Bitten By Mistake (5 page)

One step at a time. Get clean. Get dressed. Get out.

Then panic.

Right.

After opening his eyes, Jared glanced around for some sort of shampoo or shower gel, only to find a very naked Nathan standing in the shower cubicle with him. “Arrghh!” He stumbled backwards in shock and slipped, and only Nathan’s lightning-quick reflexes saved him from bashing his head on the tiled wall. “What the hell?” He shrugged off Nathan’s grip and tried to push him backwards, but Nathan didn’t even flinch.

Fucking shifters.

“Couldn’t you wait for me to finish, for fuck’s sake?”

Nathan crowded him against the wall. “No.”

Without breaking eye contact, he reached back and plucked something off the shelf behind him. “You need to mask your smell in case someone comes to check on me. I can’t have eau de human in my flat, and this is the easiest way.”

Jared frowned, so Nathan held up the bottle of shower gel for him to see. “I’m going to wash you and hopefully overlay your smell with mine. Nothing more, I promise.”

Is it worth objecting?

Jared was tempted to on principle alone. But being with one shifter was bad enough; he didn’t know what would happen if more of Nathan’s pack found out he was there, and he wasn’t too keen on finding out either. God, his life sucked sometimes.

With a nod, he gave Nathan permission to continue.

Nathan squirted some of the shower gel into his palm and proceeded to wash Jared all over with heavy, exaggerated strokes. Cleaning and scenting him all at the same time.

Lovely.

He’d always wanted to be a shifter fuck toy. Not.

Nathan paused washing his shoulder, running over the spot that ached.

“What?” Jared glanced down to see five red marks. “Did you fucking scratch me too?”

“I had to stop you somehow.”

“And this was the only way?”

Nathan shrugged. “It was the easiest.”                      

Something told Jared that mentioning his desire to leave as soon as possible wasn’t in his best interest right now. Maybe Nathan couldn’t legally keep him there against his will, but it wouldn’t be the first, or last, time a shifter did something illegal. A prickle of fear made its way down his spine, and he shivered despite the heat of the water.

Nathan stopped, one hand resting on Jared’s hip. “What’s wrong?”

The laugh that bust out bordered on hysterical. Jared closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

Where do I even start?

“Look.” Nathan sighed, but he continued to wash Jared’s hip and thigh. “If you think I’m enjoying this, then you’re very much mistaken.”

Unable to help himself, Jared did the obvious and glanced down. Nathan’s cock, while not fully hard, was well on its way. “Sure about that?” Another shrug was all Jared got in response. “You don’t see me chubbing up just because you’ve got your hands all over me.”

He neglected to add that after waking up to find he’d been bitten, not even showering with Chris Pine would get him hard. Well, that might be stretching the truth, but still. Getting off was about the furthest thing from his mind.

He’d expected Nathan to ignore that comment too, but his smooth movements faltered as he looked down between them to see for himself. Jared felt unbearably smug at the obvious disbelief on Nathan’s face. It might have only been there for a second, but he’d seen it, and that was enough.

See, not everyone falls over themselves to get a shifter into bed—or a shower.

When Nathan finally deemed them clean and human-scent-free, he turned off the water and got out.

Jared followed suit and took the towel Nathan offered him. “I’m going to need some clothes.” Jared dried off and then wrapped the towel around himself.

Nathan threw his own used towel in the laundry bin, not bothering to cover himself. “Planning on going somewhere?”

Why yes, yes I am.

Jared bit his lip, should he come out and say it? When he thought about it realistically, what chance did he have of getting out undetected from a building full of shifters? “Yes, actually. I was planning on going to the hospital to get this checked out.” He pointed to his neck. “And then to the police to report my wallet stolen. And then home.”

For the first time since Jared had regained consciousness, Nathan looked sorry for what he was about to say. His voice was soft, a hint of regret in his tone. “You can’t do any of those things.”

“Why not?”

Nathan looked up at the ceiling. Jared couldn’t tell if he was trying to think of a suitable lie or thinking about telling the truth. “You know about Karel’s Law, yes?”

Ah, looked as though he was going with the truth. For some reason, Jared wanted to smile at that. He nodded instead. “Of course.”

