Dallas Fire & Rescue: Fire Wolf (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black Mesa Wolves Book 6)

by J. K Harper

  No one.

  Heading back out to the hallway, he looked over at the chief. "It's clear. Yours?"

  Chief nodded. "We're good. Good work, Tanner,” he added, his voice short but approving. “Let's get out of here." He headed with purposeful stride toward the exit door.

  Well, that was a first.

  Just as the chief started to head down the first stairwell, he turned his head as if to say something else to Tanner. The words never came. An enormous explosion rocked the building, quaking through the walls. The chief, unbalanced by the rolling floor, stumbled forward.

  Straight toward the stairwell. Pitching over it, he fell with a sharp yell before landing in a motionless pile at the landing.

  "Dammit," Tanner swore as he was flung violently off his feet back into the hallway. Slamming into the wall, he swore loudly again as his shoulder smashed into it. His wolf barking in surprised pain in his mind, he kept still for a second, quickly assessing the damage to his body. It didn't seem major. Shoulder hurt like the devil, though. He tried moving it a bit, and immediately winced at the sharp burst of pain. Damn thing was broken. Well, whatever the hell had just exploded, it could happen again. No time to worry about his shoulder right now. He didn't even have time to race to a window and yell for assistance in hauling the chief's unconscious, hopefully not dead, body down the stairwell.

  Without waiting to see if another explosion would rock the building, Tanner jumped downstairs, his shoulder furiously protesting. Leaning down, he quickly checked the chief's vitals. The chief was definitely out cold, his helmet knocked off his head, but alive. There was no time to assess for broken bones or potential internal injuries.

  Tanner had to get them both out of there before anything else happened.

  The explosion had jolted doors out of their frames. Smoke billowed down the stairwell. Reaching both arms forward to grab the chief, Tanner half howled, half screamed when his right arm felt like a thousand volts of electricity had touched it. Pain lanced through every nerve ending. Even his accelerated wolf shifter healing couldn't help him at the moment. Shifters healed fast, but not fast enough right now. Clenching his teeth, savagely calling on all the strength of his wolf that he could, he did his best to ignore the shocking pain as he hoisted the chief over his shoulders and stumbled down the stairs.

  Hoping like hell he got them both out of there before was too late.

  ***

  "Did you ever fall down while you were in there? Any possibility you hit your head at any time?"

  The woman, who was pale and shaking despite otherwise seeming fairly healthy, shook her head. Jordyn couldn't blame her one bit. Being in a building that suddenly caught fire was terrifying to the strongest, healthiest person. Calmly, she methodically went through her questions as she assessed the woman.

  Sean, who had been checking out another of the residents who managed to get out shortly before they arrived, said, "You're good to go. If you would please go back behind the police line, that would help everyone out."

  The young guy he'd been helping nodded, looking just as shaken as the woman. A sudden commotion around the corner of the building caught their attention. Zach and Max came out of the door, carrying a heavy older man while a slightly younger one followed behind them, face anxious. Jordyn's elderly patient immediately noticed. Standing up, she called out, "Brian! Brian, honey, I'm here!"

  "Hey," Jordyn said, gently grabbing the woman. "Stay here. They're bringing him over here. You know him?"

  Trembling, the woman nodded. "My husband. He has a heart condition.” Her voice shook. “Our son was over having dinner with us when the fire started. But there was too much smoke for Brian with his heart. Michael made me leave.” Her chin trembled as she spoke. “He said the firefighters would help them."

  Jordyn smiled reassuringly as she could. "And that's exactly what happened. I just need you to sit tight until I'm done checking you over and then we'll get to him, okay?"

  The man's eyes caught sight of the woman. A huge expression of relief spread across his face as he croaked, "Marge, honey, I was so worried about you."

  The other man hovering behind them rushed over to the woman and put a strong, supportive arm around her. "Don't worry, mom. I told you the firefighters would get to us just fine."

