Page 16 of His Reward (Omegas After Dark: Omega Auction #2)

Every word of every training session about how dangerous it was to run into a burning building rushed to the front of my mind.

Blazes like the one I was staring at were dangerous and unpredictable.

Structures tended to collapse when heat buckled beams and burned through walls.

But I’d be damned if I just stood by and watched my omega be crushed or burned when I was one of the few people who could actually do something about it.

“I’m going in there,” I shouted at Roscoe as I reached the truck and started pulling out rescue gear.

“You’re what?” Roscoe asked, gearing up as well. “You’re the chief.”

“And I’m the most highly trained in rescue operations,” I called back before fitting the mask and shield in place over my usual equipment. “And Isaac is the senior chief on scene. It’s his ballgame to organize.”

Roscoe knew better than to argue with me. I knew enough to trust Roscoe with my life and, as I was terrified might be the case, with the life of my omega.

“You’re going in there?” Isaac asked as he caught up with us by the shattered entrance to the fitness center part of the arena.

“At least one person is trapped in there,” I said through the heavy equipment. “I know how to get them out. Do I have your go-ahead to enter the building?”

Isaac knew better than to argue with me. He knew there wasn’t time. “You do,” he said, giving me the formal permission I needed.

Unlike the way they portrayed things in the movies, you couldn’t just run into a burning building without a plan.

I moved as fast as I could, yes, but every step, every second, was careful and taken with a full, ever-changing assessment of the situation around me.

I had an axe ready in case I needed to move debris, but most of what I saw as Roscoe and I pushed through the dense smoke of the gym was heat damage and a structure that could buckle at any second.

Thank God for the signs pointing toward a hallway where the sauna and showers were. As soon as I was confident the roof wouldn’t fall down on us, yet, I picked up speed and hurried to that side of the room.

Unfortunately, part of the roof had already caved in right near the door, and the entire section of wall beside it was angry with flames.

I threw open the door anyhow to find a scene out of my worst nightmares.

The top of one side of the wall roared with flames.

Smoke billowed up into the melted ceiling.

Debris had fallen onto the other side of the corridor, and a white-clad figure was lying curled up and still underneath a collapsed piece of wall.

I knew without a doubt it was Lucien.

I didn’t think. My brain did all its usual calculations subconsciously.

I had layers of fire-resistant clothing covering me, but from the look of things, Lucien only wore a robe, and part of that was singed away.

I surged forward, reaching him with lightning speed, my heart pounding in my throat.

The section of wall that had fallen had probably saved his life, as it provided a barrier to block the flames, but that barrier wouldn’t last another five minutes.

I crouched and covered as much of Lucien’s body with my own as I could, forming another barrier to protect him, then carefully closed my arms around him and lifted him away from the burning debris.

My omega was unconscious, but he was still alive.

His strawberry ice cream scent was mingled with the far more sickening scent of burned flesh, but I couldn’t think about that.

“Got him?” Roscoe called out, though I barely heard him above the roar of the fire and the screech of metal that was twisting and about to give out.

My answer was to rock back, folding Lucien in my arms, and to turn and head out of there as fast as I could.

It was the right move. I’d been in enough burning buildings to be able to sense when things were at the breaking point.

I knew we had hardly any time at all to push our way through the smoke and heat of the gym part of the fitness center and on to the door.

I shielded Lucien as best I could, but I already knew he’d been burned pretty badly.

He started to cough when we were near the door which was bad, but it meant he was still alive.

All hell broke loose once we made it out of the building.

Lucien’s coughing got worse, even though I didn’t think he was particularly conscious.

I ran him straight to the ambulance that was waiting nearby.

Behind me, the metal girders holding the arena together groaned as they began to fold, sending flames and sparks shooting into the sky.

“We’ve got him,” one of the paramedics said as three of them converged around me to take Lucien out of my arms.

The alpha in me fought to keep hold of Lucien. He was mine, my omega, and he was in extreme danger.

