2. Rune
Chapter 2
Rune
A nother night, another fire.
My job wasn’t for everyone, but I was good at it, and it gave me purpose.
I was a deep sleeper, usually, but the sound of the station alarm always had me up and ready to go in seconds.
Our gear was lined up, ready for us to easily step into and get into the truck in minimal time.
“Showtime!” my pack mate Blaze shouted as he pulled himself into one of the seats, buckling his seat belt as I took the seat opposite him. His dark curls were messy from sleep, but he had no time to tame them. Hair was the least of our problems when we had an emergency call. We all put on our headsets so we could hear each other over the sirens.
“Looks like an apartment building downtown is on fire,” Walker, my other pack mate and the captain of the house, explained from the passenger seat as we hurtled toward the scene, lights and sirens blaring.
“We’ll start evacuations as soon as we get there,” I shouted. It was hard to hear each other over the sirens, even with the headphones, but we had developed a knack for communicating.
“Rune, you and Gil take point on any evacs—Blaze, you’re on hoses,” Walker instructed.
Blaze chuckled loudly. “I’m good at handling my hose!” he declared, making us groan.
He made that joke anytime he was put on the hose and hydrant duty.
Which was far too often.
“Get some new material!” Gil laughed from the driver’s seat, his eyes never leaving the road.
Of the five people on the truck, only two of them were my pack mates—Blaze and Walker. Gil and Merrick were simply colleagues and friends.
I would run into fire for them, don’t misunderstand me, but there was a connection with my pack mates that went deeper than that.
Walker and I had known each other since childhood. Blaze had joined our pack later. Joined is probably too nice a way to say it. That idiot came crashing into our pack, and Walker and I didn’t do anything to stop it.
“Shit, it’s a bad one,” Walker hissed as the plume of smoke came into sight.
“Yeah, that building is going to be condemned, for sure,” Blaze agreed with a nod.
Walker sat up straighter, looking at all of us over his shoulder. “You guys know what you’re doing, be careful and stay in constant communication.”
A chorus of “yes, sir!” rang out in the truck as we pulled up outside the building at the same time several other emergency vehicles hurtled onto the scene.
Good, we are probably going to need those ambulances.
Gil and I pulled out our heavy-duty gear, oxygen masks, gloves, the whole nine yards. It was the type of equipment we needed when we were going to be running toward the flames and not just fighting them from outside.
I checked my PASS alarm—which was arguably our most important bit of gear. If a firefighter was down and unresponsive for too long, the PASS alarm would go off so loudly that you could locate a fallen firefighter in a blaze.
With all my gear in check, I did the usual mental checklist, double-checking before heading into the building.
As far as fires go, it wasn’t a terrible one. Despite its large size, there didn’t appear to be any casualties. Voices were shouting throughout the building, mostly the residents as they left, and most people had evacuated before it had become too large to manage. It had started in the basement, so the biggest issue was smoke inhalation.
I circled the third floor twice; something didn’t quite feel right.
Usually I trusted my gut, so I didn’t leave, despite wading through the smoky corridors several times. The walls were turning black from the ash. The fire wasn’t on this floor, but that didn’t mean that the structural integrity of the building was okay. A fire on the lower floors could easily take down a skyscraper.
My team was chattering through the radio every few minutes, discussing hydrant access, where the fire was going, and the evacuation process.
“Rune, are you still on the third floor?” Walker’s voice crackled through my headset. He was probably concerned because I had been doing laps of the third floor for so long.
“Yeah, something feels off up here. I want to give it a more thorough check,” I said as I kicked my way through another abandoned apartment. Usually, I would be a touch more cautious while busting through doors, but half the units were vacant, and I already knew that the building was going to be condemned after this, so a few smashed doorframes were no big deal.
Frowning to myself, I turned around, trying to figure out what felt wrong.
Then the sound reached my ears.
It was faint, but unmistakable.
The sound of a child's cry.
“Walker! I hear a child,” I shouted into my comms as I rushed toward the source of the sound.
“Are you sure?” Walker’s voice crackled through the speakers.
It wasn’t unusual to imagine things when you were running through a fire. Your mind played tricks on you. There was one call where Blaze was convinced he heard barking, but a thorough sweep of the building proved there were no dogs there.
“Certain!” I confirmed, looking around. “I think it’s apartment 304—send backup!”
Where there was a child, there was likely a family.
“I’m on my way!”
Blaze.
Gil must have been busy in another part of the building, so my pack mate was coming in.
I threw my body against the door, surprised when it didn't give way as easily as the others I had just been crashing through. Sometimes the material of a doorframe would swell in the extreme heat of a fire and essentially seal itself shut. I knew from one look that this place used cheap building materials, so that was the most likely probability. Taking a step back, I charged toward the door a few more times before it gave out.
Stepping over a bundle of fabric, I raised my brows.
Someone had bunched what looked like old clothing and used it to plug the crack under the door to help reduce the amount of smoke pouring into the apartment.
