Firefighter Wolves Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Series Boxset)

by Brittany White

  Jason agreed with Kevin and thought he was too young. Sure, Jason was the same age as Derek, but Derek had more field experience than Jason. Derek was always challenging Ben and was more than ready to step up as alpha. Jason was not.

  “He’s the same age as I am,” Derek said predictably. “As previous alpha, it’s my right to choose my replacement.”

  “And don’t forget, Jason’s father and grandfather before him were members of this pack. Shadowbrook is in his blood. If anyone can lead us, it’s him,” Josh said.

  “Jason’s dad married a human and left the pack to be with her,” Kevin said. “I don’t think a half-breed should lead us.”

  Ben growled and his eyes flashed dangerously as he took a step towards Kevin. “Do I have to remind you my mate is human and she is carrying my child? I’ll have no more talk of half-breeds. If you’re not happy with the pack integrating with humans, and some of us claiming human mates, you’re welcome to leave.”

  “I think the fact Jason’s mother is human is even more reason to elect him as alpha. We’ve been too stuck in our old ways. We need to evolve,” Derek said.

  “Ben, listen to reason. I’m the oldest and most experienced shifter here. I should be alpha,” Gavin pleaded.

  “We should vote,” Josh said from the other side of Derek. “Derek has nominated Jason, and Gavin has nominated himself. The only fair way to decide who will be the next alpha is for the whole pack to vote.”

  Ben flashed a grateful smile at his brother. “I agree. We vote. Then no one can claim people are playing favorites or that the new alpha was elected unfairly. Everyone in favor of Gavin becoming alpha, raise your hands.”

  Predictably Gavin and Kevin raised their hands, as did about fifteen others. Jason did the quick mental Math and his spine went rigid.

  Fuck, he cursed under his breath. They can’t be serious?

  “And all in favor of Jason becoming our new alpha, raise your hands,” Josh said.

  Arms shot into the air and Jason started counting … fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen … twenty.

  “With a lead of three votes, our new alpha is decided. Congratulations, Jason!” Derek shouted, and those who had voted for Jason burst into applause.

  All Jason could do was stand there, wide-eyed, in shock.

  Damn, I really need that beer.

  Soon it became obvious that the pack was waiting for Jason to say something, and he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, suddenly feeling very warm. He was not expecting this and had no idea what to say or do next.

  Jason took a hesitant step forward, towards the previous alphas and joined them facing the pack, his pack.

  An image of Jason’s parents entered his mind. His strong dad and his soft, warm mom had created the perfect parenting balance together so that they raised Jason without being authoritarian nor coddling him. Then Jason recalled his granddad’s face, similar to his dad’s, but with more lines and signs of age, always with wise words to share with his grandson.

  Jason knew everything he was today was because of his family, his people. He’d had a pretty easy life, all things considered, and it was thanks to the influence of his parents and granddad. He didn’t have to grow up too soon like Ben and Josh had to when their father had died when they were young. And Jason had grown up with a loving family, unlike Derek, who Ben had adopted into the pack when Derek was fifteen, after Derek had killed his abusive father. Ben had done what he could to be a mentor to Derek, but he was only five years older than the teen shifter.

  It was Jason’s father and grandfather who really took Derek under their wings. When Jason’s grandfather passed five years ago, it hit Derek almost as hard as it had hit Jason. But, the best friends had gotten through it with support from each other. Ben and Josh had been huge sources of support as well. Jason knew if he owed his good upbringing to his parents and grandfather, he owed the time since becoming an adult, during which he had become a firefighter and learned what it really meant to be part of a pack, to Ben, Josh, and Derek.

  They had voted Jason as their alpha, and he knew he couldn’t let them down now.

  I have to make my parents, pack, and everyone else proud. I need to live up to the Sullivan Family legacy.

  “Thank you for your votes,” Jason said, he willed his voice to be as strong as possible. “I won’t lie, this is quite a shock. But you’ve all put your faith in me, and I won’t let you down. I’ll be the alpha Shadowbrook deserves.”

