"Holy shit." Ash's breath hung before his face in a dense white cloud.

He stood at the side of the road, looking at the mangled remains of what had once been a big dark-colored SUV wrapped around one of the massive cottonwood trees that lined the ice-encrusted banks of the Salmon River like a row of leafless sentries.

The sun had set, and it was so cold now that Nika could feel a stabbing sensation in every bit of exposed skin as she slid down from the passenger side of his big pickup.

And here I thought it was cold yesterday afternoon!

The chill, combined with the sight of the wrecked SUV, dispelled the last of the lingering warmth from the intense climax he'd given her. Only a small, hot throb of frustrated desire remained, smoldering like a banked coal in her belly. Ash's mouth had been a lovely appetizer, but it had only whetted her need for the main course.

It had taken Ash only a few minutes to drive to the accident, which had occurred at a bend in the highway just before a bridge that crossed the river at the Grizzly Creek Ranch's western boundary.

Ash pulled out his phone and stripped off his gloves long enough to tap the screen several times. With her keen shifter ears, Nika had no problem hearing both sides of the conversation.

The other end of the line rang once, then a woman's warm voice said, "911, what's your—oh, hey, Ash. Did you find the accident, honey? How bad is it?"

"Hey, Linda," he said, his tone calm as he turned away from the wreck and began swiftly pulling a thick coil of rope and various tools from the rear section of the pickup's extended cab. "It's bad. Do you have an ETA on the engines? We're going to need those hydraulic rescue tools."

"Hold on a sec," Linda said, and Nika heard the line go dead for 10 seconds. It felt like an eternity. When she came back online, she said, "Dane reports that he and Mark are twenty minutes away, and that they have the tools."

"That's too long. But we'll figure something out," Ash said grimly. "Give the medevac guys a heads-up, too, in case they need to send us a chopper. I'll update you when we've had a chance to assess the situation."

He ended the call and strode over to the mangled pickup, which had Washington State license plates.

Nika trailed uncertainly behind him, lugging the big, soft-sided first aid case. She wanted to help, but this was all new to her, and she didn't want to get in Ash's way.

Ash came to a halt next to the driver's side door, which was dented and crumpled. It looked like the SUV had spun out and sideswiped something else before hitting the tree's massive trunk head on.

"There must be a patch of black ice on the road. I'll warn Dane and the others." Ash pulled his cellphone out again.

Nika’s first impression of the driver was of a head of dark hair and a strong profile. He smelled like a bear shifter. To her alarm, she also smelled the rich, rusty scent of blood drifting out of the shattered windows. It was more than could be accounted for from the driver's bloody nose, which looked like a typical airbag injury.

The accident victim was slumped back against the headrest of his seat, his eyes closed. He appeared to be conscious, though.

She hastily unzipped the first aid kit and pulled out a pair of purple nitrile gloves.

"Hey there," Ash said to the driver, his tone calm and reassuring. "My name's Ash, and I'm with the Bearpaw Ridge Fire Department. I'm here with Nika, who's a doctor, and we're gonna get you out of there in a minute. But first I need to know if you're hurt. Are you hurt?"

"Hell yeah, I'm hurt. Everything fucking hurts right now, but mostly my legs. I tried to pull myself out of here, but they're stuck and I can't move them." The man's voice sounded alert and annoyed, rather than reflecting the dazed shock that Nika was used to seeing during her ER rotations. He added, "And it's fucking cold. I'd forgotten how brutal the Idaho winters are."

Ash laughed, and the sound was warm and reassuring. "Yeah, it's a little bit chilly out here right now, but we can help you with that." He turned his head. "Nika, can you pull out a thermal blanket? There should be one rolled up behind the passenger seat in my truck. Grab a C-collar—that's a cervical collar," he added, addressing the injured driver before turning his attention back to Nika. "—and a backboard too, while you're at it."

Nika knew that a C-collar was a foam and plastic brace used to stabilize an accident victim’s neck. It was standard procedure to apply one in a case where there was any chance of a cervical spinal injury.

"Got it," Nika assured him, glad for something to do. "But first—"

She bent to peer inside the SUV, trying to assess the driver's blood-smeared face for serious injuries. Above his crooked, bloodied nose, his eyes were beginning to swell shut. He looked like he'd just been on the losing end of a bar fight.

She pulled off her warm winter gloves and donned the thin purple ones, feeling the chill bite into her skin. "Sir, give me your hands, please."

The injured man obeyed, and she noted that he was able to move his arms without apparent pain. Good.

She took his pulse and then examined the pupil of each eye. Pulse was elevated, probably due to pain. His hands were cold, but he didn't appear to be in shock, and his speech was clear and coherent. Despite his blood-smeared face, she didn't think he had any serious head injuries.

"I need to know: can you feel your feet? Wiggle your toes?"

