Tim sighed and waited for the traffic lights to turn green before speaking. “Why isn’t it? You said yourself you don’t feel as strongly as Jared, so—”
“That was before he and Nathan bonded.” He covered his face with his good hand and let out a harsh breath.Why did I choose to have this conversation in the car, where there’s no fucking escape?
As they turned the next corner, the hospital loomed up ahead, and Seb had never been so pleased to see the place.
“I don’t understand? Jared loves Nathan. They’re happy.”
Seb waited for Tim to pull into the car park and find a space. “I’m telling you this because you deserve to know why I don’t want to pursue anything with you.” Tim flinched and Seb felt a stab of guilt, but he just couldn’t do that. “It goes no farther than this car.”
Tim glanced around the car park, then nodded. “Okay.”
Shit, Seb hadn’t even considered other shifters being able to hear them. He really needed to talk to Jared about their range of hearing and any other shit to watch out for. “I know Jared loves Nathan, and I know he’s happy. I’m happy for him. But honestly? The whole way that happened scares the shit out of me. And it’s as creepy as fuck.”
“Oh.”
Tim looked offended, but Seb was on a roll. He’d had this bottled up inside for months with no one to talk to—God knew he didn’t want Jared to ever realise he felt that way—and unfortunately, Tim was about to get the full force of it.
“If you’d seen Jared before Nathan bit him, you’d know how hard it was to watch my best friend go from hating all shifters with a fiery passion to telling me ‘Hey, I changed my mind. This one’s not so bad.’ At first I thought Nathan was forcing him to say that shit, that Jared was there against his will, and I was so close to reporting it to the police.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Seb laughed. “Good question.” He unclipped his seat belt, just for something to do. “I suppose because he’s my best friend and he asked me to trust him.”
Tim sat staring through the windshield. “Do you wish you’d told the police?”
“No, of course not.” Although a tiny part of him wondered whether Jared would’ve been better off if he had. He squashed it down quickly. “Whether I approve or not, Jared’s the happiest I’ve seen him, and I’d never want to take that away from him. But it’s not something I want.”
“To be happy?”
Seb frowned and turned his head to find Tim watching him. “You know that’s not what I meant. I don’t want to have some magical shifter bollocks decide who I fall in love with. I can do that all on my own, thanks.”
“Jared and Nathan were a special case. A bond is incredibly rare between a human and a shifter. You must know that?”
“Yes, but accidents happen. I know enough shifter lore to understand that if we’re fucking and you get carried away and bite me, then it's bam! Instant bond.”
Tim’s mouth fell open in shock, and it took him a moment to answer. “I would never bite you against your will, Seb.Never.” He seemed so horrified by the idea of it that Seb felt a stab of guilt.
He softened his voice when he replied with “I’m sure that’s what Nathan used to say too.”
“That was different, for fuck’s sake! He was in the middle of a fight, and Jared was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“But he still did it.” Seb reached up to rub at his temples. All this arguing had given him a headache. “I’m just trying to explain how I feel.” He met Tim’s unhappy gaze and offered him a small smile. “I like you, Tim, I really do. But the thought of having my free will stripped away like that terrifies me. I’m sorry.”
His words settled between them like a wall, and Seb immediately missed the ease of before. But he couldn’t have it both ways.
Tim pulled his phone out of his pocket, and tapped at the screen. “I’ve asked my brother to meet us with a wheelchair.”
Seb didn’t protest. “Thank you.”
A few minutes later, David walked out of the hospital entrance, not from A&E this time.
“No problem. He’s not strictly supposed to be working in the fracture clinic, but pack is pack.”
A couple of hours after a very chatty David wheeled him inside, Seb had a bright blue cast on his ankle and a new dressing on his wrist.
Unfortunately, David had been called back to A&E just before Seb was finished, so Tim pushed him back to the car with considerably less cheer than his brother. And that was all Seb’s doing, which sucked because he’d only been honest.
Whatever was on Tim’s mind had him frowning as he unlocked the car and opened Seb’s door. Odds were it was something to do with their previous conversation, so Seb didn’t pry. That left an awkward silence between them, and Seb sighed heavily as he dropped into the passenger seat. The journey home was going to be such fun.
