Bitten By Mistake (11 page)

Jared glared back at him, warring emotions written all over his face as he processed Nathan’s words. Finally he slumped back in his seat with his hands over his face. “Fucking hell.”

Nathan waited, not sure what to do next. Jared was a mess of mixed signals, frustration, despair, anger, and… embarrassment rolled off him in waves. The van was so full of tension that Nathan was tempted to open a window just so he could breathe better.

Eventually Jared dropped his hands to his lap and met Nathan’s gaze. The look of defeat and resignation wasn’t one Nathan cared for either. “Sorry. I knew what you were trying to do. I just….” He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “I guess up until now none of this has seemed real. I mean, I know you’re a shifter and you bit me and there’s a very real chance I’ll become one too, but….”

“But?”

“But I don’t think it ever sunk in. My bite mark disappeared, and we’ve been holed up in your flat without seeing another soul. I don’t know, I guess for a moment there I forgot that my life is actually in danger and this isn’t some game we’re playing.”

Nathan had a million questions to ask in response to that, but the one at the forefront of his mind was
Who have you seen shift before now?

It wasn’t the right time to ask it, not with their truce so new and tenuous, but Nathan would ask it soon. It probably explained a lot about Jared’s aversion to all things shifter.

“Can we go now?” Jared asked, nudging Nathan’s thigh with the back of his hand. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

Nathan too, but the excitement wasn’t over for him yet. “I have to make a call first. What’s your last name?”

“What?”

“The cat’s out of the bag now. Sooner or later news will find its way back to my alpha that I was seen here with a human—who I appeared to be involved with. I need to get in there first so that it’s not a surprise. I don’t need to be hauled in front of a pack meeting and asked a load of questions about you. Better to tell them what I want them to know.”

Jared looked back at him, eyes narrowed. “So if they know about me, I can stay here at my flat. You can just say you’re seeing me, and that will explain my scent on you, right?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Awesome.” Jared’s smile was huge, and Nathan felt an unexpected stab of hurt.

Is he that eager to get away from me? Fuck, of course he is.

Nathan had virtually been holding him prisoner, for God’s sake. And he hated having to do this, but… “You can’t go home, Jared. I didn’t realise until you mentioned it, but your bite mark hasn’t disappeared.”

“It fucking well has. Look!” He pulled the sun visor down and angled it so the mirror pointed at his neck. “See!” He prodded at the skin. “There’s nothing there.”

Nathan sighed. “Nothing that you can see, that
humans
can see.”

Jared looked as though he didn’t believe a word of it, and he glanced back at the mirror. “It’s
gone
.”

“Not for me. That’s why I kept my hand on your neck after I kissed you.” Warmth flared in his chest as he remembered, and Jared’s cheeks flushed. “I know it’s hard for you to understand, but even though the bite itself is fully healed, it left a mark behind. It’s like… like an imprint underneath the skin.”

“Like magic.” Jared deadpanned.

“Yeah, I guess you could think of it like that.” Nathan ignored Jared’s eye-roll. “So, you’re perfectly willing to accept shifters exist, but not this?”

“That’s different. Shifters have been around forever. Everyone knows about them.”

True, but still. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this one. That bite mark on your neck is as clear to me as the day I gave it you.” Wow. Just saying the words sent a wave of possessiveness through him. Nathan rolled his shoulders in an effort to shake it off. “If I can see it, then so can any other shifter. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to, but you’re gonna have to stay with me until the full moon.”

Jared bit his lip, obviously thinking, and Nathan knew what was coming.

“What if I change? I know we’ve been avoiding that topic like the plague, but it could happen, right? I mean, that’s why you took me back to yours in the first place, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and I don’t know.” That wasn’t strictly true, though, and Nathan found he couldn’t sit there and lie to Jared’s face. “You’d still be able to go to the authorities and report me. But you’ll also have to register your DNA, and you’ll need a pack, but….”

“But if I report you and get you arrested or killed, no one will take me. Will they?”

“Of course they will. Not every pack gives a shit what happens to mine, but you’ll also make some enemies.” He didn’t add that he’d be banned from contacting Jared, because he doubted Jared would give a flying fuck at that point. Nathan did, though, and that worried him more.