I forced myself to let sense take over and to give him to the crew who rushed in to do all the things that I couldn’t. I didn’t back away, though, even though I should have been focused on fighting the fire, not on the life of one person. He wasn’t just one person, though. He was my omega.

I struggled out of my gear as fast as I could, letting it drop and leaving it as I raced forward to see what the paramedics were doing.

Without the protective visor, I could see Lucien’s body much more clearly.

Whatever had happened in there before I’d reached him, he’d sustained burns up one side of his body and across part of his face.

His robe had burned away, exposing the now angry red flesh of his left thigh, part of his arm, part of his left side, his shoulder, and the left side of his jaw.

His left ear was an ugly blossom of charred flesh, and his hair had been singed away.

“Is he alive?” I demanded as the paramedic team worked to give Lucien oxygen and to cover the exposed, burned part of his skin with packets of stuff that I should have known more about but didn’t.

The team ignored me as they worked, which was only right, but aggravated me all the same.

“We need to get an IV going,” one of them said, all business.

“Second-degree burns,” another said, giving me the feeling I’d missed the first part of their sentence.

The only thing I knew about second-degree burns were that they were extraordinarily painful.

“My son!” the man who’d approached me before called out, rushing in and pushing people aside as he did. “What’s happened to my son?”

The one thing I could do to help my omega was to stop his father from interfering with what the paramedics needed to do. I turned to step into his path, blocking him from Lucien.

“Let the paramedics do their work,” I told him, grasping his arms, since he was trying to get around me.

“What happened to him?” Lucien’s father asked, trying to look around me to get a glimpse of Lucien. “Is he hurt? Can he still skate?”

The question hit me all sorts of wrong ways. The best I could do was to give the man the benefit of the doubt.

“He was trapped in the corridor,” I said, sounding surprisingly calm, considering how shaken my alpha was. “He was shielded from the worst of the fire by part of the wall that fell and was protecting him, but he’s still badly burned.”

“How badly?” a woman asked as she ran up behind Lucien’s father. She was dressed in a skirt suit, and I immediately guessed she was press.

I wanted to shout at her and tell her to go away, this was no place for journalists. Lucien’s father had other ideas, though. His eyes widened and met mine for a split second before he whipped around to face the woman.

“Lucien was caught in the heart of the fire,” he told the reporter like a pro. “He has been severely burned. If not for the valor of this brave firefighter, he would surely be dead.”

“You rescued Lucien Monteverdi?” the woman asked me.

“I—”

“Yes, he did,” Lucien’s father answered before I could. “Based on the directions I gave him of where to locate Lucien. My son is alive because of my quick thinking.”

That little bit of false information shocked me out of anything else I might have said. The man wasn’t really trying to take credit for the rescue, was he?

“What condition is Lucien in?” the reporter asked. “Has he sustained life-threatening burns? Will they affect his skating career?”

I was incredulous all over again. How could these people think about skating at a moment like this?

“We need to let the paramedics do their work,” I said, to the reporter, but especially to Lucien’s father. “Burns like Lucien’s can be life-threatening.”

Even saying that had my alpha roaring with rage.

“We’re taking him to the hospital,” one of the paramedics called out. “Are you coming with us?”

I turned, assuming they were talking to me. I was his alpha, after all. But they were addressing Mr. Monteverdi. Of course they were. Because Lucien wasn’t actually my omega.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” Lucien’s dad said, jogging sideways a few steps toward the ambulance, which Lucien had just been loaded into. He turned back to the reporter and said, “You have my number. Call me for a statement in a few hours.”

Rage as hot as the burning building beside me filled me. How dare the man think of giving interviews when Lucien’s life might be on the line?

The worst thing was that there was nothing I could do about any of it.

I still had a fire to fight. My job wasn’t done.

I scooped up the gear I’d dropped earlier and raced back to where the rest of my crew was now manning the engines, spraying thick streams of water onto the burning arena.

I had to focus on the things I could control.

But as soon as the fire was out and that part of my job was over, I would go to my omega, and nothing in the world could stop me from seeing and protecting him.