  Tears trickling down the woman's face, she clapped her hands together and effusively thanked Max and Zach. They offered her good-natured smiles, Max murmuring something about it just being their job. Jordyn bit the inside of her lip, which trembled suddenly at the scene. She'd seen this type of tearful reunion so many times before, but today it was really hitting her in all the feels.

  Every time she spent stolen moments with Tanner, she ended up feeling open and loving and vulnerable to all the heart-tugging scenes in the world.

  As Jordyn and Sean looked over the man, they decided his condition demanded he needed transport, although he wasn't in imminent danger. "Any others?" Jordyn asked Max.

  He shook his head. "Don't think so. Tanner and the chief stayed back to check the other apartments." Catching her suddenly alarmed gaze as she flicked her eyes at him, he quickly added, "Don't worry. The floor is pretty clear. The restaurant where the fire started is on the other side of the building, so it was just their adjoining doors that the smoke was getting through right now. But it wasn't that much smoke, and the worst of it is on the front side where the rest of the team is. Everyone in the restaurant got out in time."

  Relieved, even though she knew Tanner knew exactly what he was doing, Jordyn went back to pulling out the gurney to get the patient onto it. With Max's help, and both Zach and Jordyn surreptitiously adding some of their wolf strength to the situation, they got the man onto the gurney and easily loaded him into the back of the ambulance. Shutting the doors, she headed around to the driver's side while Sean stayed in the back with the patient.

  "We're heading in with this guy," she told Zach.

  Zach nodded, smiling in reassurance as he opened his mouth to answer. But a short, sharp explosion shattered through the building, setting off car alarms in the street and drawing gasps and screams from the watching crowds. The blast wasn't enough to knock anyone to their feet except for the few who stood right by the building.

  Her wolf dancing crazily in her mind, rigid with fear, Jordyn blindly screamed, "Tanner! Tanner!"

  Heedless of anything else in the world, she began to charge toward the building. Strong arms caught her around the middle, holding her back. She turned and snarled, angrily swiping at whoever was. Zach's wolf strength was an easy match for hers, however. He held her tightly, shouting at her, "You can't! You don't have the right equipment. He'll get out. Don't worry."

  Still fighting against him, screaming Tanner's name, Jordyn stared in utter horror at the flaming, explosion-rocked building in which the one person in the world she cared for most was inside.

  Tanner. Her mate.

  Her mate.

  Chapter Eight

  The chief's bulk was an absolute deadweight around Tanner's shoulders as he half stumbled, half slid down the stairs. Leaning heavily against the wall with his good shoulder, trying to hold as much of the chief's unconscious body on that side as he could, his other shoulder and arm were half useless. He knew the only reason he was actually able to move right now was his superior wolf shifter strength. No normal man could hoist a guy the chief's size, wearing all his equipment, with a broken shoulder. Anyone else could only try to drag the guy downstairs. Even so, his strength was ebbing low due to his screaming shoulder.

  Behind him, fresh, dark billows of smoke pulsed down the stairwell. Dammit. He was still breathing just fine because of his apparatus, but every instinct he possessed still screamed at him to get out of the building. To get into fresh, clean air. To make an all-out run for it just in case the building blasted again.

  The second landing materialized in front of him through the smoke. Almost there. Still carefully stagger–step–sliding his way down the staircase, he swayed brie
fly under the chief's weight, but managed to stay upright and still moving. Wondering how bad the blast had been on the other side, wondering what it was like outside, feverishly hoping that Jordyn was okay out there whatever she was doing, he forced himself to struggle on. A few ominous creaks in the building caused his breath to stutter in alarm. Inside, his wolf lent him all the strength he could, keeping him focused and steady.

  Keeping him alive.

  Five steps away from the door.

  Four steps away.

  Three steps away.

  One step away. Tanner reached forward, relief flooding through him as he grabbed the door handle and twisted. Opening the door, taking a step outside into the sharply clean air, he started to mutter to himself and the unconscious chief, "We made it. Hell, yeah. Made i—"

  A huge, shuddering boom rattled the entire building, sending Tanner and the chief pitching forward onto the pavement. Trying to lunge and twist so the chief didn't land on his unprotected head, Tanner heard yells and shrieks from outside. Then a sudden tangle of legs and arms met him as he and the chief him fell straight to the ground.

