Playing with Fire: Black Kat IV

Playing with Fire: Black Kat IV

Kimberly Gordon · Completed · 83.1k Words

459
Hot
473
Views
141
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Firefighter Shane Sumner has a secret. He's not the brave, hometown hero everyone thinks he is. He's fireproof, and possibly crazy, or telepathic. Now the dog is talking to him, along with the plants, threatening to upend his sham of a perfect life. Can he conceal his strange abilities or will they expose him for the freak he knows he is? One hot mess deserves another...Life isn't easy for a fire shifter. Fiona and Aislinn's powers keep them homeless, and the streets are full of Rogues and other unsavory characters. Prince Charming isn't coming to save them. Or is he? A handsome, flame-retardant stranger may just be the answer to all of their problems. And where, oh where has Hugh gone? Kat struggles to find the answers while chasing a boatload of Rogues. Join Kat, Hugh, Dale, Jacob, and the rest of the gang as the adventure continues!

Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

March 14, 2000

Tucson, Arizona

F

ire was like a woman.Unpredictable, consuming, mesmerizing...

Shane Sumner stared into the flames that engulfed an old furniture warehouse on South Dodge Boulevard as Company Seven rolled up to it.

He shifted in his seat,yearning for the relief only fire seemed to bring him.

Yeah, like a woman...

Fire Chief Walter Mullins started yelling orders, pulling him from his reverie. “Well, Mr. Firefighter of the Year, let’s not be sittin’ on our arses admirin’ the scenery. Shit or get off the pot!”

“Yes, sir!” Shane snapped out of it and climbed from the fire truck.

“Burke, Lockhart, Williams, and Jones,” the chief barked. “Take the front. Casey and Murdock, east entrance. Sumner and Parker, check out the west side. Companies Fourteen and Twenty-Two are on their way. Sixteen is on the other side of the building. You know the drill. Get in, get out. Stick together!”

Bob Parker, Shane’s burly partner, joined him. “I swear ol’ Leatherneck Mullins thinks he’s still in the Marines.”

“Must’ve been a drill sergeant at some point.”

The new fire chief was a tough old windbag, dead set on whipping their company into shape. He had his work cut out for him.

On top of personnel issues, there'd been a string of strange fires in the area, burning hotter than anything Shane had seen before.Almost all of them were in older buildings that had been closed for years.

Bob motioned toward the warehouse. “How many is that this week?”

Shane held up four gloved fingers. “What do ya think—homeless, drug smugglers, or bored teenagers?”

His partner shrugged in his heavy, bright yellow turnout coat. “Take your pick, Scorch.”

Shane smirked. They had given him the nickname and decorated him for heroism after a few harrowing incidents that should have left him dead, but he was neither brave nor heroic.

He was something different.

Really different,

Shane thought as he and his partner masked up and checked each other’s safety equipment one last time.

Something niggled at the back of his mind. A presence, coming from the abandoned building.

He turned, trying to get a lock on it, when the fire chief hollered, “I said move it, ladies!”

Bob clapped a meaty hand on Shane’s shoulder, making him jump.

“Ready?” Bob asked, his voice muffled by his breathing apparatus.

Shane adjusted his helmet. “Let’s go.”

They plunged into the old warehouse and began searching the offices along the corridor.

Bob reached the end of the hallway first.

“Wait!” Shane stopped and tilted his head, listening.

Experience had taught him that fire was a living, breathing thing. Sometimes it spoke to him and whispered things no one else understood.

He closed his eyes and focused, studying the sounds that came to him.

The flames crackled and popped as they writhed over obstacles, surging and swelling away from him, as if in retreat.

“It’s shifting to the back walls,” Shane yelled through his gear.

Bob lifted his head. “How do you know that?”

“Call it a gut feeling.”

It was a helluva lot more than that, but he’d be damned if he would admit it to anyone.

“All right, Scorch, stay close.”

They searched the burning building room by room, the heat growing more intense as they probed deeper.

In a back room, they discovered a man and a woman passed out on the floor, needles still jammed in their arms.

“Damn,” Shane said through his breathing apparatus. “Are they even alive?”

