Fire Danger by Claire Davon Read Free Book Online Page A

she would have the courage to go forward. She felt a low burn in her chest and let it expand outward. Phoenix gave her a sharp look, sniffing the air.
    He seemed about to say something when rustling distracted them. First it came from behind and then in front of them. Then it was all around them, directionless. A whisper started telling of horrible things. The words were one shade too low to understand, but the meaning was clear. The whispering grew, speaking of rending and tearing. Blood and guts spilled on the ground. Feasting on the remains while they were still warm.
    Her shivers increased, and Phoenix put his arms around her, drawing her against him. She was hot, internally and externally. A deep shudder ripped through her, and she leaned into him, holding him close. Their bodies melded together, heat rippling between them. There was a rightness about being in his arms that was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It spoke to her in some primal part, reaching down into her core. Sweat broke along her skin as if the heat was going to radiate out and set the trees on fire. Phoenix shimmered.
    “I am the fire Elemental,” he said in a low whisper, and small flames danced along his fingertips. “What are you?”
    The sounds grew louder, pulling their attention away from each other. Rachel wanted to clap her hands over her ears to block them out. Phoenix pressed his head against hers so his hair draped over one ear. The flame subsided, but his heat reached something in her, something familiar. She was not scared of the flame; it was oddly compelling.
    Phoenix’s gaze was fixed on the shaded woods. His muscles under her hands were tense and coiled.
    She turned to look at the places Phoenix was examining. Slowly she discovered she could pick out spots of brown in the green and yellow density. The brown intensified, first dappled and then coming into focus. Brown fur tipped with black. Large, shaggy wolves with pointed ears and lolling tongues.
    They moved into the clearing with graceful, easy lopes. There was a leashed quality to their movements, as if they were controlling a more basic desire. She smelled damp fur and dirt mixed with the forest.
    Phoenix subtly shifted to a fighting stance.
    “Don’t show fear.” Phoenix squeezed her fingers. “They can sense it. Don’t let them see it.”
    “Easy for you to say.”
    A wolf, more than half again bigger than the others, separated from the circle surrounding them and rushed toward Phoenix and Rachel. Phoenix watched the wolf steadily as it approached, his face giving away nothing.
    Two feet from them, the wolf abruptly stopped, as if hitting a wall. One moment he was in motion and the next it was as if he had landed on an unseen marker. Without breaking eye contact with Phoenix, he reared up on his hind legs. Bones shifted and crunched. Fur fell away as arms and legs transformed from pelt to skin. His—there was no doubt it was male—torso transformed from the extremities in, creeping up his neck until the head underwent its change. The elongated nose shrank and the eyes changed from yellow to blue, shifting on his face from wolf to human location.
    Rachel had thought Phoenix was a big man, but he was a dwarf in comparison to this…this giant. That was the only word Rachel could think of to describe the immense naked man standing in front of them. Looking from Phoenix to the wolf, she measured the difference between the two and estimated the wolf/man at seven feet tall. His skin was almost as brown as his pelt, and laced with scars. Thick muscles bulged on his body. There was a slash across his cheek that carried fainter slash marks next to it, but didn’t mar his features.
    Another wolf also shifted, this one female. Picking up a bundle on the ground, she hurried forward and pulled out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt for the behemoth. He donned them without taking his gaze from Phoenix. Somehow, his dressing seemed like an insult.
    “Elemental,” the wolf