  Landing directly on Max's body, who stared at him dazed from where he'd been thrown to the ground by the blast just as he'd apparently reached from outside to open the door at the same time as Tanner.

  Inside the building, the ominous roar of the fire gaining strength charged the atmosphere with manic frenzy.

  "Move!" Tanner barked, grunting as a sharp pain sent another agonizing blast through his injured arm.

  Heavy running steps alerted them to the arrival of several other crew members. Rough, quick hands grabbed them up. Howling in pain, Tanner forced himself to get up and stagger along with them, as they grabbed up the chief as best they could and ran with him back toward the vehicles.

  Uniformed officers of all sorts were blowing whistles and waving people away. There was a stampede on the sidewalk and the streets as all the bystanders fled in panic.

  Head down, still helping carry the chief, Tanner about ran into the guy in front of him who stopped suddenly. Looking up, he saw the ambulance.

  And Jordyn.

  Zach was holding her from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist in a pose Tanner knew perfectly well was one meant simply to keep her from running forward pell-mell. Even so, he couldn't help the snarling lift of his lip at the sight of another man's arms wrapped so intimately around Jordyn.

  Around his mate.

  Catching his eye, Zach managed to roll his own eyes despite the situation, instantly letting go of Jordyn. She lurched forward, straight toward Tanner.

  Her mouth was open, saying words, but he couldn't understand them. He couldn't hear her. Peering at her, he shook his head. Everything was disappearing into a long, black tunnel. Frenzied and scared, his wolf snarled and snapped inside him as Tanner swayed. Safe, he thought in a dazed muddle at his wolf. She'll keep me safe.

  Unconsciousness reached out its long dark fingers to finally claim him as he passed out at Jordyn's feet.

  ***

  Jordyn smiled at the guys in the firehouse as she entered. “Hey,” she called out, waving with one arm, the other loaded down with her jacket.

  They smiled brightly at her, waving back with a weird animation.

  She and her wolf stared back, puzzled, as she walked across the big room toward the little office she and Zach shared.

  Tanner had been out of the hospital for a week now. Both human doctors and the pack healer had declared him fit again. The chief was going to be fine, too. So fine, in fact, that he'd told Tanner a stunning thing after his own recovery.

  He wanted Tanner to stay.

  “He admitted that he pushes me because he sees how I'm really a good part of this group,” Tanner had told her, his voice crinkled from surprise. A few days after he'd been released from the hospital, they'd gone for a walk through the streets of town, slowly strolling and window shopping. He'd talked as they walked. “He said he used to be just like me.”

  “A little too tough and strong for his own good?” Jordyn had let a smile tug at her lips as she said that.

  He'd snorted a light laugh. “Something like that. Said he used to be a lone scrapper himself, but when he finally realized being part of a team didn't make him weaker, it made him stronger, it changed his whole life. He also said I have his blessing to go to Dallas and try to find my place there. But then he told me,” and now Tanner's voice filled with even more surprise, “he thought maybe I already had my place here. I just couldn't see it quite yet.”

  “Hmm,” had been all she'd said in response.

  He stopped talking about Dallas after that, though he didn't say anything about staying. Her wolf twirled in hopeful ecstasy in her mind. But Jordyn remained cautious. She was pretty sure he was just processing what it had been like to save the chief's life so directly.

  And to almost get killed himself in a fiery building, just as his pack had so long ago.

  Now, feeling the eyes still staring at her in the firehouse, she stopped suddenly and quickly turned. Two of the guys quickly covered up grins, but they were definitely staring. As was Sean, who wasn't in their office at all. He was lounging against one of the fire trucks, watching her with an openly huge smile.

  “What?” she demanded, exasperated. Twisting her head around to try to look at her own rear, she added, “Do I have something stuck on my pants? Why are you guys all being so weird?”

