Chapter Three
WEST HADN’T FORGOTTEN about Jonathan, but a few weeks after visiting the tattoo shop for that fainting call, he’d made his peace with the knowledge that he wouldn’t see him again. He wasn’t about to act like a creep and corner Jonathan at his job, especially when the man had been visibly wary of him.
It wasn’t a surprise. West was big and could be intimidating. People mostly reacted in two different ways when they saw him—either they flirted with him, or they were wary of him. He didn’t understand why because Austin was similar to him, and people weren’t usually scared of him, but he’d given up trying to explain it. It wouldn’t change anything, anyway.
Luckily, the others had stopped teasing him, including Austin. He kept glancing at West as if he was worried, and he probably was, but West had decided to ignore him. He was fine, and he didn’t need a boyfriend, no matter how nice it would be to have one.
He pushed his cart down the aisle, grabbed a pack of toilet paper, and threw it inside. He’d made a list, so he checked the toilet paper off before rounding the corner.
Someone was standing there, staring at the yogurt as if he expected one of them to jump into his basket. For a second, West didn’t recognize him, but then the man shuffled his feet and turned slightly as he reached for one of the yogurts, and West couldn’t look away.
What were the odds that Jonathan would be grocery shopping in the same store as him?
Jonathan put his yogurt into his basket and turned. He froze when he saw West standing there, which was understandable because West was being a bit of a creep.
West smiled. “Jonathan, right?”
he asked, even though he knew perfectly well what Jonathan’s name was.
Jonathan quickly nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. Jonathan. Which you already knew, clearly.”
West pressed his lips together. Jonathan had no business being this adorable. “I didn’t realize you lived in the area.”
“Oh, yeah. I do.”
“I’ve never seen you before.”
“I keep weird hours. I’ve never seen you before, either.”
West grinned. “I keep even weirder hours.”
Jonathan laughed. “I can only imagine how hard it is for you.”
West shrugged. He liked how light the conversation was. He’d expected Jonathan to turn to run as soon as he saw him. He didn’t want to waste this opportunity, but he had no idea how to make sure that Jonathan would stick around a bit longer. “You get used to it after a while. I’m not saying it’s great, but it’s not as awful as most people think it is.”
“I don’t know about that. I can’t think of anything worse than having to stay at work for forty-eight hours.”
It almost sounded like Jonathan had researched firefighters. West wanted to tease him, but he didn’t dare. He was pretty sure that Jonathan would bolt if he tried. Besides, he might just be curious after what had happened with that guy who’d fainted. It probably had nothing to do with West.
Jonathan kept glancing around as if looking for something—possibly the closest exit. West wanted him to be able to leave if that was what he wanted, so he pushed his cart to the side. West wasn’t going to stop him.
Jonathan started walking past him. West sighed in dismay because he’d really thought this was a sign from the universe. If the universe hadn’t wanted West and Jonathan to date or at least talk, it wouldn’t have pushed them together again, right?
Jonathan paused next to West. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and an oversized cream-colored hoodie with rodeo cowboys on it. He looked comfy, and for some reason, West wanted to drag him into his arms and bury his face against his neck.
Yep. He was officially a creep.
Things didn’t get easier when Jonathan leaned closer. West had no idea what Jonathan was doing, but he stayed still. He felt a bit like he was in front of a rabbit and that if he moved or breathed too hard, the rabbit would bolt.
It was ridiculous how much he didn’t want Jonathan to leave. He barely knew this man. He’d only met him once, and West had barely said two words to him. What was West thinking?
“I know,”
Jonathan whispered.
He quickly leaned back, but West grabbed his arm so he wouldn’t leave. “What are you talking about?”
Jonathan glanced around again. “About your secret. About what you are.”
It was as if West had eaten rocks for lunch. “What?”
“You know.”
West opened his mouth to say that he didn’t know because he had to be sure of what Jonathan was insinuating before he said anything, but the fire alarm cut him off.
