“What about your truck?”
“Can you drop that off too?” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, my G —” She stopped before she said Goddess. The word put him on edge, and she knew it.
“Thank you, sis.” He’d tell her not to scratch his paint, but the last time she’d had his car she’d fed the kids a box of cereal. It took a good hour to get rid of all the crumbs. But it was worth it not to have to head out to pack land again today.
“Goodbye, Flint.”
He hung the black corded phone back on the wall. The day warmed as the sun rose. He had plenty to do back at the cabin. He left his clothes and headed out behind the fire station. While there weren’t many humans in Hundsburg, there were a few, and trotting down Main Street like a show pony wasn’t in the cards for his wolf. Instead, he took the trail down the back of the business and ignored the pull to trot up the hill to the witch’s house again.
He shifted outside his gate and greeted his dog as a human. The dog jumped up and down next to him, but never on him. “Get down, Penny.” He might be the alpha in his little mini pack, but the dog only listened to his sister Vivianne. Probably because she came out and fed her when he was at the station. He entered the unlocked door of his cabin, and Penny came in through her dog flap. Vivianne had insisted on a white board to write down when Penny ate. She’d been here an hour ago. It was part of the arrangement they’d come up with when he’d taken the dog for her. Having a dog was the last thing he’d wanted, but her mate’s cat didn’t get along with Penny.
He was still tired. Go figure, sleeping in fur with an ice cream container tucked between your legs and a hangover wasn’t the best way to feel refreshed in the morning. After he took another shower, he lay on the sofa ready to watch the Sunday afternoon Kunyon ball game. He loved the sport. Shifters dominated the playing field in a game that was both types of football with a little rugby thrown in. His favorite team, the Pittsburgh Hounds, were playing the Philadelphia Originals.
Penny curled up on the floor next to him. He draped his favorite Hounds blanket over his legs and tucked a pillow under his head, a bowl of chips at his elbow. Soon, the only game he watched played on the inside of his eyelids.
The dreams came at him slowly at first, starting off like the dreams he used to have before his powers were bound. But then everything took a turn. He was in a fire. Without his turnout coat. His feet inched over the warm boards.
A female was screaming, screaming his name. “Flint!” Her voice was coarse and crazed over the crackling of the flames spreading up the walls.
He had to find her. Ceiling tiles were falling all around him, crashing down on his shoulders and around his legs. “I’m here. Where are you? Where are you?”
“Flint!” Her cry sounded louder, but the direction echoed through the space. The smoke filled the room. Someone else was in the room. Someone besides the screaming woman. He couldn’t get to her—something was keeping him away.
“Where are you?” There was a loud mechanical popping noise. Not good. His time was waning. The heat sweltered around him, flames twirling like a hurricane. His feet burned.
“Flint!” The smoke thickened. The oak siding on the wall behind him was on fire.
“Where are you? Stand still so I can find you!” He couldn’t move his legs. The walls were closing in, and something large on the other side of the room crashed. He thrashed and strained.
“Flint!”
His hand hit a cold object, and it crashed, thudding. He could move his legs again. Groggily, he shook his head. Penny was on the ground eating the remaining potato chips.
Dog hair on the blanket revealed why he hadn’t been able to move his legs. The television blared, the announcer calling the final moments. Philly was up 6 to 3. He was living a nightmare. He hated when any Philadelphia team beat Pittsburgh. He was wearier now than before his nap. He stood and ran his hand over his face. The woman’s voice lingered in his head. He didn’t like it at all.
Last week, he’d had a dream that Maddox was going to burn the fries for their unit dinner, and he did. The week before, he’d dreamt of the freak late snowstorm that had dumped a foot of snow on them, and that had happened.
The flames were licking up and down his skin. Fuck, he needed to dump the energy he had before he blew something up. Behind his little dining room was a wall of bookshelves. He pulled the copy of Good Fire, Bad Fire out, and the door to his secret stash of energy orbs opened. At least he’d put some of his carpentry experience to good use. He’d had Vivianne get them for him. Granted, his older brother had taught him how to use them, but he hadn’t been home in over a year. Tad had no idea of the stash Flint had built up.
The back wall glowed with a blue pulse. And while he hated it, he had to use the orbs. He hated having this power at all, was furious at his mother for not agreeing to rebind his powers into the tidy package they had been in for his entire childhood and most of adulthood.
But there was a strange satisfaction in seeing the orbs all lined up in an organized row. A battery pack of magical proportions. Supposedly, he could sell the things on the black market for a small fortune. But someone could always tie the magical signature back to him. At least, that was what his older brother had told him. Someone could use his power for a nefarious reason, and he would be responsible. It was too much to worry about.
For now, he filled up one of the empty ones. If he needed a new business, he could go into producing empty orbs. Because if the things were worth a fortune full, they cost him a lot to buy empty.
He put the full orb on the wall with the others and crossed his arms, staring at them. Penny started barking. He closed the door and locked the book in place. The motor and crunch of the tires were his own.
“It’s Eloise, Penny. Quit your barking.”
The dog started jumping next to him, part kangaroo.
Pike’s truck pulled in behind her. “I can’t stay.” She tossed him his phone. “Vivianne says there’s an emergency, and I need to come see her soon as possible.”
“Viv, really? She fed Penny this morning. I’m coming with you. I’ll drop you back at home.”
“All right, I’ll tell Pike he just wasted a half hour following me out here.”
“Tell him I owe him.” How his sister had found such a decent mate, he didn’t know.
“Don’t we all?” Eloise whispered something into the truck, kissed her mate on the cheek, and slapped the hood.
9
Emma stood for a long time at the window, wondering if the wolf, who she knew wasn’t a wolf, would come back. But he hadn’t. So she showered and thought about what she should do for the day. Living on her own was a daily adventure in how to entertain herself, and so far, she wasn’t coming out ahead.
The bathroom needed to be scrubbed, and there were dirty dishes in the sink. But again, no roommate. Emma put on her rain boots and raincoat and hoped it didn’t snow again today. She left her house and the car behind. With her green cat backpack strapped under her raincoat, she headed down to the little grocery story on the other side of the river downtown. She could get in her car and head into town to the big grocery store, but that was a commitment she didn’t want to make today.
She wanted to find out more about her visitor, the one with the soft ears. Walking, she might run into that Vivianne Westbrook again.
She made it over the bridge and took a right into town, passing the Easy Rabbit bar, Wolf’s Den pizzeria, and Tinsey’s Florist Shop, although she did stop and window shop at the gorgeous displays. Tulips and pussy willows. She had been saving up for a while to afford her new car. The one she barely used anymore. But it was better than nothing, which was what she would have had after untangling her finances from the shithead cheater of an ex of hers.
Emma grabbed one of the world’s smallest grocery carts and strolled into the Freshmart. There were two places to shop in town: here and the Pick-n-Pay. Townies sat outside of the PNP, and while she wanted answers to her questions, she also wasn’t ready to walk the plank of the old man’s club. The Freshmart smelled like a European market—or at least what she imagined a European market might smell like—a cross between fresh-baked croissants, hanging cured sausage, and handmade candles.
She hadn’t expected to find such a wonderful shop in little Hundsburg, but then again, shifters liked to eat. There was a fresh meat counter and a cheese counter longer than one had the right to be. In fact, she hadn’t known there were that many types of cheese until recently.
Picking things she couldn’t mess up like pasta, sauces, and such, she filled her little cart. Then she turned a corner and there was Vivianne. Without her adorable little baby, but with Mr. Cranky Pants himself. She should have known that someone as hot as him already had a wife, or mate, or whatever it might be. Another female tossed a two-pound brick of chocolate into their cart.
