Firefighter Phoenix

by Zoe Chant

  “I know that,” she said, trying not to let on how her heart was pounding just from that brief contact. “And if…if you met your true mate, I wouldn’t keep you from her. I’m not asking for that sort of bond, Ash. I know that’s impossible. But maybe…maybe we could both be a little less lonely. Together.”

  His fist clenched at his side, shaking. He stared at the door, but made no move toward it.

  Was he hesitating? Hope rose in Rose’s chest.

  “We’re more than our animals, Ash.” She spoke quickly, as though she could throw words over him like a net. “We can still choose for ourselves. I want you, not my swan.”

  He let out a small, pained sound. “You shouldn’t.”

  “Why not? I’m not your mate, not your perfect partner, but we’ve known each other for ten years. I know what a good man you are. Ever since we first met, my feelings for you have only grown. You’ve always been there for me, and I—”

  She stopped. Ash’s shoulders were shaking, very slightly.

  But not with anger, or tears.

  “Why on earth are you laughing?” she asked, bewildered and more than a bit hurt.

  The near-silent, bitter sound cut off. Ash half-turned. The light caught the mirthless curve of his mouth, and the dark flames in his eyes.

  “Because not a single word of that was true,” he said.

  Chapter 2

  Past

  20 years ago…

  The horizon was on fire.

  Even with the windows wound up tight, the smoke still crept into Rose’s small rental car. She could taste it, acrid and bitter, on the back of her tongue. For the past fifty miles, every single vehicle she’d passed had been barreling full-tilt in the opposite direction. All the local radio stations were broadcasting the same information over and over.

  “Full evacuation orders are in effect countywide,” repeated the flat voice of the emergency bulletin. “Do not attempt to stay in your homes. Do not try to rescue pets or livestock. Leave personal belongings behind. If you do not have transport, call 911 now. This is a mandatory evacuation order. All residents and visitors must leave the county immediately.”

  Rose switched off the radio, since it wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know. She took a firmer grip on the steering wheel, deliberately fixing her eyes on the road rather than on the ribbons of fire crowning the mountains ahead.

  Faster, her swan urged her. Its wings flexed in agitation, longing to take flight. He is calling us. Our mate needs us, now, now!

  Rose could feel that pull herself, deep in her soul. What had started as a faint, gossamer-slender tug was now like a fist around her heart, hauling her irresistibly onward.

  Her aunts and cousins had warned her that the compulsion would become stronger the closer that she got to her mate. When she’d felt those first tiny stirrings, calling to her across the world, they’d urged her to wait, to ignore it for as long as she could. Twenty-three was young for a swan shifter to feel the mate-call, after all. There was plenty of time to mature, learn who she was as her own person, before she rushed into a permanent partnership.

  But Rose couldn’t wait. Even back home in England, the mate-call had felt like a fishhook set in her soul. She could no more have ignored it than ignore the need to breathe. Whoever her mate was, wherever he was, she knew at a bone-deep level that he was in mortal peril. She had to go to him.

  Even if it meant driving into the heart of the worst wildfire in Northern California for a decade.

  Flashing lights cut through the smog up ahead. A police car barricaded the road. Rose put her foot on the brake, slowing to a halt, even though her swan hissed in protest at the delay.

  She tried on her most winning smile as she rolled down her window. “I’m so sorry, officer. I just need to pop back for—”

  “Ma’am, I don’t care what you’ve left behind, whether it’s Fido or your family photos,” the police officer interrupted her, in the weary tones of someone who’d already had this conversation too many times today. “I just heard on the radio, even the firefighters are pulling back. You gotta turn around and get out of here right now.”

  “But, but—my granddad!” Rose widened her eyes, the smoke helping her to fake tears. “I have to go and get him from, um…”

  She wished she’d paid more attention to the map. She had only the haziest idea of where she actually was, other than that it had been a long, long drive north from San Francisco.

  “His cabin,” she finished, somewhat unconvincingly. “Up that mountain there.”