  Beside him, Ben, Derek, and Josh started clapping. Soon the whole pack, save Kevin, were clapping too. Jason was surprised to see that Gavin was taking the decision well and clapping with the others.

  When the cheering ended, the pack started to disburse, smaller groups going off to grab something to eat, or hang out in the rec room. Jason was starting to crave that beer again and wanted to slip away with the others when Ben’s large hand landed on his shoulder.

  “You did well facing them,” Ben said when Jason turned to meet his gaze. “I’m not going to sugar-coat it, with Rebecca Carnegie still out there, you’re not going to have an easy time of it. You need to be on your guard.”

  Jason nodded. “I will be. I just want to prove to you all you didn’t make a mistake electing me alpha.”

  “And you will, Bro,” Derek said, wheeling himself forward so he was beside Ben, gazing up at Jason. “I have faith in you. I meant it that day in the hospital when I said I can think of no one better.”

  Jason grinned. “Thanks, man.”

  “Don’t forget what else I said in the hospital,” Derek reminded with a smirk and Jason wanted to punch his best friend for bringing her up.

  “What’s this?” Josh asked, coming over to stand with Ben and Derek. Somehow he could always sense gossip, and of course, Derek - the great friend he was - was happy to oblige and fill them in.

  “He’s got the hots for that cop from Boston. You know, Grace’s friend, Alicia?”

  Ben quirked an eyebrow as Josh smirked. “I don’t blame you, man. If I wasn’t happy with Harper, I’d be asking that cop out for a drink. She’s hot.”

  Jason shook his head, trying to deflect the banter, as he felt the back of his neck heating. Unbidden, an image of Alicia appeared in his mind. The first time Jason had seen her, in the hospital after Derek was shot, she’d been in her uniform, which was pretty sexy, if Jason was honest.

  Who knew I had a thing for cops?

  But it was when he saw her at the Maple Inn a few days later that she really caught his interest. In her civilian clothes, Alicia was stunning. Her dark skin looked so smooth and soft, and Jason had wondered more than once what it would feel like to kiss her. But his favorite feature was her long, curly black hair. When he saw her at the hospital, Alicia had worn her hair in a braid, but that night at the Maple Inn, it had been down and natural. The perfect black spirals looked so soft, and Jason longed to run his fingers through them as his mouth claimed her lips, her neck, her breasts…

  “Oh my God, are you blushing?” Ben teased, jerking Jason out of his thoughts.

  Jason shook his head, trying to hide the heat flaring up in his body. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Derek let out a howl of laughter. “He is. Jason man, you’ve got it bad. How are you going to keep your head in the game if you’ve got to work with her to find Rebecca Carnegie?”

  SHIT.

  When Jason was elected alpha he hadn’t even considered that. The whole reason Alicia was in town, instead of back in Boston where she came from, was because the Boston police department had made her head of a special task force commissioned with finding Rebecca and arresting her on multiple counts of child abduction and endangerment. And as the Shadowbrook pack was also hunting Rebecca, Jason had no doubt he and Alicia would be working together closely.

  I won’t survive, Jason thought, once again picturing Alicia and imagining what it would feel like to hold her in his arms.

  66

  Alicia

  Alici
a Ripley settled on Grace’s couch with a carton of Chinese takeout, a glass of wine on the coffee table. For Alicia, it was nice to eat something not prepared at the Maple Inn, and it was even better to be spending time with her best friend. Grace had been pretty busy since her boyfriend Derek was released from the hospital and they’d moved into a new bungalow together. Alicia didn’t begrudge her, of course. The man took a bullet for Alicia’s best friend, so he’s a good guy in her books. But still, between Grace helping him adjust to his new life in a wheelchair and the couple being loved up, Alicia hasn’t seen much of Grace since she’d arrived in Lenox.

  Not that Alicia hadn’t been busy herself. The whole reason she was in town, instead of back in Boston, was because her police captain had Alicia leading a task force hunting down dangerous child abductor Rebecca Carnegie. Alicia has been poring over the Carnegie file for the past few days and by all accounts the woman was insane. Strike that, her whole damn family was crazy. For some reason, they had a grudge against the fire department situated at the Shadowbrook Estate.

