A Spark to Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 2) Read online

  A Spark to Bear

  Fire Bear Shifters, Book 2

  By Sloane Meyers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  More Books by Sloane Meyers

  Thank You For Reading!

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Hunter Wilson stared nervously out the window of the Twin Otter airplane as it zoomed over the Northern California wilderness. The smoke hung thickly in the air, blocking his view of almost everything on the ground. Every now and then, a sea of orange flames peeked through a gap in the sooty, gray clouds.

  From up here, it looked like the whole world was burning.

  Hunter shifted his gaze to his alpha, Ian, who was staring out the windows as well. Ian’s face registered a look of deep concern, and he pulled a radio out of one of the arm pockets on his jumpsuit.

  “Come in, Boise. This is Ian Reed, crew chief to the Burning Claws Smokejumpers,” Ian yelled into the radio. “Our aerial view of the fire indicates it’s growing rapidly and has surpassed what our six-person team can combat. Requesting permission to abort the mission.”

  The radio crackled loudly, but the Twin Otter’s engine still managed to almost drown out the answer completely.

  “Ian, this Boise. We are reassessing the situation. Please stand by for instructions.”

  Hunter looked around at the rest of the crew members. The inside of the plane didn’t have any seats, so everyone sat on the floor and leaned against the sides of the plane. Charlotte Reed, Ian’s lifemate, sat closest to Ian. She already wore her helmet, so all Hunter could see of her face was her deep blue eyes, which looked concerned. Luke Griffin and Trevor Hayes sat on either side of Hunter. They held their helmets in their hands, and their faces looked grim as they silently watched the burning forest below them.

  Zach Brooks, the second-in-command of the crew, sat closest to the jump door. Normally, the crew left the door open when they were getting close to their jump site. The thick jumpsuits and heavy gear they wore felt stifling in the summer heat, and the fresh wind whipping in from outside helped cool things down. But today, the smoke outside was too dense, and Zach kept the door closed, waiting to hear from Boise whether the mission would continue.

  The National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho, better known as simply “Boise,” was command central for wildfire firefighters. Boise kept track of all the fires burning across the United States, and organized a plan of attack for each fire—telling crews of firefighters from different state and federal agencies when and where to show up to work. Even though the Burning Claws Smokejumpers worked directly for the U.S. Forest Service, Boise had the final say on whether or not their current mission would continue.

  Hunter closed his eyes briefly, trying to calm his nerves. He was a veteran forest firefighter, but this season marked his first as a smokejumper. He didn’t fear jumping out of a plane as much as he had at the beginning of the fire season, but he still didn’t feel completely comfortable with it, either. Especially not when the jump site looked like it was only hours away from being taken over by the huge forest fire below them.

  When Ian’s radio started crackling again, Hunter’s eyes flew open. Even with his excellent bear hearing, he had to strain to hear the radio above the noise of the plane’s engine.

  “Ian, this is Boise. Come in, Ian.”

  “I’m here,” Ian said.

  “We’ve assessed the situation. I know it looks bad from your vantage point, but there are several safe zones available near the jump site. And if we can get the fire to veer off to the south, it will be much easier to for the ground crews to contain and extinguish. You guys should be able to set up a fire break to do that before the fire gets anywhere dangerously close to you.”

  “So you’re saying you still want us to jump?” Ian shouted into the radio’s receiver.

  “Affirmative. Continue with the mission as planned,” came the reply.

  Hunter clenched his helmet tightly and waited for Ian’s reaction. He could hardly believe that Boise wanted them to jump into the burning clusterfuck below them. Even though they would be jumping a short distance away from the actual fire, the blaze was moving at an alarming speed. He didn’t see how they could possibly get a fire break cleared before the fire caught up with them.

  Hunter watched Ian sigh and put the radio back into his jumpsuit pocket, zipping it in securely.

  “Gear up,” Ian said, pulling his helmet onto his sweaty head.

