Page 24 of Wild Heart

Mason rose. “Natalie…”

“I heard it all,” she said, stepping closer. “I wish I hadn’t, but it looks like my ears didn’t deceive me.”

Olivia stood too. “Natalie, please.”

“You were an item?” she asked, her voice quiet but shaking. “You and Mason?”

“No!” Olivia said quickly. “We were friends. Good friends. That’s all.”

“We were never together,” Mason added. “It was one night. We had too much to drink, and…”

“And what?” Natalie said, voice rising. “You just tripped and fell into bed together?”

“We were grieving,” Olivia said, pleading. “We were lost. It happened, and the next morning, we both agreed it had been a mistake. We never spoke of it again.”

“I don’t remember half of it,” Mason added. “I barely remember anything.”

Davey cleared his throat. “Still here, the big mistake. Just saying. ”

The tension cracked a little. Natalie looked at him, looked at the boy she loved like family, now the son of the man she loved.

“I’m not angry about what happened that night,” she said slowly. “I’m hurt because you both kept it from me. You knew. You let me fall for Mason, and you never once thought I deserved to know. After what Giles did, you knew I was vulnerable.”

Olivia’s eyes welled. “I wanted to, all those years ago. And then... I didn’t know how.”

Another flash of lightening made the kitchen turn white, then back to dark like Natalie’s mood.

“You lied,” Natalie said. “For so long. And Mason, you… when we got together, you didn’t think I deserved the truth?”

“I didn’t know the truth!” he said. “I only found out minutes ago!”

Olivia stepped forward. “Natalie, please…”

But Natalie shook her off. “Don’t. I need air. I need... space.”

She turned and walked out, her boots thudding against the hallway floor. Mason chased after her and Davey left through the back door. And Olivia, left behind, leaned against the wall, her eyes closing, her breath shaking. Her heart pounded like thunder in her chest, each beat louder than the last.

Natalie had just reached her room, hands still shaking from the confrontation with Olivia, when another flash lit up the entire hallway like daylight.

An instant later, the thunder followed, louder than any before, rattling the windowpanes and setting her nerves alight.

She froze. Then, through the small opening in her window, the unmistakable scent reached her, sharp, acrid. Smoke.

In the kitchen, Olivia straightened, her back stiff as she sniffed the air. She turned toward the window and saw it: a bloom of orange rising over the eastern ridgeline, flickering just above the tree line .

“Oh no,” she whispered as a shrill alarm cracked through the silence, followed by the pounding of feet on the wooden floors. Outside, the rain fell harder, the thunder booming now, closer, enraged. The wind howled through the gap in the window frame, whistling like a warning.

Mason reappeared, his quest for Natalie forgotten, flashlight in hand. His face was taut, lips pressed into a grim line. "We’ve got a fire in the east woods. Lightning must’ve struck one of the dead pines."

Natalie joined them, panting from the run from her cabin, her thoughts now focused on the storm outside, the one inside could wait. "How far?"

“Too close.”

Olivia took command, her voice clear despite the panic rushing through her chest. "Mason, notify the volunteer crew and get everyone to the safe zones. Natalie, get the small animal enclosures started on evacuation protocol. I'll alert emergency services."

Mason gave a nod and turned toward the lodge’s emergency panel.

Natalie moved, her adrenaline overriding the hurt in her chest. The argument could wait.

The truth could wait. Right now, there were animals in danger.

Minutes blurred. The sanctuary staff gathered in the main clearing, faces illuminated by the growing red glow on the horizon.

Ash rained down like snow. The trees hissed with embers.

The smoke moved like a creature, slithering low through the brush, hungry and reaching.

“We’ve trained for this,” Mason barked, handing out radios and flashlights. “Stay in teams, check for stragglers. Prioritize the vulnerable pens first. Use the lower trail to move crates toward the south gate. ”

The words were clipped, practiced, but beneath his calm command, worry gnawed loud.

Olivia coordinated from the command post with a map of the property pinned to the table. Her fingers trembled as she relayed positions to the fire department, her voice never cracking. "We’ve got thirty minutes before it hits the outer perimeter. That’s our window."

Natalie and Mason found themselves working side by side. They loaded injured birds into carriers, clipped tags to recovery cages, counted heads with practiced precision. Time seemed elastic, rushing forward and dragging back.

“I need that fox crate!” Natalie shouted over the crackle of the radio.

“Coming!” Mason hoisted it over the fence, their hands brushing for only a second.

Even then, through the smoke and chaos, the sting of everything unsaid hung between them. As the fire drew closer, the heat thickened the air. Trees groaned. A distant pop marked the fall of a scorched pine.

“Fence line’s catching!” someone yelled.

Olivia's voice came over the radio. "Pull back to the western compound. The fire team will try to hold the ridge."

Animals were moved into trailers and trucks. The sanctuary staff formed a chain to hand off food, crates, blankets. The air burned every breath. The earth itself seemed to moan.

And then came Davey. He emerged from the far side of the barn, his face streaked with ash, sweat glistening at his brow. His eyes were wild but focused, pupils sharp, body braced with a raw kind of clarity.

“What do you need?” he barked at no one in particular, grabbing a cage of recovering squirrels and heading toward the caravan of waiting vans.

Olivia spotted him from across the clearing and froze. It was the first time she’d seen him since their conversation—since she’d told him the truth.

“Davey!” she called.

He paused, cage in hand. Their eyes met. She took a step forward.

“I need to help,” he said, cutting her off. “We can talk after.”

Her throat bobbed with the words she couldn’t say. She nodded. He turned and ran.

He moved with an urgency that came not just from the fire but from something deeper, rage, confusion, betrayal, love.

His limbs burned, but he didn’t slow down.

He worked beside volunteers, beside Natalie, though they barely exchanged words.

At one point, he handed her a tool kit. Their fingers touched briefly. She glanced up.

“Thank you,” she said.

He didn’t reply.

Later, as the fire crept closer, Olivia and Mason crossed paths near the east trail. Mason’s face was streaked with soot, a gash on his arm from a broken branch. He looked at her but didn’t stop moving.

“Davey’s working the supply line,” Olivia said, matching his pace. “He’s not speaking to me. Or to you.”

Mason nodded. “We don’t deserve his words right now.”

“He’s terrified,” she whispered.

“So am I.”

Their eyes met just long enough for pain to flash between them.

“I need to know we’re not going to lose this place,” Olivia said.

“We won’t,” Mason answered. “Not while we still have hands and legs.”

Smoke clung to everything. Natalie’s lungs burned, but she kept moving.

A falcon shrieked in her arms, its wings trembling as if sensing the flames.

She whispered to it, nonsense, comfort, anything to fill the roar of fire with something human.

Each breath was a prayer. Then, as they loaded the final crates, Mason found her.

“We’ve got to go,” he said.

She turned, hair wild, ash streaked across her cheek like war paint.

For a heartbeat, she was still. Then she nodded.

As they made their way down the lower trail, Olivia and Davey joined them, the four of them walking through the haze together.

Their shadows merged and stretched long and dark across the scorched path.

No one spoke. There was too much to say. Too much they hadn’t said.

The fire reached the sanctuary fence as the last vehicle pulled away. Behind them, the trees blazed like ghosts reclaiming the land. And ahead, the uncertain road stretched into the smoke-choked night.