Fire in the Smokies (Durham Wolves) (13 page)

“Just ’cause you don’t have anyone warming your bed, making you the early bird, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to race to arrive at work first.” Brianna had learned to give as well as she got. Her choice of jibes this particular morning perhaps wasn’t the best, but she held her head high and aimed directly for the bagels and cream cheese—acutely aware of Devin’s gaze traveling toward the man she’d fucked about a dozen times in the last twenty-four hours.

“You probably should have dropped me off and driven away. Everyone is staring.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not the one who just announced they’d been fucked nine ways until Sunday to the world at large, baby.”
He laughed into her head so hard she could almost feel the vibrations.

“It was an accident. You scatter my mind.”

“I scatter more than your mind. But I’m going to take off because the last thing I want is for you to be anything less than completely present on the job. I don’t want you caught in a fire, nor abducted by a vampire. Please be safe. I’ll be close at all times.”
Jaxon walked away without speaking out loud to his mate.

Brianna was relieved she didn’t have to introduce him or create a scene. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Jaxon head toward the sheriff. The men exchanged a brief conversation she wasn’t privy to and then Jaxon ambled back to his truck without looking her direction.

Brianna swallowed. She leaned against the table laden with donuts and bagels, willing the back of Jaxon to give her a sign of some sort. It was stupid. She was being petty. She’d specifically asked him not to make a scene and here he was not making a scene. Like a girl, she wanted him to acknowledge her anyway as he left.

“Baby, you are the only thing on my mind. Stop staring daggers at my back. I’m head over heels for you and that’s never going to change. You own my soul. Eat your bagel and enjoy the respite of not having your entire entourage teasing you today, ’cause this is the only free pass you get. After today, I’m claiming you openly in front of all your coworkers and friends.

He kept walking, his back growing smaller as he approached his car.

She could have sworn at the last second he turned and winked at her. At least that’s the way she cared to remember the departure.

There was no time to ponder Jaxon’s pronouncement further. Captain Wilson called everyone together to brief them on what lay ahead.

The fire was anything but contained. In fact, it had spread out some during the night, continuing to move in an easterly direction. At least the wind wasn’t shifting back and forth. It was always a bitch when they had to account for strange weather.

The forecast called for rain, but firefighters didn’t trust weathermen. They were notoriously unreliable when it came to precipitation on days when fires were raging out of control.

Brianna would take up the western flank as she had the day before. Each “man” had their position and their job was to fight to maintain it while inching forward.

Even though it was cool outside, she was already sweltering in her gear, her base layer soaking wet beneath the outer, flame-retardant layer. She’d be suffocating when she put the mask on and approached the flames.

For the first time in her life, she experienced some trepidation about the work ahead of her. She had someone to live for and intended to see that it happened.

There was no time to think about Jaxon or his brothers, and certainly not a vampire. Now that she was back at work, the notion that a blood-sucking, mythical creature was stalking her seemed absurd. She had to put it toward the back of her mind and focus.

Chapter Ten

Jaxon paced back and forth between the trees. He stayed as far away from the rear line of defense against the flames as he dared. It was so hot. The air was filled with falling soot even with the wind blowing in the opposite direction. And fuck all, his mate did this every day? How was he ever going to kiss her goodbye in the mornings knowing the danger she put herself in?

You’re going to find a way, buddy
. There wasn’t a chance in hell her job was up for discussion. She was strong-willed, independent and determined. He might win a lot of battles in the bedroom, and fully intended to test that theory, but all bets were off when they crossed the threshold from his wing of the house to the rest of the world at large.

Jaxon had his hands full scanning the area for McKinney. The flames presented two problems he hadn’t counted on. One: his eyes were burning from peering all around the forest. And two: all he could smell was charred wood. The burnt trees would mask his ability to scent out his opponent. And he was less than pleased.

On top of everything else, Jaxon put a lot of effort into blocking himself from his mate. The last thing he wanted was to distract her from her job with his banter in her head. And she must have been concentrating awfully hard herself, because he hadn’t gotten a single uttered word from her either.

“How’s it going?”
Serg startled him from his thoughts.

“No action. Any news from there?”

“Nope. The sheriff hasn’t seen or heard anything. Micah circled the area and didn’t smell a trace of McKinney.”

If anything, not knowing McKinney’s whereabouts was almost worse than knowing. It put Jaxon on edge. High alert. His ears stood on end. His eyes bore into the hazy horizon. Deep repeated breaths gave him no indication of danger.

With his head held high, Jaxon was totally unprepared for what happened next…

“That’s it you fucker, a little to the left…two more steps…riiight…there. Bingo!” Keeton lowered his binoculars and laughed. That jackass werewolf had played right into his plan.

In the blink of an eye, the wolf had gone from scanning the area with his supposedly sharp vision to flying up into the air. Now he swung between the trees in the simple animal trap McKinney had set up. Howling with anger, the wolf fought to free himself of the ropes that ensnared him.

“Sorry, big guy. You’ll never get out of that mess. You’re mine now.”

With a glance at the line of firefighters in the distance, Keeton considered the idea of toying with the woman on the western end before killing the wolf. It would serve that damn wolf right if he had to watch Keeton fuck his prize before succumbing to a long, painful death.

There wasn’t time for that right now, however. Too risky. The effort of luring the girl away from her job was beyond his grip right now. The objective was to kill the wolves, one by one, ridding himself of their incessant trespassing on his national forest. The woman was just a pesky side…snack.

Enough was enough already. If it hadn’t been for the flames burning so fucking hot so close to that cave yesterday, Keeton would have had a field day killing both the human and the wolf.

