Smoke (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 7) Read online

  He leaned over her and bit her shoulder with a roar that vibrated through her bones. She cried out and convulsed as overwhelming pleasure crashed over her like a tidal wave.

  Tyler wrapped his arms around her, and she felt the deep shudder of his release as he buried himself deep inside her.

  When he was done, he slid them over onto the couch without letting go of her and they lay entwined as their breathing slowed. Mary felt their heartbeats synchronize, and it felt as if they were melting into one being as she relaxed in his arms.

  Finally, Tyler slid out of her, and she felt him reach down between them.

  “Aw, shit,” he said, his tone colored with dismay.

  She wriggled around to face him. “What’s wrong?”

  “I, uh, tore the condom.”

  Mary knew that she should be feeling worried right now, since she hadn’t yet gotten her birth control prescription.

  “Do you want me to drive you to the ER to get a morning-after pill?” Tyler asked, though she could read the reluctance in his body language.

  She guessed his bear was opposing the idea as adamantly as her wolf was.

  Her wolf spoke through her. “No!”

  Mary fought for control. Gotta be rational about this. But every fiber of her being—human and beast—desperately yearned for Tyler’s baby.

  But how did he feel about the possibility of becoming a father, especially since their mating bond was so new?

  “I’m okay with whatever happens next…if you are,” she added cautiously.

  Please, oh please be okay with it too!

  She saw him relax at her words, and her own wolf subsided, leaving behind a lingering sense of satisfaction.

  Despite the doubts he had expressed earlier, she knew Tyler would make a great dad if tonight’s accident had an aftermath.

  “I’m okay with whatever you want,” he assured her and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

  “I think I’m ready to settle down and start a family,” she said, and it was the truth. So was the next thing she said. “I love you, Tyler. Everything’s happened so fast, but it’s true.”

  His eyes widened. “I love you too. And I feel like the luckiest shifter alive right now. Whatever happens, Mary, we’ll find a way to make it work.”

  Chapter 14 – Firefighter Beefcake

  “Do you think Elle’s really okay with us being mated?” Tyler asked cautiously as he turned his pickup truck onto the highway leading south to the Grizzly Creek Ranch. “I remember her being pretty hardline about not mingling shifter lineages.”

  “Her thinking may have changed a bit on that,” Mary replied, putting her hand over his hand where it rested on the gear shift knob. “After all, Ash is the only one of her kids who’s actually mated to a bear shifter. And then there’s her own mate, Justin, who’s a sabertooth shifter, which, by the way, is the very last lineage I would have expected her to choose. She used to complain all the time about sabertooth shifters being a bunch of no-good troublemakers. Uncle Bill too. Maybe the two of them are mellowing out in their old age,” she added.

  Tyler scoffed. “Have you met them?” he asked incredulously.

  But his mood seemed to lighten a bit.

  In the days that had passed since Tyler had rescued her from the fire, Mary had found herself feeling happier than she’d ever been. Following Uncle Bill’s lead, most of her pack had responded to the news of her mating with cautious acceptance, which was better than she’d expected.

  Even her mother seemed more enthusiastic after Tyler invited them all over for dinner on Friday. After consulting with Mary about her family’s likes and dislikes, he had cooked them his most delicious meal yet.

  Mary and the others were still searching through the rubble of her burned-out house and Hawkins Hardware.

  It remained difficult, uncomfortable, stinky work, but Mary returned to Tyler’s house every evening to find the air conditioning on, dinner on the table, and an incredibly sexy bear shifter offering her a glass of iced tea and a hot kiss.

  She was addicted to his scent and touch and loved falling asleep in his arms after making love.

  Waking up was almost as good, because Tyler had taken her flippant “naked-man coffee” comments to heart and brought her a steaming cup every morning with a heaping side dish of unclothed eye candy.

  It all seemed to be too good to be true, like a dream that had to end sometime. But she was going to enjoy every moment of this miracle that had carried her out of the flames and into this new life.

  “Anyhow, it’s not like she can undo our mating,” Tyler continued, sounding like he was trying to convince himself. “We’re a done deal, right?”

  “Yeah, we are.” Mary squeezed his hand, and he flipped it to capture her fingers.

