Page 6 of Where There's Smoke
From behind me, Elliot shouted my name, and I turned, watching as he lifted one of the hoses. Turning to Fitz, I instructed, “You stay with her, and don't let her out of your sight.”
The command simply made my pack mate laugh, but he nodded all the same, and I ignored the righteous look of indignation on the omega’s face. She could be as pissed as she wanted. It wasn’t going to change anything.
As I walked over to Elliot, the scent of melon lingered until I was too far away from her to smell it anymore over the fire. It was still churning away, but we’d contained it enough that it wouldn’t spread to other buildings. As I reached Elliot, his look of serious intent put my mind back in emergency mode.
Tonight was certainly unexpected.
“Is the woman all right?” he asked, wrapping up the hose.
“The omega is, yeah,” I confirmed. “I think her name is Melody.”
Elliot frowned. “Rune told me it was abetawoman who ran the rescue—he got one of his bunnies from this place. We need to find the owner of the rescue, otherwise Rune will kill us.”
“She seems tothinkshe's a beta, but her scent says otherwise.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “She seems pretty goddamn stubborn too. She’ll be fine.”
Elliot nodded thoughtfully. “That's strange, but at least it's her, and she's safe.”
I paused for a second, thinking about what I was about to ask. She had said she could stay with a friend, but something about her tone had seemed a little disingenuous. Okay, a lot. I didn’t believe her for a second, and I wasn't about to risk her safety.
“You think maybe she should stay at the station?” I asked.
My pack mate’s eyebrows rose so high that they almost disappeared into his hairline. “Why on earth would you have her stay at the station?”
Sighing, I crossed my arms over my chest, meeting Elliot’s challenge head-on. “Because she was sleepinghere.”
Elliot looked at the burning building and then back to me. “Here? She was sleeping here? At the rescue?”
“Yep. Apparently, it was ‘easier’ because she was bottle feeding a puppy. She said she could go stay with a friend, but I don’t really buy that she has someone to stay with.”
“If she said she's got somewhere to go, then she's got somewhere to go. I know what you're thinking, Sam. Just because the guys over at Station Sixteen took in a stray with nowhere to go doesn't mean thatwehave to take in the first stray we see.”
That same rage as before hit me, and I clenched my fists. “I think she's lying about things. I want to be sure. I don't want her to just go wandering off onto the streets.”
“Are you going to call her a liar to her face?” Elliot’s gaze shifted to Melody, and he scoffed. “Sam, I know that look. You think she's pretty…”
“Of course I do. Anyone who looks at her probably thinks she's pretty, but that isn’t the point.”
Elliot shook his head. “We don’t have the space to take in a quote-unquote omega right now. Get her phone number, and you can check in on her if you're so worried about her safety.”
He hadn't met her. He had only seen her from a distance. Part of me wanted to shake him, to take him over to where she was sitting and force him to look her in the eye. The minute he got a whiff of her and saw her, I doubted he'd be talking the way he was, and he’d know that beta bullshit was wrong. That she was just trying to downplay her situation. Elliot was a hard-ass, but he was the most protective out of all of us. He’d see it.
“We’re done with this conversation, Samson. We have more work to do. Get her number and focus on the job.”
Dammit.
Chapter 4
Melody
Everything I'd worked so hard on for the last several years was gone in a puff of smoke.
Sitting on that fire engine, watching the rescue I’d poured my heart and soul into descend into ashes, broke a part of me. I was exceedingly thankful that all the animals had gotten out and no one was hurt, but where would the animals go?
The only no-kill shelters in the area were full, and I was staunchly against handing over any animals to a kill shelter. The only bright side was that they generally had a thirty-day policy before any kill measures were taken. So, my only option might be to give them to one of those shelters for thirty days and then take them back before anything happened to them.
Even the thought of letting them into one of those places made my stomach turn sour.
The firefighter with curly blond hair had been quite curious about where I was going. His large friend had been even more so. Both of their faces had been plastered with shock when I had told them I'd been staying at the shelter, so I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had nowhere else to go.