  “You can’t be serious, Boss,” Zach said. “There’s no way this mission is going to work.”

  Hunter rarely saw eye to eye with Zach these days, but he nodded in agreement at Zach’s words. This mission was doomed.

  “Boise says jump. So we jump,” Ian said. “Now gear up.”

  Zach scowled, but started strapping his helmet onto his head. Hunter pulled his own helmet on and secured it, then started checking the straps that held his parachute to his body. His chest strap and both leg straps were secure. He located the handles that allowed him to pull his main parachute and reserve parachute, and made sure they were clear and accessible.

  Scratchy, smoky air filled the plane as Zach opened the jump door. Hunter glanced over at Luke, who shrugged and shook his head in an exasperated manner. The fire was too big and too close. Boise had made the wrong call on this one. But Boise didn’t like to hear opinions from firefighters in the field, and they seemed determined to push this mission forward. The show must go on.

  Zach tossed colorful, crepe paper streamers out the door. Normally, watching the streamers float down to earth gave the crew a good idea of what direction the wind was blowing, which helped them land their parachutes properly. But the smoke swallowed up the streamers only a few seconds after Zach launched them.

  “This is nuts,” Zach said. “I can’t even determine the wind direction, let alone check the spot to make sure we’re jumping into the correct location.”

  Hunter’s eyes were watery from the smoke, which seeped through the little crevices in his helmet and irritated his skin.

  Ian looked around at his crew, his eyes full of compassion and courage. “Listen, I don’t think this is going to be easy, but I think we can do it. We’re strong, and we’re damn good firefighters. I’m going to jump, and I’m going to do my best to give that fire hell. I know this is risky, though. Anyone who doesn’t feel right about jumping has my permission to stay in the plane.”

  Ian made eye contact with each of his crew members, gauging their response, and Hunter felt his heart swelling with pride. Ian led with such character and strength. It was an honor to call him alpha.

  “I’m with you, Boss. Let’s do this!” Hunter yelled out, feeling adrenaline filling his body. The rest of the crew nodded their agreement as well. The Burning Claws Smokejumpers stuck together, no matter what. They would face this fire side by side, as one unit.

  “It’s hard to see anything out there, but I’m pretty sure we’ve got our spot,” Zach said. Ian nodded, and the crew lined up to jump. Hunter watched Luke, Trevor, and Zach hurtle away from the plane, then he stepped
into the door himself. When Ian nodded at him, Hunter dove out of the plane, arching his back and spreading his arms and legs to stabilize himself against the wall of smoke and wind that came at him. He couldn’t see anything, but he tried to remain calm as he reached back and pulled the handle for his main parachute. The fabric flew open above him, catching the wind and halting his freefall with a sudden jerk.

  Hunter coughed, trying to clear his lungs as he reached for his steering toggles and made sure his parachute was steering correctly. He scanned his surroundings, looking for the parachutes of his fellow crew members, or a clear place to land. Below him to his right, he saw a flash of bright white and blue, and he knew he had located at least one of his clan members. He followed the faint white and blue outline, hoping that whoever was steering that parachute had an idea of where to land.

  Hunter could see the outlines of treetops as he floated closer to the earth. Telling himself not to panic, he tried to find a spot without treetops. If he landed in a tree, he would deal with it, but landing on the actual ground would be a much better option. The parachute in front of him was steering further to the right, straight for what looked like a line of giant pine trees. Hunter moved his parachute to the left, and floated through a rocky, open space. The air had cleared a little down here, giving him an almost unhindered view of his landing spot.

  From somewhere above him, he heard a loud crash and cursing as one of his crew mates collided with a tree. At least one person ended up in a tree on each of their missions. With a thick forest for a landing area, someone was bound to get a little too close to the trees on each jump. But Hunter had yet to be the unlucky jumper stuck in a tree, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he gently flared his parachute to slow its descent into the rocky crevice he had found. When his feet touched solid ground, however, the danger was just beginning.

