A Burn To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 3) (7 page)

Luke stared out the window of the Twin Otter for what he hoped would be the last time this fire season. Although the last few weeks had been slow, he was tired from months of constant missions. He wanted a good, long stretch of time to recover from the physical and mental exhaustion of wildfire fighting. He wanted a few months to play around with his rekindled love of woodworking, and his newly kindled love of River.

He smiled as he thought of River. She had surprised him last night when she said she loved him. He had been thinking the words all week, but had wanted to take things slowly with her. He didn’t want to rush things and scare her off. But then she had jumped in and beaten him to the punch line. He knew she’d chosen to say the words because she worried that he might not come back from this mission. He wished he could do more to reassure her, but no matter what he said, the fear in her eyes had remained. He couldn’t say he blamed her. He had been terrified on every mission himself for a long time. Now, jumping out of a plane was just another day on the job.

A welcome blast of cool air filled the airplane as Ian and Zach opened the door and started their usual routine of throwing colorful streamers out into the air to determine wind direction. Luke dutifully started running through his final gear check. Now that he had River waiting for him back home, he had a stronger motivation to remember to check his gear.

“We’ve got our spot,” Ian shouted. “Let’s go.”

Luke lined up, watching the crew members before him as they launched themselves out of the jump door and were sucked away from the plane. When his turn came, he stood in the door, took a deep breath, and arched his back as he left the aircraft. The white noise of the air rushing past him filled his ears as he stabilized and then pulled his parachute. As usual, it opened seamlessly and jerked Luke from freefall into a slow, floating descent. He steered his canopy in the direction his other crew members were heading, aiming for a large, open space in the trees. The available clearing was much larger this time than it usually was, and Luke relaxed. He should be able to easily avoid landing in the treetops.

As he descended toward the clearing, he prepared to pull down on his steering toggles simultaneously. This would flare out the sides of his parachute and slow him down to a smooth landing. But just as he passed the tree line, he suddenly found himself plummeting to the earth. He heard Charlotte scream, and then he felt a sharp searing pain as his leg hit the hard earth. His head struck the ground next, and then everything went black.

* * *

When Luke came to, he wished he could pass out again. He was lying flat on his back, staring up at a hazy, smoky sky. Every nerve ending in his left leg felt like it was shooting sharp needles up through his entire body, and his head was throbbing so hard he felt like his brain might literally explode out of his skull.

He tried to speak, but his voice came out raspy and weak. Charlotte, Hunter, and Ian were all hovering over him.

“Oh, thank god. You’re awake,” Hunter said.

Luke tried to speak again, and was able to barely squeak out the words, “What happened?”

“You hit turbulence just below the tree line, and your canopy collapsed,” Charlotte said. “You fell about twenty feet, I’d say. Landed on your left leg, which is definitely broken, but is actually in much better shape than I thought it would be from the way I saw you land on it. I thought it was going to be completely shattered, but it looks like you’ve only got one clean break on your fibula. That’s the smaller of the bones in your lower leg. You also hit your head and knocked yourself out. You’ve got a nasty gash on your forehead, but I think it’s mostly a surface injury.”

Luke closed his eyes for a moment, trying to block out the sights and sounds around him. He felt hyper alert, like every little noise was louder than a freight train.

“Hurts,” he said. He couldn’t say much more, but his crew members understood.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Ian said. “Hang in there. We’ve got a rescue helicopter on the way. They’re going to airlift you out of here. We’re sending Trevor with you to help you. This fire is pretty small, so we can hopefully get it contained with just the four of us left here.”

Luke barely raised his palm in response. Anything else required too much effort right now. He tried to concentrate on something pleasant to take his mind off of the pain shooting through his body. He imagined River’s face in front of him, and her smile was the last thing he thought of before he mercifully blacked out again.

He had no conscious awareness of Trevor struggling to pull his limp body up against him, or of Ian using ropes to strap him to Trevor before Trevor stepped into the rescue harness that the helicopter dropped down into the clearing. He had no memory of his body being pulled back up from the earth and into the waiting helicopter, where a team of paramedics detached him from Trevor and immediately started to set his leg.

When he woke up in the hospital several hours later all Luke could remember was feeling weightless, like he was free-floating through the atmosphere. Confused about where he was, he blinked several times and looked around the hospital room. Trevor sat in a chair a few feet away from the bed, looking weary and worried.

“Hey, buddy,” Trevor said. “Welcome back. You gave me quite a scare there. The paramedics aren’t sure why, but your heart stopped beating in the rescue helicopter. They think your body might have been going into shock or something, although a broken leg and a small gash on your head doesn’t seem like enough to do that.”

“I don’t feel well,” Luke said.

Trevor chuckled. “Well, that’s not surprising. You took a pretty nasty fall.”

“No, I mean, besides the pain. I don’t feel well. Something’s off.”

“Just try to rest and relax,” Trevor said. “Boise is sending an SUV right now and I’m going to drive you back home.”

Luke closed his eyes and tried to follow Trevor’s advice. But he felt strange. The pain in his leg and on his head obviously wasn’t pleasant, but something deeper was wrong, and he couldn’t quite place his finger on it.

When the SUV arrived, the hospital staff wheeled Luke out and helped him settle in the backseat. Trevor hopped into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview mirror so he could see Luke’s face.

“Do you want anything to eat? We could hit up a drive thru,” Trevor said.

Luke shook his head no. “I don’t feel like eating right now,” he said. “I just want to get home. Has anyone contacted River?”

“No. I figured since you were mostly okay once they got you to the hospital, I’d let you call her when you woke up and were ready. Did you want to stop somewhere and call her before we get going?”

Luke shook his head no. “I’ll call her when we get back to base. How long is the drive?”

“Should be about six hours,” Trevor said.

