Forged in Fire (Dragons’ Flames #2)

Chapter One

The bookstore had gone up in flames easily, maybe too much so.

Austin stared at what remained of the building, telling himself not to see ghosts where there weren’t any.

It wasn’t easy, though. He’d been a firefighter for a few years now, and he’d seen a lot of things, from accidental fires to arson.

He couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but there was something that bothered him about this fire.

He looked around. West was talking to Lisa and Taylor, while Jeremy was tending to one of the people who lived next to the bookstores who’d inhaled a lot of smoke.

The owner of the bookstore was staring at what remained of her shop, wringing her hands together as she cried.

Austin’s heart hurt for her, especially so because he’d recognized her as a shifter when they’d first arrived on scene.

He wasn’t sure what kind, but that didn’t matter.

She was part of Austin’s community, and he wished there was more he could do.

They hadn’t been able to save the shop, and while Austin was willing to help clean and rebuild, he wasn’t sure she’d want that.

Since everyone else was busy, he moved closer to her. She hadn’t been hurt by the fire, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need assistance. Austin’s job as a firefighter was done, but he wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

“Are you okay?” he asked when he reached her.

She blinked at him as if she hadn’t heard him coming. Since she was a shifter, she would have if she hadn’t been distracted by what was happening in front of her. “I don’t think I am,” she said in a trembling voice.

“I’m really sorry about what happened.”

“I don’t understand. I have—I had—everything set up to avoid something like this happening. It shouldn’t have.”

“Accidents happen.”

“Was it an accident?”

Austin frowned. “Are you telling me that it wasn’t?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m saying.” She looked around and leaned closer. “But you have to have heard about what’s been happening. You’re a firefighter.”

He was almost afraid to ask. “Can you be more specific?”

“The fires.”

“Ma’am, I see a lot of fires every week. You need to be more specific.” He didn’t want to feed her information. He thought he knew what she was talking about, but he needed to be sure.

She hesitated again. “I know this isn’t the first fire at a shifter-owned business.” Her voice was low, but it didn’t matter. Austin heard her.

He glanced around, too. Taylor was giving orders to start packing up, which meant that Austin didn’t have a lot of time.

If he wanted to get something out of this lady, he needed to do so now.

“You’re right, it hasn’t been,” he confirmed.

“I’m not saying this wasn’t an accident, though.

I’m a firefighter, not an investigator.”

“Will you call investigators?”

“That’s not my choice. My captain will decide.”

“Your captain is a shifter?”

Austin shook his head. Taylor was as human as they came. In fact, he didn’t even know that Austin and West were shifters. Sometimes, Austin wished he could tell their team, but other times, he was glad they didn’t know. He was afraid of the way they’d look at him and West if they did.

The woman snorted. “Then he doesn’t know about the string of fires in our businesses. Someone’s trying to run us out of town.”

“Look, I don’t know anything about that, but I can look into it.”

“Will you?”

Austin hesitated. This wasn’t his job, but at the same time, if he and West didn’t look into it, who would? Even if someone was to investigate, if they were human, they wouldn’t be able to connect the dots. That might mean they wouldn’t find the culprit.

Because if there was a string of fires in shifter-owned businesses, it meant that someone was targeting shifters on purpose. Someone knew which shops belonged to shifters and clearly didn’t think anything of hurting them. Hell, they were doing so on purpose.

“Austin?” West called out.

Austin waved at his best friend before turning back to the lady. “Why don’t you give me your name?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I can’t make promises, but I’ll try to look into this. Give me your phone number, too.”

The lady sniffed but nodded. She dug into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen.

Austin glanced away, his eyebrows shooting up when he noticed West’s boyfriend, Jonathan, standing with a group of other people.

Most of them were watching what was left of the bookstore.

Jonathan wasn’t alone. His best friend was with him, and Austin was a little distracted by the sight of Caleb standing there.

Austin frowned. He’d only seen Caleb a few times and hadn’t been introduced to him yet, but every time, he’d struck Austin as calm and steady. Tonight, his eyes were wide, and he was breathing hard. Jonathan had a hand on his shoulder and was softly talking to him, but that didn’t seem to help.

“Here,” the lady said as she thrust a piece of paper into Austin’s hand. “Please let me know if you find anything.”

