Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Jonah

I'm about to get road head.

I know it seems crazy for a man my age to say something like that. I mean, it's a younger man's game, right? Well, I'm an older man but I have a younger woman so I get some perks, right?

Believe it or not, though, this will be my first time.

And I'm too much of a firefighter to let it happen while I'm driving. I'm really going to get car pulled over head. We're on a mountain road, on our way to a spot I want to show her. She's never seen me as a wolf and I figure my lake cabin is a good place to do it. That's the plan, anyway.

I pull over to move a fallen tree out of the road. I get it off the road but when I sit back down, she puts her hand between my legs. So, here goes.

Except here doesn't go.

My hand darts out and I take her wrist. "Hold on," I say.

"But what's wr…" I guess my expression stops Mara from finishing the question. I slip out of the car and lift my face toward the sky. Then, I start undressing. A moment later, Mara gets out of the car. "What the hell are you doing?"

"In the trunk, there's a harness," I say, "It looks like a backpack. Can you get it please?"

"What's going on?"

"Smoke," I reply. "From a vehicle. Tires. I need to shift and I won't be able to rescue anyone naked. In the harness pack is a change of clothes."

She stares at me in shock and I'm about to try to reassure her or do whatever it takes to hurry her up. But she nods and opens the car door. She pops the trunk and then runs to the back. When she returns, she doesn't say anything. She sets the harness down and then simply takes my shirt, which is already on the road, and folds it.

By the time my jeans are off, she has my shoes and socks on the passenger seat floor and the shirt on the seat. She folds the jeans and they join the shirt. My briefs come down and she takes them from me. I tell myself that she is going to look longingly at my penis but I know it's silly, stupid thinking.

"Don't be afraid," I say, "When you see my wolf. The harness is just two straps. Both go around my neck so the pack is like a necklace. I can carry the pack without the harness if it's too hard or too scary."

"You can't scare me, Jonah," Mara says.

And I shift. She breathes in very deeply, but that is her only reaction. That's remarkable. Enormous natural wolves are six and half to seven feet long and a hundred and sixty to seventy pounds. I am eleven feet long and close to eight-hundred pounds.

She doesn't react past that first deep inhalation. She doesn't hesitate either. She gets the harness and gets it on effectively and efficiently. The only thing I have to do is lower my head so she can handle the back of my neck. I'm as big as a horse to her right now. Afterward, she slides her hands down and I feel her lips press against my forehead.

She lets go and says, "I can smell the smoke now, I think, unless I'm imagining it. Go get'em tiger. Um… Wolf. Um… Go get'em… Fuck it. Go get'em."

As a wolf, I have extraordinary hearing so as I crash into the woods, I hear her say to herself, "Big fucking moment, Mara. Way to go." She laughs, though, and I imagine if laughter were possible in this form, I'd laugh, too.

In my human form, I'd be totally reliant on sight to determine direction, but as a wolf I'm able to orient myself much faster by smell, and the smell of that burn is very powerful right now. It assails my nostrils and I must fight an instinctive and powerful desire to run the other way.

No animal naturally runs to a fire.

I'm on the scene in what feels like seconds, though it's about a mile and a half from where I left Mara. I see that it's a school bus and my adrenaline really starts pumping. I circle the bus and see that the kids inside look utterly panicked, terrified.

No wonder. Their driver is out cold, leaning over the steering wheel. I don't waste any time. I take hold of the emergency door in my jaws and tear it off and toss it.Yeah, I'm bigger and stronger but the stronger part is aided by something past the natural physicality. We don't know why. Something supernatural most shifters believe.

The kids inside are now yelling and backing up into the bus. I run back into the cover of the woods, shift, and quickly change, pulling the clothes from the pack and dressing at lightning speed. Everything is on autopilot now. I run back out and decide on the logical course of action.

Of course, the first thing I have to do is calm them down enough to evacuate them, but I also am going to need to try to get the driver out, as well. I ran to the gaping hole in the bus where the emergency door once was and jumped inside.

The kids are freaking out, but they're also coughing and breathing in a thickening cloud of smoke. Time is running short. "Okay, I need some strong people up here to show the others how to get out to safety. Who's ready to be a strong hero?"

A small chorus of voices and then, they begin moving to me as a group. "That's awesome, good job."

There's a popping sound and now I see some flames coming from the engine. Time has just about run out. "Okay, I'm going to play a game of toss the kid." Stupid, but my mind is racing with how to get them out and clear fast. "Come on up here, you first two."

I grab the first two I can reach and get to the hole in the bus and toss them down to the ground as gently as I can. They get up and I yell, "Okay, run far away to the edge of the woods like, um, magic deer. You're magic, now run!"

As dumb as it sounds to me, it works. I start helping them down in pairs and they run off to group far from the bus on the edge of the woods. But the flames are getting wilder and I'm hearing more popping as the smoke becomes so thick I lose sight of how many kids are left to toss. I get to my knees and do a quick search, using my hands to sweep under the benches as I call out.

That's when I heard Mara's voice outside the hole in the bus. "Jonah?! Where are you?"

"Mara? Stay out!" My mind races. How the hell is she here? The sudden fear that engulfs me at the thought of her getting hurt is almost paralyzing. But I have more to do. "Look, get those kids together and move them even farther back. Keep them calm. I'm almost done."

I've managed to get them all. Now, I run back to the front and grab the driver. He's out cold and dead weight, so I struggle a bit more to haul him to the opening. But, finally, we're there. I jump down first and then, I reach up and pull him down and out.

I wish I could shift to wolf form at this moment because this guy is no light weight and the first explosion rocks the bus when we're barely clear. Something metal falls at my feet as I shift the guy over my shoulder and run.

I get to where Mara is standing with the kids in a huddle. I'd admire her ability to keep them calm under such circumstances if I wasn't carrying an unconscious, injured man. I leverage the guy to the ground and begin checking his vitals. He's cut and scraped a bit on his head and arm and his breathing is ragged, but his pulse is strong enough for the moment.

There's a massive boom behind us then, and we turn to see the bus completely engulfed. I look at Mara and she's holding a bunch of the kids close, her eyes wide with fright. She looks over at me and my heart jumps.

Then, I hear sirens and emergency crews arrive and my adrenaline doesn't know where to run, so it runs right into Mara. "My god, what are you doing? How did you get over here? You could've gotten hurt, Mara."

She shakes her head, her eyes huge. Then, she pulls me into a hug and holds me so close I feel her heartbeat. I start to breathe more slowly as the adrenaline and the fear relax their hold. She finally lets me go and gives me a small smile. "Okay, first of all, Jonah, I heard the crash reported on the radio so I knew where to head and, I might not be a super powerful wolf shifter but I can follow a cloud of smoke. Second, I'm a big girl and I make big-girl decisions. I was coming to help because I could. Really, you should just say thank you!"

She's breathing hard and her face is flushed and she looks so beautiful and, well, I feel a different kind of heat rise through me. "Okay, big girl. Thank you." I pull her close to me again and, kissing the top of her head, swing around to watch the aftermath.

We both silently watch as the rescue crew and the cops do their jobs and then, she pushes back from me and stares me down. Is she still upset with me?

She gives me a small playful frown. "When are you going to propose to me, Jonah? Don't you think it's time?"