  That’s another oddity in itself, Alicia thought. The whole fire department all live up there together.

  She supposed it made it easier to respond to emergencies, but Alicia couldn’t imagine living with her work colleagues.

  In the past few months, Rebecca and her deranged family had been attacking members of the fire department, starting when they kidnapped Fire Chief Ben Stokes’ girlfriend.

  So here Alicia was in small town Lenox, assembling a team to hunt down Rebecca Carnegie and whatever allies she might have remaining at her side. Alicia thought the change of pace from Boston was … something. Although the Carnegie case was the most high-profile case she’d worked on in her career, she found the difference between busy city life and quiet town life mind-boggling. Everyone knew everyone and no bit of gossip went uncovered. In the few weeks Alicia had been here, she had learned all sorts of private details about the townsfolk. For example, Ben Stokes had proposed to his pregnant girlfriend Lana; his brother Josh had run off to Boston with a marketing manager named Harper; and widowed Mrs. Martinez, who ran the post office, was eyeing firefighter Jason Sullivan as her next husband.

  Not that Alicia could blame Mrs. Martinez. In her opinion Jason Sullivan was hot. She’d met him when she’d been visiting Derek and Grace in the hospital, and had soon learned the muscular man with shoulder-length dark hair and a gorgeous grin, was Derek’s best friend and a firefighter too. The fact that Jason risked his life to save people made him all the more appealing to Alicia. Since then, she’d run into him a few times around town, mostly at the Maple Inn, where he could be found most evenings enjoying a bottle of beer or two after a long day at the station.

  Alicia quickly surmised Jason was a complete flirt, and she was sure she’d seen him leave the inn with at least two different ladies in the course of the same week. That was enough of a reason for Alicia to keep her distance from him. She didn’t need a man like Jason in her life. The last man she’d trusted had used her and broken her heart.

  Besides, I’m here on business, Alicia thought, as she slurped up chow-mein noodles. Not to find love.

  “Is your food okay?” Grace asked, looking up from her own box of takeout. “You’ve been eating that one mouthful of noodles for almost five minutes. Something bothering you?”

  Alicia swallowed down the food and shrugged. “Not really. Just wondering why Rebecca Carnegie would have it in for the local fire department?”

  Grace tensed in her seat and Alicia fully understood why. It was Rebecca’s fault Grace’s boyfriend was now in a wheelchair.

  “I’ve wondered the same thing myself. It all goes back a hundred years, when the Carnegies tricked the pa... the fire department to give up their rights to the Shadowbrook Estate.”

  Alicia noticed her friend’s stumble with her words and frowned. It wasn’t the first time Grace had started saying something and changed track, and she’d often noticed Grace and Derek whispering about something. Like tonight, when Derek had said Fire Chief Ben had called an emergency meeting. Alicia realized it was natural for couples to have in-jokes and secrets, and she was sure tensions at the fire station were high given Rebecca Carnegie had been targeting them so viciously, but her police instinct told her there was more to the situation than her friend was willing to reveal.

  Alicia decided not to push it, not right now, at least. Grace would tell her whatever it was when she was good and ready.

  “Yeah, but why come back now?” Alicia said. Even though she wouldn’t push Grace for details on her and Derek’s secret, she wasn’t about to give up the topic of Rebecca Carnegie. She needed all the help she could get on that front.

  Since the deranged woman had kidnapped a group of local kids, then been discovered by Grace and Derek, before escaping arrest by shooting Derek in the leg, she’d seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Something that made Alicia’s job all the harder. Captain Rogers in Boston was calling for daily status updates and didn’t seem impressed that Alicia had made no progress in the case.

  “How can a small group of people not be found in a little town like Lenox?” Captain Rogers had demanded on the phone earlier that day.