“I’ll do my best,” he promised. He wished he could promise more, but he was just a firefighter.

He turned to head toward Jonathan and Caleb, but before he could reach them, West intercepted him. “Was that the owner?”

“Yeah. She mentioned something about shifter-owned businesses getting burned down.”

West nodded. “She’s right.”

“I know. I told her we’d look into it as much as we could, but I didn’t make any promises.”

“I think Taylor’s going to call in an investigator. He might not know these businesses are shifter-owned, but even he noticed the pattern.”

“This is going to be a problem.” They’d have to be careful. They couldn’t afford for humans to find out that shifters existed. A lot of them would be scared and wouldn’t understand. Humans were always scared of things they didn’t understand.

“I know, but what can we do?”

“Maybe we should actually investigate this?” Austin couldn’t say he was looking forward to that, but it was an option.

“Are you going to tell Taylor that?”

Austin glanced at their captain, who was talking to a cop. His expression was serious, which wasn’t a surprise. Taylor took his job seriously. He wouldn’t be the captain if he didn’t.

“Maybe we should talk to him.”

Austin gaped at West’s suggestion. “Talk to him about what?”

“About us. I think he needs to know that something weird is happening.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“He’s not going to care. None of them will. They know us.”

“Are you willing to risk it?”

West hesitated, then sighed. “I am, but I know that you’re not, so I’m not going to push. I really do think it would help for him to know what’s going on, though.”

“We’ll talk about it later. Did you see that Jonathan’s here?”

West’s smile was instant. “No. Where is he?”

“Over there with Caleb. I think something’s wrong.”

West’s attention was definitely off telling their boss that they were shifters now. He turned to try and find Caleb, already frowning. Austin only felt a little bit guilty that he’d managed to distract him.

He knew that West was right and that they should talk to their team. After West, they were the people that Austin trusted the most. Hell, he trusted them with his life.

It was still terrifying to think about their reactions if they found out that he was a shifter. He wasn’t sure he was ready for that just yet, but he realized he might not have a choice for much longer. For now, though, he did.

He’d let Taylor handle the investigation while he poked around for a bit to find out if there was more to the fires than anyone realized.

If there was, he’d talk to West, and together, they’d decide what to do.

They might be able to take care of the problem on their own, but they also might not be.

The only way to know for sure was to find out who was behind the fires. Hopefully, they were a coincidence.

Austin didn’t really believe that. What kind of coincidence would only hit shifter-owned businesses? No, this had to be someone purposefully targeting them, and he felt unprepared to deal with any of this.

It looked like he wouldn’t have a choice.

* * * *

CALEB COULDN’T brEATHE. No matter how hard he tried, he felt like the fire was closing around him, which was ridiculous because the fire had already been taken care of. Hell, he’d watched Jonathan’s boyfriend do it. Why was he still so afraid, then? Why was he panicking?

“You need to breathe,” Jonathan said.

He sounded calm—too calm for the occasion.

He was the one who’d almost died in a fire just a few months ago.

How could he be so calm? Caleb didn’t know, but he wished he did because he hated feeling like this.

He hated that the world was closing in around him.

He hated the smell of smoke and fire, and the certainty that he was about to lose his best friend.

“Okay,” Jonathan said, apparently understanding what the problem was. “The shop isn’t on fire this time. It was the bookstore, okay? I’m sorry about that, by the way. I know how much you liked it.”

Caleb snorted. “I’m not worried about the bookstore right now.”

“I know. You’re worried about me, but you don’t have to be. I’m here, and I’m fine.”

He squeezed Caleb’s shoulder again as if to prove that. Caleb tried to take a breath, but it was still too hard.

“I think he’s having a panic attack,” a voice said.

Caleb blinked at the firefighter who’d suddenly appeared in front of him.

It wasn’t West, although West was there, too.

No, it was a firefighter who’d been talking to West. Caleb hadn’t officially met Austin yet, but he knew a lot about him.

Caleb was Jonathan’s best friend, and Austin was West’s.

It was actually weird that they hadn’t talked before, but a lot of that was due to West and Austin’s jobs.

They had weird schedules, and Caleb and Jonathan were also busy with work.