Page 8 of Where There’s Smoke (Fire House Omegas #2)

Fitz

“ W hat are you doing?” Samson asked as he stood in the doorway to our bunk room, watching me furiously type away on my laptop.

“Just researching some potential property investments. You know my parents have been pestering me to take the family business more seriously.”

Saying my family was rich was an understatement.

We had enough money that my grandchildren would never have to work, but we chose to work because, otherwise, life could be exceedingly boring.

When my cousin, Blaze, had decided to try his hand at firefighting, I had been so insanely proud of him that I had decided to give it a shot myself.

Turned out, I really liked it. It kept me grounded in a way no other job could.

I’d found my pack mates, who were incredibly normal people.

Usually, people from generational wealth tended to make packs with other people from the same background, and they were all stuck up their own asses.

Elliot and Samson kept me grounded, something I was eternally grateful for.

I couldn’t deal with having pack mates like the upper-crust assholes, who could be the absolute worst most of the time.

Still, working with my family’s money and keeping them off my back was a reality I needed to accept time and again.

Samson’s eyes narrowed. “And what are you investing in?”

My smirk grew. “Well, there's a nice little plot of land nearby, with a building that could easily be converted into an animal shelter…”

“You’re thinking for Melody? You're just going to buy her another shelter?” he asked, crossing his arms as his eyebrows reached up to his hairline.

“You’ve known her for one day, and you’re buying her property?

Do you need an intervention? Also, I'm pretty sure she already owns the land that her old rescue is on.”

“Shelters run off donations. This is merely a generous donation,” I reasoned.

“You know, my family is very fond of charitable endeavors.

The way I see it, this could make the little omega happy, and it could also make my family happy.

It's a win all around. Also, let's face it, the rescue used to be in a very sketchy part of town.

Wouldn't you much rather she be here near the fire station, where it's safer?”

Samson snorted, eyeing me with a knowing smirk. “You want to make Melody happy; this has nothing to do with your family. That’s just a bonus.”

“Yeah, maybe you're right,” I admitted, shrugging as I continued to fill out boxes on my screen. “But I can't stand the idea of her finding the cheapest property she can and sleeping in it again.”

That thought made me shudder, and going by the look Samson was sporting, he was right there with me. It probably wasn’t rational, but we were alphas, and everything in our nature told us to protect and care for omegas.

Melody was convinced she was a beta, but we weren’t.

A slow smile spread across my pack mate’s face. “Do you think for one minute that Elliot is going to allow her to sleep somewhere unsafe? You saw the way he was looking at her.”

I had. He’d been angry, but that was Elliot's default setting, so it was nothing new. However, the concern and protectiveness were different from his usual demeanor. It also begged the question—since Elliot had noticed this particular detail, too, how did anyone think that Melody was a beta?

“Why do you think she doesn't believe she's an omega? I'm not going crazy, am I? There's no way she's a beta, smelling like that.”

I wasn't the most knowledgeable about alphas and omegas, but I understood the basics. My mother was an omega, but she had presented very young and had known from her preteens that she would be an omega, and her family had adjusted her courting accordingly.

“I bet the lack of smell for her is what's causing the problem. I did some research, and apparently, high stress can cause an omega to present late.”

“Well, a fire is pretty fucking stressful.”

Samson snorted. “You wouldn't think so, considering she ran into the blaze to rescue the animals. And it’s more like prolonged stress, like through her life.”

I smiled, remembering how she’d sat on the back of the fire truck, ready to jump into action again for those animals.

“She's fearless, all right. We need that in our lives. Don't you think a woman who would run into fire to protect animals would also stand up to Elliot when she needed to? I mean, hell, she called him out on basically kidnapping her in front of the entire station.”

The corners of Samson’s mouth turned down as he nodded. “Shit, you may be right there.”

“I hardly slept this morning knowing that she was in the firehouse. That scent is like crack to me. I've never smelled anything so good in my life, and every instinct I have is screaming to do something about it.”

“You remember we have a date next week?” Samson said.

