Bitten By Mistake (19 page)

K - I’m so very sorry. I never meant for this to happen or to hurt you. My new bond was an accident, but not something I would ever want to change. I hope you find your special someone, and can feel the way I do.

“Well, fuck.” Jared blinked, not surprised when a tear rolled down his cheek. That was not how he’d expected the story to end, and he didn’t quite know how he felt about it. Yes, it was a heartbreaking read, but did he want to be bonded to Nathan for the rest of his life, or did he want it to disappear into nothing and return to what they’d been before? Oh, with the possible chance of still feeling the loss; he shouldn’t forget that gem. Jesus, that poor guy.

Jared wiped at his cheek and glanced at Nathan, who sat there, saying nothing. Jared nudged him with his thigh. “You okay?”

When he turned to meet Jared’s gaze, Nathan looked as affected as Jared was. He nodded at the screen. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.”

They stared at each other, but neither of them had the courage to say what they were both thinking.

Jared assumed that was the case, anyway. He hadn’t been overly thrilled about suddenly being bonded to Nathan, but faced with the very real possibility of it being stripped away, he wasn’t sure he wanted that either. Having someone who loved you unconditionally had its appeal, and the sex was… yeah, the sex was incredible. Jesus, why was everything so fucking complicated all of a sudden? This time last week, he’d been minding his own business and enjoying a peaceful if sometimes boring existence, and now look at him!

In an effort to break the tension, Jared shut his laptop and scooted around to face Nathan. “Basically we might experience a high sex drive, pining, irritation at being apart, and some freaky empathy thing.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “And those feelings are liable to come and go between now and the full moon.”

Nathan sighed and slumped back against the sofa cushions. “Yeah.” It took a few seconds, but finally a small smile appeared as he looked at Jared. “I think it’s safe to say we’ve got the heightened sex drive, and possibly the empathy.” Another sigh and a sheepish expression. “Luke said I was a moody bastard at work today, and I missed you.”

Jared shook his head but smiled too. “How fucking typical. You have to go one better than everyone else and get all the fucking symptoms.”

A hurt expression crossed Nathan’s face. “Didn’t you feel like that at all? Didn’t you miss me?”

“Really?” Jared stared at him. “You can’t get upset over something I have no control over. And even if I wasn’t pining all afternoon for you, did I seem unhappy to see you?” His cheeks heated at the memory.

Nathan grinned. “I guess you were… eager.”

“Oh fuck off.” Jared stood and glared down at where Nathan lounged against the cushion, looking like his old smug self. “They were right about the effects wearing off, because right now I’m back to hating your arrogant shifter arse.” He turned and walked into the kitchen.

“My
accommodating
shifter arse, you mean?” Nathan’s laughter followed after him.

“Not listening.” Suddenly ravenous, Jared busied himself getting food out of the fridge and didn’t hear Nathan come in after him.

“I could show you just how accommodating it can be if you like.” Nathan whispered into his ear and Jared startled, almost dropping everything. Nathan stepped closer until his front pressed flush along Jared’s back. “Would you like that?”

Jared leaned into Nathan’s body. The all-consuming need might have left them, but hearing Nathan offer himself up like that had pretty much the same effect. Jared imagined burying himself in that tight arse and fucking Nathan until he screamed Jared’s name so loud the whole building heard him.

He had to swallow twice to find his voice. “Maybe.”

Nathan laughed and reached around to palm Jared’s burgeoning erection. “This”—he gave it a squeeze—“and that delicious scent you’re giving off tell me it’s a little more than
maybe
.”

Who am I trying to kid?

Jared gave up any pretence at being uninterested and moaned, shamelessly rubbing himself against Nathan’s hand. “Yeah. I want that.” The contents of his hands spilled onto the worktop as he relaxed, forcing him to jerk forward to rescue them before their dinner ingredients fell all over the floor. His poor aching muscles protested the sudden move. “Maybe not now, though. As much as I’d love to go for round three, I think it would kill me. I need food.”

They cooked dinner together, and Nathan was about as much help as Jared expected, which was none at all. In the end, Nathan stopped trying altogether and spent his time feeling Jared up any chance he got. Typically, with a belly full of food and all the exercise from earlier, Jared was far too knackered to do anything but fall into bed and sleep. His body was exhausted in a way he wasn’t used to, heavy and achy, and he wondered if that was all part of the bond too. From that point on, anything he deemed not normal would be attributed to it.

