After Reno had spoken with his pack about April, he let his wolf run on the property. After shifting back, he’d spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about her and then decided to head over to her house late that evening. His wolf demanded it. She had sent him a message on the phone that she was spending the day with Trevor and they were going out for some Mexican food before heading home. On the main street near the turnoff, he thought he saw Trevor’s car speeding away.
As he eased up the road, an orange glow illuminated the dark sky in the distance. He blinked from the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, and an expensive car blew past him. Reno glanced in the rearview mirror and slammed his foot on the gas. Something wasn’t right, and the closer he got to the trailer, the more he knew why. He sent a message to Austin:
LEVEL RED. APRIL.
Reno went cold with dread when he saw the trailer burst into flames. A window on the right shattered and fire licked at the roof like the devil’s tongue. The fire engulfed the right side—not so much on the left from what he could tell.
“Jesus,” he breathed, feet barely touching the ground as he tore open the door. He had only seconds before it consumed the entire thing.
Flames and thick smoke poured out with the introduction of fresh oxygen and then receded. Reno didn’t hesitate.
He ran through fire.
Heat seared his skin and he grimaced from the intense burn on his arms. His eyes teared up and he covered his nose and mouth.
“April, I’m coming!”
She was sprawled across the mattress with her legs hanging off. He tried to pull her up, but she screamed and passed out in his arms, completely unresponsive. Reno had no time to assess her injuries.
She’d burn if he carried her out. There wasn’t time to think about why she hadn’t busted out the windows, so he wrapped the blanket around her tight and rolled her up like a burrito—not an inch of her from head to toe exposed.
“Hang on, princess,” he whispered.
Lifting her in his iron grip, Reno turned around and walked through fire. It singed his hair immediately and burned his face and arms. He kept his eyes closed and head turned away, focusing on walking steadily so as not to fall. It slowed his pace to a painful degree, but he managed to continue holding his breath, enduring the heat as he went for the door.
He nearly fell down the steps but caught his balance and staggered several yards away from the danger. Reno dropped to his knees and patted out the flames from the ends of the blanket, quickly tearing it off.
“April,” he gasped, patting her cheek. His world was about to come crashing down if she didn’t wake up.
Reno struggled for breath, skin peeling off his arms. But all his worries melted away when he saw her eyes flutter. She’d live, and that’s all that mattered. Reno fell to the ground beside her and everything went dark.
***
“The patient needs rest,” a woman’s voice spoke from a distance. “I’ll be back to check her vitals. Do you want me to bring you a blanket?”
“No,” I heard Lexi say. “I don’t plan on sleeping until my sister wakes up.”
Sister? Why would she say that? I wondered. I must be dreaming.
As a door clicked shut, I slowly opened my eyes. “My arm burns,” I croaked.
Lexi leaned in close. “Shhh. The nurse mixed something in with the potassium drip—it should stop burning in a minute. How are you feeling?”
I licked my dry lips and looked around. “Where am I?”
“The Four Seasons?” Lexi smiled and brushed a strand of hair away from my forehead. “The hospital. They had you on oxygen for a while and said if you have any trouble breathing to let them know right away. You had me worried out of my mind. Reno sent a message to Austin that sent him running out the door without his shoes.”
I tried to sit up. “Reno?” Then a memory flashed through my head of seeing him inside the trailer. Tears blurred my vision. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s not hurt… Oh God…”
“He’s better,” she said gravely. “Austin got there in time, but Reno sustained serious burns. Austin made him shift. That’s how we heal; shifting back and forth from human to animal works a magic through our body. Something that bad, well, Reno needed to do it several times in order to heal. Once he was in wolf form, Austin had a hard time forcing him to shift back because Reno’s wolf guarded you as if he was your protector.”
“Where is he?”