Firefighter Unicorn (Fire & Rescue Shifters Book 6) Read online

  Looking down, Ivy realized that her torn jacket and top had slipped, exposing her shoulder. A deep purple bruise from Gaze’s bludgeoning tail was blooming below her collarbone. The basilisk hadn’t dared to sink his fangs into her for fear of her poisonous blood, but he’d still managed to knock her around before Ash had arrived.

  “It’s nothing,” she said, rolling her aching shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’ll heal in no time.”

  Hugh pulled her clothing away from her shoulder. Before she’d realized what he intended to do, he put his palm flat against the bruise.

  She didn’t feel anything—but a wordless, animal scream of pain tore from Hugh’s throat. Snatching his hand away, he curled over, burying his head in his arms as if warding off a blow.

  “Hugh!” She grabbed his shoulders, holding him tight as he shook. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t heal,” he said. “Ivy, I can’t heal.”

  That deep, ugly gash at the base of his horn. She arrived before Gaze had been able to finish the job, but he’d still half-severed it. Silver light had poured from the wound, the shining length draining to dull, dead grey…

  “It’s your horn, isn’t it,” she said, her throat dry. “You can’t heal because he damaged your horn.”

  He nodded, face still hidden in his hands. “I can’t focus my power. It builds up in my head, but I can’t let it out.”

  “But it’ll get better, right?” she asked. “With time?”

  He uncurled at last. The utter despair in his eyes froze her heart.

  “No,” he said, simply. “It won’t.”

  I was too late.

  Ten seconds earlier, and I would have saved him.

  I was too late.

  “I’ll never be able to heal again.” He stared down at his curled hands. “I’m useless. Worse than useless. You want to know what the worst part is?”

  She took his hand, silently. His fingers were cold as ice in hers.

  “The worst part,” he said, his voice low and savage with self-loathing, “is that losing my power isn’t the worst part. All the people I won’t be able to help anymore, and all I can think about is myself. Because it hurts, Ivy. The wound in my horn…I can’t let my energy out, but everyone else’s energies are coming in. I can’t block them out at all anymore.”

  That’s why he’d flinched away from Dai, why he’d been so desperate to escape the crowd at the crime scene. “Oh God. Your sensitivity is worse?”

  “A thousand times worse. Even Ash felt like a knife in my skull, and he’s been celibate for decades.” He turned his head, staring blindly through the wall. “And I’m picking up on energies from much further away. Even now, I can still feel the people in the houses nearby scratching at my mind…I feel like I’ve been flayed. Like my skin’s been turned inside out.”

  “Then—then we’ll go somewhere else.” She had to find a way to ease his suffering, she had to. “Somewhere there aren’t any people. We’ll go right now.”

  She tried to stand up, but he pulled her back down again. His expression was hollow and defeated, drained of all hope.

  “What’s the use?” he said. “Even if we go to the ends of the earth, what’s the point? I can’t heal, I can’t be your mate…I can’t do anything for you. And this is never going to get any better.”

  Her breath caught.

  Because there was something that she could do for him.

  “Hugh.” She took his bowed head in her hands, turning him to look at her. “It can get better.”

  “My unicorn knows we can’t heal from this, Ivy. Don’t cling to false hope.“

  “I’m not. There is a way to take away the pain, Hugh.” His eyes widened as she leaned in. “And you know what it is.”

  Her lips met his.

  She closed her eyes, tears welling up at the sweet heat of his touch. His mouth opened, and she deepened the kiss, fiercely, stifling his half-formed words.

  What she needed to tell him now couldn’t be said with words. With her lips and tongue and hands, she needed to show him how much she loved him. How much his touch still healed her, despite the loss of his power. How much she needed him.

  How much she needed him to accept this gift.

  He made a low, despairing sound deep in his throat. His hands tangled in her hair as he kissed her back, his mouth hungry and desperate—but then he broke off, turning his head to one side.

  He drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “Ivy, no. If I—if I do lose my unicorn, I won’t be immune to your venom anymore. I won’t be able to touch you.”

