Was she too late? Had he already absorbed more radiation than he could survive?
She forced herself to stop thinking and latched her teeth on the shoulder of his tactical harness, tugging violently as she started backing away. It was a cumbersome way to rescue someone, her paws slipping on first the tiles and then the slick concrete flooring. She fell over on top of Sawyer more times than she could count, but she kept pulling, dragging his body through the gap she’d made in the door until they somehow ended up outside the building entirely.
Harley collapsed on top of him on the damp grass, the cool evening air blowing through her fur, her large snout nuzzled against him, breathing in his scent while she prayed he’d be okay.
She had no idea how long they lay there. She absently heard Jake’s voice coming through the earpiece Sawyer was still wearing, asking if the two of them were okay. The voices of their other teammates soon followed, words urgent and worried. There was nothing Harley could do. It wasn’t like she could talk, and she sure as hell wasn’t leaving Sawyer to find any of them.
She allowed the slow but steady beating of his heart to lull her into a state of relaxation. She guessed a person could only go for so long on pure adrenaline and fear. Even werewolves crashed at some point.
It was as Harley was lying there, draped across the chest of the man she loved, that the change occurred. Maybe shifting wasn’t as painful in this direction or maybe she was simply too exhausted to care. Either way, one moment she was a four-legged furry creature with a long, bushy tail; the next she was naked and human, draped half on Sawyer’s chest and half on the wet grass.
Sawyer’s chest was much more comfortable, even considering all the tactical gear he was wearing. But Harley forgot all of that when she looked up and found him gazing at her, his beautiful eyes making her think he was fully aware, but also somewhat baffled.
“Was there a wolf sitting on my chest a minute ago?” he murmured, one of his hands coming up to caress her bare back, his touch making little sparks skitter across her skin.
“You’re alive!” she squeaked, shoving herself upright to get a better look at him She knew how stupid that comment sounded, but she couldn’t come up with anything better.
Sawyer’s mouth edged up. “Yeah. I’m tired and it feels like I was hit by a truck, but I’m alive. I guess I was right about werewolves being able to recover from radiation exposure. But back to my question, why are you naked and did I really see you shift back from a full wolf?”
Harley stared at Sawyer for a moment, finding it impossible to explain how relieved she was he was okay. She should probably be worried about long-term effects of the exposure, but at that moment, all she cared about was that he was alive.
And that he’d scared the hell out of her!
Moving to straddle him, she smacked her fists against his chest in frustration. “Don’t you ever do anything that stupid again for as long as you live! You selfish idiot! I love you and you could have died. And that would have killed me, too!” Tears blurred her vision and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. “You have to promise to never, ever, do that again.”
Sawyer sat up and shucked his tactical vest, then his uniform top, leaving him in the T-shirt he wore underneath. Slipping it on her, he buttoned it up. The thing was so large it draped down to midthigh, and she imagined she looked ridiculous. But she couldn’t care less as he caught her hands and pulled her against his chest. This was much better. No MP5 magazines poking into her breasts. Only nice, strong, muscular pecs.
“I won’t ever apologize for loving you,” he whispered, brushing his warm lips across her jaw all the way to her right earlobe. “And part of that means doing anything I have to when it comes to keeping you safe, even if that isn’t what you want. With this soul mate thing, I get the idea that protecting you is hardwired into me now.”
Harley pulled away, ready to tear into him as rage reared up inside her. “So, what? You think I don’t feel the same way? That I don’t love you just as much? That I won’t risk my life for you without a second thought?”
He hugged her close again, his big, warm hands on her back calming her, and almost against her will, she turned to Jell-O and relaxed against him. “I’m sorry for scaring you, and for taking away your freedom to make your own decision about the risks you’re willing to face for me and for your job.”
“You can’t ever do that again,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair and burying her face in the junction of his neck and shoulder. “I won’t let this thing be one-sided. If we’re going to do this together, you have to accept that.”
There was silence for a time, the sounds of sirens in the distance and people murmuring in excitement somewhere on the far side of the complex, intruding on their moment.
“I know.” He sighed. “I doubt it will be easy, but I promise I won’t do anything like that again. But you’ll have to keep me straight, okay? Having a soul mate—having you be The One for me—is all new. It might take me a little while to get it right.”
She nodded against him, loving the way one hand slid lower to settle possessively on her hip. “We have all the time in the world to figure it out.”
More silence followed, but the sound of sirens was getting closer, and Harley could smell several of her teammates moving closer to them. She guessed her nose was working better now that she and her inner wolf knew each other better. Or maybe it was finding her soul mate. Someone who would always accept her—fangs, claws, and all.
“So how is this going to work?” she asked. “Are you going to join STAT, or should I see if MI6 is hiring?”
Sawyer chuckled. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
She waited for him to finish that thought but was interrupted by the sound of heavy boots treading on concrete, followed by a snort of laughter.
“Seriously?” Caleb said from behind her. “All of your teammates are out here searching for the two of you, worried both of you are either dead or glowing in the dark, and instead, you sneak out to get naked in the grass? What the hell has this British werewolf done to you, Harley? You were never this irresponsible before you met him. I think he’s a bad influence.”
Harley didn’t turn around. Instead, she laughed and snuggled tighter against Sawyer’s chest. “Yes, he’s a bad influence, but he’s my bad influence now. All mine.”
Chapter 21
“And this is the mandatory selfie from the top of the Eiffel Tower,” Harley said with a laugh, leaning over the granite island that separated Jake and Jestina’s kitchen from the living room, turning her phone around so the beta werewolf twins, Zoe and Chloe, could see the photo of her and Sawyer. “If you look in the background, you can see the club in the Bastille District where Sawyer and I first met.”