His body moved on instinct. He was used to being interrupted by the fire alarm. He got into firefighter mode, glancing around to find out what was going on. Maybe a kid had pulled the alarm or something. West couldn’t help but hope that was the case, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t.
“What’s going on?”
Jonathan asked.
West sniffed the air. He thought he knew what Jonathan had been insinuating, but he didn’t understand how Jonathan would know because he smelled human. He hadn’t found out from West or Austin. Maybe he knew other dragon shifters? West wanted to ask, but he had other things to do right now. He had to find out where the fire was and what was happening.
And Jonathan had to get his ass out of the store.
JONATHAN STARTED PANICKING as soon as the fire alarm went off. His first thought was to run for the exit like everyone else was. He turned to do just that when a woman ran past him, knocking a cart into him. He winced because fuck, that hurt.
A strong hand on his arm distracted him from the pain. “All right?”
West asked.
His expression was serious, and his eyes were full of concern that Jonathan didn’t feel he deserved.
“I’m fine.”
West nodded. “Good. You need to get out of here.”
“What about you?”
West gave Jonathan a crooked smile. “This is my job.”
There wasn’t much he could actually do, though. He wasn’t working right now. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. They both needed to get out of there.
“You don’t have your uniform or whatever you call the jacket and the other stuff you wear on the job. You should leave with me.”
The air was steadily filling with smoke. Jonathan coughed, then pressed his forearm against his mouth, hoping it would help. It didn’t do much, unfortunately. They both needed to get out of there now.
“Come on,”
West said as he guided Jonathan forward.
An explosion threw both of them sideways. Jonathan’s ears rang, and he tensed for the expected pain when he landed. Everything happened so quickly that he didn’t realize West had caught him until his body was pressed against something much softer than the floor.
Jonathan blinked up to see that West had wrapped his arms around him and was holding him against his chest. He looked grim, and as soon as he was sure Jonathan was okay, he helped him to his feet.
Jonathan looked around and instantly wished he hadn’t because chaos and destruction filled his vision. Things had been bad before, but they were worse now. The explosion had come from the back of the store, and everything there was engulfed in flames. Jonathan swallowed heavily when he saw bodies on the floor, some of them with limbs twisted in unnatural positions. He wanted to go to them and make sure the people were okay, but they weren’t. They weren’t moving, and at least one of the bodies was on fire.
The acrid smell of smoke and burning flesh was overwhelming and made Jonathan retch. It was getting hard to breathe, and he was sweating. His legs felt like jelly, and he wasn’t sure they would carry him outside. That wouldn’t stop him from trying, though. He wasn’t going to die in a grocery store, dammit.
“Come on,”
West said as he pushed Jonathan toward the front of the store.
People were screaming, some from pain, others for help. West refused to allow Jonathan to go back when he tried, but they did stop to help a woman to her feet. Her foot had been stuck under a shelf, and Jonathan had been sure they wouldn’t be able to help her, but West had picked up the thing as if it weighed nothing. Maybe to a big, strong firefighter, it didn’t.
Or maybe it didn’t to a dragon shifter.
The woman could walk on her own, even though she was limping, so they stopped to help an older gentleman with a bleeding gash on his forehead. The man kept stumbling, so Jonathan pushed West toward him.
“Help him.”
“I’m already helping you.”
“I can walk on my own. Come on. We’re almost at the exit.”
The metallic taste of fear coated Jonathan’s tongue. His mouth was dry, no matter how many times he swallowed.
Jonathan should’ve known better than to tempt fate. They were almost at the exit, which meant that it was the perfect moment for another explosion to occur.
The floor shook under Jonathan’s feet, and he tilted sideways. The blast was stronger this time, making Jonathan’s ears ring as his back hit a shelf. The air whooshed out of his lungs, and he tried to grab the shelf so he’d stay upright, but he realized it was a bad idea when the shelf tilted toward him. He attempted to scramble out of the way, but his foot caught something on the floor, and he fell.
The shelf fell with him.