“That’s why I didn’t take you to the hospital.”

Jared should have seen that coming. Karel’s Law hadn’t been the first thing that sprang to mind when he woke up in a strange place, but maybe it should have been. Nathan had bitten him without consent, without pack agreement if what he’d said earlier was true. Essentially Jared held Nathan’s fate in the palm of his hand. “I could have you killed.”

“Yes, you could.” Nathan met Jared’s gaze and held it. “If anyone finds out.” He took a deliberate step back and to the side—blocking the bathroom door.

That cold trickle of fear was back, wrapping around Jared’s insides like an icy hand. He swallowed and forced himself to ask the question, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer. “What does that mean?”

“The full moon was only two nights ago. We won’t know if the change is permanent until the next one.”

Jared shook his head. “No way.”

“It’s the only way.”

“You can’t keep me prisoner here for the next twenty-six days. I have a fucking life!” Jared started for the door, not caring that Nathan had planted himself in front of it. He had to get out of there now. “Move!”

Trying to shoulder Nathan out of the way proved fruitless, and Jared gave up before he did himself some damage.

“I’m doing this for your own safety,” Nathan hissed at him. “If my pack find out what I’ve done, then I’m pretty sure it won’t end well for either of us.” Stepping close, he took hold of Jared’s shoulders. "By bringing you back here, I’ve made them complicit to my crime. You know what that would mean?”

“The alpha would be held accountable as well as you.”

“Yes. You would decide my fate, but my alpha would be at the mercy of the courts, and you know how much some of those judges hate shifters.”

Jared was well aware. He loved that the legislation wasn’t all pro-shifter like some of the other areas of government. “If you didn’t want that to happen, then you should have taken me to a fucking hospital in the first place, you selfish bastard.”

Nathan’s grip on him tightened and Jared winced. “I panicked, okay? The thought of being put to death or spending the rest of my life in prison didn’t exactly make for clear thinking!”

“Those are the extremes. You didn’t know that would happen.”

“Really?” Nathan scoffed. “I recognised you straightaway, remembered how you’d taken great delight in telling me of your hatred for shifters. I think it was a pretty safe bet what punishment you were gonna choose.”

Maybe he had a point, but that was still no excuse. “Hating them is one thing, sentencing one to death or life imprisonment is something else altogether. I wouldn’t have chosen to end someone’s life, for fuck’s sake.”

“I think you would.”

“Well, we’ll never know because you took that choice away from me. And if I had to do it now, you’d probably be right!”

They stared at each other, Jared’s chest heaving with each breath as he fought to calm down. “What would happen to me if I left here right now?”

“You smell of me.” Nathan gestured to the fully healed bite mark on Jared’s neck—now just a faint pink scar. “Any of my pack would know it was me that bit you.”

“And talking of that.” Jared reached up to touch it, his bare arm brushing against Nathan’s in the process. “It’s already healed. Doesn’t that mean I’m changing?” They were still touching, Nathan’s warm skin proved to be a distraction as Jared’s gaze was drawn to it.

Dark hair covered his arms and legs and chest. Jared didn’t need to glance down, he remembered all too well from the shower. Nathan manscaped.

Despite his own hair on his head being dark—when he didn’t bleach it—Jared had surprisingly little on his body. His legs were as hairy as most men’s, but his arms were covered with fine hairs and his chest had hardly any. He trimmed down below, but it didn’t take all that much effort.

It took Nathan clearing his throat for Jared to realise he’d been staring into space for God knew how long. “What?”

“I said not necessarily.”

Jared frowned. “I don’t underst—”

“You asked if accelerated healing meant you were changing, and I said not necessarily.” He rolled his eyes, and Jared resisted the urge to poke him there.

“Can you just explain, and then we can get back to discussing why the fuck I can’t leave here and go home.”

“Regardless of whether the change becomes permanent or not, you’ll experience some shifter characteristics as your body decides whether or not to accept them. The only way to know for certain is to wait for the next full moon.”

“Fucking peachy. What other characteristics am I likely to pick up?”