  “We can’t touch now.” She straddled his lap. His muscled thighs tensed underneath her own, but he didn’t push her away. “This might not even work, if your dad is right. But in that case, at least we can be together, somewhere far away from anyone else.”

  His hands clenched into fists as though he was having to prevent himself from reaching for her. “But if he isn’t right—”

  “Don’t worry about it.” She pulled his shirt out from his dress trousers. “I have a plan.”

  She did have a plan, albeit a desperate, last-ditch one. Hugh would never agree if he knew about it. To distract him from asking more questions, she ran her palms among the smooth, rippling lines of his abs, under his shirt. His muscles hardened under her hands, his eyes going wide and dark.

  “You can’t go on like this, Hugh,” she said softly, bending down to him. “We can’t go on like this. Whatever happens, it has to be better than the way things are now.”

  He captured her mouth again, tongue thrusting past her lips in desperate need. Now she was the one making noises, gasping as desire pulsed between her thighs.

  Blindly, she jerked his shirt apart, craving the feel of his hot skin against her own. She dug her fingernails into the hard planes of his chest, claiming his body even as he claimed her mouth. More, she needed more. There were far too many clothes still between them.

  As if reading her mind, he ripped her jacket from her shoulders. She sat up, fumbling to pull off her layered tops. She got briefly stuck in the layered garments, but Hugh freed her, impatiently tossing the torn clothing aside.

  She threw back her head as he bit at her bared throat. He worked his way down, feverishly kissing her collarbone and the soft curve of her breast.

  When his hot mouth closed over her nipple, through the thin cotton fabric of her bra, she lost all control. She clutched at the back of his neck, pushing her breast further into his hungry mouth. Helplessly, she ground herself against his rigid length as he sucked and licked.

  He broke off, pulling back. Cold air teased her nipple through the wet fabric of her bra. She made a brief, wordless sound of disappointment—but he’d only stopped in order to undo the catch. He caught her nipple again in his mouth as her bra fell free, and oh, if it had been good before, it was nothing compared to the sheer heaven of his touch now.

  “Hugh,” she cried out, as each swirl of his tongue pulled her helplessly closer to the brink. “Wait, slow down, too much!“

  Rather than stop, he sucked harder. His agile hands popped open the button of her jeans. One long finger slid through her slick folds.

  “Hugh!” Her hips jerked as he found just the right spot. “Hugh, stop, I’m going to—!”

  She felt his lips curve in a smile against her breast as she exploded. She held tight onto his tattooed shoulders, lost to everything except him. Pulsing waves of pleasure swirled through her, more intense than she’d ever experienced.

  He gasped. She froze, her afterglow quenched by sudden cold fear.

  She’d come, and he still hadn’t.

  “Oh no.” Pulling back, she anxiously scrutinized his face, searching for any sign of pain. “Do I hurt you now?”

  “No.” His blue eyes were soft with wonder. He brushed her hair back from her face, fingertips light and tender on her skin. “You don’t. There’s no difference.” His expression twisted in sudden dismay. “Shit. Did I do it wrong?”

  �
�Oh God no.” She was still trembling, lightning-jolts of pleasure shooting through her from the intensity of the experience. “That was—that was amazing. And also not what we were meant to be doing. This is supposed to be about you, remember?”

  His eyes heated again. “That was for me. Watching you…nothing could be better.”

  His cock was an iron bar between them. He sucked in his breath as she reached down, stroking him through his pants.

  “That sounds like a challenge,” she said, grinning at him. Then her smile faded a little. “So…if I’m still not setting off your unicorn, does that mean that your father is right? I can’t take your animal?”

  “I don’t know.” His jaw had gone tight, the tendons on the side of his neck standing out as she continued to rub her palm against his hidden length. “But if you keep doing that, we’re going to find out.”

  Her thighs trembled at the thought, but she made herself pause. “Hugh…do you really want to do this?”

  He went still under her. His eyes met hers for a long, long moment.

