My wolf swam hard and I urged him on, begging him not to let our mate die. When my beast reached him, his eyes were wide with panic and confusion, but he grabbed onto my wolf's fur without hesitation. My wolf was huge and he used every ounce of strength to fight the current.
It took forever to drag him back to shallower water, where we were close enough to the building that he could grab the railing and pull himself up. He was coughing, gasping, but alive.
My beast backed away before anyone else tried to catch him but he didn't want to leave our mate. I convinced him we couldn't let the human population know shifters existed and he agreed reluctantly though he wanted to stay close to Parker. The rain and chaos provided cover, and we paddled around the side of the building before shifting back.
I grabbed the emergency clothes I kept in my truck which were similar enough to what I wore every day that no one would notice I'd changed. My hands shook as I dressed, adrenaline and fear and fury all mixing together into something that made me want to shift again and run.
By the time I got back inside through a side entrance, Parker was already there. Soaking wet, wrapped in blankets, looking close to death.
"Dawson." He looked up when he saw me and I studied his pale face, wanting to kiss it and take him far from here. "Did you see it? A wolf? It saved me. There was a wolf in the floodwater and I held onto it."
"You could have died." The words came out harsh, all the fear transforming into anger. "That was the most reckless thing I've ever seen." I longed to run my hands over him to make sure he was unhurt but I was consumed with anger and also scared that touching him was inappropriate.
But my hand moved of its own accord, skimming over his jaw while checking for injuries before I snatched it back.
He shivered, caught off guard by my tone. "I know, but?—"
"But nothing. You wanted to show viewers the conditions? Congratulations. You showed them what happens when someone ignores safety protocols during a hurricane."
"The safety line broke."
"It broke because you shouldn't have been out there in the first place." I was aware of people staring, of Isla approaching with a worried expression, but I couldn't stop. Fear and reliefhad coiled themselves inside me and were bursting out like a machine gun firing. "You could have been killed, Parker. For what? A three-minute live shot?" I was yelling and I should have been holding him. What was wrong with me?
Hurt flashing across his face before he locked it down. "I was doing my job."
"It doesn't require you to get yourself killed for ratings."
"That's not what I was doing." He stopped. "You know what? I don't need this right now. I nearly drowned. Maybe save the lecture for later."
"Perhaps if you'd listened to me earlier, that wouldn't have happened."
We stared at each other and the tension was thick enough to cut. Parker's hands were still shaking and he was dripping water onto the floor, and I needed to pull him close and make sure he was really okay. But the fury was easier than the fear, so I let it burn.
"Parker, you should get into dry clothes," Isla told him. "Dawson, a word?"
Parker left without looking at me. I watched him go, my wolf whining at the distance and how our mate was walking away upset.
"What the hell was that?" Isla yelled.
"That was me pointing out that he nearly got himself killed." I wondered if she was about to fire me but I didn't care. I just wanted Parker to be okay.
"That was you tearing into him thirty seconds after he nearly died. What's going on with you two?"
Everything and nothing. My wolf had revealed himself to save a human who didn't know shifters existed, and now I couldn't explain why I was so angry without exposing secrets that weren't mine to tell.
"Nothing. I'm going back to the weather center."
I spent the next hour staring at models I wasn't processing while my wolf was still agitated beneath my skin. The storm was making landfall, and Parker and I should have been working together like we had been all day. I hovered nervously not far from his desk multiple times, wanting to apologize but he ignored me and my courage failed.
Instead of working with me, Parker did his updates with one of the other meteorologists, and I stayed in my corner like the grumpy so-and-so everyone thought I was.
My phone buzzed. A text from Tony.
Was that you? It was hard to see but it looked like you.
I'd shifted in public, in broad daylight and in front of cameras that had may have caught at least something on film. And I'd done it to save a human who drove me crazy but my wolf and I understood he was my mate and part of our pack. Me, my wolf and Parker, not that he knew any of that.
Yes. It had to be done.