  “Because,” Tanner's rich rumble of a baritone sounded behind her, “they know what's about to happen.”

  She whirled, mouth open to keep demanding what was going on.

  She stayed that way, jaw inelegantly dropped, as Tanner walked over to her with something held tightly in his hand. Then stopped about three feet away from her and dropped to one knee.

  “Holy,” she started to say before her voice strangled in her own throat.

  Tanner's strong jaw and dark eyes were as gorgeous as ever. But what really caught her, what really shocked her even as it made her chest heave with a barely restrained thump of joy, was the sheen in his eyes. More than the hint of his wolf in them, the sheen was—something suspiciously emotional.

  “Jordyn.” His voice, though quiet, seemed loud in the dead silent firehouse. “I was going to say this before the fire. But this is even better, because I can say it now in front of all the guys. Say it with witnesses. Say it publicly with pride, babe.”

  His eyes stayed on hers, strong yet soft, vulnerable and hoping, certain. She felt prickling behind her own eyes, felt almost dizzy from the excited whirling of her wolf in her mind.

  “The fire also proved to me that I am a member of this crew.” He waved his free hand generally around the room. “I have their backs, and they have mine.”

  “Bout time you realized that, you thick-headed dumbass,” Zach's voice muttered out to be greeted by a round of agreeing chuckles. The guys all quickly got quiet again, though.

  “Yeah,” Tanner said softly, drinking in Jordyn with his eyes as if she was the most amazing being on the planet. “Took me a while to really accept a few things. Like the fact that my past had some terrible stuff in it, and I ran like hell from it all my life.”

  Jordyn's throat felt thick. Tanner wavered before her watery gaze.

  “What I never should have done, though,” he went on in a quiet yet sure voice, “was choose to run from you, too. To leave you. You're not responsible for me or my happiness, no.” A corner of his mouth tipped up. “But I sure as hell will be the happiest guy on earth if you accept my request that you spend the rest of your life with me as my wife, Jordyn.”

  The room was so quiet now that Jordyn's ears banged from the odd loudness of the silence.

  “My wife and soulmate,” he put an extra little emphasis on the word mate, smiling even more at her as he now did let his wolf flare just the smallest bit in his eyes, “because you definitely are that. My mate in everything, babe.”

  He took a deep breath and held out his hand, revealing a
shining ring that glittered at her, though her eyes were so teary now she couldn't even see it clearly.

  “Will you marry me, Jordyn?” The simple words seemed to echo through the hushed room.

  Nodding, not daring to speak just yet, she dropped her jacket on the ground and put out her shaking hand toward him. Still not taking his eyes from hers, he gently slipped the ring on her finger on her left hand.

  As he began to stand up, his smile getting so big it transformed his entire face into a tableau of joy, Jordyn finally felt steady enough to talk.

  “Yes,” she said quietly. Then again, louder. “Yes, Tanner. Yes, yes, yes!” Launching herself at him, she pretty much jumped into his arms as the firehouse erupted into clapping and cheers.

  “Yes,” she murmured again against his lips, seeing his own tears running down his cheeks as well. “Whatever comes at us, we can face it together. Mate,” she added in a whisper, her wolf adding a low rumble of pure approval to her voice.

  “Mate,” he murmured back against her mouth before his lips were too busy on hers to do any more talking.

  Then the firehouse bell abruptly went off, scattering everyone there as they raced off to do their jobs. Smiling at Tanner, Jordyn kissed him again hard before they too headed off to rescue people. Secure in their work, their home, and each other. Forever.

  the end

  Thank you so much for reading this story! I hope you enjoyed it.

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  About J.K. Harper

  J.K. Harper writes about paranormal romance because despite a lifetime of wishing, all the cool supernatural book characters of her childhood just don't seem to be real. Besides, it's really fun to make stuff up. She lives in the rugged, gorgeous canyon country of the Southwest, which is a great place to let her imagination run wild.