her heavy backpack.
That’s how she’d ended up in her current predicament—running, petrified, away from the fire and toward who knows what. The thick brush made it difficult to move very quickly, but Riley did her best. Panicked adrenaline ran through her veins, keeping her moving long beyond when her lungs would have normally given out. She wanted to scream in terror, but she didn’t have the breath for it, and, besides, her throat felt scratchy and hoarse from all the smoke she’d inhaled.
She glance over her shoulders again, and choked back tears as she saw that the fire was still gaining on her, despite her running efforts. She couldn’t get out in time. Running was useless. At that realization, she did scream. She threw her last bits of energy into a loud, desperate cry that was quickly drowned out by the roar of the fire.
Moments later, she heard a crashing sound coming through the woods behind her. At first, she thought an animal had found her, but when she turned around, she saw a tall, muscular man dressed in the strangest outfit she had ever seen. He wore a khaki colored full body suit that had a high neck, and a dark helmet that covered everything except his eyes. The legs of the body suit appeared to have huge pockets stuffed with gear. He also had two large bags strapped around his stomach. And he wore a relatively small backpack that looked like it was strapped to not only his arms and chest, but his legs as well. His eyes were a piercing green color, and he locked his gaze on her as he came through the forest.
“Come with me, now!” he yelled, holding out his hand to her.
“To where?” Riley shouted, tears still streaming down her face. “Can’t you see this fire is barreling down on us at lighting speeds? We can’t outrun it.”
Despite all of her efforts not to panic, she had completely given up hope at this point. Even if this guy knew the way out, they couldn’t make it in time.
“I can save you, but I need you to trust me,” the man shouted over the roar. “Come on. Every second matters right now, and if you keep stalling we’re going to lose our window for escape.”
Riley hesitated just another moment. She had no idea how this guy thought they were going to escape at this point, but what did she have to lose? If she kept standing here in tears, she would burn to death for sure.
“Okay,” she called out, nodding her
head. “I’ll follow you.”
Riley saw relief flood the man’s eyes briefly before he turned around and headed back through the forest. Despite the heavy load he was carrying, he moved swiftly, and Riley almost couldn’t keep up. A few minutes later, they reached a large rock formation jutting out of the woods.
“We’re going up there,” the man said, and took off up the steep side of the formation.
Riley huffed for breath as she struggled up the rocks. She could hardly breathe through the smoke and the heat, but she forced herself to keep going. Streams of sweat poured down her body, and several times she thought she might literally pass out from exhaustion. She had no idea how the man in front of her was managing to bound up the side of the wall carrying so much stuff. She still wasn’t exactly clear on what he planned to do. Would waiting at the top of this rock be enough to keep them from getting caught in the fire?
The man reached the top well before Riley, and he immediately started taking off his backpack and bags. Then he unzipped the khaki bodysuit and stepped out of it, revealing another strange outfit—skintight, dark green pants and a long sleeved shirt. It almost looked like he was wearing thermal underwear, which would have been strange since it was the middle of the summer.
As Riley hobbled up to where he stood, he started quickly digging through one of the large bags that had been fastened to his stomach. His face had the most intense expression Riley had ever seen. She didn’t say anything for a few moments. He didn’t look like he wanted to be bothered, and she didn’t know what to say, anyway. The circumstances weren’t exactly ideal for small talk. Riley glanced at the fire, then quickly away. She couldn’t bear to watch it anymore. From the looks of it, they were only minutes away from being overtaken by the flames.
“Found it!” the man yelled triumphantly, pulling what appeared to be a giant ball of aluminum foil out of his bag. He shook the ball out until it almost looked like a giant, tin foil pup tent, and then he turned to look at Riley.
“The fire won’t burn the rocks, so we won’t actually catch fire up here. But it’s going to be very hot, and the smoke is going to be even thicker than it already is. This is a fire shelter, and it resists heat up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re going to lay in it, facedown, and stay as still and calm as possible. It’s going to feel hot, and you might feel an urge to run. Don’t. You’re safest, coolest place is in the shelter, with your face toward the cool ground. Understand?”
Riley nodded. This thin, shiny sheet didn’t seem like it would provide any protection against the wall of flames coming toward them. But, again, what choice did she really have other than to trust this guy? He seemed to know what he was talking about.
So she climbed into the shelter with him, which was clearly not meant for two people. They had to huddle almost on top of each other to fit. The man made sure the material covered them completely, then told Riley to hold down the sides.
“The winds generated by a wildfire can get pretty crazy. Make sure you’re holding the shelter down so it doesn’t blow off of us.”
Riley did as she was told, and held down the sides. She stared at the silvery material and tried to process the fact that she was lying under a thin sheet of foil with a stranger, moments away from being passed over by a giant wildfire. She still wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t moments from her death, although the man lying next to her seemed unbelievably calm. She realized that she didn’t even know his name, and the thought struck her as funny. She was about to die lying next to someone who was quite literally a complete stranger.
“What’s your name?” she asked, glancing over at him. His deep green eyes turned to her, and his expression softened when his gaze met hers.