  The policeman gave her a suspicious look, but pulled his radio out of his belt. “Tell me where it is. I’ll get one of the crews to swing by and pick him up.”

  “Oh, no, it’s really hard to find,” Rose said hastily. “He’s a real backwoods hermit. Paranoid. He’ll shoot anyone he doesn’t recognize. But if you just let me through, I promise I can get there and back quick as a lick.”

  From the exasperated glare the police officer was giving her, he wasn’t buying her story. “Girlie, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but I’m not letting you pass. Now scram, unless you’d rather I hauled you out of here in handcuffs.”

  Rose attempted to looks suitably chastised. “That won’t be necessary, officer,” she said meekly. “I’ll just be on my way.”

  The officer’s hand drifted down to rest on his holstered gun as she reversed. Very carefully, Rose turned her car around. The policeman stared after her, narrow-eyed, as she drove off.

  No! Her swan beat its wings furiously, making her ears ring. He needs us! Turn around!

  “Keep your feathers on,” Rose muttered, looking in her rear-view mirror to check that the policeman was out of sight. “I have a plan.”

  Pulling over to the side of the road, Rose parked. She would have liked to conceal the car, but there was no hope of driving it deeper into the thick forest. She’d just have to hope that the police officer wouldn’t waste time looking for her when he spotted it. He was only doing his job, and she didn’t want him to get caught in the wildfire.

  She also hoped that he wouldn’t be along for a few minutes. Bad enough that he’d find an abandoned vehicle. If he found her taking all of her clothes off next to it, he probably would haul her off in handcuffs to the nearest mental institution.

  Kicking off her shoes, she shimmied awkwardly out of her shirt and shorts. Not for the first time, she wished that she was a mythic shifter, like a dragon or a pegasus. It must be nice, never having to worry about being caught buck naked. Unfortunately swans shifters couldn’t just magic their clothes away and back again.

  At least she was big enough when shifted to be able to carry a few essentials with her. She grabbed her emergency pouch from the back seat, looping it around her neck. Then, stretching out her arms, she gave herself up to her swan.

  As ever, the shift raced over her skin like a lover’s caress. She thrilled at the sensation of stretching into her other shape, becoming sleeker and stronger.

  Anyone who thought a swan was just some lumbering, overgrown duck had never been one.

  Her shining black wings stretched over eight feet from tip-to-tip. Her powerful webbed feet and scaled legs could propel her equally well across land or water. She’d taught more than one arrogant would-be alpha not to underestimate her just because she didn’t have claws and fangs.

  Of course, the disadvantage of her size was that she needed a heck of a run-up to take off. Spreading her wings, she ran full-tilt along the road, flapping with all her strength. It was harder to get airborne from dry land rather than water, but she managed it, although it wasn’t the most graceful process.

  Once she was in the air, it was much easier. Heat rising from the burning forest caught her outstretched wings, lifting her higher like a child tossing a ball. Safely above the treetops, she circled, arrowing back the way she’d come.

  The police officer was back in his car, talking on his radio. He never even glanced up as she soared overhead. No
longer bound to follow the road, Rose turned her beak straight in the direction of her mate. The pull was even more urgent now, pulsing through her veins as strongly as her own heartbeat. It pulled her on irresistibly.

  Straight toward the wall of fire burning on the horizon.

  As she flew closer, she could see that it was literally a wall. The wilderness firefighters had cleared a wide strip through the forest. The deadly blaze roared hungrily right at the edge of the firebreak. Burning leaves and sparks fell harmlessly onto the barren earth, unable to cross.

  A group of firefighters were falling back, exhaustion clear in their stumbling steps. They must have been working all night to finish the firebreak.

  Her mate was so close. Could he be one of the firefighters? A little thrill went through her. Call it a cliché, but she’d always had a thing for a man in uniform.