  Then, “Yes,” he said softly.

  With shaking hands, she undid his belt. The sound of his zip sliding down sounded shockingly loud in the silence. He lifted his hips to let her pull his clothes down. And then he was free, bare to her at last.

  She couldn’t look away from that hard, proud shaft. A little tentatively, she closed her hand around him. The unexpected softness of his skin there made her draw in a soft, surprised breath. He let out a low groan from his throat in response. Heart beating fast, she tightened her fingers, and was rewarded with another moan and a jerk of his hips.

  “Ivy,” he gasped. “I’m not going to last long either.”

  A pearl of liquid was beading at his tip. She leaned in close, licking at it. The salt-sweet taste was another surprise, and one that brought an answering rush of heat between her own thighs. She wanted more, needed more.

  “Ivy!” He grabbed at her hair, holding her back as she tried to take him into her mouth. “If you do that, I won’t be able to help myself.”

  “That’s the idea.” She squeezed him, marveling at the contrast of soft and hard. “If you do lose your unicorn…we can’t risk you being inside me. We don’t know how quickly my venom would affect you. This is the safest way, Hugh.”

  His eyes were dark. Primal desire had stripped away his usual control, his need for her clear in every line of his body. “This isn’t—I didn’t want—I’m sorry. You’re right. But I wish we could do this properly.”

  “Shh.” She pushed him back down again. “Next time.”

  Though she wasn’t sure if she hoped there would be a next time. If she couldn’t take his unicorn, he’d still be in agony.

  No. She had to focus on the present rather than worrying over the future. This was Hugh’s first time too. She had to make it as good for him as he had for her.

  She slid her mouth down over his shaft. He swore, thighs taut under her hands as she explored his hard length. The merest flick of her tongue over a certain spot on the underside made him thrust helplessly into her mouth, his fingers digging into her shoulders.

  Now she understood what he’d meant when he’d said that her pleasure earlier had been as much for him as for her. Every one of his gasps and moans stoked her own fire. To be the one making him writhe and buck, to be the one taking him higher, to be able to taste the effect she had on him—it was almost better than her own release.

  Mate him! Her wyvern’s animal lust swept through her, nearly burning away all other thought. Mate! Now!

  Despite her wyvern instinct and her own desire, Ivy held onto control by her fingernails. She worked him harder, channeling all her own desperate longing into giving him pleasure.

  He was her mate. She wanted to do this for him. It was the one thing that she could do for him.

  “Ivy!” he cried out, arcing up. “Ivy!”

  Chapter 23

  Goodbye, whispered his unicorn.

  Chapter 24

  It was so quiet.

  Hugh couldn’t get used to the echoing silence in his own head. He’d always thought of his unicorn as a quiet presence, but now…now he knew the difference between quiet and nothing. He kept holding his breath, listening for a whisper that would never come again.

  “Hugh?”

  He jumped, coming back to himself. “Sorry. Keep zoning out. This is damned peculiar.”

  From the expressions on his fellow firefighters’ faces, damned peculiar were not the words that they would have chosen. Dai and John were both staring at him as if he’d misplaced a limb. Griff didn’t seem able to look at him at all. Chase had his back pressed into the corner, all his usual laughter drained from his face. Only Ash was as expressionless as always.

  It was strange, seeing them all crowded into his kitchen. It was even stranger to just see…them. They all seemed oddly different now that he could only see their physical forms. No hint of the powerful energies hidden underneath their skins; no subtle brush of their minds against his. He couldn’t even sense that they were shifters. They could have been any ordinary group of humans, for all he could tell.

  And they didn’t hurt. There wasn’t even the faintest trace of pain, despite their proximity. He’d never truly realized how omnipresent his headaches had been. Now, instead of the familiar dull ache, there was…nothing.

  It was so quiet.

  Chase cleared his throat. “Uh, Hugh? You still with us?”

  Damn it, he’d drifted off again. “Right. Sorry. What was I saying?”

  “You were explaining,” Dai said very carefully, as if he thought Hugh might have lost the ability to understand simple English along with his unicorn, “why this is a good thing. Again.”

