Page 86 of Fated to the Lone Shifter
Sera glances up, frowning at him.
I laugh, hoping everyone will assume it was a typical rough night for him. Casually, I go to him, not wanting to scare him off, and whisper in his ear. “Be careful. You’re adjusting. Strength comes with the change.”
He looks at me like I'm crazy, but I see the start of one of his mischievous grins. It’s already starting to feel good to him, this Monster he’s becoming.
Maybe too good.
And that’s when I see it: the moment Sera picks up on a shift of some type. Her gaze lingers on Marcus longer than it should. She knows something’s different. Hopefully, she's too exhausted to put all the pieces together.
My stomach twists into a knot of guilt, dread, and... jealousy?
Goddamn it, Marcus.
"Keep it together, buddy," I whisper again as Marcus nearly launches the milk container to the ceiling.
Sera’s focus drifts back to her phone. She smiles at a text—just a small one, but it’s enough to punch the air from my lungs.
I have no idea who it's from.
But I know this much--it’s not from me, and it’s got her attention.
Out on the job, the engine’s siren cuts through the hills like a banshee, and I’m grateful for the noise. It’s better than the silence in Sera’s eyes. She hasn’t spoken to me all morning, not really. Just clipped words and tired nods. But I can feel her watching me when she thinks I’m not looking.
Fine. Let her watch. Maybe then she’ll see how much I’m still trying to hold all this together.
We hit the ridge and roll up on the fire. Small brush fire, supposedly. Routine.
Except nothing about today feels routine.
We line up to connect the hoses. I wave Marcus over to the rear intake and help him rig the pump. The engine kicks once, then coughs out like it’s trying to die.
"What the hell—?" I mutter, ducking to check the water feed.
The gauge is wrong. The pressure’s tanking, but the tank’s full. Everything looks normal.
Except it isn’t.
“Marcus,” I bark. “Did you check this line before we left?”
He freezes like a guilty teenager. “Yeah. I mean—I think so? I—”
The hose sputters again. Nothing’s moving. We’re out of water. And we’re standing right in front of an advancing fire line.
Sera shouts to the crew and jumps into action, leading a backburn while Rivas grabs the hand tools. The team rallies fast, containing the blaze, and getting the hose back online, but the damage is already done. The malfunction didn’t just slow us down—it burned away any evidence.
The last trace of whatever—or whoever—started this.
We re-group at the truck. Sera's flushed with heat and dirt. She glares at the smoldering wreckage like she can will it into telling her what it saw. She won’t say it out loud, but she knows there's more to the story about the pump. And so do I.
Hadn't I seen Marcus coming out of the back of the truck this morning?
Why was he back there?
Why would he mess with our equipment?
Would he?
And why the hell did he have to be back there last night of all nights...right in the middle of my shift?
