Chapter 43 Max
MAX
“Get it together!”
Max jerked out of his daze, the shout bringing him back to the present.
David, Jackson and Elvira were manning the hose next to him, aiming the spray of water into the burning building ahead of them.
Max, who had the strength to man a hose by himself, had been spraying the brick wall.
“Sorry,” he grunted, ignoring the absolute panic of his wolf and the cold fury he could feel across his bond with Harland and Marcus.
Max didn’t feel his bond as well or consistently as his two alpha mates, but right now it was impossible to ignore.
The only thing preventing him from abandoning his post and sprinting to go join his mates was the fact that the anger was missing even a hint of grief or sadness. Something had happened, and his mates were enraged, but no one had died or gotten hurt.
At least that was how Max interpreted what he was feeling.
He tried to push the wolf down, but it snapped at him and refused to be cowed. It wanted to leave, and it wouldn’t let Max be at peace until it got its way.
“I’m switching over. Max, be ready,” Elvira shouted, her voice firm.
Max jerked. He’d zoned out again, his hose once again spraying the brick wall next to the window he was supposed to be hitting.
Elvira jumped from the hose she was manning with Jackson and David and pushed in front of Max, letting him hold the hose steady while she aimed the jet of water where it was supposed to go.
With Elvira in control, Max could zone out and try to figure out what was going on.
He thought he could feel Harland trying to… reassure him, maybe? Harland was definitely reaching out to him. Max’s wolf responded to the feeling by calming down, just the tiniest bit. It still wanted to leave, but it allowed Max to focus on what he was supposed to be doing.
Max was a firefighter before he was a werewolf. If whatever had Harland and Marcus in a snit turned out to be nothing and he’d let it impact his job – especially if someone got hurt – he’d be furious.
The chief walked up behind them. “All clear.”
Max breathed out a sigh of relief. The building was a commercial property, with a hamburger place and laundromat on the first floor and offices above. The fire looked like it had started in the restaurant’s kitchen, and the building had been evacuated before it spread.
A traffic jam had delayed the arrival of Max and his fellow firefighters, which was the only reason why the blaze had gotten so out of control.
It took several more hours before the fire was fully extinguished, and by the time Max and his colleagues were packing up the engine, they were all sweaty, dirty and exhausted.
Checking his phone, Max was relieved to see a message from back when his bond had lit up that everyone was safe.
Wiping a hand across his soot-stained forehead, Max pushed the button to call Harland. The phone rang once before an automated voice let him know that the person he was calling was busy.
Max had really wanted to talk to Harland. He wanted to be reassured and told that everything was okay.
With Harland busy, he called Marcus, who picked up on the first ring.
“Max, are you on your way home?”
Marcus sounded stressed and angry, his voice curt and making Max feel like he was late.
“We just got done fighting a fire downtown, but my shift doesn’t end until tomorrow morning. Should I ask someone to cover for me?”
“Yes. Things have gone to shit and we need you with us.”
A cold knot of fear settled in Max’s stomach. “Is everyone okay?”
Marcus did not reassure him. “We don’t know.”
“What’s going on?”
Marcus gave a concise rundown of events. Max had to take a seat on the curb when Marcus brusquely told him that he was the result of a military breeding program and that he had brothers – identical twin brothers. Multiple identical twin brothers.
Fuck, was he a clone? Max had always been a shitty werewolf. Was that because he was a defective specimen? Had he been discarded from the program because he was broken?
His head spinning, Max had to remind himself to breathe.
“You’re okay,” Marcus said, his voice losing the brusque edge and turning low and soft. “You’re my mate and there is nothing broken about you. We don’t know why you didn’t end up in the program. We’re never going to let anyone take you from us.”
Max hadn’t said any of that out loud. Could Marcus really tell what he was feeling that clearly?
Examining his wolf, Max didn’t think it unlikely. His wolf was stretching toward his mates across their bond, desperate for reassurance, needing to be told that he belonged and that they wouldn’t discard him now that they knew what he really was.
“So, I have a bunch of werewolf brothers.” Max took a calming breath.
His parents were going to want to meet them.
They had always wondered where Max came from and whether he had any family out there.
They had requested the documents regarding Max’s birth when he was a teenager, but the adoption agency had said that it was a closed adoption and that the records had been sealed.
This was going to blow their minds. “You said you arranged for a plane to bring them here?”
“We did, and it picked them all up, but it was diverted by a fighter jet to a military base outside of Tampa.”
Max heard the words, but they took a moment to process.
Unlike the revelation about his origins, this was an immediate danger.
He needed to act. His wolf needed to act.
Without a conscious thought, he dropped his phone to the ground and changed into his alpha shift.
His uniform, sturdy fireproof fabric, resisted the transformation as best as it could, making it hurt, but after a few seconds, it gave way and tore down the seams of his shoulders and thighs.
“Max, what the fuck?” Elvira called from next to him.
Max ignored her and raced down the street, running as fast as he could toward his mates.
People shouted in alarm, jumping back, pointing, and lifting their phones to film as he raced past, but Max paid them no mind.
Before long he was out of the city, and running through the woods, snow and frozen ground crunching beneath his feet, his only thought that he needed to get to his alphas.
They would know how to fix this.