  Not, she had to admit, that they were a terribly appealing sight at the moment. Once-yellow safety gear was now mottled with ash and mud. The men were as filthy as their uniforms. Most of them were hastily throwing chainsaws and cutting tools into the back of an off-road vehicle, clearly eager to be gone, but a couple seemed to be having an argument.

  Rose swooped as low as she dared, passing so close to the firefighters that a few of them ducked. She scanned every upturned face, hoping for that lighting-bolt of recognition… but she saw nothing but surprise and fatigue in their eyes. None of them were her mate.

  “…still in there!”

  She caught the snatch of words as she swept past a pair of men at the back of the group. On impulse, Rose landed. They were so caught up in their argument that they didn’t notice her sidling over to hear better.

  “I’m telling you, I saw him.” One of the firefighters pointed into the forest, looking agitated. “Just let me go back and check!”

  “Anyone still in there is dead!” The other, who she guessed was the leader from the grimy insignia on his helmet, shoved him back. “Now clear out! That’s an order!”

  The other firefighter obeyed, though his reluctance was clear. With a last backward glance over his shoulder—and a double-take at Rose—he joined the others in the vehicle.

  Rose’s heart lurched as the truck roared off down the road.

  They’d left someone behind.

  And her mate was still calling to her.

  The heat of the fire beat against her skin even through her feathers. Gouts of flame leaped up from burning pines. It would be difficult enough to try to fly over the wildfire. To fly through it, searching for someone collapsed on the ground…

  Terror gripped her so hard that she could barely open her wings. She spread them anyway. Steeling herself, she faced the inferno head-on…and saw him.

  For a second, she thought she was imagining things. But there was a dark, wavering figure, blurred by smoke and heat haze.

  Sheer surprise made her shift back into human form. Rose stumbled, catching herself on her hands. Sharp-edged rocks cut into her knees, but she barely noticed the pain.

  The roar of the inferno, the punch of heat against her fragile human skin…it all faded into irrelevance.

  He came walking out of the blazing forest, as calmly as if the furnace-hot wind whipping his clothes was just a pleasant springtime breeze. The white-yellow glow backlit his lean, tall form, so that she couldn’t make out his face.

  But she could see how the flames bowed before him. They drew aside to let him pass, then leaped up again in his wake, roaring twice as high. Sparks and embers swirled around his head like a crown.

  As she watched, dumbstruck, he reached the edge of the firebreak. For a moment he paused. Through the billowing smoke, she saw his head tip down a little, as though considering the barren ground.

  He strode out onto the churned earth.

  And the fire followed him.

  Flames flared up where he stepped, the very rocks burning. Behind him, in the forest, the inferno mounted like a cresting wave, gathering, rising. Waiting to surge forward, down the narrow path that he was making for it across the firebreak.

  She could see his face now. He was smiling.

  “Stop!” she shouted, surging to her feet. She ran at him, waving her arms. “You can’t—there are people—stop!”

  He checked his stride, surprise flashing across his face. He was only two steps away from the edge of the firebreak. Narrow tongues of flame crowded behind him, muttering.

  She planted herself square in his path, spreading her arms wide to bar his way. Smoke burned her throat as she fought for breath.

  For the first time, she met his eyes.

  Fire, nothing but fire. The dark inferno embraced her, burning away everything but him. The mate-call roared in her blood louder than the burning forest. She was dry tinder, and he was her match. One step, one touch, and she would be consumed utterly.

  Every part of her yearned to take that step. Let the world burn around them. Nothing mattered, as long as they were together.

  She clenched her fists, shaking with the effort of not falling into his arms.

  “Stop,” she said again. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but it’s wrong. The fire will hurt people if it goes any farther. You have to stop.”

  He blinked. The fire behind him died down, flames falling back into smoldering embers. The black fire in his eyes faded too, revealing a more human color. They were darkest brown, deep and clear. Even with his fires leashed, the power in them stole Rose’s breath away. She’d been in the presence of alpha shifters before, but never one like this.

  His eyebrows drew together a little. For all the burning force in his gaze, he had a very human look of puzzlement.

