Bitten By Mistake (7 page)

He knows. I don’t how, but he knows there’s something I’m not telling him.

Gareth kept eye contact for a moment longer and then glanced at the rest of them. “I think that’s everything. Luke, Nathan, you’re on from two o’clock as planned. Kara and Will are on call for backup.” With that as his dismissal, Gareth walked over to the door and held it open.

Nathan was the last to leave, and Gareth stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Be careful out there today.”

“Of course.” Nathan nodded, his heart thudding wildly. Thank God no one could hear it.

He made it down the stairs to his floor to find Luke waiting for him. After everything Nathan had said in the unit meeting, he’d expected as much. “Hey.”

Luke nodded in greeting, but his smile seemed forced. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure. Shall we go to your place, I don’t want to talk out here, and my place is a pigsty.”

Thankfully that brought a small smile to Luke’s face, and he shook his head. “One of these days you’re going to have to grow up and actually learn to cook and clean for yourself.”

“I can cook. Not very well, granted, but I do all right.”

“Mm-hmm.” Luke led the way to his door. “Who is it that sets off the smoke alarm on a regular basis?”

“Piss off, they’re too sensitive. I don’t even know why we have them.” He tapped his nose. “It’s not as though I won’t smell it, for fuck’s sake.”

“Building regs,” Luke said with a shrug. He unlocked his door and ushered Nathan inside. When he carried on walking through the living area and headed for his bedroom, Nathan knew for certain what they were going to talk about.

“I can explain,” Nathan started as soon as the door closed.

Luke’s smiled disappeared and he reached up to rub his forehead. “I should fucking hope so, because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you flat-out lied to Gareth. And I sat there and let you.”

Nathan bit his lip. Luke was his closest friend. If he wanted to keep it that way, he had to choose his words carefully. “I know, and thank you for not saying anything. Most of it was the truth. I did chase after the two shifters. One was already dead when I got to him, and I lost track of the other.”

“But you came home stinking of piss. You said you’d got wasted. Where was that in your story?”

“Shit, Luke. I didn’t want to tell Gareth that I was so fucked off at losing them I went into the nearest bar and did a line of shots. I didn’t want to explain in front of the rest of our unit that for a while there I was so drunk I couldn’t stand straight and ended up pissing on my own fucking jeans.”

God, if Luke ever found out the truth, Nathan hoped he’d forgive him for that. He held his breath as Luke stared back at him, taking it all in.

“Fuck.”

“I know.”

“Jesus, Nathan. Don’t do anything like that again.”

Nathan let his breath out in a whoosh and reached up to clasp Luke’s shoulder. “I won’t. I promise.” At least that part was the truth. “I have to go grab some lunch and then air out my van before this afternoon’s deliveries. It’s a little ripe after last night.”

Luke grimaced. “Yeah, go do that. I’m not getting in if it still smells.”

With a wave and a promise to have his van scent-free by the time they needed to leave, Nathan hurried out the door and along the hall to his own flat.

Please let Jared still be in there.

The flat sounded empty as Nathan closed the door behind him. He hadn’t heard Jared leave during the unit meeting, though, so he was inside the flat somewhere.

The bathroom door stood wide open—no one in there—so Nathan walked over to the bedroom door and carefully eased it open.

Jared lay sprawled out on Nathan’s bed, looking as though that was how he spent every Saturday morning. He’d obviously found Nathan’s bookcase and currently had his nose in an old James Herbert. Glancing up when Nathan walked in, he waved the book in the air. “Doesn’t this scare the shit out of you?”

“Um—” Nathan gestured to himself. “—werewolf. So no, not really.”

Jared sat up and put the book face down on the bed next to him. “Is that what you call yourselves? Werewolves? Not shifters or changelings or—”

“Changelings?” Nathan scoffed. “What the hell have you been reading?”

“They call you that in the papers sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, the papers are full of shit.” Nathan sat down on the bed next to him. “You’re still here, then.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “Apparently.”

“Not tempted to make a run for it?” Maybe he shouldn’t have asked. They were on shaky ground still, but Nathan couldn’t help himself.