  She’d known Elle all of her life, of course, and knew that her heart was in the right place, even if she could be stubbornly opinionated about certain things. But that was Elle Swanson, who was Uncle Bill’s longtime friend.

  Tonight, they’d be dealing with Elle Swanson, the Swanson clan matriarch. And just like with her pack, she and Tyler wanted to get Elle’s official clan approval for their mating.

  “Exactly,” Mary agreed. “It’s just a formality.”

  Speaking of formalities, she’d be bringing Tyler to the monthly Jacobsen pack meeting three days from now. Having Uncle Bill’s approval was going to smooth everything. Hopefully.

  At least Dean and Kenny had come around to the idea of Tyler as their brother-in-law. They’d been at the Friday night dinner, and Kenny had showed up yesterday too.

  Her younger brother had enjoyed a bottle of cold imported Mexican beer and gorged himself on Tyler’s fish tacos, made with freshly caught trout that had been deboned and fried in a light, crispy coating, then served with spicy mayo, fresh pico de gallo, and shredded cabbage wrapped up in homemade flour tortillas.

  “I sure hope so,” Tyler said, staring straight ahead. “You know, I’ve always been grateful that Aunt Elle used her influence to keep me out of jail after that stupid stunt with your uncle’s cop car. And then there was the time that I convinced Ash to drive around the county during roadwork season and reprogram all of the electronic signs to announce the Zombie Apocalypse up ahead…she was furious with both of us but managed to smooth that over too.” He blew out his breath. “I just get the feeling that she thinks of me as a clan liability rather than an asset.”

  * * *

  When Mary and Tyler arrived at Elle’s big yellow Victorian farmhouse on the ranch, he saw a surprising number of cars parked along the gravel road that led from the highway up to a cluster of houses. The vehicles ranged in size from a small blue Prius to a big, gunmetal gray BMW SUV and the ranch’s white Ford F150 pickup trucks.

  “Wow, it looks like the entire clan decided to come to dinner this week,” Mary said, looking suddenly nervous.

  Plastic and paper crinkled as her hand tightened on the bouquet of summer flowers that she had brought as a hostess gift.

  Moved by a protective impulse, Tyler gave her a quick hug before he went to the back of his Chevy pickup and pulled out a cooler filled with chilled bottles of Scotch ale from the Bearpaw Ridge Brewery.

  They walked up the stairs to the house’s broad roofed porch and pushed open the door.

  The scent of roasting beef and other scrumptious smells billowed out of the house, borne on a wave of noise from multiple conversations and the delighted shrieking of children.

  Mary hesitated in the doorway.

  “Ready?” Tyler asked after a second.

  “Yeah. It’s not like I don’t know your family,” she said.

  They crossed the foyer with its grand curving staircase, then followed the sound of the tumult down the carpeted hall, its walls lined with family photos, to the grand Victorian living room.

  The room, complete with antique Persian carpets and a huge, ornate horsehair sofa, was crowded with Tyler’s cousins, their mates, and kids.

  As they
entered, Tyler caught sight of his wildlife biologist cousin Evan, who was standing in one corner of the room with his arm around Steffi’s shoulders. Both of them were laughing at something that Evan’s older brother Mark was telling them.

  “What’s he doing here?” Mary asked, coming to a sudden halt. “I thought he was away for the summer, doing research up in Montana somewhere.”

  With a pang of jealousy, Tyler remembered that Mary and Evan had been involved for a while. Tyler thought that his cousin had been an idiot for not appreciating Mary like she deserved, but Evan’s loss had been Tyler’s gain.

  And Tyler really didn’t like the distress he saw in the tightening of his mate’s mouth and the spike in her pulse. He set down the cooler against the wall, then looped his arm around Mary’s waist, drawing her close to his side.

  Evan turned and waved to Mary with a genuine smile. Steffi did the same.

  But before Tyler could say anything reassuring to his mate, Elle Swanson was bearing down on them.

  She was a tall, curvy middle-aged woman with short frosted blonde hair and warm brown eyes.

