33. Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Three
Raif
T hankfully, Ash only has some smoke inhalation and oxygen deprivation.
She doesn’t have any burns or broken bones, and no brain, lung, or heart damage from the lack of oxygen after her tank ran out.
Raif doesn’t tell her how close he was to dying himself.
How he had very little oxygen for several minutes, and how they struggled to get him to start breathing again after he collapsed.
If anyone noticed the burned turnout coat, no one said anything. He could blame it on luck and adrenaline, not super healing, strength, and speed. The fact that Ash is alive and okay is more than he could ask for. He feels so lucky, so blessed that his mate is okay.
He wants to tell her, wants to tell her he’s a bear shifter, and that’s why he survived the fire.
Wants to tell her she’s his mate and the other half of his soul, and he wants to spend the rest of his life by her side.
Wants to tell her he loves her. Because that’s what's happened.
He knew they were mates, that she was perfect for him.
And he knew they were getting closer, both had decided they wanted to be in a relationship. But loving her surprised him.
It wasn’t until he woke up in the ambulance, yanking his oxygen mask off and searching frantically for Ash.
The paramedic told him Ash was okay, she was alive.
That’s when he knew he loved her. That it was more than a supernatural connection to each other.
She was more, she was everything. He could feel it coursing through his veins, his heart pumping to the beat of ‘I love you’.
And he wanted to tell her, he really did. But he didn’t know if it was time.
She spends the next few days in the hospital. As much as he wants to stay by her side, the fire station is down between her and Ben, so he works seventy-two hours straight to pick up the slack. He’s exhausted, mentally and physically.
When he gets back to the lodge after the third day, he just wants to collapse in bed and sleep. He knows Ash will be there another day, and the Chief ordered him to go home. Said it was regulation and they would call him if they needed him.
He’s barely toed off his boots when his door opens, and Axel comes in.
“Not now, Ax. I’m fucking exhausted.”
The fire had been the talk of the town, and his brothers had all reached out to make sure he was okay. He assured them he was, but that he had to stay at the station, so they backed off. Now, with Axel on his doorstep after getting home, he feels irritation more than fondness for his brother.
“I know. But Raif, we gotta talk.”
Raif collapses on the couch and runs his fingers through his hair, it’s tangled, knotted, and he doesn’t remember the last time he brushed it. Having Ash in the hospital has thrown him off all his routines.
“Here,” Axel holds out an envelope. It’s eerily similar to the last one, and Raif takes it and opens it.
There are more pictures of Raif. This time, these are all from the fire. Outside the building, next to the Chief and Aiden. And then inside the building, with what looks like flames licking around the camera. There are different angles, meaning different cameras.
“These must have been mounted in the warehouse.”
Axel nods in agreement.
“Keep looking,” he tells Raif.
Raif flips through them, more of the same.
Raif moving through the warehouse, chopping with his ax.
Then there’s Raif picking up a crate on fire and throwing it off to the side.
Jumping over a stack of crates too high for a human to clear.
A close-up of Raif’s arm where the turnout coat had melted, and his skin was bleeding and burned.
“What is this?”
“They show you’re not human, Raif. No person would be able to do the things you did. Lift that crate and jump like that.”
“Surge of adrenaline.”
“And your arm? The hospital reported you had no injuries, right? How do we explain what happened with your arm?”
Raif doesn’t answer, he has nothing he can say.
“And the tank. Look at this one, the tank is empty, you can see on the dial. How long were you without oxygen, Raif? How long?”
“The tank was broken, faulty dial.”
“Really? Because that’s not what the report is going to say. It’s going to say Henderson tank empty.”
“Ash’s tank was empty too, she survived.”
“With smoke inhalation and oxygen deprivation. You walked out unscathed, Raif.”
Axel’s shaking his head, and Raif can feel his disappointment.
“What does this mean?”
“It means they know. Know you’re not entirely human. Know you’re supernatural or something that can go into a fire like that, rescue three people, and come out totally fine.”
Axel slams his hand down on the coffee table, and Raif can hear it crack.
“Fuck Raif. Do you know what it was like to hear from John at the hardware store that there had been a massive fire in Juniper, and you were on shift? And I couldn’t get a hold of you?
I thought you were dead, asshole! I thought I lost my fucking brother.
It was like Dad all over again. Fuck Raif, you couldn’t pick up the phone? Let me know you were okay?”
“I’m sorry. I-”
“You can’t do this, ever again. I know it’s your job and that it’s important to you. But if you ever get in a situation like this again and don’t fucking call me, I’ll kill you myself, understand?”
Raif gets it, he does. He knows that Axel was the one who found their father after he had been murdered by a rogue hunter.
He’s the one who had to pick up the pieces of the family and the business while everyone else took time to grieve.
He was the one who stepped up as leader of their family, who held them all together.
Axel pulls Raif to stand, and there’s such rage on Axel’s face that Raif doesn’t know if they're going to fight. Fights between bear shifters can be brutal, and as the leader, Axel has the physical advantage over Raif. What Raif doesn’t expect is for Axel to pull him into a hug so tight his ribs threaten to crack.
He hugs his brother back; it’s the only thing he can do.
And Axel holds on for a minute before slowly letting Raif go.
“Your mate’s okay, right? Ash is okay?”
“Yeah she’s okay.”
Axel claps him on the back, “You saved her, Raif. You saved them all.”