Stop it. Calm the fuck down!
The men had gone quiet. Dutch straightened in his seat, a bead of sweat glistening on his forehead. “Come on now, Ryk, we’re just razzing you.”
“If he shifts in here, we’re all dead.”
Everyone eyed him nervously.
Ryker closed his eyes and willed his bear to go back to sleep. But the pain burning through his body said the beast wasn’t backing down.
“I’m not going to shift.” He ground out the words, hoping his bear was listening.
We’ll go see her later. Settle down. No one is going to get to her before I do.
He was throwing out any promise he could think of to stop this shift. Slowly, the urge to shift faded and the tension in the room dissipated.
It was silent for a minute but then Butch perked up.
“How many fire extinguishers would we have to dispense to bring him down if he did shift?”
“Never thought about it. Five, six.”
“You’ve seen his brother when he’s not human, right? His canine teeth are like a foot long, and his feet are bigger than my chest. It’s gonna take more than six.”
“Does Ryker get that big?”
Burt spread his hands and shrugged. “Probably. Look at him; he’s already huge. We’re going to need a lot of foam.”
Their good-natured banter completely calmed Ryker’s beast. Their eyes closed; he sank back against the seat.
“Extinguisher foam won’t stop me. If you’re messing with a shifter’s mate or cubs, nothing will bring him down.”
He grimaced. That probably wasn’t the best thing to say to keep things light.
Burt snickered. “That makes it sound like he’s interested in the girl, doesn’t it?”
Thankfully, the truck pulled into the fire station so he could get away from this nonsense. Ryker wasted no time getting out and stripping out of his gear.
“Ryker,” the fire chief called out. “Cara Mitchell is at her store. She smells something electrical burning. Take a thermal camera and head over there. Radio in if you need backup.”
“Roger that.”
Urgency pulsed through him. Olive lived in the apartment above the boutique. If the building went up in flames, so would her home.
Cara was gently rocking a baby carrier on the sidewalk outside, and Olive was engrossed in her phone when he arrived.
Ryker smiled at the baby looking up at him from the carrier, her chubby hands waving in the air, and felt a tug in his chest. He was happy that his cousin Jett had found love again. There was a time when everyone in the family feared he’d never find the ability to cope after his mate and daughter had been killed in a freak accident. But then Cara hit him with her car, and everything changed. They had a new daughter, and Jett was smiling again.
“Hey,” he kissed Cara on the cheek. “What’s going on in there?”
She shrugged. “The store is closed today so I came in to do some computer work, but it smells like something overly hot—metal, plastic, I can’t tell. Jett’s inside checking things out.”
“I’ll see what I can find. Just stay outside for now.”
Olive was still looking at her phone, seemingly oblivious to the conversation. What was going on with her? Something was off, and he was curious, but he had work to do first. Going inside, he drew in the mixed aromas of perfume, coffee, leather, and the faint scent of something overheating.
“Jett?”
“Back here. It’s coming from the breaker box. Looks like a fuse got fried.”