I paused. Crap. I had totally forgotten about that.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He smirked, shaking his head.

“No, no. It’s the teacher, right?”

Samson nodded. “Yep. Hailey set up the date a while ago. She's an omega, she's really kind and loves children, and she loves teaching.”

On paper, that sounded like the perfect omega for us: someone dedicated to their job, who understood the desire to help others, who was all about family. Hailey was an EMT we worked with regularly, an omega who was tough and sweet. But…

I chewed on my lip, finishing with the computer work and slowly closing the laptop. “Would we be assholes if we canceled it?”

“You don't want to go on the date? You've been the most anxious of all of us to find an omega.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him, putting my laptop down and standing up, stretching as I did so. “We both know that's a lie. You may not talk about it, but you want one as bad as I do.”

“Yeah…maybe,” he admitted.

“Then work with me. Because I think we already found one.” I looked him dead in the eye. “How do we convince her that she's an omega?”

Samson shrugged. “I have no idea, but I have a feeling Elliot's going to lose his mind soon. She keeps insisting that she can stay in her car or go to a cheap motel or a shelter, and I think his brain is going to implode. It’s her first day here, and he’s losing his mind.”

I scoffed out a laugh. “Ha! Seriously? Oh, buddy. Yeah, there's no way we’re letting Melody stay in some shelter, and certainly not in her car. She thinks she’s a beta.

She has no idea the kind of risk she’s at in those sorts of places, considering the much more likely truth is that she’s a late-blooming omega. Fuck, we need to convince her.”

Samson’s stare fell to the floor as he sighed.

“We need to give it time. The loss of smell is probably temporary, thanks to the fire, so give her some space, make sure she's safe, and hopefully she'll heal.

Hell, it's her first day at the fire station, and she's holed up in her room, coming out only when she's getting a bottle for the puppy.”

“It's not just her sense of smell, though. What if she goes into heat?” I said pointedly.

Samson’s ears turned red. “I…I hadn’t thought about that.”

“What if she grabs the first random alphas she finds on the street?”

Unwanted images filled my head, and nausea churned in my gut at the thought of Melody using someone else to take care of herself like that. It clearly had the same effect on my pack mate because his face went slightly green.

If Melody was going to go into heat, then we were going to help her through it. That was, if she wanted help through it or accepted us at all, for that matter.

“She should be on heat suppressants…”

“But she doesn't believe she's an omega, so she wouldn’t take them.” Samson sighed, running a hand over his face. “Plus, she’s beautiful. You know, there are plenty of guys at this station who would happily take her out.”

“Trust me, I’m well aware of that. And I don’t like it. Someone else being wrapped up in that summery melon scent? Absolutely not.”

Laughing at me, Samson shook his head again. “Dude, you can’t force it. Melody needs to come to this conclusion for herself, and she might not even like you. You’re super annoying.”

Glaring at him, I put my hand to my chest in exaggerated outrage. “I’m adorable, thank you very much. You’re the giant oaf with no social skills.”

“Hey!” Samson glared back. “Social skills, I’ve got. You’re thinking of Elliot.”

At that, we both laughed. He was undoubtedly the worst at it out of the three of us.

But the humor didn’t change the situation.

Melody needed protection while she was dealing with this new information about herself and while she was still looking for a place to live and stash the animals.

Thankfully, it looked like I was helping with that last part.

“We need to keep her safe, Samson. A shelter isn’t the right place for a burgeoning omega. You know that as much as I do.”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding, “I do. We just… Ugh, we’re going to have to be gentle. Freaking her out over all of this will scare her away faster, right into the arms of some shit alpha who won’t care how vulnerable Melody is.”

That thought was worse than the others. Lord knew there were some creeps out there, and we’d all heard way too many horror stories about what had happened to omegas suddenly in heat around the wrong alpha. Hence, the creation of suppressants.

“We take it slow. I agree. But we do whatever we need to keep Melody safe and away from any creeps. Yeah?”

Samson nodded decisively, walking the few steps to shake my hand.

“Agreed.”