WEST SWORE AND SCRAMBLED to his feet. He’d been thrown down by the second explosion and separated from Jonathan. Jonathan would yell at him if he didn’t make sure the old man they’d been helping got out, though, so West quickly pushed the man in the direction of the exit. His brain and his dragon were screaming at him to look for Jonathan, but he was afraid of what he’d see if he did.
As soon as the man West was helping was close enough to the exit that someone else stepped forward to help him, West ran back. He didn’t go far before he heard someone coughing. Whoever it was sounded like they were low, maybe even on the floor.
West was lucky that his dragon allowed him to withstand the fire and smoke much more easily than a normal human body would. Smoke didn’t bother him. The heat felt good on his skin, and he wouldn’t get burned even if he stepped in the flames. When it came to fire, he was pretty much immune to whatever it could do to him.
Jonathan wasn’t.
West finally noticed something moving under a collapsed shelf. His heart jumped as he rushed forward. He swore as soon as he realized what had happened and that Jonathan was in trouble.
“I told you to leave the store, but instead, you managed to end up under a shelf,”
West complained. He didn’t want Jonathan to see how worried he was, even though he had to know already.
Jonathan’s body was buried under the shelf. The only visible parts of him were his head and one of his arms, but it was enough for West to realize that he’d been trying to drag himself out from under the unit. He couldn’t lift it off his body because it was too heavy, but dragging himself away would hurt—if it was even possible.
West crouched down and put a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “Stop it.”
Jonathan coughed again and turned to look at West. His eyes were watery, and his skin was damp and dirty. There was a streak of blood on his chin, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. He looked awful, but at the same time, he’d never been so beautiful.
Something creaked above them. West tilted his head up in time to see part of the ceiling coming down.
Right on top of them.
He didn’t think before he shifted.
He tried not to do it on the job, but it had happened a few times, and it had helped him save lives.
The people he’d saved in his dragon form had never found out about it.
They were either unconscious or delirious from pain and fear.
Jonathan was neither of those things, but that didn’t matter.
West wouldn’t allow anything to happen to him just because he was afraid of the way he would react to his dragon.
West would carry him out kicking and screaming if he had to.
He changed form in seconds.
His body was big enough to push debris from the falling ceiling, and it wouldn’t hurt his dragon, but it was heavy.
He waited until everything had come down to shake it off.
He was afraid to look in Jonathan’s direction.
He could hear him breathing.
It was getting laborious, which meant Jonathan needed to get out of there.
West didn’t have the time to worry about what Jonathan thought of him being a dragon shifter.
He was probably freaking out.
He wasn’t screaming, though, and he didn’t say anything when West pushed the shelf off him with his head.
He kept staring, even when West shifted back and reached for him.
Jonathan didn’t push West away.
He didn’t scream or demand to know what he was.
He didn’t call him a monster.
Instead, he allowed West to haul him into his arms and cradle him close.
West had never been so grateful that his clothes shifted with him.
Shifting was nothing like in the movies.
His clothes didn’t explode around him, which was handy in situations like this one.
It would’ve been awkward for him to wander out of the burning store completely naked while carrying Jonathan, and he would’ve had a hard time explaining it.
It wouldn’t be easy to explain what he was to Jonathan.
The man didn’t seem to be afraid of him, but he was probably in pain and in shock.
Things would change once they were out of the store.
West needed to talk to Jonathan, but they didn’t have time.
“Okay?”
he asked to be sure Jonathan wouldn’t start screaming.
Jonathan patted West’s chest. “I told you. I know what you are.”
West frowned as he made his way through the debris on the ground. There was nothing he could do to extinguish the fire, but he could hear sirens, so he knew that firefighters were coming. They wouldn’t be as good as him and his team, but they could take care of a grocery store fire. West was pretty sure most of the customers had made it out. There would be bodies to collect, but that would come later, once everyone who was still breathing had been checked over and helped.
“You knew I was a dragon shifter?”
he asked to distract himself. He might be used to this kind of situation, but they were never easy.
“Yeah.”
West had so many questions.