  “Tyler! Mary!” she sang out. The room fell silent as everyone turned to look at them. “I’m so glad you came!” Her glance fell on the big Styrofoam cooler. “Is that Bearpaw Ridge Ale?” she asked with a delighted smile.

  “It sure is,” Tyler assured her. “Hi, Aunt Elle.”

  She beamed at him and enclosed him in a maternal embrace, kissing him on the cheek. She smelled comfortingly of food with a faint trace of lavender.

  Then she repeated the action with Mary.

  “Thanks so much for inviting me,” Mary said when Elle drew back.

  She offered Elle the bouquet.

  Elle accepted it and took a deep, delighted sniff. “Why, thank you. That’s so sweet of you. And I was thrilled when Bill told me the news about your mating!”

  Then she peered over Mary’s shoulder at the wide cased opening of the living room. “But where’s Phoebe? Isn’t she coming? I was hoping we could celebrate as a family tonight.”

  “Mom said she wasn’t feeling up to it,” Tyler said. “I thought she was going to text you and let you know.”

  He was keenly aware that everyone in the living room—with the exception of four-year-old Matthew and his toddler cousin Ellie—was paying close attention to their exchange.

  Elle frowned. “I feel like she’s been avoiding me. I hope isn’t anything I’ve said or done.”

  Haven’t you figured out that she’s as intimidated as hell by you?

  Tyler shook his head and opted for the diplomatic answer. “She took Dad’s death really hard, and she’s become kind of a hermit lately. I think she’s still working through a bunch of stuff.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Elle said with genuine sympathy. “Ordinary or not, I wouldn’t want Mike’s widow to think that she’s unwelcome here.”

  “Care for some champagne?” Elle’s new mate Justin asked as he approached them with two flutes of sparkling wine.

  He was a tall and leanly muscular sabertooth shifter with short, tawny hair, deeply tanned features, and striking blue-green eyes.

  “Hey there, Justin. How’s it going?” Tyler greeted him, glad for the interruption.

  He’d gotten to know Justin pretty well during their volunteer work together at the fire department, and he liked the laid-back Texan. Tyler was also a big fan of Justin’s recently opened Wildcat Springs Texas BBQ restaurant.

  Before Mary had come into his life, takeout orders of smoked brisket, barbeque chicken, and cornbread had been Tyler’s go-to dinner whenever he worked late and didn’t feel like cooking for himself.

  Justin grinned as he handed Tyler and Mary the flutes.

  “Well, I’m about as happy as a seagull with a French fry,” he said in his soft Texas drawl.

  “Speaking of happy,” Elle said, raising her voice and her glass of wine, “I want to congratulate Tyler and Mary on their recent mating. I’ve known Mary since she was in diapers, and I’m overjoyed to welcome her into our family.”

  “To Tyler and Mary!” Evan called from the back of the room.

  Everyone raised their glasses and toasted them.

  The next few minutes were a little chaotic as the members of the extended Swanson family crowded around Tyler and Mary, offering their congratulations and good wishes.

  Tyler suppressed a jealous surge when Evan bent to hug Mary.

  “I’m so happy for you, doll,” he said. “I always felt bad about the way things ended between us.”

  Mary’s smile looked forced as she returned the hug. “You and Steffi seem really happy together. And if we hadn’t broken up, I might not have said yes to one of Tyler’s fantastic dinners.”

  “He cooked for you?” Steffi asked, her large eyes sparking with good humor under her dark brows. “He must have been smitten.”

  “I was,” Tyler said simply. “And still am. It was love at first sight.”

  “It was,” echoed Dimitri Medved, who had been adopted into the Swanson clan after his sister had married Ash Swanson. “He couldn’t keep his eyes off her while he was supposed to be fighting the fire at her place last Monday.”

  “Couldn’t help myself,” Tyler said, trying and failing to suppress his grin. “She was wearing the cutest pajamas I’d ever seen.”

  “I was covered in soot, and my hair was a rat’s nest,” Mary said severely, but the tension was gone, which made Tyler happy.

  “So while I have all of you handsome fellows in one room—” Steffi began before she interrupted herself. “Dane, I can see you trying to hide behind Annabeth, and it’s not working!”

  Dane gave an exaggerated sigh and came over to join them.