  The crew needed to clear a fire break. Their goal was to clear all the trees and brush from a large strip of the forest, which would stop the fire in its tracks. Without fuel, the fire couldn’t burn. Sometimes, the crew fought fire with fire, and set a backfire to burn up all the fuel in the main fire’s path. When the two fires merged, they would burn each other out. But today, they would be lucky if they could even clear a fire break before the main fire got close.

  Hunter gathered up his parachute and trudged over to where he could hear voices shouting up at the trees. Luke and Zach were both tangled up in the trees, and Trevor, Ian, and Charlotte were trying to help them down. Hunter shrugged off his heavy parachute rig when he reached them, and started to unzip his heavy jumpsuit. It felt good to step out of the nearly hundred pounds of gear. Even though the dark green flame retardant suit was still heavy, it felt like a light cotton t-shirt compared to his jumpsuit.

  The sound of snapping branches rang out as Luke and Zach threw their gear down from the treetops and rappelled down using ropes they had tied high up on the trunks.

  “Alright,” Ian roared. “No time to waste setting up camp. Let’s get straight to clearing the fire break. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Ian pointed out the spot where he wanted the fire break to start, and Hunter moved into position. He had already unpacked and assembled his chainsaw, and he was raring to go. The smoke and fire were quickly edging closer, making this mission a serious race against time. Hunter worked at a mad pace, cutting through the undergrowth and felling tree after tree. He was the youngest member of the crew, which often made him the butt of everyone’s good-natured jokes. But it also meant that he was the crew member with the most stamina. His muscles bulged against his flame retardant clothing as he held the vibrating chainsaw firmly against a thick tree trunk.

  For several hours, the crew worked without stopping, while Ian kept a watchful eye on the fire and constantly spoke with Boise on the radio. By early afternoon, the smoke had become so thick that Hunter found it difficult to breathe. They needed about another hour to properly set up the fire line, but they couldn’t keep hanging out here. Even Boise finally admitted defeat, and told Ian to pull back to a safety zone.

  The crew packed up their gear and pulled their jumpsuits and parachute rigs back on. Ian started leading them on their established escape route to a predetermined safety zone. A large rocky area with no brush had been located a short distance away. The crew would have to hike uphill to get to it, but, once atop the rocks, they would be safe from the flames. If the level of smoke permitted aircraft to fly, a helicopter would come in and pull them out of the burning forest.

  Zach made his displeasure at their current predicament as obvious as possible. He muttered loudly about how they all had wasted their time and endangered their lives by not pushing back against Boise’s orders. Ian let his comments slide, which surprised Hunter. Zach’s constant complaining had worsened over the last month, and Ian had started to use quite a stern tone to shut him up. But Ian had more important things to worry about right now than Zach’s whining.

  Hunter focused on putting one foot in front of the other as the clan made their way toward the safety zone. His radio squawked with transmissions from Boise, and he finally reached into his jumpsuit pocket to turn it off. Everyone in the crew carried a radio, in case they got separated from the group, but Hunter didn’t need to have his turned on when Ian was still keeping constant contact with Boise.

  The smells of the forest overwhelmed Hunter’s bear nose. Burning pine needles, tree trunks, and grass combined with the overpowering aroma of smoke. Hunter wished that he could turn off his superior sense of smell for a while so the smoke smell wouldn’t be so intense.

  The sun was setting and darkness was creeping across the forest as the crew finally made it to the top of the rock. Boise told them to expect a helicopter escort in about an hour, weather and smoke permitting.

  “Can we take off our jumpsuits and gear and eat?” Zach asked, with the usual hint of annoyance in his voice. Ian hesitated, and then nodded.

  “Alright,” Ian said. “I know you’re all exhausted and starving, not to mention overheating inside these damn suits. Feel free to take them off and grab some food, but be ready to gear up quickly. Our helicopter pilot won’t want to hang out in this smoky air for very long. And trust me—you don’t want to miss our ride out of here.”

