Page 8 of Packed in the Fire house

Walker

The fire was under control, and there had been no loss of life.

As far as I was concerned, that was a successful call.

As I packed up my radio and prepared for a debrief before returning to the station to get a little shut-eye, Blaze came up to me, a big smirk on his face.

“What do you want?” I couldn’t help but laugh. Blaze was easy to read; his face said it all.

“We are going to have a guest at the firehouse for a few days,” he declared.

I sighed. “Did you find another dog? Don’t get me wrong, they’re adorable, but this is why we have relationships with the local no-kill shelters.”

Blaze bit his lip, barely holding back a laugh. “Not a dog this time. It seems Rune is a little obsessed with an omega and her baby and doesn’t want her going to the shelter.”

I frowned. “An omega?”

“Yeah, she’s on her own, and Rune isallkinds of possessive.”

It was highly unusual for an omega to be alone—especially one with a child.

“Where’s her pack?” I asked, crossing my arms. The last thing I needed was to take an omega under our wing, only to learn she had a pack who would undoubtedly be very angry with us for taking their omega away.

Blaze shrugged. “No pack in sight, and I can’t see any bite marks either. I think she’s all alone…”

My chest constricted at that thought. Blaze was right—there was no way in hell we could send a single omega with a young child to the shelters. They did their best, and were invaluable for displaced people, but omegas were extra vulnerable.

“Shit…”

“Her kid is young as well, cute as a button, and they’ve just lost everything. We both know those shelters fill up with shady males this time of night.”

Jesus Christ, Blaze is laying it on thick.

I would never be able to live with myself if something bad happened, and he knew that. Everything that occurred with our team and on our emergency calls fell on my head as the captain of Station Sixteen.

Leveling Blaze with a cool look, I grumbled, “Let me guess, you don’t want her bunking with you guys?”

Somehow, his grin got even wider. “Well, you’ve got a private room. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?”

The little shit.

He was lucky he was family.

Even then, I was tempted to make him run drills every day for a month.

I sighed. “Okay, where is she?”

Blaze jerked his finger behind him. “She’s in the ambulance. Rune hasn’t left her side.” The knowing smirk never left his face.

Somehow, I got the impression this was going to be more complicated than I wanted.

Rune wasn’t usually the possessive type. Caring, yes. Loyal to a fault, sure. But possessive? Not usually. Throwing the hose I was wrapping onto the truck, I followed my pack mate as he sauntered back to where several ambulances were treating the few people that had evacuated the building.

We were lucky that the building had been minimally occupied; it had been easy to clear, and there were no serious injuries, other than a bit of smoke inhalation.

The omega and her child were the last ones out before we all retreated. The building had been swept several times, and we were confident it was empty. So now our focus was on extinguishing the fire.

“Gil! You good? I’m going to go check out something in triage,” I shouted into my radio. After me, he was second-in-command. He had the most experience with fires and had been a firefighter for a decade longer than me. While everything seemed under control, there was no harm in double checking.

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