Page 3 of Where There’s Smoke (Fire House Omegas #2)

Samson

S he had been sleeping at the animal rescue.

“Why?” I asked, my tone gruffer than I intended. The building was bare bones, at best. It didn't have appropriate heating or air, the insulation was probably twenty years too old, and there was no way she could be comfortable there.

Oh, and there was the shoddy electricity that had clearly started the fire. She’d been living in a ticking fucking time bomb.

“It was easier.” She shrugged.

Shrugged. Like it was no big deal. Was she somehow unaware of the current blaze going on right behind her? She’d been living in that death trap.

I was usually pretty cool and collected, but the idea of her disregarding her own safety like that made a strange anger I had never felt before swell in my gut. It was ludicrous for her to be living in a building like that, let alone using it as an animal shelter. Her pack should have?—

Fuck. She had no pack. No one.

“An omega like you can’t be staying somewhere like this. It’s not safe!” I insisted, my brows pinching together hard enough to give me an instant headache.

Her face scrunched in confusion for a second before she broke into a disjointed, cough-laden laugh.

“Omega? I know I’m small, but I assure you, I am not an omega. Just a beta, so there’s no need to be so concerned.”

There was no way she was a beta. Her scent was completely omega. Sweet and fresh, like honeydew melon. It had drawn me to her the moment I met her, and carrying her in my arms had surrounded me in the stuff. My inner alpha had been desperate to cover me in that scent and never wash it off.

Never before had someone smelled so damn alluring, and that was even with all the smoke and char scents that clung to her from the fire. Soot was potent; it was rare that we pulled anyone from a fire and were able to smell them, but her scent was unmissable.

“Besides, I don’t sleep much at the moment, because I’ve got to be up with this cutie every two hours,” she said, nodding down to the bundle in her arms. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I took a good look.

“Is that the puppy?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“Yep, she’s two weeks old,” she said. The wiggling mass of puppy was tiny, its eyes only slightly open.

“She’s so tiny!” Fitz grinned, taking off his gloves, leaning forward, and gently petting the puppy on the head with a single finger. “Is it just this cutie?”

“Yeah, she was found in an alley and brought in by a concerned animal lover. I couldn’t find the mother anywhere, so I’ve been bottle feeding her for the last week.”

My heart stuttered as I watched her coo at the puppy, her eyes bright with care.

Beautiful and kindhearted. This omega seemed far too good to be true.

Even covered in soot, she was beautiful.

Dark waves tied up in a messy bun with tendrils falling out, striking blue eyes, and sharp features.

And she was saying she was a beta? There was no way.

She started wrapping the puppy back up in her lap, muttering sweet words that were muted somewhat by the mask on her face.

“You need somewhere to go,” I said, crossing my arms. I wasn’t going to let the adorable nature of the omega dissuade me from getting her the help she needed.

“I have friends,” she said, keeping her eyes firmly on the puppy in her lap.

“Have you given her a name yet?” Fitz asked, ignoring my line of questioning.

“No, I’ve been trying to find one that fits,” she said. “Spot just felt too on the nose.”

From behind me, Elliot shouted my name, and I turned, watching as he lifted one of the hoses. Turning to Fitz, I instructed, “You stay with her, and don't let her out of your sight.”

The command simply made my pack mate laugh, but he nodded all the same, and I ignored the righteous look of indignation on the omega’s face. She could be as pissed as she wanted. It wasn’t going to change anything.

As I walked over to Elliot, the scent of melon lingered until I was too far away from her to smell it anymore over the fire.

It was still churning away, but we’d contained it enough that it wouldn’t spread to other buildings.

As I reached Elliot, his look of serious intent put my mind back in emergency mode.

Tonight was certainly unexpected.

“Is the woman all right?” he asked, wrapping up the hose.

“The omega is, yeah,” I confirmed. “I think her name is Melody.”

Elliot frowned. “Rune told me it was a beta woman who ran the rescue—he got one of his bunnies from this place. We need to find the owner of the rescue, otherwise Rune will kill us.”

“She seems to think she's a beta, but her scent says otherwise.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “She seems pretty goddamn stubborn too. She’ll be fine.”

Elliot nodded thoughtfully. “That's strange, but at least it's her, and she's safe.”

I paused for a second, thinking about what I was about to ask. She had said she could stay with a friend, but something about her tone had seemed a little disingenuous. Okay, a lot. I didn’t believe her for a second, and I wasn't about to risk her safety.

“You think maybe she should stay at the station?” I asked.

My pack mate’s eyebrows rose so high that they almost disappeared into his hairline. “Why on earth would you have her stay at the station?”

Sighing, I crossed my arms over my chest, meeting Elliot’s challenge head-on. “Because she was sleeping here .”

Elliot looked at the burning building and then back to me. “Here? She was sleeping here? At the rescue?”

“Yep. Apparently, it was ‘easier’ because she was bottle feeding a puppy. She said she could go stay with a friend, but I don’t really buy that she has someone to stay with.”

“If she said she's got somewhere to go, then she's got somewhere to go. I know what you're thinking, Sam. Just because the guys over at Station Sixteen took in a stray with nowhere to go doesn't mean that we have to take in the first stray we see.”

That same rage as before hit me, and I clenched my fists. “I think she's lying about things. I want to be sure. I don't want her to just go wandering off onto the streets.”

“Are you going to call her a liar to her face?” Elliot’s gaze shifted to Melody, and he scoffed. “Sam, I know that look. You think she's pretty…”

“Of course I do. Anyone who looks at her probably thinks she's pretty, but that isn’t the point.”

Elliot shook his head. “We don’t have the space to take in a quote-unquote omega right now. Get her phone number, and you can check in on her if you're so worried about her safety.”

He hadn't met her. He had only seen her from a distance. Part of me wanted to shake him, to take him over to where she was sitting and force him to look her in the eye. The minute he got a whiff of her and saw her, I doubted he'd be talking the way he was, and he’d know that beta bullshit was wrong. That she was just trying to downplay her situation. Elliot was a hard-ass, but he was the most protective out of all of us. He’d see it.

“We’re done with this conversation, Samson. We have more work to do. Get her number and focus on the job.”

Dammit.