Bear The Burn (Firebear Brides 1) (8 page)

“You can’t be this fucking stupid. Has the smoke eaten what little sense you had?” Redmond said, obviously not choosing his words at this point.

“You don’t know the whole story, Redmond,” Royce said, his voice so dark and low now that it made the blood stop in Tiana’s veins. “If you’d let me explain…”

But his words were cut off as Redmond plowed into Royce, sending them both crashing into the deck chairs. Tiana dropped the spoons she’d been using to toss the salad, cupping her hands over her mouth. Her body shook with chills as she watched Redmond throwing Royce off and both of them scrambling to their feet, fists balled.

It’s all your fault,
she thought desperately.

Having no real family of her own anymore, it broke her heart to see the two brothers fight. The cold feeling in her gut she’d been battling for a while returned with full force, making doubtful questions run through her head in a constant river of uncertainty.

“I don’t think you could explain a goddamn thing to me, man,” Redmond snarled, making a dismissive motion with his hand and turning away from Royce, then storming down the steps.

Royce stood there for a while with a hard look on his face, watching Redmond leave. He didn’t move an inch to stop his brother. Tiana’s breath caught in her chest and she let her legs carry her away before her brain caught up. Grabbing her purse from the hall, she picked up the keys to her Ford truck from a little bowl next to the door and ran out. She was in the pickup, barreling down the thin, dusty road away from Hamilton House before Royce could even make it to the front of the house.

She saw him running after her as the sun set, casting an ominous red glow on everything that previously had made her think of beauty, but now just read anger. Tears were in her eyes and guilt strangled her chest. She drove straight for Shifter Grove, reactions taking the place of rational thought and calm introspection.

I don’t want them to fight because of me. They’re the only family they have left and I don’t even know if I want this! I was only going to be here for a little while,
Tiana desperately thought to herself.

Deep down inside, she knew she was lying to herself now. She wanted nothing more than to stay with Royce. If they’d gone through with the marriage, she was sure she would have never raised a finger to annul it. Even if things went south, she already had legitimate feelings for the man and it certainly would not have been a sham of a wedding anymore. A bit rushed, maybe, but if she’d learned anything about life then it was that overthinking what felt right was never the correct thing to do.

Which made her escape into the night all the more ironic.

Gritting her teeth and blinking through the tears, she hit the gas and drove on faster. The road seemed to glow red in the distance and through her tears, that didn’t strike her as odd. It was only when she was a good distance away from the house that she noticed the warning light on the dashboard.

“Shit,” Tiana groaned, just in time for the truck to stutter and cough and run out of gas at the worst possible time.

She was stuck between Hamilton House and Shifter Grove, equal distance from both places. Pulling to the side of the road, Tiana laid her hands flat on the steering wheel and rested her forehead against it as well. A quick flurry of sobs wracked her body. Guilt, anger at herself, and a feeling of stupid helplessness took over. She only allowed it to rule over her for a minute, but when she looked up after wiping her tears, her eyes went wide as saucers.

Instead of the dry, seemingly always dusty road she was used to traveling on their trips to town, she was staring down a wicked inferno of fire now, cracking and roaring as it gathered around her.

“What the...” Tiana gasped, grabbing her purse and digging around it for her phone.

She found the cell, but not surprisingly, there was no damn reception. Groaning, she tossed it down and looked around, glancing out each of the windows and twisting to look behind her as well. The flames absolutely surrounded her, spreading so fast that she couldn’t keep track. The dry, tortured forest floor was going up quickly and wherever the tongues of flame reached, they won new ground.

Pressing out of the truck, she swung her legs out but gasped as the intense heat hit her in the face like a mallet. She pulled the door closed again right away and huddled down inside, cursing to herself. The sound of the flames was deafening. Crawling over the seats, she tried the other door and found that the blaze was just as intense on that side, the fire coming up quickly along the dry bank leading up to the narrow road. She was completely stuck.

Terror rose in her, making her shake with cold and goose bumps break out over her skin, despite the car heating up quickly.

I never even got to say goodbye,
she thought, bile rising up from her stomach.
 

CHAPTER NINE

Royce

“Tiana!” he roared, running after the car until there was no point to it anymore.

He raised his hands, waving frantically, screaming for her to stop.

“For fuck’s sake,” he hissed, turning around on the balls of his feet and storming back inside the house for his keys.

He yelled for Redmond, but there was no answer. Frantic thoughts ran through his mind, but the most pressing of them was his intense need to get to Tiana as soon as possible. There was something pressing on the back of his neck, making him worry. Something bad was going to happen, he could feel it, and it wasn’t just the adrenaline talking.

His Chevy took off like a bullet, bounding down the road and leaving a thick plume of smoke behind it. His jaw was set rigid and his lips were pressed into a thin line, hands so tight around the steering wheel that he could have torn it off the truck if he’d wished. The veins on his arms popped up, muscles flexing even though there wasn’t an obvious, immediate danger as he drove after Tiana.

She must have been going damn fast too, because he couldn’t catch up to her. His heart pounded in his chest, his bear roaring with worry and rage all balled into one. Redmond’s reaction hadn’t surprised him. Not really. He was willing to bet that Redmond’s would be one of the least painful ones to endure. Ragnar and Rhodes were younger still and their world probably included a lot more blacks and whites, instead of the grays that Royce had learned to navigate over the years. Especially now that Redmond didn’t have the full picture, Royce wasn’t taken aback by his brother’s actions.