Pretty much everything, then.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Nathan’s phoned buzzed with an incoming text, rousing him from sleep. His alarm hadn’t even gone off, so it must still be early. When he grabbed the phone and checked the time, he groaned. Five thirty. Any message coming in at that time couldn’t be good news. That was confirmed when he thumbed through to his inbox and read the text.

Gareth: another attempt on one of the vans. Full pack mtg in 1 hr.

“Shit.” He’d been hoping the earlier attack was a one-off. The last thing he wanted was to get involved in a turf war with a bunch of rogue arseholes. There’d been no in-pack fighting for over ten years. Why now? He had enough to deal with without that.

Jared grumbled in his sleep and turned over, sliding his leg over Nathan’s. His thigh brushed Nathan’s morning wood, and Nathan bit his lip to stop himself moaning. Jared’s white-blond hair fell forward over his face, revealing the stark black underneath. He looked young in sleep, with none of the angry tension he’d been full of for those first couple of days. Nathan ran his fingers through the long strands, careful not to wake him.

The minute he’d seen Jared in the club, he’d wanted him. Wanted to taste all that creamy white skin.

But that was
all
he’d wanted. As soon as they’d fucked, Nathan would have left and probably never contacted him again. But now… now he wanted to keep him. He knew the bond they’d formed was messing with his emotions, but was it more than that? They’d been forced to spend days in each other’s company, and Nathan knew Jared better than he did most humans. Jared was funny, intelligent, sarcastic, and warm. He cared about the people in his life, and Nathan found himself wanting to be one of them.

Jared looked at him like that sometimes, when the effects of the bond were at their strongest, but was it real? He thought of the blog they’d read, and his chest tightened. If the bond disappeared after the full moon, what would they be left with?

Nathan sighed and closed his eyes, not wanting to think about that. At least it had taken care of his hard-on.

He dozed until his alarm went off at six. “Oh bollocks.” He’d have to rush if he didn’t want to be late.

“What’s wrong?” Jared opened one eye and squinted up at him.

“Pack meeting in thirty minutes. There’s been another incident with one of the delivery vans.”

Jared sat up, instantly more alert. “I thought you said it was a few rogue shifters trying their luck?”

Nathan glanced back over his shoulder as he grabbed a clean T-shirt and boxers from his wardrobe. “I said I hoped it was.” The quilt pooled around Jared’s waist; Nathan took a moment to appreciate Jared’s broad shoulders and slim frame. He looked both adorably sleep rumpled and hot. Nathan felt the familiar pull in his belly, getting stronger the more he stared.
Christ
, now was so not the time for this. “I need to shower.”

He gestured half-heartedly in the direction of the bathroom but didn’t move.

“Yeah.” Jared licked his lips and dropped his gaze to the obvious bulge in Nathan’s underwear. “You’ll be late if you don’t.”

Nathan swallowed and forced himself to take a step back. It physically hurt him to walk out of the bedroom, an ache in his chest that peaked as he closed the door behind him, then thankfully lessened as he walked into the bathroom.

Not fun at all. Three weeks of that was going to kill him.

Luke met him in the hallway and stopped abruptly. “Jesus.” He held his nose and motioned for Nathan to walk ahead of him. “What did you do, bathe in his jizz?”

Nathan bristled; his steps faltered as he glanced back over his shoulder. “What?”

“You reek of sex.”

“I just showered, for fuck’s sake.” Nathan breathed in deep—and all he smelled was Jared. Shaking his head, he carried on walking towards the stairs, but Luke’s hand on his arm stopped him in his tracks. “Now what?” Nathan grumbled.

Luke stared at him, eyes narrowed. “I’ve never seen you like this over a guy before.”

“Like what?” Nathan’s heart started to race.

Luke couldn’t know. Could he?

“You know… all loved-up.”

Nathan laughed and hoped it didn’t sound as forced as it felt. “Bollocks. He’s just hot as fuck and good in bed.” The words tasted like ash on his tongue. Not that they weren’t true, because they were, but Jared was more to him than just a quick fuck. The ache flared in his chest like a punishment, and Nathan rubbed at it as Luke continued to stare at him.

