Firefighter Griffin (Fire & Rescue Shifters 3)

“Mommy!” He tried to wriggle free of Daddy and Dr. Hugh, but they both held him tight, stopping him from jumping out of the fire engine. “Let me go! Mommy!”

“You can’t run out there, it’s not safe.” Dr. Hugh jerked his chin at the flickering red glow of the still-burning house. “Don’t worry. Chase is bringing her straight here.”

Sure enough, a second later Mommy scrambled up into the back of the fire engine too. At the sight of her, Danny wrenched himself free from Daddy and Dr. Hugh. A hundred dragons couldn’t have kept him out of Mommy’s arms.

“My baby, my baby,” she sobbed, squeezing him so tight he couldn’t breathe.

Danny didn’t care. He buried his face in her neck, smelling her, smelling home. Dr. Hugh’s hands might be able to heal, but Mommy’s touch was stronger magic. The aching tightness in his chest finally vanished.

“Are you okay?” she said, thrusting him away so that her anxious eyes could inspect every inch of him. “Are you hurt?”

“He’s going to be fine,” Dr. Hugh answered for him. “Just a little smoke inhalation. I’ve fixed all the damage.”

“He should still go to the hospital,” Daddy said stubbornly. “I want him to be checked over properly.”

“I don’t care what you want! You get no say in anything, ever again!” Mommy clutched at Danny as if she thought Daddy might try to snatch him away. “How could you let this happen? Where were you?”

Daddy’s eyes slid away from Mommy’s accusing ones. “I only went outside for a moment.”

Danny stared at him. It was bad to tell fibs. “But-”

Daddy’s lion flashed behind his eyes, and Danny fell silent. He didn’t want to start another fight. It was better when members of the pride weren’t mad at each other.

“It was only for a moment,” Daddy repeated, as though he could make it true if he said it enough times. “Danny was having a tantrum. I had to give him space to calm down, so I went outside.”

“Without any clothes on,” Dr. Hugh murmured.

Daddy glared at him, clutching the shiny silver blanket he’d borrowed tighter around his waist. “I was shifted! How was I supposed to know he’d lock me out? Let alone decide to set the place on fire!” He turned his glare on Mommy. “This is all your fault! He could never have come up with such an evil idea on his own. You’ve been poisoning him against me!”

Mommy bared her teeth at him, just like a lion. “How dare you!”

“No fighting!” Danny yelled at the top of his lungs. His voice was still all scratchy from the smoke, but it was loud enough to make all the grown-ups stop and stare at him. “You can’t fight now. We have to go find Mr. Griff.”

Daddy made a small, disgusted sound at the back of his throat. “Indeed I do. The other half of this scheme. I won’t let him surrender to me this time. I’m going to-”

“You will be silent.” Mr. Ash appeared at the back of the fire engine, outside in the rain. He didn’t yell or look mad or anything, but Daddy’s mouth still snapped shut.

Nobody talked back to Mr. Ash.

Ask the Alpha-of-Alphas about our alpha, Simba urged Danny, as Mr. Ash started telling Mommy and Daddy something too complicated for Danny to follow. Our alpha belongs to him. He must know where he is. Hurry!

Despite his lion cub’s urgency, Danny hesitated. Mr. Ash wasn’t scary, exactly, but he made Danny’s tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. He wasn’t an easy person to talk to at the best of times, and now was definitely not a good time.

Mr. Ash wasn’t wearing safety gear like the other firefighters. His regular clothes were covered in little holes where sparks from the burning house had blown on him. He wasn’t wet at all, despite Sir John’s rain. Danny could hear the faint hiss of raindrops sizzling into nothing just before they hit his skin.

Danny swallowed hard, gathering up his courage. “Mr. Ash?”

Mr. Ash, who had been in the middle of talking about reports and procedures and boring grown-up stuff with Mommy and Daddy, stopped mid-word. Danny flinched a little as that dark, deep gaze fell on him. “Yes, Daniel?”

“Where’s Mr. Griff? Is he coming too?”

“I am afraid he cannot. He is needed back in the control room, where he can monitor what is happening and tell us all what needs to be done.”

“Can I talk to him? Please?”

“He’ll be very busy right now, honey,” Mommy said to him. “We’ll go see him as soon as we can. You can thank him then.” She gave Daddy a hard stare. “We can all thank him.”

“I need to talk to him now,” Danny said stubbornly. “Please, Mr. Ash. Can you talk to him in your head? I can’t find him and I want to know if he’s okay.”