But that was yesterday. Today, Keeton had to concentrate and settle for the wolf. Perhaps later, when the woman was desperate and teary-eyed over the loss of her pet, he would sweep in and suck her dry too, just to enjoy the taste of fear.

With no particular haste, Keeton climbed down from his perch and ambled toward the wolf. Even without his binoculars, he could see the rustling in the trees as the fucker tried to free himself. His howls grew louder.

“Yelp all you want, dog. No one is coming for you,” he muttered to himself. Keeton was almost three hundred years old. His powers had advanced gradually over the years, but recently he’d worked hard to perfect one particular aptitude—blocking these beings from communicating telepathically.

Keeton hadn’t met anyone for over two hundred years who could speak into another being’s mind until these wolves came along. A few months ago he’d managed to block the older wolf’s ability to communicate with his mate when Keeton had kidnapped her. Unfortunately his efforts had been thwarted when Sergius had followed her scent.

This time, there was no one tracking the younger brother. Jaxon was his name. He’d heard it several times out of the sheriff’s mouth. Young Jaxon was on duty, so to speak, apparently guarding the female firefighter. She appeared to be his mate, judging by Jaxon’s stance of protectiveness guarding her in the forest. The wolf wouldn’t head out to the woods and stalk just any human for no good reason.

So the wolf hadn’t just entered the cave yesterday to protect the woman. He’d fucked her. Claimed her.
Ha. That was a short relationship. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.

Keeton had intended to catch the wolves off guard with his arrival. However, it seemed they must have either spotted him or scented him yesterday. After Jaxon had emerged from the cave with his woman, everyone had been suspicious. Leery. Scanning constantly. Staying close to home.

Had they always acted that way, ever since Keeton had fled the area several months ago to regroup before returning with a plan of attack?

What worried McKinney was the idea that the amount of energy he’d expended with his new ability to block telecommunication even from a distance had perhaps rendered him lax in noticing his own surroundings. When had the wolves discovered him? And how had he not known it?

It didn’t matter now. What did matter was that Jaxon was squirming with all his might to escape the hanging rope trap amongst the trees, and no one appeared to be dashing to the rescue.

Keeton smiled. His blocking skills seemed to have improved beyond his imagination. He was still a great distance from the suspended wolf. Even the woman hadn’t flinched from her spot on the front line fighting the fire. So, Jaxon wasn’t able to send her any thoughts either.

Perfect.

Fuck. Goddamn it. Shit
. Jaxon was pissed. Especially with himself for not having noticed the trap. He’d been so damn worried about scanning, he hadn’t paid any attention to where he was walking.

For a moment, he’d assumed the trap had been left by some random hunter, which would have been a very bad thing. Hunters had a tendency to kill wolves when they caught them. Of course, he did have the option of shifting into human form to avoid being shot, but then he’d have the difficulty of explaining why he’d been traipsing around in the forest, in the fall no less, butt naked.

No. This situation reeked of McKinney. Especially since all efforts on Jaxon’s part to communicate with his brothers had been to no avail. He was fucked.

And pissed.

Sergius had explained McKinney’s ability to block the brothers’ telepathy last spring, but none of them had expected something like this. Where was that bastard?

And more importantly, how was he managing to control the wolves from a distance?

Struggling in vain, Jaxon twisted around in every direction. He didn’t want that fucking bloodsucker to catch him off guard. The least he could do was notice which direction McKinney approached from. And he had little doubt by now it would happen.

Calm yourself, Jax. If you expend all your energy before the guy gets here, you’ll be useless defending yourself when it really counts.

Jaxon took deep breaths. He squirmed only enough to scan the area in every direction—repeatedly. Meanwhile, he tried again to connect with his brothers.

“Serg? Mic?”
The last thing he wanted was to disturb his mate. He wouldn’t attempt to contact her unless the situation grew dire. She might lose concentration, and the woman was busy fighting an out-of-control forest fire.

Nothing. Nada. Not even a twitch to indicate he’d gotten through to either man. Time was of the essence. The longer he went without reaching his brothers and managed to stay alive, the greater the chance the two would grow concerned and come looking for him.

So now he just needed to distract McKinney when he made his presence known long enough to give Sergius and Micah a head start.

Suddenly, McKinney stepped out of the trees, a huge smirk on his face. “Well, well, well. What have we here? Did the big bad wolf fail to pay attention to his surroundings?”

Jaxon grit his teeth and narrowed his gaze. His stomach roiled as though he’d eaten something bad. Directly below stood Keeton McKinney, pacing nonchalantly under Jaxon and taunting him with his stance.

Jaxon had no intention of engaging the fucker any more than absolutely necessary for survival.

“Perfect. And kind of your sheriff to blab your location on the radio. Made my work so much easier.” The vamp smirked up at Jaxon. “Let’s see. How shall we play this out?” McKinney thumped his lips with one finger, pondering what to do next. As though the asshole hadn’t planned the entire day before he’d gotten out of bed—if he even slept.

The vampire strutted around beneath Jaxon in a figure eight, glancing up at his victim. Suddenly, without warning, he lurched out and swiped a long knife through the air. Jaxon hadn’t even seen the machete-type weapon until that split second.

With a howl of fear, Jaxon tumbled to the ground. Instinct kicked in, helping him right himself so he landed more or less on all four paws. His immediate concern was injury. A quick survey of all his limbs showed little damage to himself.

He was, however, still trapped by the sack-like arrangement of ropes. Intentionally. McKinney grabbed the long end of rope and tugged. “Shame that fall didn’t kill you. Now I’ll have to do the dirty work myself.” He turned and began to pull.