“Hunter. Hunter Wilson,” he said.
“I’m Riley Hughes,” she said. “Nice to meet you. Although I wish the circumstances were a little less, um, dire.”
“Riley Hughes,” he repeated. “That’s a beautiful name.”
“Thanks,” Riley said, feeling herself blush at his praise. But she was sure that her cheeks were already so red from the heat that he wouldn’t be able to notice how his words had made her feel flustered.
“Shit’s about to get crazy, Riley. Whatever you do, don’t run, okay? Just hold down the shelter, keep your face to the ground, and breathe in and out.”
“Okay,” Riley said. She felt her heart pounding as she turned her head to press her face against the hard rock beneath them.
The roar of the fire grew louder, and, just as Hunter had predicted, the wind picked up. Riley firmly held down her side of the shelter, and did her best to just keep breathing. As the heat intensified, even breathing in felt difficult. Being in the shelter felt like being on the inside of an oven, and Riley felt like she was suffocating. She started to panic again.
“Hunter,” she gasped out. “I have to get out of here.”
“Don’t move, Riley. Just keep your face to the ground and do your best to keep breathing. I promise you, the air out there is much worse than the air in here.”
Riley did as she was told, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of suffocation that overwhelmed her. Hot, traitorous tears started rolling down her face, and the urge to run became overwhelming.
“Hunter, I can’t do this. I can’t. I have to get out of here.”
Hunter reached over to place his strong arm around her back. “You can do it. Short, steady breaths. We’re almost through the worst of it.”
His soothing voice, and the feeling of his arm around her, calmed Riley enough to keep her in the shelter. She kept her face down, and focused on each short, painful breath. As the long minutes passed by, breathing slowly got easier. The wind from the fire died down, and the unbearable heat started to dwindle down.
When the roar from the fire became a distant sound again, Hunter finally sat up, pulling the shelter off of them as he did.
Riley blinked at the bright light. The smoke had already cleared away considerably, and the setting sun cast brilliant red and orange beams across what was left of the forest.
Below the huge rock where they perched, everything looked like a wasteland. In place of the thick, green forest that had been there an hour earlier was an empty charred space, dotted only by blackened tree trunks. Unbelievable. They had just survived hell.
Chapter Three
Riley couldn’t stop staring at the bleak, charred remains of the forest below them.
“Are you okay?” Hunter asked, genuine concern filling his voice. Riley turned in his direction. Now that the threat of imminent death had passed, she took a moment to really focus on her rescuer. Without his helmet on, she could see that he had short dark hair. It was currently disheveled, but the dark color beautifully complimented the deep green of his eyes. His skintight, dark green outfit made it clear that his muscles had been toned to perfection. But the most gorgeous thing about him was his face. With high, chiseled cheekbones, and tanned skin, Hunter looked like he could have been a model. So what was he doing traipsing around in the woods in the middle of a wildfire?
“I’m fine, just really shaken up,” Riley said. “Who are you, Hunter? What were you doing out here in that weird outfit, carrying all that stuff?”
“I’m a wildfire firefighter. That ‘stuff’ is my gear.”
“You’re a firefighter? That’s the strangest looking firefighter outfit I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m a smokejumper, meaning I parachute into fires that aren’t easily reachable by foot or vehicle. So I wear a jumpsuit to both protect my skin and to hold gear. That’s the big tan colored thing over there. That backpack looking thing is my parachute. Well, was my parachute. I’m not sure how well it stood up to that heat. Ian’s gonna kill me.”
“Ian?”
“He’s my boss. Hang on a minute, I need to radio him. Hopefully my radio is as heat resistant as they promise.”
Riley watched Hunter flip over his jumpsuit and unzip a pocket on the front, which held a small handheld radio. He furrowed his brow
as he flipped it on, and smiled when the sound of static noise filled the air.
“Still works!” he said triumphantly, then started switching to a different station. A few moments later, he pushed the talk button.
“Ian, this is Hunter. Come in, Ian. Can you hear me?”
“Hunter? We thought you were dead! What the hell were you thinking? And how the hell did you survive the burnover?”
“Fire shelter. I’m back at the safety zone, and I have a civilian with me. A woman. She’s safe as well.”
There was a long pause.
“Chief? You still there?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, I’m here. So there was a woman. How did you smell her when no one else could?”
Riley raised an eyebrow. Smell her? That was a weird thing to say. Hunter looked uncomfortable as he answered.
“I think it’s because she’s, uh, she’s special. To me specifically.”
Riley had no idea what Hunter meant by that, but his answer seemed to satisfy his crew chief.
“I should have known,” Ian said. “Listen, Hunter, I know you jumped on purpose, but I told Boise you fell off the rope to save your ass.”
“Thanks, Boss,” Hunter said meekly.
“Yeah, well, don’t think it’s going to save you from an ass-whooping from me when you get back. And speaking of getting back, do you think you and the woman are in okay condition to hike out? Do you have enough supplies? The fire is getting more out of control, and Boise wants all available aircraft on the front lines.”
A Spark to Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 2) Page 2