  He lifted his right hand, almost but not quite touching her cheek. Intricate tattoos twined around his wrist, running up his bare forearm. They looked like runes, characters in some script she didn’t recognize.

  “I know you,” he said.

  His deep voice made her toes curl into the dirt. Her cheek burned where he almost touched her. The rest of her felt cold in comparison, cold down to the bone. She yearned to lean into his palm, but something about his raw, uncertain eyes made her hold still. There was a sense of wildness about him; an unpredictable, unstable power.

  “I know you,” he said again. “Who—?”

  He gasped, suddenly stumbling back as though jerked away by an invisible leash. His left hand shot to his right wrist, gripping tight.

  Rose stared, unable to make sense of what she was seeing. A moment ago the tattoo had just been black ink. But now color was blossoming up his arm. Each tiny, precise rune was outlined in crimson.

  Then the thin red lines started to drip and run.

  Blood. Blood welling up, as though the tattoo was tightening, cutting into his skin.

  Her swan hissed in distress at the sight of their mate’s pain. Rose started to reach out to him, but had to jerk back. The air around him was hot. She might as well have tried to put her hand into a furnace.

  Behind him, the forest fire surged up with renewed force. The inferno was back in his eyes, black and all-consuming. He strained toward her, every line of his body yearning, but it was like a glass wall had slammed between them.

  With a snarl of frustration, he turned away. He tipped his head back, throwing his arms open.

  “Wait!” Rose was forced to scrunch her eyes shut as his human form dissolved into incandescent light. “Don’t go!”

  “No choice.” The words hissed and crackled, formed by fire. “He’s calling. I have to obey.”

  “Who?” His blinding form seared her sight even through her closed eyelids. “Who’s calling? Who are you?”

  “I am the Phoenix.” Burning wings spread wide. “My name is Blaze.”

  Chapter 3

  You’re a fully grown, mature woman, Rose told herself firmly as she pulled pints. You’ve got no call to be pining after a man like some melodramatic heartbroken teenager. Let it go.

  She’d offered; Ash had refused; that was the end of it. The
re was no need to feel awkward about it.

  Nonetheless, she couldn’t quite bring herself to look Ash in the eye. And it might have been her imagination, but he too seemed to be giving her rather more space than normal. He’d gone directly to his shadowed corner with barely a nod of greeting rather than coming up to the bar to chat—or rather, to listen in silence as she chatted at him—as he usually did.

  Still, at least her rash declaration hadn’t scared him off entirely. She’d been worrying all week that she’d embarrassed him so badly that he wouldn’t want to set foot through her door ever again. And as far as she knew, Alpha Team’s weekly after-work gathering was the entirety of Ash’s social life. She’d fretted over the thought of him sitting abandoned and alone in the fire station, working on reports while everyone else went out for drinks.

  But there he was, as usual. A still, quiet shape amidst the banter and laugher, sitting in his customary place at the edge of the group.

  And if he was even more reserved and silent than usual…well, it would take someone who knew him well to spot that.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who knew him well.

  “So, Rose,” Griff murmured in his rich Scottish accent as he waited to collect the drinks. The firefighter’s gaze flickered from his commander to Rose. “Just how badly did that conversation go?”

  Rose scowled at him over the bar taps. “And what conversation would that be, Griff?”

  “I told him that you were angling to get Ash alone last week,” Griff’s curvy mate Hayley confessed. “Sorry, Rose. It’s hard to keep a secret from your mate, especially when he’s a griffin.”

  “Not that you need eagle eyes to see that something’s up,” added Chase. The pegasus shifter had ostensibly come up to the bar to help carry the drinks, but his black eyes were bright with curiosity as he too looked between Rose and Ash. “Our glorious leader is never exactly over-brimming with exuberance, but at the moment he’s so rigid I could use him as a tire iron. I just told him the filthiest joke I know and he didn’t even make the tiniest sigh of irritation.”