Tim curled his hands into fists to stop himself reaching for Seb and shaking him. Instead, he tried to catch Jared’s eye. Surely, as Seb’s best friend, he couldn’t have been on board with it?
Jared met his gaze, held it, and sighed, and Tim knew that he was the only one in the room who thought this was wrong.
“I’ve been where Seb is, Tim.” Jared glanced at the bandages on Seb’s arm and the grazes along his face, and Nathan slipped his arm around him, pulling him close. “I know what it’s like to be that scared, but powerless to do anything about it.”
“But you didn’t ask to be bitten.”
Tim only realised what he’d said when Jared laughed softly.
“No, I didn’t. But I was. It didn’t take, but it did leave me stronger than before, and I heal a little quicker too. I’m not sorry it happened, and I wouldn’t give either of those things up. I understand how Seb feels, and if it’s what he wants, then I’m 100 per cent behind him.”
Fuck.Tim ran his hands through his hair, lost.
Alec moved towards the door. “I’m heading down to join the others. David will bring Seb as soon as he’s checked him over.”
Before Alec reached the door, Jared elbowed Nathan in the ribs. Nathan grumbled, but called after Alec. “Wait a sec.”
“Yes?” Alec turned to face them.
Nathan swallowed as though the words hurt to get out. “Thank you.”
Alec’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting that.
Nathan continued. “For saving Seb’s life and protecting Jared when I couldn’t.”
Alec stared at Nathan. Tim willed him to take the olive branch Nathan had just extended. Finally Alec nodded, his lips curling up at the edges—not a smile, but so very close to one. “You’re welcome.”
He left the room, and to Tim it felt like everyone else breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Jared opened his mouth to speak, but Nathan shook his head. With the door ajar, Alec would hear them.
Jared settled for kissing him instead, then grabbed his hand as David came in. “We’ll see you down there,” he said to Seb, then walked out tugging Nathan after him.
David eyed Tim, looking a little sheepish—as well he might. David said quietly, “I didn’t know until I came in this morning. And by then you were already on your way in.” He took Seb’s temperature and then his blood pressure. “I would have told you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Tim waited until he’d finished, then stepped closer to the bed.
Seb glared at him. “Whatever you’re about to say, just don’t. Okay?”
I changed my mind.Iwant to be the one to bite you. Choose me, not Cam.
The words sat there on the tip of his tongue. Tim couldn’t ask, though, couldn’t do it knowing that Seb didn’t feel the same about him. He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “Good luck. I hope the change takes and you get what you want.” He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Seb’s forehead.
Seb grabbed his hand as he went to move away. “Will you be there?”
Watching his alpha bite the man he was in love with was quite possibly the last thing Tim wanted to see at that moment. But the sudden vulnerable look in Seb’s eyes tugged at his heart.
“Please?” Seb whispered.
A faint hint of fear and anxiety surrounded him. For all Seb’s apparent bravado, underneath it all, he was scared. Against everything he felt inside, Tim took Seb’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Yeah. I’ll be there.”
Chapter Seventeen
As David wheeled him down the corridor, with Tim walking alongside them in silence, Seb fiddled with the edges of the blanket draped over his legs. His mind swirled with what seemed like a hundred different emotions; his damaged body hurt, yet felt strangely alive at the same time. That probably had everything to do with what awaited him at the end of the corridor.
He’d never imagined finding himself in this position, never dreamt of becoming a shifter, something both he and Jared used to despise with a fiery passion.
How times change. But Kelly had been missing for almost twenty-four hours, while Seb sat helpless and broken in a fucking hospital bed.