Bob bent down and checked the man’s pulse. “Barely.”

He picked the man up and slung him over his shoulder. Shane followed behind with the woman.

Slowly, torturously, they retraced their paths through the flames to the waiting ambulances.

“Two more,” Shane called out as they approached, carefully placing the woman on one of the waiting stretchers.

The medical crew set to work on the victims.

Shane and Bob headed back inside to look for more.

They had almost made their way back to where they’d found the first two when Shane felt the powerful pull of a presence. A female one.

What the hell?

“Someone’s still back there,” Shane told his partner.

Bob nodded and readjusted his breathing gear. The smoke had grown thicker, and it was a struggle for him to breathe, even with it on.

But not for Shane. He longed to tear the gear off and inhale chestfuls of smoke, but that would give him away for sure. Instead, he put up with the annoying mask and continued on.

They had nearly made it to the back of the building when Bob was overcome and collapsed.

Shane caught him and heaved him up over his shoulder, then made his way down the blazing hallway.

He dragged him out of the building and back to the medical crew, setting his partner on the gurney. He hiked a thumb toward the flames. “There’s another one in there.”

“You’re going back?” a paramedic asked.

Shane gazed up at the warehouse. It was nearly engulfed.

Adrenaline surged through him anew, the fire calling to him, stirring his blood, drawing him in.

“Shhhhhhaaaaaane….”

He rushed back in, trying not to look too eager or give away his abilities.

Flames licked the walls, the rush of heat warm and welcoming.

A memory stirred, an awful one, threatening to erupt and engulf him in the past. Faces in the fire, screaming, crying, begging to be saved.

The images propelled him into the blaze, searching, scanning for signs of life.

He stopped short at the sight of two fiery forms.

Two very naked,

female

fiery forms.

One reached out to the other, who crumbled into a pile of ashes.

The first one turned to him, as if questioning his presence.

He blinked back at it in disbelief.

Was this the arsonist?

Or just some deranged hallucination?

The creature bent down and scooped the ashes off the charred floor with flaming hands.

“What is it?” Shane wondered aloud.

What had disintegrated, and why was the other one picking it up?

It continued, as if not hearing him.

He took off his gear and his helmet, then stepped closer, curiosity getting the better of him as the room blazed around them.

Voices in the distance grew closer.

“Who are you?” he yelled above the din.

The figure stopped and gazed up at him.

“Who are

you

?” it shot back.

The voice was definitely female.

She pulled herself to her full height and rose into the air, stretching her arms out wide. She was fearsome and beautiful as she hovered high above him. A pillar of curves and flames.

He stared up at her in awe, his blood pulsating through his body.

“Who are you?” she asked again.

He placed his hand on his chest and stepped closer, somehow finding his voice. “I’m Shane.”

She hung in midair and studied him for a moment.

He looks like Elvis,

he heard her think.

Shane blinked at her, surprised that the curvaceous, fiery female had opinions. About him.

“Help me,” she pleaded. “Help her.”

His gaze dropped to the pile of ashes on the floor. “How?”

The beams overhead creaked and cracked, drawing his attention.

The voices behind him grew louder.

“Shane!” someone screamed. “Get outta there! It's gonna collapse!”

Powerful arms pulled him backwards.

He struggled against them as they dragged him from the building.

A few seconds later, it folded in on itself in a brilliant burst of flames.

“Someone’s still in there!” Shane yelled and broke free, turning to head back inside.

“Not after that.” Chief Mullins grabbed his shoulder. “No one could have survived that.”

I could have,

he thought to himself.

And so could she. Whoever she was. Whatever she was.

But who was the other one? What had happened to her? Or it?

Why would a creature like that need help in the first place? Was this the cause of the recent arsons? Some kind of female fire creatures?

Questions danced circles in Shane’s mind as he watched the remains of the building smolder for what seemed like hours.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Alpha Under Love Spell

Alpha Under Love Spell

1.8k Views · Ongoing · doughdessertdelight
“Please listen to me! I am not a thief. I don’t know how that necklace ended up in my purse. Please!” begged Maeve, crying.
Thorin pushed her on the bed and pinned her with his body. He growled near her face, “Liar!”

