Bitten By Mistake (21 page)

Nathan nodded. “Ten years is nothing. And yes, over the years, Newell has complained he should have been given more land, but Cam refuses to back down. So we live next door to each other but aren’t the best of neighbours.”

“And now you’re stuck working together until you find out who the rogue shifters are?”

“Yep.”

Jared grinned. “Wow. Sucks to be you.”

“Thanks. Your support is heart-warming.”

“Don’t mention it.” Jared ate the rest of his sandwich, then set his plate down next to his mug. “What happens when you catch the rogue shifters?” He was brushing the crumbs off his lap and glanced up when Nathan didn’t answer straightaway. “Nathan?”

“We find their base and their alpha, and we kill them.”

Jared stopped with his hand in mid-air. “What, all of them?”

He looked horrified, and Nathan felt a surge of irritation. “They would have killed me that night. They almost ripped Ben’s arm off, for fuck’s sake, and would have slit his throat if I hadn’t stopped them. What did you expect us to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know, call the police, maybe? Have them arrested and put in prison like normal criminals?”

“Haven’t you been listening? Shifter law doesn’t work that way. If we track them back to their alpha, they aren’t going to sit there while we call the police, and they won’t go quietly either. They’ll fight to the death, and so will we!”

Too late, Nathan realised they were yelling. The whole building had probably heard them. He pointed at the bedroom, and Jared nodded, then got up and stalked off towards it.

Once inside, Nathan slammed the door behind him.

Jared paced beside the bed before turning round to face him. “When you go to work today, will you be looking for them?”

“Not looking for them as such, but yes, we’ll be keeping an eye out.”

“And if you find one or more of them?” Jared stood with his hands on his hips, glaring. “Will you be expected to fight?”

Nathan cocked his head to the side, unsure what Jared was getting at. Hadn’t they just been through that? “Ideally we need to keep at least one alive this time, but I’ll fight if I have to.”

“To the death.”

“Yes.”

Jared had his hands clenched at his sides; his breathing had sped up considerably.

Nathan hated to see him so distressed, and he walked over to stand in front of him. “Jared?”

Jared glanced down at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze, so Nathan cupped his jaw and tilted his head up. The look in his eyes was like ice through Nathan’s heart.

“What if something happens to you? What if you get hurt, or…
fuck
.” He reached out and grabbed Nathan’s T-shirt, pulling him closer. “You bit me, and we bonded. So, what happens to me if they kill you? Have you thought about that?”

Fuck.

Jared leaned closer and rested his forehead against Nathan’s. His voice was soft when he spoke. “Would anyone even bother telling me? Or would you just fail to come home? Hmm? Because from where I’m standing, if anything happens to you, then I’m fucked, aren’t I?”

All of that was true, but hurt tore into Nathan’s chest at the fact that Jared hadn’t once said he was worried about Nathan. Maybe the bond wasn’t as strong for him as a human, because the thought of leaving Jared behind to fend for himself cut Nathan to the quick.

“I see. I’ll try not to die and drop you in the shit.” He went to pull away, stung, but Jared grabbed him and shook him.

“Don’t be so fucking stupid! I know the bond fucked things up between us, and whatever this is might not be real.” He met Nathan’s gaze and all of his own insecurities, want, and desperation reflected back at him. “But right now all I know is that it feels real to me. I’m yours, Nathan, and whether you like it or not, you’re fucking mine too, and I can’t do this without you.” His grip on Nathan’s T-shirt tightened, and the material gave way like melted butter. They looked down.

Tips of claws protruded where Jared’s human fingernails should be.

“Oh shit.” Jared swallowed, and Nathan felt the panic rising inside him as if it was his own. “I need you.”

Jared’s voice was low and rough, pleading. Nathan’s insides clenched at the sound of it.

Fuck it.

He backed Jared up against the nearest wall, capturing his mouth in a harsh, desperate kiss that left them panting. With his hands cupping Jared’s cheeks, he held him steady, forcing Jared to look at him. “You have me. I
am
yours.” He kissed him again. “And I don’t care if it’s the bond or not. I feel everything you do, and I would never leave you to face it on your own. I promise.” It was a promise he might not be able to keep, and they both knew it.

