Seb cursed him out all the way up the stairs, grumbling to himself and wondering why there wasn’t a bloody lift in the building. It might only be one flight, but it was awkward and slow getting up them with his crutch.
Jared opened the door when Seb knocked, took one look at him, and laughed. “What did he say now?”
He stepped aside and ushered Seb in.
“How can you tell?” Seb shrugged off his coat and gave it to Jared to hang up.
“You have that pinched look that only Nathan can give you.”
Seb huffed. “He has a gift.” He followed Jared through to the kitchen and leaned against the worktop as Jared set about making them each a drink.
“Seriously, though, what did he say?”
“Something about Tim.” Seb sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall Nathan’s exact words. “That he likes me, and how it’s different for shifters, that they getattachedeasily.” He made air quotes with his fingers. “Then he refused to say anything more and left. He’s so annoying. I don’t know how you put up with him.” The way Jared ducked his head and smiled made Seb roll his eyes and groan. “God, stop it already. I might be ill.”
“Here.” Jared carefully slid a coffee towards him. “And stop being an arse.” He eyed Seb closely, narrowing his eyes as if he’d be able to see into Seb’s mind if he looked hard enough. “You don’t usually let him get to you like this. What’s the matter?”
Seb looked away, focusing on his cast instead.Has it only been on for ten days? It seems so much longer.
He finally answered when Jared nudged his foot. “I don’t know.”
But that wasn’t strictly true. Seb took a sip of his drink, blowing on it first as he debated what to say.
“Seb?”
“I don’t…”know.He stopped himself repeating it and set his mug down. “Do you reckon you and Nathan would be together if you hadn’t bonded?”
The question obviously took Jared by surprise. He stopped with his mug halfway to his mouth and stared at him. “How do you mean?”
“If you’d not fucked and activated whatever creepy shifter magic you did, do you think you’d be together now?”
He watched a little guiltily as Jared seemed to struggle with an answer. It was a shitty question to ask, but even after all these months, the idea that Jared had never had a choice still bothered him to some extent.
Jared glanced up at the ceiling, sighing heavily. “We’ve been over this.”
“I know, but humour me.”
“I can’t answer that the way you want me to. Yes, I thought he was hot when I first saw him, but I also thought he was an arrogant dick. We didn’t fuck right away, remember, and I was starting to like him, I think.”
“Even though he essentially kidnapped you? There’s a name for that, you know.”
Jared laughed. “Yeah, I know. But it wasn’t like that. Even before our bond kicked in, there was something there, something that drew us together.”
“But how do you know that wasn’t the shifter magic already at work? Hebityou. All his whatever-it-is was swimming around in your blood.” Seb waved his hands around to emphasise his point.
“I guess I don’t know for sure.” Jared set his mug down and crossed his arms. “But does it matter? So what if Nathan and I have some freaky chemistry that makes it work even when I’m human. I love him. He loves me. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, Seb, and that’s not going to change, because we’re bonded.” He met Seb’s gaze, expression earnest. “How many people get to say that? To have that?”
Seb had nothing. He drank his coffee in silence, mulling Jared’s words over in his head, while Nathan’s opinion tried to sneak back in too. But even for all Jared’s assurances that he wouldn’t want it any other way…how does he know for sure?
Ugh, his head hurt just thinking about it.
“Why are you so interested again? Thinking about asking Tim to bite you?”
Seb choked on his coffee, coughing violently before turning to glare at his grinning friend. “What? No! Definitely not.”
“You’re fucking, though, right?”
“What makes you say that?”
