What the Smoke Saw

entury. Dex sat behind a metal desk with a stack of incident reports on it and a pen he kept t

fired,"

e the water truck. That did

r w

follow the

was already dead when I got out of the pla

clearing it with the crew on the ground."

the next crew chief who reads thi

s eyes look almost silver. Bright golden blond hair, swept back from his forehead a

fire," he said. "One. And in

rs we

f a wall of flame. That's not

and under it that cedar scent, and my wolf rolled over inside me like a dog showing its belly. "It doesn't happen here. I told

thing. It was ther

thing, a tightening arou

ll drive you down to the highway.

N

use

to fire me because I made you feel something you didn't plan for, that's your

ghed and died, and someone laughed, and I could

I'm scare

ck's land and lies to the council about how many wolves

way the wind shift had, sudden and sure, and the mo

e stepped in, and his hand came u

you that

our pack is twice the size you tell the council it is. I don't care about your silver or your pol

The muscle in h

king about," he said, and it wa

of it. Put it in the file and I'll sign it. But you

ack was straight and the tensi

ixty feet up in the air with the whole valley on fire and I couldn't hear my own radio fo

e small, about the one scent in the world that will find you no matter h

It's a fire season with the worst burn in

s you're

d low, because she had known it since the ridge and I had be

ything. You fire

niffing around and the pack half starved. You think I want to send you away?

n do

ur gear

not

, wrote something on a form and signed it, then

you to jump and you keep whatever is going on inside your chest where I can't see it.

ne and the spark went up my arm again an

?" I

f I put you on that bus I'll spend the

stepped in, short black hair wet from the shower, a towel over her shou

g settled?

said. "Ivy's on probation. P

it in the way she folded her arms an

full," she said. "

Wren. Ivy j

too long. Then she smiled,

to the Ravagers, Ivy. Try

, and I stood there with a contract in my hand and

I could not stop thinking about. An Alpha who wanted rid of

econd time. Cora st

an is coming up from Denver day after t

n around. "Whic

of a storm that has already taken your roof off. "He s

e, and I heard the change in his breath, and I knew, the way I knew the fire was going

Dex stood at the window for a long time without sayi

us asks you anything about that mark on your wr

the lamplight, I could swear I saw the thin line of it glowing fain