“Fuck, are these Summer’s?” He grabbed another two.
“Don’t eat them all,” I scolded. “But yes. You’re all coming to the grand opening, right?”
“We’ve got it on the team calendar.”
“Great.” I hesitated. “Umm, will you make sure Wilder gets some cookies?”
A slow smile spread across Ezra’s face. “Oh?”
Shoot. The firefighters were just as bad gossips as Marisol and Carmen.
“Nothing like that. He helped me with an injury, so they’re just a thank-you.”
Ezra’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”
“Just sprained my ankle. Not a big deal.” Although, it was throbbing more now. I needed to take some meds and elevate it.
Ezra glanced at his watch. “He should be in soon if you want to hang out.”
But I was already hobbling to the door. “No, that’s fine! Just don’t eat them all before he gets here.”
I pulled myself into the golf cart and flopped back in the seat. “We did it, Felix.” I looked over and found him sitting primly beside me, a cookie secured in his mouth.
I shook my head. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.”
13
Wilder
I walked into the firehouse,and for the first time since I started this job, I didn’t want to be here.
I liked my work. The administrative tasks that came along with being fire chief could be tedious, but helping people gave me a sense of purpose and my guys were the closest thing I had to family. But today it took every bit of strength I had to stop myself from racing down Main Street to a certain sewing shop.
The past few days had been torture without Lucy. The cabin was drenched in her scent. Only the thirty-minute drive down the mountain prevented me from breaking into her home and claiming her. I’d gotten in my truck multiple times yesterday, but each time, I’d come to my senses before I got to town.
My alpha was furious that I was resisting the sweet omega, but I couldn’t trust my alpha…couldn’t trust myself. Firefighting was the only area where my alpha was useful. My strength, high pain tolerance, and heightened senses allowed me to make rescues others couldn’t. The stack of cards from the people I’d helped throughout the years sat in my desk drawer. I pulled them out on the days my self-hatred mounted and I wondered what the point of me was.
The drawing from Teddy depicting me as a superhero leaping out of his burning house with him and his beloved bear, Teddy Jr., in my arms.
The letter from the elderly woman thanking me for saving her husband’s ashes and their wedding album—the last things she had left of him—when her condo burned.
The card from the family whose home was taken in an electrical fire while they were on vacation, complete with pictures of their twodogs I’d rescued and fostered until the family had a new place to move into.
My alpha might be twisted and dangerous, but at least I was doing something useful with my life.
I put my stuff down in my closet-sized office and popped another suppressant. The attraction I felt for Lucy would fade and I could return to my normal, lonely life. I just had to control my alpha in the meantime.
“Morning, boss,” Ezra called out with a wave of his spatula when I entered the kitchen.
The smell of eggs and bacon swirled around me, but there was something else, too. Something delicate, sweet, and floral. The hair on my arms stood.
“Someone dropped by with a present for you this morning.”
My skin flushed hot and I held back a growl. Lucy had been here? WithEzra?
“What?” I snarled.
He chuckled and gestured to a large white box. I lifted the lid and was hit with another wave of the omega’s scent.