  “Yes. That was it. Anyway, I know it’s going to be hard for you to understand, but—what do you mean, again?”

  The rest of Alpha Team exchanged glances. He wondered if they were talking to each other telepathically. He didn’t have the foggiest clue anymore, of course.

  “Shield-brother.” John Doe stumbled on the name, the faint melody of his sea-dragon accent more pronounced than usual. “You have now told us how this loss is actually a blessing three times, by my count. There is no need to repeat the chorus. If this is truly what your heart desires, then we…we rejoice with you.”

  “No, we don’t!” Chase burst out. The pegasus shifter gestured at Hugh, his mouth twisting with distress. “How can you look at him and say this is right?”

  “This is right,” Hugh said firmly. “And you’re all going to be happy for me.”

  Chase raked a hand through his black curly hair, making it stand on end. “But you’ve lost your animal. You’re not—this can’t have been what you wanted. Did that damn wyvern talk you into it?“

  “Ivy did exactly what I wanted,” Hugh said icily. He hoped that Ivy—who was in the front room explaining things to Hope separately—couldn’t overhear any of this. “And don’t any of you dare make her feel worse. She’s having a hard enough time as it is.”

  The way that she’d jerked away from him, the terrible look on her face when she’d realized what had happened…that had been the worst part of losing his unicorn.

  He’d tried to reassure her that it was all right. That everything was fine. That for the first time in his life he was without pain. He didn’t think she’d even heard his words. She’d just stared at him, eyes blank with shock and horror, as if she could see some wound that he didn’t even feel.

  He didn’t know why she’d reacted like that. This had been her idea in the first place. This was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? Why was she now creeping around as if it hurt to look at him?

  Perhaps she was just feeling guilty at having taken his animal, but in the silence of his soul, he feared that it was more than that. Was there something wrong with their bond now? Something he could no longer sense himself?

  He waited for his unicorn’s reassurance that they were still her mate, as she was theirs…but none came.
No whispered comment. No subtle pressure. No wordless nudge.

  Nothing.

  It was so quiet.

  “See?” Chase flung up his hands, entreating the ceiling to bear witness. “There you go again! And yet you still insist that this, this maiming is a good thing?”

  “I’m afraid this is going to take some getting used to, Hugh.” Dai was still squinting at him as if he might be able to uncover Hugh’s missing beast if he just found the right angle. “Most of us didn’t even know you were a unicorn, and now we have to wrap our heads around you not being a unicorn? You insist this is better, but I can’t imagine anyone being happy to lose their animal.”

  Ivy unfortunately picked that moment to come back into the kitchen. Catching the dragon shifter’s last few words, she flinched.

  “It is a good thing,” Hugh said sharply. “Believe me, this is much better. I was in pain, and Ivy healed me. Griff, tell them I’m not lying.”

  The griffin shifter’s golden eyes flickered over him, but jerked quickly away. “He’s telling the truth. He honestly prefers his state now to how he was…before.”

  Chase sank down onto a kitchen chair, scowling. “Well, I don’t. And what’s this going to do to the case against Gaze, anyway?”

  “That is a good point,” John said, his brow furrowing. “We cannot bring the evil-doer to full justice, if there is no evidence that his greatest crime was ever committed.”

  “He’ll go down for assault and kidnapping.” Hugh shrugged. “That’s good enough to put him away for a long time. I was never going to stand up and publicly accuse him of trying to saw off my horn, after all.”

  “He should be charged with murder,” Chase muttered. From the dark look he threw at Ivy, he didn’t think the basilisk was the only one.

  Ash spoke before Hugh could snarl at the pegasus shifter. “Hugh, while you may not have been intending to reveal your true nature, I fear that the same is not true of Gaze. There is a very real risk that he will announce what you are during his trial.”

  “Oh, perfect.” The sheer irony of it made him laugh out loud. “So now that I’m not a unicorn anymore, everyone is going to think I am one. Wonderful.”