Wildfire Griffin (Fire & Rescue Shifters: Wildfire Crew #1)(22)
Callum stared at the stars. Blaise buried her face in her hands. Joe was biting down on his knuckles, his huge shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
May I make a suggestion? Wystan cast an aggrieved glance around the circle. *Shall we try not acting like raving lunatics?*
Rory finally wrestled his inner beast back under control. He briefly contemplated trying to explain that he’d been talking to the dog, and discarded the idea. She already thought he was suffering from some kind of brain injury.
“I’m sorry, Edith.” Damn it, he wished she would meet his eyes. “I didn’t mean to shout. I swear this isn’t a joke. We really do want you to join us.”
She shook her head, still looking unconvinced. “Why?”
To keep Birdcat in line, Fenrir said earnestly. Bite his haunches when he tries to run too far ahead of the pack.
Blaise managed to turn a laugh into a cough. “Well, for a start, Fenrir likes you. He’s generally an excellent judge of character.”
“Your Red Card says you’re more than qualified.” Rory handed it back to her. “And we’re one person short.”
Fenrir flattened his ears. Am here. Am pack.
But technically not on the payroll, Rory sent to him in exasperation. If you aren’t going to shift, you can’t complain that humans don’t see you as a person.
“Usually Thunder Mountain Hotshots consists of three squads, with a minimum of six firefighters on each,” Wystan was explaining to Edith. “Our Superintendent wasn’t pleased with us for being undermanned compared to the other squads—it makes it harder for him to balance tasks across the entire crew when the numbers don’t match up. Truly, you’d be doing us a favor by filling the vacancy.”
Edith’s eyebrows drew down further. “But aren’t hotshot crews always flooded with applications? I would have thought that you guys would be able to take your pick.”
Wystan winced, glancing at Rory. *Oh boy. How do we explain this one?*
Tell her the truth, his griffin urged.
Rory opened his mouth—and hesitated. If he told Edith about shifters, she’d only demand to know why they wanted her on the team, since she obviously wasn’t one. Then he’d have to explain about fated mates… and that would sound perilously like he only wanted her on the team in order to be close to her.
And he didn’t only want her to join because she was his mate. He wanted her because she was, undeniably, a superb firefighter. He’d known that at a gut level, just from looking at her fireline, even before he’d seen the training record printed on her Red Card. It would be criminal to waste such obvious talent in a remote lookout tower.
But she’d locked herself away, because she’d been convinced she wasn’t worthy to join a crew. If he told her they were mates, she wouldn’t believe she’d won her place on her own merits. Not only would she turn him down, but the little self-confidence she had left would be shattered.
Edith’s expression was shuttering down, clearly taking his pause as a bad sign. He had to say something. He wished the alpha voice worked on her. It was a little disconcerting to realize just how much he usually relied on his power.
“We did have a lot of applications,” he said slowly, picking his words as carefully as threading through a bramble thicket. “But I rejected them all. Our Superintendent gave me full power over hiring decisions for the squad. I’d rather have no one than the wrong person. And I didn’t find anyone who came even close to being right for me—for the squad. Until you.”
Edith shook her head. “You must have had people better than me. More qualified. More normal.”
“I don’t want someone normal.” He made a scornful sound. “None of the rest of us are normal. I need someone exceptional.”
Edith’s face had smoothed out again. Even though she still wasn’t looking at him, he could somehow tell that he had her whole attention.
“This isn’t just a squad, Edith. This is a family.” He gestured around the circle. “A bit weird, a bit argumentative, like any family… but at the end of the day any one of us would run into fire for each other. I can’t take on anyone who wouldn’t do the same. Today, you didn’t hesitate to put your own life in danger. And for what? A rabbit.”
“Hare,” she said, barely audible.
He grinned at her. “And you don’t hesitate to correct me, either. That’s the kind of person I want on my squad, Edith. Someone who stands up to me when I’m wrong and has my back when I’m right. Someone whose quirks match ours, who likes Joe’s cooking and talks to Fenrir like he’s a person. Someone who I can trust, whole-heartedly. That’s why I want you. That’s why I need you.”
He held out one hand, palm out. “So. Will you join us?”
Slowly, hesitantly, she put her hand in his. It was only the barest contact, light as a feather. It felt like being kissed by lightning.
“Yes,” she said.
Chapter 8
The prey was on the move.
The hawk’s body was a more difficult host than the hare. It couldn’t simply puppet the bird directly; not without falling out of the sky, at least. Instead, it had to keep a light touch on the beast’s mind, allowing the animal’s own instincts to coordinate wings and tail in the subtle movements required for flight.