Not that he’d be around to try after publicly disgracing his pack like that.

Jared let out a harsh breath. “Fucking awesome.”

After a couple of minutes of staring out the windscreen, he glanced at Nathan again. “What happens to you if I change and report it?”

“I already told you. Whether you change or not, as soon as you report it, there’ll be a pack meeting where the alpha decides my fate. From what I remember of pack lore, it’d likely be banishment, but if they arrest Cameron, then the betas could kill me.”

Nathan closed his eyes and let his head rest against the seat. What he wouldn’t give to go back in time and stop this from happening. Everything was such a fucking mess and spiralling out of his control. His head hurt trying to keep them one step ahead of it all.

“Okay, I feel I should make something clear before we go any further.” Jared waited until Nathan looked at him, then carried on. “I could have tried to escape any number of times. Chances are I could then have made it to a phone or a police station before meeting any other shifters. But I haven’t. Do you know why?”

Nathan shook his head. He’d figured Jared was erring on the side of caution. The chance of getting killed was a big motivator for humans, in his experience.

“Well, obviously I don’t relish the idea of meeting one of your pack members and getting torn to shreds. But that aside. I don’t want to have a person’s fate in my hands. You might not believe me, but I have no wish to play judge, jury, or, God forbid, executioner. I know what shifter prisons are like. Some deserve to be sent there. I’m not going to say otherwise. But I don’t want to send you there for what I’ve come to accept was an accident, albeit a particularly shitty one.”

“Oh.” Nathan sat there not knowing what else to say.

“This is what’s going to happen. I will stay with you at your flat until the full moon. If I don’t change then we can pretend this never happened and I’ll go home to carry on life as normal. If the change takes, then we will find a way to make me a pack member that doesn’t involve you getting banished to God knows where and me becoming enemy number one for your pack. If I’m going to be a shifter, I’d rather join a pack where I at least know someone.”

Stunned
wasn’t a strong enough word for what Nathan felt in that moment. He opened his mouth and then closed it. What was he supposed to say? He’d possibly ruined Jared’s life—altered it, anyway. And yet Jared refused to claim the justice that was rightfully his. The urge to reach out and pull him close was almost overwhelming.

Jared apparently took his silence for disbelief. “You keep asking me to trust you. Now you need to trust me.”

“I do.” Nathan felt the sincerity in Jared’s words, and nodded. “I trust you.”

“Good.” Jared offered him a small smile that seemed huge after all the tension. “Make your call, and then take me for something to eat, I’m bloody starving.”

Nathan smiled back, feeling ten times lighter. The guilt over lying to his pack was still there, but at least he knew Cameron was in no danger of being arrested for Nathan’s mistake. As long as no one else found out, of course. The sooner they ate and got back to his flat, the better Nathan would feel.

He called Gareth to let him know about Jared. As per pack rules, he gave him Jared’s name, age, and address, and told him Jared would be spending the night at Nathan’s flat.

Gareth took it in stride. It wasn’t the first time Nathan had brought a human back, but it was the first time he’d be keeping one there for more than one night. After he’d finished the call, he glanced out the window at Jared’s apartment. “We might have to spend a few nights here as well.”

Jared perked up. “Really?”

“Depends on how things go when Cameron finds out where you live. We might need to appear like a normal couple.” Nathan frowned when Jared snorted. “What?”

“A normal couple? You bit me, and now I’m your prisoner.”

“Don’t say it like that. I thought you just—”

Jared held up a hand. “Relax I’m just teasing. It’ll be nice to spend a few nights at my own place.”

“We’d still have to stay inside. It would just seem more believable if I was “spotted” at your home too. Because I’ve no doubt the Primrose Hill pack will be keeping tabs on your house once their alpha finds out about you.”

Jared’s stomach rumbled, and he waved at the steering wheel. “Whatever. We can discuss it later. I need food.”