“I thought about it. For all of five seconds.” Jared scooted forward to the edge of the bed. “I don’t want to turn into a shifter, or werewolf, or whatever term you prefer. But you bit me, and now that’s a very real possibility.” Nathan cringed. “I don’t know what to expect over the next three and a half weeks, and I probably don’t want to be around people I like if I’m going to flip out or grow sharp teeth and claws.”

Nathan opened his mouth to protest, because that never happened until the change was complete.

Jared stopped him with a look. “If you’re going to say that won’t happen, then save it. You said yourself everyone’s different, so you can’t know for certain.”

If Jared wanted to believe that in order to justify staying in the flat, Nathan wasn’t about to correct him. He might also have a point. “Okay.”

“And also, knowing my shitty luck, I’d probably run into a member of your pack as soon as I left the building. And I really don’t want to die yet.”

Nathan sighed and kneaded the back of his neck. The tension from the meeting had his muscles tight, and he stretched his back in an effort to ease some of it. At least Jared had come around. Honestly, Nathan had thought he’d have to spend a lot longer convincing him to stay and had half expected him to try to escape while Nathan was upstairs.

Jared cleared his throat. “As much as this whole situation sucks, and I don’t have the words to express how much, I’m going to stay here until the next full moon.”

“And do as I ask to keep the rest of my pack from discovering you?”

“Yes.”

Thank fuck.

“But—” Jared grinned, and Nathan didn’t like the gleam in his eye. “—there are conditions.”

“Of course there are.” Nathan sighed again, the tension in his muscles back with a vengeance as he waited. “Go on.”

“One. I want my phone and my laptop. You’re lucky that I do a lot of my work from home, so I can maybe get away with not going into the office for a month. I might take some holiday time too. But I need my laptop.”

“Where is it?”

“At my flat. We’d need to go and get it. Which brings me to number two.” He was listing them off on his fingers. “I want my clothes and toiletries."

"You should use mine."

"Yeah, but when I get my friends to stop by and water my plants, it’ll look odd if my stuff is still there. And I'm not wearing your clothes all the time.”

Nathan felt a headache starting.

“Three." Jared carried on. "You need to go food shopping. I had a quick peek in your fridge, and there’s nothing edible in it. I’m not living off takeaway.”

“Is that all?”

“No, there’s more.”

Nathan closed his eyes and massaged his temples.

I definitely should have killed him when I had the chance.

“Four. I want to know what I can expect to happen to me during this transition time, even if it’s just hypothetical. I want to know what we plan to do if a) I change, and b) I don’t. Because I’m still not clear on that part. And lastly, if I’m going to be stuck here with you for the next twenty-six days, I might as well find out all about your pack and what it means to be a shifter.”

Jesus.
“Are you done now?”

“Yep.” Jared met his gaze, chin raised, as though challenging Nathan to object to any or all of it.

However much Jared’s demands irritated him, Nathan had to remember that all of it was his own fault. If their roles were reversed, he’d be as bad, if not worse. “Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Oh… okay, then.”

Jared’s surprise made Nathan smile. As if Nathan was in any position to refuse. “Some of it might be difficult—but doable.” Except for what would happen if Jared changed into a full-fledged shifter, because Nathan had no idea what to do then. The bite hadn’t been a deep one, and he was praying it wouldn’t come to that. “First things first, I need food. Then I need to go air out my van before Luke gets a whiff of it.”

Jared glared at him. “And that’s another thing we’re going to talk about.”

Nathan groaned. “I thought you were done with demands?”

“I forgot one. Five. If you’ll need to piss on me again, then the whole thing is off.
No fucking way
are we having a repeat of that.”

Jared screwed up his nose and looked so offended that Nathan laughed at him. “Relax. That was a one-time-only thing to get you inside.”

“Good, because
gross
.”

“But—” Nathan bit back another laugh as Jared narrowed his eyes. “—you will need to smell like me at all times. That means sleeping in my bed, physical contact—lots of physical contact—and wearing my clothes as much as possible.”

“You’re going to enjoy this, aren’t you?”

No point denying it. The thought of cosying up to Jared every night had its appeal. “Yes. But I’d enjoy it more if you were willing.”