It was a smart move, but it also meant there were definitely people in there. Standing tall, I surveyed the small home, following the sound of crying into one of the back rooms.
It was hard to see where I was going, but thankfully, years of training were on my side.
There was another blocked doorway between me and the cries that were slowly getting louder. I didn’t hesitate, throwing my body weight against the door with all my considerable strength. It shattered with the force of the impact—I wasn’t exactly a small guy.
Even in the smoke, I could see that I was in a nursery. Running to the crib first, I grimaced when I saw that it was empty.
A bundle in the corner of the room caught my attention.
There, huddled in the corner, was a woman and the crying toddler.
Her eyes were closed, her head slumped. Her child was clutched to her chest, and she was pressing a cloth to his mouth, probably to reduce the amount of smoke he inhaled.
“I got a woman and child!” I shouted, ensuring my entire team heard it as I knelt in front of the pair.
The little boy’s face was blotchy as he cried, and all I wanted to do was reach out and comfort him, but I probably looked terrifying in all my gear. The woman was completely out of it, a waterfall of blonde hair falling in front of her face.
Taking a deep breath, I didn’t think before pulling my mask off. Removing my protective gear was a big no-no, but there was no way in hell I was going to breathe clean air while there was a spluttering, crying child. His little lungs couldn’t handle much smoke, and his sobbing would only make the situation worse.
From what little I could gather from what was in front of me, the mother had done everything to protect the child before passing out from smoke inhalation. I would be getting her out of there ASAP, but her lungs were bigger, meaning she had an easier time coping with the smoke than her child.
When I pressed my mask against the boy's face, he swatted at my hands, trying to stop me, clearly distressed at having something pressed against his face, but I held firm. Even a few good mouthfuls of oxygen would be helpful to get him out of the building.
While he sucked in lungfuls of air, I reached out to the woman, ripping off my gloves and feeling for a pulse. Thankfully it was strong.
A smashing sound resounded behind me as Blaze entered the apartment, finding me with ease.
“Dude,” he said, gesturing to my lack of mask, before holding his hands out for toddler and reluctantly nodding.
He wasn’t going to say shit about me helping the child.
“You take the child, I take the girl?” I shouted.
Blaze nodded, unzipping his thick, fireproof jacket and holding out his hands for the boy who was fighting me, but he was tiny. I put my mask back on, grimacing as I did so. I hated taking it away from the child, but I needed it if I was going to carry the woman out of the building.
We could soothe him after we got him out of the burning building.
Blaze shoved the protesting baby into his jacket and zipped it up, giving him the protection of the fabric, before turning and hightailing it out of the building.
Turning my attention to the woman, I scooped her up, shocked at how little she weighed. She was so small. Was she an omega?
Surely not.
There was no way an omega would be living alone, with a child, in a run-down, shitty part of town. They would have a pack protecting them. She had to be a beta. Maybe she was the child’s sister?
The notion of an omega all alone in a run-down place like this seemed so improbable; I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
That didn’t matter at the moment, though. I needed to get her out of the building, safe and sound, then I could figure out who she was.
She was pretty, there was no denying that. I couldn’t smell her as I carried her out of the building. I had no idea who she was, but something just felt right about having her in my arms, which was insane. Though I’d carried many women in my time as a firefighter, none had felt as good as her.
Maybe the smoke was getting to me, and I was finally losing my mind.
As I approached the ambulances lined up outside, she started to shift. When I placed her on one of the gurneys, her eyes flew open, and she sat up, staring at me with wide eyes, her chest heaving.
“Luka!” she shouted, looking around frantically, her voice raw with panic and smoke inhalation.
A paramedic tried to put an oxygen mask over her mouth, but she batted them away.
Reaching out, I grabbed her upper arms, making her still. “The baby is safe,” I explained calmly. “My teammate carried him out and is giving him oxygen.” I kept my voice firm, but gentle. I knew from experience that remaining calm would help her relax.
She was wearing only a thin, strappy nightdress, so my hands were touching her bare arms… her incredibly smooth bare arms. She gazed up at me with wide eyes, her breathing starting to level out as she absorbed my words.
Now that we were out of the smoke and in the bright light of the parking lot, I could make out her features better.
She was stunning.
Long, golden waves framed her face. Even though her hair was dusty from ash, I wanted to reach out and touch it, to wrap it around my hand.
Her eyes were so impossibly blue, I could have easily drowned in them. She had soft features, a delicate nose and plump lips that looked so soft, I wanted nothing more than to taste them.
More importantly, now that we were out of the smoke, her scent hit me front and center.
Sweet lemon, almost painfully sugary. God, it was the singularly best thing I had ever smelled.
Nothing had ever made my senses sing like that. My breathing became ragged as a single, simple thought overtook my mind, and I knew nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Mine .
I had no idea who this woman was, where she had come from, but I knew deep in my bones, just like I knew my name was Rune, she was mine.
She looked up at me, those big, blue eyes so expressive and full of worry.
Then she promptly burst into tears.