With one last look at Jared’s flat, Nathan started the engine and set off for McDonald’s.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jared grabbed the shopping bags out of the van; Nathan had already picked up his duffel bag and laptop. They’d stayed out most of the day in an effort to avoid Alec, but that had meant driving around a lot since Nathan refused to get out of the van. On the plus side, Jared had seen some London sights he’d never bothered with before. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Being able to stand up straight was a relief, though, and Jared took a moment to enjoy the fresh April air.

“Come on.” Nathan crowded up behind him, nudging Jared forward with his hip. “I don’t want to run into anyone if I can help it.”

Jared started walking. “But they know about me now.” He startled when warm fingers rubbed his neck where the bite mark apparently still appeared to shifters.

“They don’t know about this, though, do they?”

“Shit, no.” After convincing Nathan he wasn’t going to do a runner to the police, and with Nathan’s pack now knowing about Jared, sort of, it felt as though they were safe until the full moon. But he kept forgetting about the bite and that shifters could see it. It still blew his mind to think he had a magical mark glowing under his skin.

Jared picked up his pace, glancing up and down the street.

Nathan snickered behind him. “Relax, there’s no shifters outside. You wouldn’t be able to spot them if there were.”

Jared bristled. “I knew you were a shifter as soon as I saw you.”

“True. I’ll give you that. But that was up close and personal. It’s not so easy to spot them from afar.”

The thought of just how “up close and personal” he’d got with Nathan since then made Jared’s stomach flutter. Looking up as he climbed the steps at the front of Nathan’s building, he noticed a shadowy figure through the glass. He stopped and waited for Nathan to join him. “I’m pretty sure that’s one coming towards us.”

“Fuck.”

“How come you didn’t smell him?”

Nathan frowned. “His scent’s all around here anyway, and I was preoccupied.”

Jared wanted to ask with what, but the figure inside had reached the door. Nathan slung his arm around Jared’s shoulders and tugged him close. With their height difference, it was easy enough for Nathan to rest his arm so that his hand covered the side of Jared’s neck. It made carrying the shopping bags more awkward, so Jared swapped them to the hand not currently wedged against Nathan’s thigh.

“Hey.” Nathan smiled at the guy who opened the door and stopped—his gaze flicking between them.

Jared sucked in a breath as Nathan’s hand slid forward a little more. Nathan began to stroke his thumb over the back of Jared’s neck. That spot always made him shiver, and he fought not to react further.

Nathan pulled him closer against his side, warmth radiating through all their layers of clothes. “Luke, this is Jared.” Nathan turned his head, and his mouth brushed Jared’s ear when he spoke. “Babe, this is Luke.”

It might be all for show—the touching, the possessive behaviour—but Jared’s body didn’t know that. As Nathan kissed that spot just behind his ear and his warm, wet tongue peeked out to taste Jared’s skin, he shivered. He couldn’t help it, and much to his utter mortification, his dick started to thicken.

Fuck.

Luke inhaled at the same time as Nathan laughed softly, still with his nose pressed into the crook of Jared’s shoulder. Jared could almost feel the smugness coming from him.

No need to ask if they’d noticed Jared’s interest in the proceedings. He clenched his fists, wondering if elbowing Nathan in the kidneys would ruin the charade they had going on. Maybe he’d save it for when they were alone.

Luke gestured between them with a finger. “How long has this been going on?”

“Long enough.” Nathan shrugged.

Luke seemed confused and more than a little disbelieving.

Perhaps bringing humans back to the pack house wasn’t something Nathan did a lot of. Or perhaps Jared wasn’t up to his normal standards? No, fuck that, Jared was far
better
than anyone Nathan could pull. He grinned at the thought and met Luke’s gaze. If they were pretending to be together, then Jared wanted to make it clear he wasn’t some weak human in awe of Nathan’s big bad shifter self.

Pulling his hand out from between the two of them, he then extended it for Luke to shake. “Hey. Good to meet you.”

“You too.” Luke studied him for a second before smiling back, his expression relaxing into something less sceptical. “Nathan kept quiet about you.” He eyed Nathan and his smile got wider as he addressed him. “Although I thought I picked up a strange scent yesterday, stronger than the usual human scents we carry round with us. And you were acting a little weird—I knew you were hiding something. Or
someone
, should I say.” Luke laughed, seemingly unaware of how true his words were.