The driver frowned. "Uh…" he began, then gasped and swore sharply.

"Okay, that hurt," he added, somewhat unnecessarily, when he'd caught his breath. "Ixnay on the toe wiggling. Something ain't right."

He craned his head, trying to look down, and Ash caught the other shifter's chin in his hand. "Don't move until we stabilize your neck."

"I'll go get the backboard and C-collar now," Nika told them.

As she ran for Ash's pickup, she heard the shifter trapped inside the car ask, "Ash? You wouldn't happen to be Ash Swanson, would you?"

Nika froze with her hand on the door handle, her blood turning to ice as her heart began hammering in her ears.

These past few minutes, she'd been too concerned about the strange shifter's injuries to question why he was here.

Could he be someone sent by her clan to harm Ash? She didn't recognize the stranger's scent, but that didn't mean much. She hadn't been home in a long time, so she didn't know all the Medved clan members anymore.

Ash seemed to be thinking the same thing. Instead of replying, he reminded the other shifter, sharply, "Don't move your head, sir. You don't want to mess up your neck if you've injured it."

The other shifter gave a snort. "Ash, dude," he drawled. "Never thought I'd live to hear you calling me 'sir.'"

Nika saw Ash stop, frown, and inhale deeply. Her mate's eyes widened. "Tyler? You've got to be kidding me! When did you get back in town?"

"Haven't quite made it back yet," the other shifter said dryly. "One minute I'm driving down the highway, and the next minute, I'm doing a complete 360." He paused. "Shit. I only had a couple of payments left on this Tahoe. I think it's totaled. Does it look totaled to you?"

Ash nodded. "I’m afraid so. But that's what insurance is for, right?"

This shifter's a Swanson. Not a Medved. Nika took a shuddering breath of relief and felt her heart slow. She opened the door of Ash's pickup and quickly located the thermal blanket, backboard, and C-collar tucked behind the seats in the truck's extended cab area.

When she returned to Ash's side, he had donned his thick leather firefighter's gloves again and was crouched next to the wreck, examining the SUV's badly dented driver's side doors.

"I'm going to have to pull these doors off and get Tyler out of there," Ash said to her. "Shifter or not, I'm worried about his legs, and it's too cold to make him wait around another fifteen or twenty minutes for the others to drive out from town."

Nika nodded. She knew that either of them could easily take apart the car piece by piece using just their bear shifter strength. And since the car crash victim was a fellow shifter, they wouldn't be risking exposure of the secret that every shifter was sworn to keep.

"Once that door is gone, I could do a quick examination, and we could get Mr., uh, Tyler to the hospital."

"It's just Tyler. Call me Mr. Swanson, and I'm gonna think that you're talking to my dad," said the man.

She saw the flash of a flirtatious smile and realized that underneath the broken nose and rapidly blackening eyes was a handsome bear shifter in the Swanson mold of tall, dark-haired, and hazel-eyed. "So, your name is Nika, huh? That's a pretty name for a pretty lady."

"Thank you," Nika said politely.

With effortless strength and the protesting shriek of metal, Ash tore away the driver's side door. A moment later, he had rounded the back of the SUV to remove the passenger-side door, as well.

Nika followed to the passenger side and squeezed herself into the front of the Chevy, shoving aside a dangling chunk of the dashboard to get to Tyler.

Pregnant and bulky as she was, Nika was still able to fit into tight spaces where the tall, broad-shouldered Ash couldn't, especially wearing his thick insulated fireman's coat.

With Ash reaching in from the driver's side to steady Tyler's neck, she fastened the cervical collar around the injured shifter's neck.

She'd done this before as part of her clinical rotation in ER, but doing it in a hospital setting was one thing. Doing it with rapidly numbing fingers while half-kneeling, half-lying inside a badly dented metal box was another thing entirely, and she gained a new respect for EMTs who accomplished these feats on a regular basis.

The backboard followed, she and Ash working as a team to slide the board behind Tyler's back and fasten the nylon-and-Velcro straps securely.

Nika had seen Ash lighthearted, sexy, serious, and angry. Now, in the freezing dark, she saw his determination to help someone in need, and she realized how seriously he took his duties as a volunteer first responder. This was a side to him that she liked. A lot.

One of the things that had initially drawn her to him was the fact that he was the polar opposite of the other male bear shifters she had met. A Medved would only have rushed out to help a stranger in the middle of the night if there was a hefty reward attached.

But not Ash. And from what she knew, none of the other Swansons, either. They were not only loyal to each other but to their entire community. She had seen that community spirit in abundance tonight as well as Ash's raw physical strength.

Everything came together in a rush. Nika felt a jolt of pure electricity run through her as she realized that no matter what kind of risks she might run, she couldn't leave her mate again.

I want to stay in Bearpaw Ridge forever.

It was true. This day had shown Nika that she could be happy living here among people who cared so much about each other.