“No! No! I am not lying!”

“Then explain this!” Thorin whipped the screen of his phone near her eyes. Maeve looked at the screen, and her eyes widened with shock. It was a DNA report. It clearly said that Valeska was Maeve and Thorin’s daughter. “You have been lying to me for months now. Why did you hide that she is my daughter? Why did you start hating me? Did you never love me?”

“What should I have done? Let you kill my daughter!” snapped Maeve.

“What? Kill? What the hell are you talking about?” shouted Thorin.


After a passionate night with the Alpha Heir Thorin Blackridge, Maeve Arrendale, a human, found herself pregnant. She knew she had left her contact details for Thorin to find her, but he never came. Desperately, she went to tell him everything and ask him to take responsibility. But what came at her was humiliation and the devilish serial killer, Ozul.

She had no idea how she escaped her certain but she thanked every god and ran far away from Thorin and his world. She raised her child on her own. She herself had a difficult life and didn’t want her daughter to suffer. So she did everything in her power to give Valeska a good life.

Her life was turned upside down when Thorin came to her office as her boss. His fated mate, Vespera clinging to his arms. Now, Thorin hated her for vanishing from his life, and Maeve hated him for sending a serial killer to kill her.

Will Thorin accept his daughter? Will Maeve forgive him for attempting to kill her? If not Thorin, then who sent a serial killer to kill Maeve? An ancient magic, a prophecy, a powerful child is going to change everything in everyone’s life. Is everyone ready?
Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

14.8k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

921k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

149.9k Views · Completed · Marina Ellington
I'm Eileen, an outcast at the shifter academy, all because I don't have a wolf. My only saving grace is a knack for healing that got me into the Healer's Division. Then one night in the forbidden woods, I found a stranger on the brink of death. One touch, and something primal snapped between us. That night tied me to him in a way I can't undo.
Weeks later, our new Alpha combat instructor walks in. Regis. The guy from the woods. His eyes lock on mine, and I know he recognizes me. Then the secret I've been hiding hits me like a punch: I'm pregnant.
He has an offer that binds us tighter than ever. Protection… or a cage? Whispers turn ugly, darkness closes in. Why am I the one without a wolf? Is he my salvation… or will he drag me to ruin?
Rebirth Of The HighSchool Villain

Rebirth Of The HighSchool Villain

2.1k Views · Completed · Trust AW
Aurora Whitmore was the villain of Malcolm & Whitmore High. She was obsessed with her childhood love, Adrian Malcolm.
When he chose Jane Sinclair over her, Aurora lost control and on graduation night, she died after drinking a poisoned wine, not knowing who poisoned her. With her last breath, she wished for a second chance and woke up one year before her death.
This time, Aurora refuses to be the villain. She breaks off her engagement, stops chasing Adrian, and walks away with her pride intact. But the more she ignores him, the more Adrian wants her back.
And when his cold, mysterious half-brother Marcel, the one who was supposed to die, returns and begins to fall for Aurora after she saves him. Now the brothers are at war.
One wants the girl who stopped loving him. The other wants the girl who saved him. But Aurora isn’t chasing anyone anymore. She’s rewriting her fate.
Will Aurora be able to change her fate? Will she return back to Adrian or choose Marcel? Or will fate turn her into the villain again? There is only one way to find out.
Take note, that names, characters, location are all fictional.
My Life As A Werewolf

My Life As A Werewolf

2.3k Views · Ongoing · Lilian StClaire
Jolene "Jo" is a cynical, ambitious small-town paralegal whose paranormal vlogging career is going nowhere. Desperate for a viral hit, her life explodes when she wakes up naked, sticky, and newly turned in a concrete room full of terrified strangers. The news? She’s a werewolf, a new responsibility for the impossibly handsome, enigmatic, and utterly ill-tempered Alpha Lexington.

Lexington makes it crystal clear: most new turnlings die before the second full moon, and if she survives, she belongs to his pack. But to Jo, this isn't a terrifying curse—it's the content gold she's been waiting for. She starts documenting her bizarre, terrifying, and surprisingly entertaining supernatural life, determined to make her 'My First Shift' vlog the biggest sensation on VidHub.

