Page 5 of Where There's Smoke
She shook her head. “I…I’ll go stay with a friend. I was…staying here,” she admitted.
“Here?” I asked in surprise.
“What do you mean, you weresleepinghere?” Samson growled next to me, and I’d honestly forgotten the guy even existed in the face of this omega.
She glared, her jaw working so that it shifted the mask on her face, and I had to straighten it.
“It’s also my home, thank you very much.” And then the frustration melted away as she looked back at the burning building. “Was. Itwasmy home.”
Chapter 3
Samson
She had beensleepingat the animal rescue.
“Why?” I asked, my tone gruffer than I intended. The building was bare bones, at best. It didn't have appropriate heating or air, the insulation was probably twenty years too old, and there was no way she could be comfortable there.
Oh, and there was the shoddy electricity that had clearly started the fire. She’d been living in a ticking fucking time bomb.
“It was easier.” She shrugged.
Shrugged.Like it was no big deal. Was she somehow unaware of the current blaze going on right behind her? She’d beenlivingin that death trap.
I was usually pretty cool and collected, but the idea of her disregarding her own safety like that made a strange anger I had never felt before swell in my gut. It was ludicrous for her to be living in a building like that, let alone using it as an animal shelter. Her pack should have?—
Fuck. She had no pack. No one.
“An omega like you can’t be staying somewhere like this. It’s not safe!” I insisted, my brows pinching together hard enough to give me an instant headache.
Her face scrunched in confusion for a second before she broke into a disjointed, cough-laden laugh.
“Omega? I know I’m small, but I assure you, I amnotan omega. Just a beta, so there’s no need to be so concerned.”
There was no way she was a beta. Her scent was completely omega. Sweet and fresh, like honeydew melon. It had drawn me to her the moment I met her, and carrying her in my arms had surrounded me in the stuff. My inner alpha had been desperate to cover me in that scent and never wash it off.
Never before had someone smelled so damn alluring, and that was even with all the smoke and char scents that clung to her from the fire. Soot was potent; it was rare that we pulled anyone from a fire and were able to smell them, butherscent was unmissable.
“Besides, I don’t sleep much at the moment, because I’ve got to be up with this cutie every two hours,” she said, nodding down to the bundle in her arms. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I took a good look.
“Is that the puppy?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“Yep, she’s two weeks old,” she said. The wiggling mass of puppy was tiny, its eyes only slightly open.
“She’s so tiny!” Fitz grinned, taking off his gloves, leaning forward, and gently petting the puppy on the head with a single finger. “Is it just this cutie?”
“Yeah, she was found in an alley and brought in by a concerned animal lover. I couldn’t find the mother anywhere, so I’ve been bottle feeding her for the last week.”
My heart stuttered as I watched her coo at the puppy, her eyes bright with care. Beautifulandkindhearted. This omega seemed far too good to be true. Even covered in soot, she was beautiful. Dark waves tied up in a messy bun with tendrils falling out, striking blue eyes, and sharp features. And she was saying she was a beta? There was no way.
She started wrapping the puppy back up in her lap, muttering sweet words that were muted somewhat by the mask on her face.
“You need somewhere to go,” I said, crossing my arms. I wasn’t going to let the adorable nature of the omega dissuade me from getting her the help she needed.
“I have friends,” she said, keeping her eyes firmly on the puppy in her lap.
“Have you given her a name yet?” Fitz asked, ignoring my line of questioning.
“No, I’ve been trying to find one that fits,” she said. “Spot just felt too on the nose.”