In Redmond’s shoes, Royce would have likely done the same.

He would explain everything and it would make sense. Royce was convinced of that. But he hadn’t expected Tiana to overhear their conversation, or that it would go so sour so fast.

“Where the hell are you, honey?” he said out loud to himself, when the images of a dark, ominous red lighting the night sky captured his attention.

Shit.

He pressed his foot down on the gas and went as fast as the truck would allow him, skidding around corners and tearing up the road. He knew what that glow meant. He’d seen it plenty of times, but in the Idaho wilderness, untouched by light pollution and far away from any possible help, it seemed that much more dangerous. It was fire, licking at trees and consuming bushes.

It didn’t take long for Royce to come to the middle of the inferno. The fire must have started somewhere slightly off the road and then traveled the length of it, eventually jumping over in a few places. It wasn’t too big, but that wasn’t what worried Royce. Clambering out of the truck where he couldn’t drive it any further, he stepped in front of it, huffing in the scents.

Everything was masked under the thick smell of smoke, but underneath, he could sense the slight peach and vanilla tones that he had come to love so much. Tiana. She was in there, somewhere.

Gritting his teeth, Royce looked to both sides of him. He grabbed his cell and found it to have no reception, as usual. Weighing his options quickly, he let the bear take over, shifting right in the middle of that damn road. It wouldn’t be too long before Shifter Grove inhabitants noticed the blaze as well, but it might already be too late then. He had to get to Tiana, now, wherever she was.

He picked the side of the road that wasn’t taking the brunt of the fire and went around the tongues of flame as closely as he could, but far enough to keep them from scorching his coat. Keeping his nose up, he inhaled deeply with every hurried step he took, trying to pinpoint Tiana’s location. Soon enough, he caught scent of her again and his heart leapt, knowing that she was not too far. His trot turned into an all-out run through the thick forest, the trees just fodder for the fire in their dry state.

Royce skidded to a halt when he saw Tiana’s truck stranded in the middle of the road, surrounded on both sides by a ring of fire. The flames were building in size and intensity with each second that passed, and there was no other way to her than through it all. Heaving a deep breath, he barged in, ignoring the scorching pain and excruciating heat of the flames reaching for him.

Somehow he made it through a smaller patch to her truck, which was a few feet away from the blaze because of there being nothing on the road to burn. Trees were coming down around them to either side and it would only be a question of time until one of them collapsed on the truck. Shifting out of his bear form, Royce winced, feeling the burn wounds that his skin already had. They were minor, though, and he would heal quickly. But there was almost no air to breathe in the eye of the inferno.

He shrugged off his jacket, wrapping it around his hand as he ripped open the back door of the cab to the truck. Tiana was curled up between the seats, passed out from the smoke. His heart stuttered and stopped, but when he saw her take a tiny breath, his body kicked into gear again. Dragging her body out of there, he picked her up in his arms and cradled her close. He threw the thick leather jacket over her and prayed that it would hold the flames away long enough while he went back the same way as he came.

The thick growl in his throat was nothing more than a silenced scream as the intense heat caught on his clothes and lapped at his skin, making him hurt like hell. When he came across on the other side of the flames, he kept running for a bit, putting distance between them and the fire.

I fucking knew something bad was going to happen,
he thought, collapsing to his knees and laying Tiana down on the dry grass.

Peeling off the jacket, he was relieved to see that she was mostly unharmed. Her breaths got deeper as they were away from the smoke, and a quick assessment left Royce falling back on his haunches, taking a deep breath. She didn’t need mouth-to-mouth, but she would probably need to be seen by a doctor. Looking behind him, he could see the fire still roaring with full effect, threatening to get bigger and take over the whole patch of forest between Hamilton House and Shifter Grove.

His stomach roiled at the thought of losing that beautiful, pristine bit of wilderness, but Tiana came first. She groaned softly and her eyes fluttered open, those perfect brown eyes staring up at him in surprise.

“Are we…” she asked, trailing off as she saw the red glow behind him.

“We’re safe,” he said, smiling. “We got out.”

“You found me?” she asked, weakly pushing herself up to sit.

“Yeah. But we can talk later. Can you walk?” he asked, pulling her up by her hands and letting her lean on him.

He hissed in a breath, feeling the extent of his own wounds, but ignoring the pain. As he started leading her out step by step, he heard shouts and voices coming from the road. One of the loudest voices he heard was Redmond’s.

“We’re here,” Royce called, only to face his brother a second later.

The younger Hamilton looked relieved, but the emotion only had place on his expression for a second.

“Thank the spirits you’re okay. What happened?” he asked, letting Tiana lean on him on the other side.

“My car ran out of gas and before I knew it, I was surrounded. I couldn’t get out. I’m so sorry I drove off like that. It was dumb of me,” Tiana confessed, looking from Royce to Redmond and back again. “I hated hearing you fight. I don’t want to drive a wedge between your family,” she said, and Royce’s insides twisted.

He’d have to have a long talk with that woman. Family was important, but a bear’s mate was just as important, if not more so.

“Don’t worry about that. I overacted,” Redmond said, leading them to the other side of the fire, where a number of trucks were gathering and people were already working to quell the blaze through various means.

Royce was surprised to see that the locals actually had decent preparation, using chemical suppressants and working in an organized manner. Redmond walked them over to a worried-looking woman, who had Tiana sit down on the tailgate of a truck and opened up her medkit.