She bitterly regretted that she'd been forced to drop out of medical school so close to finishing her degree. I'll find a way, somehow, and graduate. I've come too far to give up now.

The realization dizzied her. Seattle had never been her real home, so it had been easy to make the decision to leave everything behind and run as soon as danger threatened. But here, with Ash…she wanted to stay and see if Bearpaw Ridge could feel like home.

But first, she had to draw in her spiraling thoughts and dreams and focus on the problem at hand, which involved a badly injured shifter trapped in a mangled vehicle.

Working with painstaking care, she and Ash managed to pull away enough of the wreckage to free Tyler's legs, which turned out to be broken and pierced in several places.

Then Dane and the others arrived with wail of sirens and flashing fire engines and finished the job of extracting Tyler from the wreckage.

Once the injured shifter was free of the car, Nika concentrated on cutting away Tyler's blood-soaked jeans. She swiftly bandaged a couple of deep cuts before splinting his legs and covering him with the thermal blanket.

The ambulance arrived a few minutes later, pulling up to join the line of pulsing lights already stretched along the snowy shoulder of the highway.

As the EMTs lifted Tyler onto a gurney, he caught her hand.

"Hey, pretty Nika," he said. "Thank you."

She squeezed his hand and smiled down at him, feeling the warm glow of having accomplished something meaningful.

"…can I have your number? I'd like to treat you to dinner once I'm all healed up," Tyler continued.

Nika gaped down at him in shock. Surely he knew that she was not only mated but pregnant!

Before she could formulate a polite refusal, Ash was suddenly there, looming over the gurney. "Are you trying to pick up my mate?"

Ash's tone was mild, but she heard the growl under his words.

"She's mated?" Tyler's eyes, nearly concealed now in rings of puffy flesh, widened a bit. "Dude, I'm sorry! I had no idea—I can't smell anything right now."

That was probably true. Tyler's nose looked a mess.

Ash gave the other shifter a long, level look. "Let me fix that for you."

Before Nika could stop him, he reached down and tugged sharply at Tyler's crooked nose. There was an audible pop and Tyler made a guttural sound of pain.

"Ash!" Nika said, shocked.

"Thanks—I think. I can breathe through my nose again," Tyler said at the same moment.

Nika looked down at her patient and saw fresh blood trickling out of his nostrils. But his off-kilter nose looked straight again.

"That could have waited until he arrived at the hospital," she chided her mate as she hurried to pack gauze into Tyler's nose.

Ash shrugged. "This isn't the first time I've done that for him. He used to get into fights all the time when we were kids."

"But your timing sucks. I swear I didn't know she was your mate!" Tyler protested.

"And now you do." Ash's tone was still mild.

He reached out and took Nika's hand as they watched the EMTs load Tyler into the ambulance, shut the doors, and race away into the night.

"He was always the black sheep of the family. When we were teenagers, he did stuff like spray graffiti on the school walls and steal cars for joyrides." Ash shook his head. "I heard he moved to Portland. I wonder what he's doing back in town."

"I'm just glad he wasn't more badly hurt," Nika said. "His legs should heal up in a week or two."

"Thanks for coming with me," Ash said, drawing her close to his side and putting his arm around her.

Dane approached them. Like Ash, he was wearing his insulated firefighter's jacket.

"Good job, guys. You didn't leave us much to do." He smiled at Nika. "For future reference, we could really use another paramedic in our little fire department, especially since Fred Barker's been making noises about retiring in another year or two."

Nika returned his smile. "I'll think about it," she promised him.

She and Ash were in his pickup, heaters cranked up on high and driving back to his house on the ranch, when Ash asked, "Were you serious about maybe becoming our new paramedic?"

His voice sounded tense. She glanced over at him and saw his jaw muscles working under his beard as he stared straight ahead at the dark ribbon of highway cutting through the snowbanks on either side.

"I want to stay here, in Bearpaw Ridge," Nika said. "With you." 

"Really?" Ash asked, sounding wary. "What about your family? What about the death threats and all the other stuff that had you so scared?"

Nika took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about my lack of faith in you. Watching you just now reminded me that you're strong, and smart, and a good person."

His mouth twitched. "Even if I acted like a jealous asshole around Tyler just now?"

"I—kind of liked it," she confessed. "But only because it was you." She reached out and stroked Ash's bearded cheek. "I'm still scared about what Mama and Papa might to do to us, but I realized today that the Swansons are just as strong as the Medveds, just in a different way. I trust that you—that we—can find a way to protect ourselves and the baby, even if neither of us can shift."

He captured her hand in his and brought it to his lips. She felt the warm pressure of his lips against her palm, and a pleasant shock raced up her arm.

"I won't fail you," he said fervently.

"Good," she said, and traced the outline of his lips with her fingertip. "Because we have some unfinished business when we get back to your house."