Page 13 of Wolf's Midlife Baby

She got dressed just as quickly as he did and hurried out the door with him, waiting to tie her boots until she got in the truck. “How bad of a fire is it?”

He gripped the wheel as he flew out to the edge of town. He could still hear the dispatcher’s voice echoing in his head. We got a call. It’s your dad’s house. “Bad enough that they sent the whole team out before they called me, so it’s not just a stove burner that got out of control.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He felt her genuine concern. He needed it, but it only made his situation more difficult. Holly was amazing. She was smart and cute, a demure writer who looked at the world with wide eyes. Tonight, she’d also shown that she could set herself free, her body moving alongside his both at the club and in bed. Now, she was comforting and caring. How unfair was it that she’d only be there for a few more days?

As he rounded the corner, his heart sank into the pit of his stomach. The column of smoke and steam that rose from the house had turned pale, the lights of the fire engines that surrounded it flickering in the misty air. Where once there had stood a beautiful house, a place Pierce would always think of as home, there now only remained a hollowed-out shell. The skeletonized framing supported part of the back wall where the kitchen had been. Hunks of melted metal and plastic that were formerly appliances still lurked there, recognizable only because of their shape and placement to each other. Most of the roof had caved in, and debris had scattered everywhere. “Holy shit.”

“Oh, no.” Holly put her hand over her mouth.

With the driveway full of emergency vehicles, Pierce parked on the lawn. He stepped onto the grass that Rick had always been so meticulous about. His father would’ve thrown a fit over tire tracks through his precious greenery, but it didn’t matter now. Water squelched up out of the dirt, runoff from the fire department's efforts to save their chief’s home. He spotted a familiar figure standing on the walkway that led up to where the front door used to be and slowly moved toward them.

Holly slipped her fingers between his. “Would you like me to come with you?”

He tightened his grip in answer, walking through a nightmare to where his father stood watching the smoldering remains of the home. “What happened?” His heart had worked its way back up and into his throat, and the words barely strangled out around it.

Rick turned and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Electrical fire.” His eyes dodged to the side, noticing Holly. “Hello again, young lady. I’m glad to see you’ve recovered.”

“Yes, thank you. I’m—I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Tears glimmered in his eyes as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and turned his gaze back to the subject at hand. “Thank you. I have to say, I’ve never liked it when we’ve seen this happen to someone else. It’s even harder when it happens to you. Someone else loses their home, and you start thinking about how to help them get a new roof over their head, some clothes, and a couch to sit on. When it’s you, you don’t even know where to start.”

Hayden came around the corner of the house, still clad in his gear. He stripped off his helmet and chucked it on the ground. “Son of a bitch. We got here as fast as we could, Dad.”

“You and I both know that sometimes it doesn’t matter.”

“Still.” Hayden did a double take as he noticed Holly and gave her a polite nod. “I’m sorry my brother dragged you along for this. You must think Eugene is nothing but natural disasters at this point.”

“That’s all right.” Holly’s hand slipped out of Pierce’s and tucked around his waist. “I’m sorry that it’s happened.”

Pierce returned the embrace, settling his arm along her back and cupping her hip in his hand. Sadness moved through him like a whole new beast that inhabited his body. The porch where he and Hayden used to wait for the bus, fighting over who got to sit next to Joanna Murphy, was now just a hunk of concrete, barely visible under the half-burned pieces of wood that’d fallen from the porch roof. On the second floor, all the way to the left, a few shards of glass remained from the window of his childhood bedroom. He used to watch their little neighborhood from there, sitting on his bed and dreaming of what his life would be like someday. He’d sat on that bed and even dreamed of finding a mate, especially as he’d reached high school and some of his friends were already meeting the people they were supposed to be with. Pierce had wondered when it would happen for him, knowing it would be the start of something incredible.

He'd found her, but this wasn’t exactly the happy ending he’d hoped for. He was about to lose her within a matter of days, and it didn’t feel so different from the house burning down. When Holly was gone, he would feel just as hollow and damaged as the remains of the home before him.

“Damn thing is, I had an appointment with an electrician scheduled for next week,” Rick said quietly.

“What was happening? Was something acting up?” Hayden asked.

Rick shook his head. “No. Not a thing. Nothing was any different than it had been for years. I was just getting frustrated that there was only one electrical socket on the outside of the house, so I was going to have him put in another one. The place was old, and I thought I’d have him check everything else out while he was here. I’m sorry, boys.”

“Don’t apologize, Dad.” Knowing that his father felt bad about the whole thing only made it harder to bear. “It could’ve happened today, tomorrow, or three months from now.”

“Yeah, I know. And we can all justify it any way we want to, but I still feel terrible about it. There were a lot of memories in that place, both in my mind and in the physical things. Your mother had put together those baby books, and she had a box for each of you up in the attic with some of the things from your childhood. There was the doorway where I measured you each summer.”

“I was always taller,” Hayden said, giving Pierce a sad smile.

“Not always,” Pierce replied. “There was that one summer when everyone called you my little brother.”

“I know the material things shouldn’t matter,” Rick went on. “Even when they’re sentimental, they’re just things. But, well, it sucks.”

“I know, Dad.” Hayden put his arm around Rick’s shoulders. “It’s the people that really matter, though. That’s something I thought about a lot after Jack had his accident. Pierce and I are just glad to know you’re all right.”

Pierce glanced down at Holly. Her head was tipped back, the light from the fire engines flickering over the various angles of her face. Yes. Hayden was right. It was the people that mattered. It broke his heart to know that all the memories from his childhood home were gone, but what was he doing to create new ones? What memories would he be missing out on when Holly returned to Cape Cod? She was right there next to him, her back warm against the inside of his arm, the feeling of her body still fresh on his, yet he already missed her. His wolf was crumbling under the grief of the house and of her.

Holly’s eyes slowly traced over the scene before her, and Pierce had to wonder what she was thinking. She was a writer. She’d told him how she liked to look for the story that no one else noticed. When they’d been at Selene’s, he’d asked her more about her work. He’d been fascinated to hear how she liked to pick things apart into the different senses and how she wanted to completely recreate a world to drop a reader straight into it. Was she doing that now? What story could there be other than one of loss and sadness?

Rick rubbed his hand over his face. “I know. And you’re right. I just need to quit moping and start thinking about what I need to do. I’ve got to call the insurance agent. I guess I might as well get all the utilities turned off because they’ll charge me a minimum even if there’s not a single lightbulb on.”

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