Nudging Nathan’s arm, Luke walked past him to get the door. “No, it’s more than that. But if you’re too embarrassed to talk about your feelings, then I’ll drop it.” He grinned back at him. “Tone it down when we meet the others, though. If I didn’t know you better, I might think you’d done something stupid—like bitten him and bonded.”

Luke carried on down the stairs as though nothing was wrong, but Nathan missed the first step and only his grip on the bannister saved him from barrelling them both down to the bottom.

By the time they reached Alec’s building, Nathan had schooled his features into what he hoped was more of a cocky “I’m getting sex regularly” expression, instead of a loved-up “I bit my human then fucked him and we’re bonded” one. He got the odd curious look as everyone got a whiff of him, but mostly the other shifters either smirked, winked, or rolled their eyes. Nathan would take that.

Alpha Cameron Harley resided on the top floor of Alec’s building. Regardless of what Alec liked to think, that wasn’t because Alec had seniority over the other betas, just that this building had the extra floor, so it was the obvious choice. As a result of that, though, Alec’s unit was the largest; he was unbearably smug about that.

Cam took up the whole of the top floor. No one else lived up there with him, and two of the flats had been converted into one huge open-plan area they used for pack meetings, amongst other things. Luke and Nathan entered the room and walked over to join Gareth and the other members of their unit. Kara winked and gave him a thumbs up, as did the rest of them, much to Luke’s amusement.

Gareth inhaled deeply as Nathan moved to stand next to him. Something in his eyes made the hairs on the back of Nathan’s neck stand on end, but Gareth just raised an eyebrow and coughed. “I don’t think anyone will argue that you and Jared aren’t serious about each other.”

A few people nearby laughed, but Nathan had no time to reply to that as Cam walked in and a hush settled over the room. At just under six foot and slim, Cameron Harley wasn’t what most people pictured when they heard the term
alpha
. Most humans, that was. Shifters knew better than to judge by looks alone, and Cam was a perfect example of that. He might not appear as physically strong as his betas and a lot of the others in the room, but he could take each and every one of them in a fight if he had to. He was broad-shouldered, with a lean build, but everything on him was muscle. And he was fast—like lightning. Nathan had only seen Cam fight once, and he’d been a mixture of awed, scared, and turned on. With his jet-black hair, green eyes, and pale skin, Alpha Cameron Harley was insanely hot. Nathan was positive at least half of the pack had a crush on him.

He might be nearing fifty—the same age as Nathan’s father would have been if he were still alive—but Cam didn’t look anywhere near that, with his shifter genes slowing the ageing process considerably. As usual the thought of his parents sent a pang of longing through him. They’d died way before their time, in a pack war Nathan remembered all too well. Hopefully they weren’t headed for another.

The area had been split in two; the half they were in was laid out like a lecture hall, with a desk at the front and several rows of chairs facing it.

Cam walked over and stood behind the desk. “If you’ll take your seats, we’ll get started.”

Everyone hurried to sit down, and the four betas joined their alpha at the front.

“Last night three unknown shifters attacked another of our delivery vans. They ran them off the road, but lost one of their pack in the ensuing fight, and they fled. That’s twice in four days. Alpha Newell told me his Primrose Hill pack have also had two incidents involving their members and rogue shifters. That’s as much information as they were willing to divulge at this point, except that no one recognises the rogues’ pack scent.” He paused to let that sink in.

If neither alpha recognised it, then odds were that none of the neighbouring packs were involved. On the one hand, that was good, but it still left them no nearer an explanation. Nathan wanted to ask who they thought it might be, but it wasn’t his place to interrupt in front of the whole pack.

“I’m not aware of attacks on any of the packs south of the river, so for the time being, we’ll assume it’s just our two involved. As such—” A few groans sounded around the room as people realised where this was heading. They might have an okayish relationship with the Primrose pack, but that didn’t mean anyone particularly liked them. Shifters had long memories, and a lot of bad feeling remained on both sides. Cameron silenced the room with a single raised eyebrow. “I realise the prospect of joining forces isn’t a pleasant one for a lot of you, but under the circumstances it’s the best course of action. I expect each and every one of you to cooperate fully and to report to your beta if you experience any trouble from P-Pack.”