Page 1 of Where There's Smoke
Chapter 1
Melody
“You're being such a good girl,” I cooed as I gently pulled the bottle away from the puppy’s lips. She looked at me so grumpily, I couldn’t help but giggle. “Sorry, sweet baby, there’s no more! Give me an hour, and I’ll make you another bottle,” I said, wrapping her up in a blanket and placing her back in her small pen.
The tiny Dalmatian puppy, who couldn't have been older than two weeks, had been found in a dumpster a few blocks away, and a good samaritan had brought her to me.
I was somewhat known in the local community as the rescuer who would do anything and take on any case.
I’d jumped over a fence to rescue a bunnyone time,and now I had a reputation.
As far as reputations went, though, I wasn’t mad at it. All animals deserved a fair shake, and so many were neglected. My little rescue wasn’t much, and it ran on a shoestring budget, but it was all mine, and every life we managed to help made me so happy.
Standing up, I stretched, reaching my hands to the ceiling, my back complaining as I did so. Sitting on the floor, feedingpuppies, wasn't exactly the most comfortable activity, but it was so fun and adorable, I wasn’t going to complain.
Now, the unnamed puppy was snoozing in her blanket, happily fed. So I picked up the empty bottle and padded out of the room toward the kitchen, stopping a few times to pet dogs in the kennels. For once, the shelter wasn't at capacity. We had eight dogs in residence and five cats. We’d had some bunnies, but they had recently been adopted by a local firefighter I was friends with.
Rune had rescued his bunny Sooty from a fire several years ago and had been the most active and attentive bunny dad since then. He’d texted me at all hours of the night, paranoid that he wasn't doing a good enough job. It had taken a little patience and time, but Rune found his feet and became a kickass owner.
Recently, he found an omega, and they moved into a house together with his pack. So, with the extra room, he decided to get Sooty a friend.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. Rune’s omega was stunning and sweet, like all omegas. The way he looked at her as though she hung the moon made my chest burn with jealousy.
Was it so wrong that I wanted someone to look at me that way? Not him—he’s taken—but someone just for me?
Sunny was extra lucky; she hadseveralsomeones. As an omega, she’d joined a pack and, as a result, had three doting alphas who adored her.
I wasn't an omega. I was just a beta, which meant there were no loving packs in my future. Sure, it wasn't completely unheard of for a beta to join a pack, but there was a tendency for that to go awry. Alphas were hardwired to ultimately love and adore their omegas. Betas didn't fit into that dynamic easily. So, they tended to be monogamous. I had always known that I would settle down with another beta one day.
Them’s the breaks, I guess.
Still, that didn't stop the green-eyed monster from rearing its head every now and again when I saw just how adoringly omegas were treated. The bond that alphas and omegas formed was unlike anything else. It was an emotionalandphysical connection, and it was beautiful.
I couldn't let myself dwell on it for too long, though. There was work to do.
In the kitchen, I started rinsing the bottle, placing it on the drying rack as I hummed lightly to myself. I was already in my mid-twenties, and I hadn't even dated all that much. My parents had set me up on way too many dates when they realized their daughter was somewhat pathetic and failing to find a partner on her own, but their choices definitely didn't align with my desires. When I had moved across the country to avoid their attempts, they finally got the message and left me to my own devices.
Several times, I had endured boring dinner dates with beta men who were so self-absorbed and determined to climb the corporate ladder, I was surprised they even dared leave their office to go on a date.No, thank you.
If I had to sit through one more dinner with a man explaining finance to me or telling me my little animal rescue hobby was cute, I was going to scream.
No matter what I told my parents, they didn't seem to understand that corporate guys didn't do it for me. Deep down, I wanted someone more rugged, more manly… morealpha.
I needed to accept that I wasn't going to have that, though.
But maybe a beta who didn't mind going to the gym a few times a week and played a sport wasn'ttoomuch to ask. Or someone who would be willing to help me build dog kennels, who wouldn't freak out at the idea of getting his hands dirty.
God, on one of my disastrous dates, I had mentioned building a new playpen for the kittens, and the guy had said thatwasmanual labor, and he wouldhiresomeone to do that with a sneer on his face.
Honestly, I didn’t think I'd ever been as turned off in my entire life as I had been in that moment. I didn’t stay for dessert, which is saying a lot because they had a caramel milk cake that looked phenomenal.
My stomach grumbled as I put the bottle away, so I opened the old fridge, glancing through it. All the equipment in the kitchen—which was nothing more than a glorified break room—was on its last leg. Most of it had either been donated, or I had found it at estate sales, ridiculously cheap. Why spend money on kitchen supplies when I could put that money toward helping the animals?
Everything I had went into the shelter. In fact, I even slept in one of the back rooms. We relied on donations to fund everything, and there was no way in hell I could afford an apartment and all the animal care that was needed, so a storeroom bed it was.
It worked out surprisingly well, considering I had to wake up every two to three hours to bottle feed the puppy. I had asked the Good Samaritan who had brought her in where they had found her, and I'd attempted to find her mother, but I’d had no luck.
So I was going to do my darn best to keep the puppy alive and well. Even if that meant very little sleep.