“I’ll just call her once we get there. It’ll be easier to make a call once I’m back with my cell phone. And there’s no sense in her being worried the whole drive home.”

“Whatever you want, man. Let’s get going. Let me know if you change your mind and want to get something to eat, okay?”

“Okay,” Luke said. He laid his head back and tried to sleep. After a while he was successful. He drifted off into a dreamless sleep and found a brief respite from the pain and the uneasy feeling that had filled him. When he finally woke up, the light outside was starting to grow dim. Luke felt slightly nauseated and he took a few deep breaths to try to stave off the feeling.

“How far out are we?” Luke asked. They were somewhere on an open stretch of highway, and Luke couldn’t see any familiar landmarks to go by.

“I’d say about another hour to go,” Trevor called back. “How are you feeling?”

“Not good.”

“Hang in there. We’re getting really close,” Trevor said.

“Sorry to put you through all this,” Luke said.

“Dude, no worries. I’m sitting in an air conditioned vehicle drinking a Dr. Pepper while the rest of the crew is sweating in a smoky forest and doing hard manual labor. Don’t worry about me. Just take care of yourself.”

Luke nodded, and closed his eyes again, trying to keep his head from spinning. As the minutes went by, he felt sicker and sicker, and all of a sudden he felt a strangely familiar feeling welling up inside of him.

“Oh shit,” he said as the feeling grew stronger. “Trevor, pull over!” Trevor glanced in the rearview mirror and started slowing down.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Pull over, now!” Luke yelled in response.

“I’m trying, buddy, I’m trying,” Trevor said, decelerating even faster and pulling onto the right shoulder of the road.

Before the car had completely stopped moving, Luke opened the door and tumbled out. He let out a large roar, and suddenly a huge rush of energy came from within him. His clothes, and the cast on his leg all went flying in little shreds across the pavement, and his skin was replaced by thick, black fur as he morphed into bear form. His hands became paws with long claws on the end, and his ears turned round and furry.

Trevor looked out the window of the SUV in shock. “Oh, shit,” he said, throwing the vehicle into park and hopping out.

Luke’s bear swung its head back and forth in an agitated manner. He limped on his broken left leg, and clawed angrily at the ground with his front paws.

“Luke, calm down. You have to calm down,” Trevor said, trying to rub the fur on Luke’s back soothingly. But Luke continued to swing his head around and roar, growing more agitated by the moment.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Trevor said. “Luke, calm down, you need to shift back before someone driving down the highway gets suspicious and calls the cops.”

Trevor grabbed Luke’s bear face in his hands and shook it, trying to get Luke to look in his eyes.

After a few more minutes, Luke’s bear started calming down. His panting and pawing slowed, and Luke started to shift back. His fur changed back to human skin, and after a few moments he had completely morphed back to human form. He stood on the side of the road, completely naked and looking shell-shocked, with blood oozing from his broken leg.

“Shit, Luke, get in the car,” Trevor said, pushing him back into the vehicle. Luke complied, wincing as his broken leg hit the side of the seat.

Trevor looked in the back of the vehicle and found a blanket, which he threw to Luke. “Here, use this to cover up,” Trevor said, then climbed back into the driver’s seat. “Why the hell did you do that, Luke?”

“I couldn’t stop it,” Luke said. “I felt the shift coming and tried to hold it back, and I couldn’t.”

“Great. Just great,” Trevor said, putting his forehead on the steering wheel. “How does your leg feel?”

“Like hell.”

“We have to figure out how to get it reset. I’m going to drive back to base and try to get in touch with Ian. Do you think you can make it until then?”

“I’ll try,” Luke said. He felt awful. His leg was sending searing needles of pain up his body again, and he was shivering from his lack of clothes and the shock of what had just happened.

“I’ll get there as quickly and gently as possible,” Trevor said. He started accelerating the vehicle again, and pulled back onto the highway. As soon as they were back to full speed, Trevor pulled out his radio and tried to page Ian.

“This is Ian,” came the crackling voice over the radio.

“Ian, we have a big problem. Luke just shifted. He lost his clothes, and his cast. We’re going to need someone to reset it.”

There was a long pause, and then Ian’s voice came back on the radio. “What the hell?”

“That’s what I said,” Trevor replied. “Apparently something about his fall caused him to lose his ability to control his shifting. I don’t know. All I know is I’ve got an out of control bear on my hands who needs a new cast. I can’t take him to the hospital if he might shift at any moment.”

“Get him back to base and make him comfortable. I’ll try to figure something out.”

“Okay. Please make it quick, boss. Things could get really crazy really fast.”

“I know, Trevor. Just do your best.”

Luke sat in the backseat listening to Trevor and Ian discuss him like he wasn’t sitting right there. He couldn’t blame Trevor for being upset—an out of control shifter was a huge risk to any clan. Exposure to the wrong humans could spell disaster. Luke hadn’t had trouble controlling his bear since he was very young. Most adult bear shifters were very in control of their shifting. Luke had heard horror stories about head injuries where a shifter lost control, though. Was that going to be his fate? He hoped with all his heart that this was a temporary injury. He wouldn’t be able to work, or be around people, if he might shift unpredictably.

All he could think about was how he wouldn’t be able to be with River if he shifted uncontrollably. What was he going to tell her? He could stall for a few days, since she would just assume he was still out in the field and unable to contact her. But after that, she was going to want answers. Luke didn’t have much time to figure this situation out.

When they arrived back at base, Luke limped to the bunkhouse with Trevor’s help, and then collapsed onto his bed. His head had barely hit the pillow before he blacked out again, unable to take the agonizing pain that grew stronger with every passing second. He felt like he was on the verge of losing everything important to him, and all he wanted was to lose himself in the blackness of unconsciousness.