  For once, Hunter felt thankful for Zach’s grumbling. He stepped out of his jumpsuit and started rifling through his gear to find something to eat. Hunter had a distinct feeling that something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He suspected that the exhaustion and hunger of the day were catching up with him, and that after eating and drinking a little he would feel better. He disconnected a large knapsack from his main gear bag and grabbed a protein bar from the stash in the knapsack. It took him about five seconds to wolf down the bar, after which he drank thirstily from his water canteen.

  The unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach didn’t go away, however. Hunter paced back and forth for the rest of the hour, unable to push away the nervous gnawing at his conscience. As the rescue helicopter appeared on the horizon, Hunter took a deep, exasperated breath. What he smelled made him suddenly realize what was bothering him.

  Human. He smelled human. And not just any human. He smelled a woman, and she was in trouble.

  “Ian,” Hunter called out, as the rest of the crew started putting their jumpsuits and gear back on. “Ian! There’s someone out there. I smell a human. A female human.”

  “Of course you smell a female human,” Zach said. “Charlotte’s standing right in front of you.”

  Ian’s lifemate, Charlotte, was fully human. But she wasn’t the woman Hunter smelled.

  “No, it’s someone else,” Hunter said. “Something’s been bothering me for a while, and I just realized what it is.”

  Ian paused and sniffed the air, as did Luke. Both of them sniffed long and hard, and they looked at each other and Hunter, shaking their heads.

  “I don’t smell anything, Hunter,” Luke said, as he zipped up the front of his ju
mpsuit and started reattaching his gear bags.

  “I don’t either,” Ian said. “I think you’re mistaken. Gear up, buddy. The helicopter will be here in a few minutes.”

  “Ian, I’m positive,” Hunter tried again. He didn’t want to be a pain in the ass and defy his alpha like Zach seemed so fond of doing, but he could clearly smell a woman in distress. How could Ian and Luke both miss that? Zach and Trevor joined in sniffing the air, but they also shook their heads to confirm that they didn’t smell anything.

  “No one else smells it, Hunter,” Ian said, his voice growing more urgent. “Now gear up.”

  Hunter frowned, and started pulling on his jumpsuit and gear, but the smell seemed to grow stronger to him with every passing second. He could still smell it as the helicopter came to a standing hover above the crew and dropped down two rescue lines—one out of each doorway. Charlotte and Luke went up first. When the rescue lines were dropped again, Hunter still hadn’t quite finished putting on his gear, so Ian sent Trevor and Zach up. When the lines dropped a third time, Ian and Hunter grabbed on and the helicopter immediately started lifting away from the rocks. As he felt his feet leaving the rock he was standing on, Hunter caught a stronger whiff than ever of the woman.

  And then his bear leapt inside of him, roaring and demanding that he pay attention to the smell. As he dangled a few feet off the ground, Hunter suddenly realized why he could smell the woman so strongly when no one else could. She was his mate. Through some bizarre set of circumstances, Hunter’s mate was trapped out here in this flaming wilderness.

  Hunter looked down at the ground, which was just about ten feet away from him now. He made a split-second decision and looked over at Ian, who was clinging to the other rescue rope.

  “I’m sorry,” Hunter yelled, and then let go of his rope. The helicopter jerked sharply to the right as Ian’s weight suddenly had nothing to counterbalance it, but the momentum of the quickly rising aircraft quickly overcame the unexpected jerk. Ian and the helicopter with the rest of the crew rose high into the smoke-filled clouds, while Hunter fell away to the ground. Hunter hit the rocks feet first, and performed a parachute landing fall maneuver. The smokejumpers had been taught how to land feet-first and roll to spread the impact of a fall evenly across their body. Hunter did just as he had been trained to do, rolling from his feet to his calves, then his knees and across his right hip.