Her antics quickly draw the ire of the most powerful being on the continent: Merrick, the lethal and uncompromising Lycan King. He sees her rogue vlogging as a threat to his world’s secrecy, and tasks Lexington with the impossible: bring the feisty new wolf to heel or face the King’s wrath.

Unbeknownst to Jo (and the King himself), Merrick recognizes her as his fated mate—a destiny he has vowed never to accept. As Jo's bright, defiant personality starts to chip away at the sullen, dangerous existence of his pack, the King finds himself helplessly watching her channel, falling a little more in love with the chaotic wolf he's supposed to silence forever.

Jolene's journey is a battle for survival, not just against her shifting body and dangerous Alpha, but against a destiny written by a Lycan King who loves her too much to ever claim her.
The CEO's Unspoken Love

The CEO's Unspoken Love

381.2k Views · Completed · Lily Bronte
"You want my forgiveness?" he asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous timbre.

Before I could answer, he moved closer, suddenly looming over me, his face inches from mine. I felt my breath caught, my lips parting in surprise.

"Then this is the price for speaking ill of me to others," he murmured, nipping my lower lip before claiming my mouth in a real kiss. It began as punishment but quickly transformed into something else entirely as I responded, my initial rigidity melting into compliance, then active participation.

My breathing accelerated, small sounds escaping my throat as he explored my body. His touches were both punishment and pleasure, drawing shudders from me that I thought he felt reverberating through his own body.

My nightgown had ridden up, his hands discovering more of mine with each caress. We were both lost in sensation, rational thought receding with each passing second...

Three years ago, to fulfill the wish of his grandmother, I was forced to marry Derek Wells, the second son of the family that had adopted me for ten years. He didn't love me, but I had secretly loved him all along.

Now, the three-year contractual marriage is about to end, but I feel that some kind of sentiment has developed between Derek and me that neither of us is willing to admit. I'm not sure if my feelings are right, but I know that we can't resist each other physically...
Where The Ice Gives Way

Where The Ice Gives Way

34k Views · Ongoing · Sheridan Hartin
Charlotte Pierce is used to surviving in motion. New towns, new schools, the same old house on the edge of nowhere, and the same rule that keeps her standing. Keep her twin brother, Charlie safe. Keep his hockey dream alive. Keep her own needs quiet. She works too much, sleeps too little, and saves the one thing that still feels like hers for the middle of the night, when she can lace up her worn skates and carve freedom into dangerous frozen ice. Charlotte and Charlie shifted once, years ago, and never understood what it meant. They had no pack, no guidance and no protection. Just two twins clinging to each other and pretending the voice in their heads was stress, imagination, or loneliness. Then they move to Wellington.
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)

Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Let Them Kneel

Let Them Kneel

235.4k Views · Ongoing · My Fantasy Stories
Kaelani spent her life believing she was wolfless.
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.

But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.

Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.

When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.

For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.

Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.

But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.

And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.

Especially him.

She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.

Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

2.8m Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.5m Views · Completed · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
A Queen Among Tides (Book 5 in the Gods' Saga)

A Queen Among Tides (Book 5 in the Gods' Saga)

4.6k Views · Ongoing · ADB_Stories
One mistake centuries ago left Lemuel cursed by the Goddess Merlos and forced to wander the earth granting the wishes of those who touch him. Lemuel was looking at an eternity of loneliness until his unexpected soulmate plucked him right out of the sea.

Shocked to find he's been bound in more ways than one to Sebastian, the future King to the Kingdom of Atlesper, Lemuel resists Sebastian's advances at every turn, believing this may be one pairing Goddess Zarseti got wrong.

Lemuel will have to face his past in hopes of starting a new future, but an overly flirtatious King is the least of his worries when he learns Sebastian's parents are convinced that a conniving usurper disguised as a curvy blonde, is the future king's true soulmate.

A Queen Among Tides is the 5th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.

Books in the series order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Gen Coming Soon)