Jared nodded anyway. He wrapped his arms around Nathan’s waist and tucked his head in the crook of Nathan’s neck. When he took a deep, shuddery breath, Jared’s whole body relaxed, as though Nathan’s scent calmed him.

Heightened emotion always brought out more shifter traits, and Nathan had to push down that part of him that longed for the change to take. For Jared to become like him and join his pack.

He shut his eyes tight and willed those thoughts away. None of that was what Jared wanted.

The full moon was usually something Nathan looked forward to—that release of energy with his pack, even if just for an hour or two—but now it felt like the countdown to something awful. Something that had the potential to tear his heart out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

By the time Nathan was ready for work, their bond seemed to have settled to a low hum. The connection was still there but not nearly as strong as it had been earlier.

Jared sat curled up on the sofa with his laptop on his knees, attempting to ignore Nathan as he banged about the flat preparing to leave. Nathan kept glancing over and opening his mouth, but nothing ever came out.

Jared got it, he really did. This emotional roller coaster they were on had him feeling passionate and certain one minute, flayed open and embarrassed the next. He wanted to scream with frustration.

When he thought of what he’d said to Nathan, how he’d laid everything out there and practically begged him not to get hurt, heat rushed to his cheeks and he had to duck his head. He still felt those things, deep down inside—the idea of Nathan getting injured made his heart hurt—but with the intensity of their bond dialled way down, the rational part of his brain took over.

Nathan would do as his alpha requested, and that might result in a fight to the death with rogue shifters. If the worst happened, then Jared would deal with it. It would be fucking awful, and he had no idea where that would leave him regarding the bite, the bond, or anything else. But he’d deal.

They’d avoided each other for the last forty minutes. Jared’s anger at their situation kept him glued to the sofa, not wanting to take it out on Nathan. Everything might have started out as Nathan’s fault, but things between them had escalated so quickly since then that it seemed like a lifetime ago. Jared hated the fact it had happened without his consent; he’d essentially fallen in love between one breath and the next, and the thought of losing Nathan made him want to howl.

Fucking shifters.

He was angry at their whole fucked-up situation, but he wasn’t angry at Nathan. With his emotions under his control, Jared couldn’t find the same freedom to articulate how he felt. The last three years of nurturing hate towards Nathan’s kind trapped the words on his tongue. For now, it was best if he kept some distance between them.

Jared managed to keep his eyes on his work, only casting furtive glances Nathan’s way when his back was turned.

Nathan pulled on his jacket and headed towards the door. He stopped with his hand on the latch and let out a long, heavy sigh. “Jared—”

His name on Nathan’s lips seemed to snap whatever hold Jared had on his feelings, and the connection between them flared back to life with a sudden spark of heat so powerful that Jared almost dropped his laptop in surprise. He shoved it to the side, then scrambled over the back of the sofa to get to Nathan. With his arms wrapped around his middle and his chest flush to Nathan’s back, something familiar settled inside him.

They both sighed this time, a sound of contentment instead of despair.

Jared breathed in. The scent of Nathan’s shower gel, undercut with the soft, woodsy scent of his pack—Jared had no idea how he knew that—filled his lungs. He rested his nose against the side of Nathan’s neck. He didn’t want to let go, but he couldn’t keep him there. “Be careful.”

Nathan nodded. “I promise.”

That one he could keep, and Jared knew he would. Whether it was enough to keep him safe was anyone’s guess.

When he left, Jared closed the door and leaned against it for a good five minutes, trying to pull himself together and shake off the vice around his chest. If this was what being bonded meant—being terrified of something happening every time they were apart—then maybe it would be best if it disappeared with the full moon. He should want that anyway, right? This thing between them wasn’t natural, wasn’t real, and the sooner Jared could get back to himself the better. Even as he thought the words, his heart protested every one of them.

Fuck.

He banged his head against the door a couple of times, hoping to knock some sense into it, but the ache in his chest remained.

Try as he might to ignore it, concentrating on work for the rest of the day, it stayed with him until he heard Nathan’s key in the lock hours later. Jared was out of his chair and wrapped around Nathan as soon as he set foot inside the flat.