  From the data she’d gotten from Lenox Police Captain Louise Alcott, Alicia knew Rebecca only had a handful of allies with her. Between ten to fifteen members of the Carnegie family had yet to be arrested, and it baffled Alicia how she hadn’t found the group in a town that’s entire population was just over five-thousand. She’d searched houses and businesses, abandoned farms and old factory buildings, but there wasn’t any sign of the remaining Carnegies. Alicia worried if she didn’t get results soon, Captain Rogers would pull her off the task force, and she needed this case if she wanted to apply for a promotion.

  Alicia knew she had to find Rebecca Carnegie, no matter what it took. She intended to talk to her team this coming week that they’d be broadening their search to take in the surrounding area, including both the October Mountain State Forest, where one of the Carnegie family’s victims had been found. The victim was a woman from the fire department named Eloise, and it troubled Alicia that someone had actually been killed in this bizarre feud between the Carnegie family and the Lenox Fire Department.

  The other area she wanted to search was a reservoir situated to the east of Lenox, where Grace and Derek had found the Carnegies using an abandoned boat house to hold local kids. Alicia’s plan was to divide her team into two groups and have each search one of the two areas. She hoped that would lead to finding the Carnegies, because if it didn’t, she feared what the deranged family might do next.

  When they’d both finished eating, Alicia and Grace tidied up a little before settling back down on the couch to finish the bottle of wine.

  “How is Derek finding things since he got out of the hospital?” Alicia asked as she and Grace relaxed.

  “It’s been difficult, that’s for sure. He’s so used to being active, he used to go out running in the forest surrounding the estate, but he can’t do that anymore. I think he finds being stuck behind a desk frustrating, too.”

  Alicia nodded sympathetically. She was only just getting to know Derek, but she already liked him a lot. Sure, he could be a bit gruff and abrupt sometimes, but he obviously adored Grace, anyone with eyes could see that, and despite his sometimes abrasive demeanor Alicia felt certain he was a good guy. Knowing he was finding the adjustment to only having one leg difficult made Alicia’s chest hurt in sympathy, imagining how she’d feel if she were injured in the line of duty and had to work a desk job without being able to get out and be active sometimes. It would drive her insane, so she fully understood why it was frustrating Derek.

  “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” she said.

  Grace smiled a little sadly and reached out to take her friend’s hand. “Thank you. I will. It’s good having you here, you know.”

  “I’m glad to be here. I just wish it were under better circumstances,”
Alicia said, before asking, “How are you holding up? You’ve been through a lot too, what with getting caught by Rebecca, Derek losing his leg, and you telling your mom about your brother’s accident. It can’t have been easy.”

  On top of all the stress Grace was dealing with in her romantic and professional lives, she also had to deal with the fallout from confessing to her parents that she was the one who’d caused the accident that had left her twin, Will, paralyzed ten years ago. The Alcott family were now in therapy to discuss the accident and their relationships, and Alicia knew it wasn’t easy for her friend.

  Grace shrugged. “I’m holding up. Being honest about it has really helped. Not having the weight of the lie hanging over me anymore is such a relief. Things with Mom and Dad are getting better too.”

  “I’m glad, and what I said about Derek earlier goes for you too. If you need anything, just ask.”

  Grace smiled, this time the light reaching her eyes. “Having you here is more than enough.”

  “Well, let's hope after we’ve found Rebecca Carnegie, I can stick around a little longer and we can do something fun together.”

  “We could go on a double date,” Grace suggested with a smirk, raising her eyebrow.

  Alicia laughed and shook her head. “Don’t start with that.”

  Apparently, Jason Sullivan had been more than forthcoming about the fact he had the hots for Alicia. According to Grace, he’d even asked her to put in a good word for him.

  “I know he’s Derek’s friend, and he’s probably a really great guy, but I just can’t…”

  “Because you’ll be going home to Boston once the case is solved?” Grace asked, refilling their wine glasses.

  Alicia shrugged and took a sip of her wine. “That, and other things,” she said, choosing her words carefully. She didn’t want to offend Grace by implying Derek’s friend was a player or anything, plus she really did not want to bring up the topic of Todd and their failed engagement.