Now it was Jared’s turn to laugh. “Never gonna happen.”

Armed with a bin bag, cloth, and cleaning supplies, Nathan trooped downstairs and outside to his van. With Nathan’s promise to go pick up Jared’s things the next day and to go food shopping on his way home from work, Jared had been happy to spend the day reading and watching TV in Nathan’s bedroom.

In truth, Nathan would rather do either of those things than what he was about to do.

Gritting his teeth, he opened the side doors and immediately buried his nose in the sleeve of his jumper.

Jesus Christ.

If he got through this without throwing up, it’d be a miracle.

A strong breeze helped with the airing out, but even after an hour’s scrubbing and a bag full of rubbish, the van still had a lingering scent of… something. Nathan couldn’t pinpoint one particular scent under the bleach and air freshener, but there were still definite hints of urine, semen, and blood. Not strong enough that anyone would be able to pick out identifying scents and recognise them later, though, and that was the main thing.

Luke appeared as Nathan walked back from the dustbin. “You about ready?”

Nathan checked his watch—they had forty minutes to get to the warehouse. Even with traffic, that left plenty of time. “Yeah, let’s go.” With a last glance up to his window, half expecting to see Jared staring back at him. Nathan opened the driver’s door and got in.

Luke plopped into the seat next to him and immediately pulled a face, his nose scrunched up in distaste.

“What? I cleaned it.” While nowhere near as bad as it had been, the air inside the van had an unpleasant tinge to it. Nathan shrugged. “I did my best.”

Hitting the button to lower the windows, Luke turned to face him. “Did you fuck someone in here as well? And is that—” He sniffed again. “—blood? Jesus Christ, Nathan. What the hell else happened last night?”

Damn it.

Nathan gripped the steering wheel tight, his mind racing. He’d hoped Luke would ignore it; Nathan’s van often smelled a little suspect. Granted that was usually in the front only. Keeping his breathing even, he smirked. “That was before I went out. Things got a little rough, but nothing bad.”

The lie tasted like acid on his tongue, and Nathan wanted so badly to tell the truth.

Luke shook his head in disbelief. “This is your works van. Are you crazy? We have to put people’s parcels back there.”

“I was gonna clean up afterwards anyway. And yeah, I know it was pretty stupid. Won’t happen again.”

“Good. The last thing you need is to give Alec something else to get pissy about.”

“I know.”

Fucking Alec.

The delivery service Nathan and Luke worked for was owned by the pack and managed by humans, but the betas stopped in regularly to check up on them. Unfortunately for Nathan, Alec always made a point of stopping by when he was on shift. Depending on his mood and his schedule, Alec would do a spot check on the van or ride along for a few deliveries if he had time. Those journeys were a special kind of hell, but thank God they didn’t happen often.

“So,” Luke began as Nathan pulled out onto the road. “Last night. Who do you think they worked for, and how the hell did they know where Daryl was headed?”

Nathan sighed. He’d been asking himself the same questions. “We know all the packs around here, so either me, Daryl, or Ben would have recognised the pack scent on them, but there was nothing. They had to be outsiders.”

“Or somehow managed to mask their scent.”

Nathan glanced over at him. “Is that even possible?” The thought had occurred to him, but he’d dismissed it as ridiculous.

“No idea.” Luke rested his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. “Daryl never breaks the rules, does he?”

“No.”

“So it was either a lucky guess that they’d be going there, or someone followed them?”

“Or someone told them Daryl’s delivery route.” Each van logged their route before heading out, for safety purposes. Only someone who worked there would be able to access it. The thought sent a cold shiver down Nathan’s spine.

“Let’s hope it was coincidence.”

“Yeah.” Nathan ignored the uncertainty in Luke’s voice. The last pack war had taken a toll on everyone involved. Ten years had done little to erase the pain of losing his parents, and Nathan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. The alpha of their pack had died that day too, and Cameron Harley had taken his place. No one in their right mind would want to go through that again. “I’m sure that’s all it was. Opportunistic rogue shifters who got lucky.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence, and neither of them brought it up again.