  “Right,” Steffi said. “As I was saying, now that I’ve got all of you Swanson hunks cornered, I wanted to let you know that I’m starting work on the next BPRFD fund-raiser.”

  Dane, Mark, and Evan all groaned.

  “Not another calendar, Steffi. Please,” Mark begged.

  Tyler looked at Dimitri, who shrugged and mouthed No idea.

  Steffi crossed her arms and glared at her brother-in-law. “Yes, another calendar. The last one did fantastically well, with orders coming in from all over the US and Canada after my Facebook post advertising the calendar went viral. The proceeds paid for the fire department’s new paramedic van, if you recall.”

  “What kind of calendar?” Tyler asked suspiciously, seeing the glum expressions on his cousins’ faces.

  At the same moment, Mary said, “I loved that calendar. I’ll totally buy the next one that comes out, especially if Tyler’s in it.”

  Tyler was beginning to have a bad feeling about this, especially when he caught Mary and Steffi exchanging conspiratorial looks.

  “Mary? What kind of calendar?” he asked again.

  “The best kind: shirtless firefighters,” she answered with a smirk. “Last year, Steffi had all of the volunteer firefighters pose in their boots and bunker pants while holding puppies or kittens, and you would not believe the response! We were even getting orders from Europe and Japan. After buying the van, we still had funds left over to donate to the Bearpaw Ridge Animal Shelter.”

  “It was pure sexual exploitation, but it was fun,” Evan said, grinning.

  Based on what Tyler knew about his cousin, Dr. Evan Swanson was exactly the kind of guy who’d enjoy posing shirtless and having women drool over him…even if he was very happily mated these days.

  “Uh…” Tyler said.

  He wasn’t sure if he wanted half-naked photos of himself sent around the globe, even if it was for a good cause.

  “Oh, come on, Tyler,” Mary urged him. “Be a good sport. Plus, it would make me very happy.”

  She fluttered her eyelashes at him shamelessly, and he had to smile.

  “We could really use a couple of new models, since Ash moved away to Seattle and Justin is being stubborn,” Steffi added. “And you and Dimitri are perfect.”

 
“Can I keep my shirt on?” Tyler asked.

  “Why on earth would you want to do that?” Mary asked. She looked at Steffi. “He’s covered in tattoos, and it’s totally hot.”

  “That settles it,” Steffi informed Tyler. “You’re in. In fact, if we get the right rescue puppy, I might use your portrait as this year’s Facebook ad. Otherwise, if you have a dog of your own, maybe we could have the two of you pose together.”

  “No dog, but I’ve got a rescue parrot,” Tyler offered, surrendering to the inevitable. He knew he couldn’t say no to Mary’s eager expression. “He could sit on my shoulder. He loves people and loves to be in the spotlight.”

  That brought Steffi to a momentary halt. “You’ve got a rescue parrot?” she asked. “For real?”

  He nodded. “His name is Bogey. He’s green and yellow, and he talks.”

  “That has possibilities,” Steffi said, in a musing tone. “Though puppies and kittens have universal appeal…”

  “I vote for Bogey. You’ll be the sexiest fireman-slash-pirate in the calendar,” Mary said. “I’ll buy a second calendar for the office.”

  “Not helping,” Tyler informed her, but he couldn’t help grinning at the thought of Bill Jacobsen’s expression when confronted by a photo of half-naked Tyler at the police station.

  Despite his protests, he couldn’t help but be flattered by Steffi’s teasing compliments.

  But most of all, he was warmed by the deeper meaning of the offer—that he had finally found the acceptance he had been longing for here in Bearpaw Ridge.

  Steffi eyed Dimitri. The young Russian shifter pretended to look around frantically for help.

  “Justin,” he called. “Save me! Tell Steffi that you’ll pose for her calendar!”

  “I decline the honor,” Justin said, laughing. “I’m too old and too scarred to be making a shirtless fool of myself. I’ll leave that part to all of y’all young fellas.”

  “You look just fine to me,” Elle purred, stroking a polished pink fingertip down her mate’s arm.

  “Mom!” Mark sputtered. “Don’t do that in public. Please.”

  Elle’s smirk was positively evil.