Neither of them said anything. Nathan hoisted him up, waited for Jared to wrap his legs around his waist, and then carried him into the bedroom, where they frantically got each other off. No finesse, no long-drawn-out tender touches, but a desperate need to stroke and feel.

It carried on in the same vein for the next week and a half. Jared worked on his laptop, Nathan went out doing various jobs with Luke and two shifters from the Primrose Hill pack. Each time he returned, they practically tore each other’s clothes off as soon as he got through the door.

Their bond continued to ebb and flow with no discernible pattern, and Jared’s nerves were so frazzled he felt like a caged tiger. Only once had they been back to his flat. One night spent in his own home, in his own bed, and it wasn’t enough. The other thing was the smell.

Jared wrapped his arms around Nathan’s neck and tucked his face in his favourite spot. Far from calming him, it sent a ripple of irritation down his spine at the foreign scent of another shifter all over Nathan. Jared pulled back with his hands gripping the top of Nathan’s shoulders. “Again?” His lip curled up in a snarl. “How fucking close do you have to get to those wankers? Or do you enjoy it? Is that why you’re so eager to go to work now?” Jared tried to clamp his mouth shut to stop the ridiculous, jealous words spilling out, but it felt as though he was watching from the sidelines. Like an out-of-body experience.

He knew he was being irrational, knew the shifter hormones, or whatever was invading him, were ramping up the effects on his mind and body, but he couldn’t stop himself reacting.

Nathan flinched and a look of hurt crossed his tired features.

Guilt poked at Jared’s heart but not enough to stop him. “Don’t act like you give a shit. I’m stuck in here all day while you’re out fucking God knows—”

“Jared!” Nathan grabbed him by the arms, spun him around, and slammed him hard against the door. “Stop!”

He’d let his claws ease out and the tips pressed into Jared’s skin. The sharp pain was enough to clear his head.

“Shit.” Jared closed his eyes and breathed in and out in an attempt to calm his racing heart. The scent of another shifter was nearly as powerful as it had seemed moments earlier, and he slumped against the door as the adrenaline left his system. “Sorry.” He peeked at Nathan, unsure of what to expect, and only then noticed the angry red cuts on his shoulders where his T-shirt had been torn. “Oh God.” Reaching up to touch them, he faltered when he saw the blood on the ends of his fingers and the ten long sharp claws instead of fingernails.

“It’s okay,” Nathan soothed.

Jared shook his head. “It’s not fucking okay. Look what I did to you.” He whimpered, a sound foreign in his throat, and tried to push Nathan away with the flat of his palms.

Nathan refused to budge, instead taking Jared’s bloodstained hands in his and guiding him through the living room to the privacy of the bedroom. After kicking the door shut, Nathan led Jared over to the bed and urged him to lie down on it.

Jared went with some reluctance, still reeling from the fact he’d sprouted fucking claws and shredded Nathan’s shoulders. That couldn’t be good. Was the change taking hold? The thought terrified him, and he realised with a jolt that turning into a shifter was the very last thing he wanted. He swallowed down his fear lest Nathan pick up on it. He didn’t want to hurt him more than he already had.

Nathan stretched out alongside him, and Jared’s gaze once again caught on the rips in his T-shirt and the blood leaking through the gaps.

With a shake of his head, Nathan reached up and pulled the neck of the T-shirt to one side. “Look.” Jared glanced down. “They’re already healing. Give me half an hour, and you won’t be able to see a thing.”

Peering closer, Jared could see he was right. The torn edges of skin had already started to knit back together, the blood no longer trickling out.

“And besides, I did the same to you to get you to stop.”

Jared snorted. “Hardly. You didn’t rip holes into my shoulders, did you?”

Nathan rolled Jared onto his back and crawled on top of him.

The warm, heavy weight of Nathan’s body grounded Jared like nothing else could, and he closed his eyes, letting himself feel everywhere they touched. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. It’s not just the bond anymore, it’s…
everything.
Sometimes I feel so out of control, I can’t… I….”

“Shh… it’s okay.” Nathan pressed soft kisses to Jared’s lips, his jaw, and down the side of his neck, finally settling his mouth where the bite mark lay.