A rough hand grabbed his turnout gear and pulled him backward. Mark. “There’s no one left!” he yelled through the radio. “You’ll get yourself killed for nothing!”
Aaron shoved off him. “There’s a baby!”
Through his mask, Mark’s eyes were scared as he looked up at the wall of flames above them. The human had a family—a wife and two kids. He was young, three years out of Fire Academy. He was a good one. Mark wouldn’t leave without him, and now it was the baby or Mark. Aaron’s heartbeat was roaring in his ears as he tossed one last glance back to the bedroom. He could just make out the walls coming down, and he knew it was too late.
He grabbed Mark’s shoulder, and together they ran from the house. Now, he was going to have to break it to the woman that he’d failed her. He’d done this before, told families about their loved ones he hadn’t been strong enough, or fast enough, to save. This was his least favorite part of the job. She would look up at him, her eyes hollow, because deep down she would already know he hadn’t pulled off a miracle. Even though he didn’t have her baby in his arms, she would still ask him, and his answer would destroy her entire world. And he would carry that burden, along with all the others, until the day he drew his last breath.
But when he saw the woman, she was smiling and looked relieved. What the hell? Maybe she was in shock. He cast Mark a quick glance to make sure he was out safe with him. His partner was talking low to Chief. Aaron made his way through the paramedics and approached the woman slowly.
“Thank you for saving me,” she said, her voice scratchy from the smoke.
“But…your baby. I couldn’t get to it.”
A frown of utter confusion commandeered her face. With a slight shake of her head, she whispered, “I don’t have baby.”
“But…you said…”
Horror washed over Aaron as his arm began throbbing in rhythm to his pounding pulse. He looked down at his searing arm. The fire had eaten through his jacket, and he could make out the angry red blisters of his ruined skin beneath. In a moment of clarity, the memory of Aric’s whispers while resuscitating the woman flashed through his mind. It wasn’t some incantation he’d been uttering to keep her from death, but mind-manipulation.
Aaron pulled off his mask. Fuck his gold eyes and who saw them. He blinked slowly and raised his furious gaze to Aric who was on the hose with a couple of the others from their station. Aric was watching him. A predatory smile spread across his face as his eyes turned black as coal. Fuckin’ vampire.
Rage pulsed in Aaron’s veins before he charged him. He was to Aric in a moment, pummeling him, his fist shattering against the asshole’s stony jaw, but Aaron didn’t care. “You could’ve gotten me killed!”
Stupid fucking smile on Aric’s face. “That was the point, Bloodrunner.”
“Aaron, stop it!” Chief yelled from behind.
They were trying to pull him off the vamp, but Aaron wouldn’t be moved. He was searching the ground around them for something wooden, something he could shove through Aric’s chest cavity and kill him with. This was too much, too much for his inner monster to let pass.
“Kill her.”
“What?” Aaron shook his head. That sounded like his bear. Kill her? Kill who?
“Kill the dragon. Kill, kill, kill. Kill your unworthy alpha. Kill the dragon.”
Aaron shook his head hard. Stop it, Bear.
“Kill the Bloodrunner Dragon so you can become alpha.”
It was Aric. Aric was manipulating his animal. Aaron slammed the King of the Asheville Coven against the concrete, and there it was, the first crack in Aric’s poker face. He winced in pain, so Aaron slammed him against the driveway over and over, a snarl in his chest. His arm hurt so fucking bad, but he would break his own bones to kill this asshole for what he’d done. For what he was suggesting.
Aaron loved Harper. She was his cousin. She was good. Maybe she was the best person he’d ever known. The best alpha. Good, good, good.
Aaron opened his mouth and roared his fury.
He would stake Aric a thousand times before he would hurt a hair on the Bloodrunner Dragon’s head.
Chapter Two
1. Nice
2. Polite to wait staff/big tipper
3. Independent/has a job
4. Big dick Medium dick is fine
5. Good teeth/Good smile
6. No tattoo/piercings
7. Enjoys the outdoors
8. Doesn’t snore
9. Likes to snuggle
10. Protective but not controlling
11. Good listener
12. Not dramatic/argumentative
13. Sexually attractive
14. Not a shifter
Alana Warren sighed and narrowed her eyes at the list she and her sister had come up with their freshmen year in college. The page was worn, tattered really, and had permanent fold lines. The edges had disintegrated, and there was a coffee stain that had smeared a couple of the numbers on the list. She needed to let up on her expectations because she’d come to realize no one fit what her twin sister had deemed a “dream man.” By some miracle, it had worked for Lissa, and she’d found Todd. Well, it had worked as far as Alana knew. She had no clue about his medium to large dick, barf. But the magic of the list had apparently run out, because Alana had never found her someone-special by it.
The bell to her coffee shop and bakery dinged, and she looked up with the plastered smile on her face that she always had for customers. It was the ass-crack of dawn, and usually it was just her regular seniors in this early. Through the wall of windows up front, dawn had barely broken the horizon with pretty grays and soft pinks, but the view was completely blotted out by the giant man who meandered in.