“I don’t know. Everyone’s different.” Nathan still had his hands on Jared’s shoulders, and their proximity started to make him uncomfortable—with Nathan naked and everything. “As for the other thing, if my pack finds out what I did, then odds are they’ll kill you and banish me.”

Wait, what?

Jared shrugged off Nathan’s hands and jabbed him in the chest. “What the fuck for? I’m the innocent bystander in all this. Why do I have to die?”

“Because packs protect their alpha at all costs, and the only people who know that I bit you are—”

“Me and you.” Jared got the picture all too clearly.

Fucking shifters.

He really couldn’t stress that enough.

“Exactly. And obviously I’m not going to tell—”

Jared waved him away. “Yeah, I get it.”
Fuck.
“But what if you sneak me out like you obviously snuck me in?”

“Do you know how big my pack is?” Nathan had his hands on his hips. “They work all over London. Even if I could get you out of here without being seen, chances are you’d run into one of them sooner or later. And they don’t have be stood next to you to recognise my scent. Now that you’re here, it’s too risky to let you leave, for both our sakes.”

The three inches Nathan had on Jared meant he had to look up as he listened, and his neck started to ache. In fact, now he thought about it, all of him started to ache. “I don’t feel so—” As he said it, a wave of dizziness swept over him and he stumbled forward—straight into Nathan’s firm chest. Warm strong arms wrapped around him, and he had just enough time to think he shouldn’t like that so much before he was out cold.

The next time Jared woke up, it was somewhere a lot comfier than the bathroom floor. Slowly stretching his hands out to either side of him confirmed his suspicions. Definitely a bed. He was hoping for a spare room, but knowing what he did of shifters, the odds were high he was lying in Nathan’s bed. Under Nathan’s sheets. And
ugh
—his fingers brushed against a warm thigh—Nathan was in it with him. Awesome.

Jared pulled his hand back and patted his own hip in the vain hope he might still have his towel around him or at least some underwear, but alas, he was naked. His night, or probably morning by now, kept getting better and better.

“I know you’re awake.” Nathan’s voice sounded morning rough, so Jared assumed he was right about the time.

He scoffed—never too early to be a dick. “Why? Because you can hear my heart rate speed up?”

“I can’t hear your fucking heart. Jesus.”

Jared opened one eye to find Nathan glaring at him. “I thought you had superhearing.”

“I have advanced senses, not superpowers.”

“Same thing to us lesser mortals.”

Nathan ignored him. “You reached out and touched my thigh, then promptly froze before snatching your hand back. It kind of gave you away.”

“Oh.” Whatever. Jared yawned. “Time is it?”

“Seven fifteen. Why? It’s not like you have anywhere to be.”

For a few seconds there, Jared had forgotten he was a prisoner in Nathan’s flat. “I have work on Monday, and friends who’re going to ask questions if I disappear off the face of the earth without so much as a phone call.” Oh for fuck’s sake, why hadn’t he thought of that before? That kid had stolen his wallet, not his phone. Where the hell was it?

“I know what you’re thinking, and really? Do I look that stupid?”

Jared glanced at him and grinned. “Well—”

“Fuck off.” Nathan pointed at the wardrobe and grinned back. “It’s locked in my safe. So forget it.”

And that was it. Jared had held it together pretty well up to that point, but fucking hell, this wasn’t the Dark Ages. He had rights. “You can’t do this!” Shoving the quilt out of the way, he sprang out of bed, marched over to the wardrobe, and pointed at it. “Give me my fucking phone
now
.”

“No.”

Frustration of this magnitude wasn’t something Jared had encountered before, and he didn’t have a clue how to deal with it. Getting angry wouldn’t help matters, but the mounting tension had to come out somehow. The prospect of having no control over his own life was… was… fuck! It wasn’t one he could wrap his head around. “Someone will report me missing to the police. How is that any better than letting me go and taking my chances?”

“Well, for starters, if I let you go, you’d run to the police first chance you got.”

“I wouldn’t, I swear—”

“Liar.”

Jared kept quiet. If he made a promise like that, would he be able to keep it? Maybe, maybe not. Some of his anger drained away, and he sighed. And then realised that in jumping out of bed like that he was now standing in front of Nathan, totally naked.