His clan’s home was in Cape Meares, right at the edge of the cliffs. But the fire chief, also a shifter, had established an all-dragon shifter firehouse in Tillamook, and that’s where Jackson stayed most nights. Working with an all-shifter crew was a nice break because they didn’t have to hide. In regular firehouses, any shifter had to spend a lot of time and effort keeping up appearances when humans were around.
So often with a commercial or residential fire, a crowd gathered to watch. That meant he and his crew couldn't be caught doing anything that a human couldn't. But when they got inside a structure, then they could really let go and do what was necessary.
They could ditch the gear and use their senses, which made it possible for them to save lives. Their hearing was enhanced, so they could hear a human that might be wedged into a hiding spot, coughing from smoke inhalation. Or once everyone was safe, they could go in and use their enhanced sense of smell to find the cause of the fire. More than once they’d found an accelerant that a human might have missed.
However, they couldn’t be too good at their jobs, or the town would get suspicious. So they always saved every life they could, even the pets, but often they let the structure burn, even if they could have stopped it. It sucked, but they couldn’t give themselves away.
When he’d first started, it had been shocking to see how fragile humans were. They coughed and sneezed, their bones broke, their skin tore. The dragon shifters’ bodies were so indestructible that it was sometimes hard to watch the humans suffer and die. But thankfully the lady in the car today would be fine.
Jackson drove back to the station. He cleaned his gear and put it all away. Then he flung himself on his bed. But he didn’t stay down long. He was full of restless energy.
He found the rest of his crew in the kitchen eating spaghetti right out of the pot. They hadn’t even bothered to sit down, which was typical. They had a huge appetite.
He picked up a wooden spoon and poked his friend Matthew in the back. “Shove over. I’m hungry too.”
Matt had his face crammed full of meatballs. “Sure. But you had it easy. We were on forest fire duty.”
That was another thing Jackson’s kind did well—fight forest fires. It was easy for them to get closer, and they never had to worry about getting trapped by a raging fire the way a human did. But it was still exhausting.
“Whatever.” He shoved his spoon into the pot and scooped out as many noodles as he could. “I’m going down to the cliffs. Anyone want to come?”
Several voices rang out, all of them agreeing. In the end, everyone who wasn’t on duty wanted to go out flying.
After they demolished all of the food they’d cooked, seven of them headed out to the cliffs. The heavy, wet rain and the thick fog gave them plenty of cover. Jackson stripped off his clothes and left them in a neat pile.
He tipped his head back to the sky, and let the change rip through his body. He loved the moment he became a dragon. He didn’t consider either his human side or his dragon side to be his true self; they were blended together, so mixed up they couldn’t be separated. His cousin Garrett had once explained that he thought of his dragon as a separate entity, removed from his human self.
In Jackson’s mind, that was really fucking weird. But Garrett was a famous rock star, and he’d apparently spent years suppressing his dragon side, not even bothering to transform and fly.
That was some kind of bullshit, in Jackson’s opinion. If Jackson went a few days without shifting, he got restless and irritable. But thankfully, he never had to do that.
He spread his wings and jumped, sailing out over the ocean. A spray of salt hit him in the face, and he roared, relishing the fresh ocean air. He soared down to the choppy gray waves and dove right into the frigid water. He swam under the water, watching the fish go by. Usually, he’d stop and try to catch a few, but today he was full of human food.
About a mile out, he popped back up, resurfacing. There were no boats nearby, so he floated on the surface, bobbing along with the tide. He watched the water roll over his scales and relaxed, letting every part of his body go limp.
Soon enough, a few of his coworkers came sailing by, dive-bombing him. They wrestled for a few minutes, first in the air, and then in the water until his clan members became just as languid as Jackson himself was.
In the distance, he could see a surfer struggling to stand while wearing a wetsuit. He was so fucking glad he wasn’t human. It just didn’t seem fair how breakable they were. His cousin Garrett and some of his buddies from other shifter clans had married human women, but Jackson didn’t think he could do it. He couldn't be that careful. One wrong move and he’d accidentally break her ribs.
So he stuck to the small group of dragon shifter females in his clan, although they had grown tired of waiting for him to want to settle down. Apparently, he was supposed to have already been mated by now and have a few hatchlings as well.
The sun set behind the heavy clouds. He shifted back and swam to the shore as a human. When he hit the sand, he scaled the rocky cliff barehanded. And when he was finally back up on the cliff, he was tired and ready to relax, maybe even go to bed.
He opened the back of the big SUV they all rode around in, and laid down, looking up at the stars. He was happy as he was. He didn’t need
