The Altered (17 page)

“I’m not her
boss.” Jordan grinned over at Keira, and Daniel definitely saw her
react to that. “We’re partners.”

“Oh.”

The others had
almost reached them, so Daniel sat up straight and leaned back
against the bench. “How did that happen, then?”

“What,
starting the gym, or meeting Keira?” Jordan asked, glancing at
him.

“Either…
both.”

Jordan looked
down at his hands and bit his lip. For a second Daniel thought he’d
said something wrong, but then Jordan started to talk.

“Keira and I
were on the same course at uni, here in London. She didn’t speak to
me for the first two years, just shot me warning glances whenever I
happened to look in her direction.” His head snapped up as Keira
and the others walked over to them, and he laughed.

“What?” Daniel
looked back and forth between them.

“She says it’s
because I had a bad haircut and awful fashion sense, and she didn’t
want to be associated with me.”

“It’s true,”
Keira joined in. “I took pity on you in the end and couldn’t bear
to see all that”—she waved a hand at Jordan—“go to waste. So”—she
turned her attention to Daniel—“you have me to thank for how hot he
looks now. Clothes-wise, anyway. His body was always hot, but I’m
sure you’ve found that out for yourself. You two reek of each
other.”

Daniel
blushed, and Keira smiled at him, but it didn’t seem particularly
friendly. He looked over her shoulder at Matt and Ash, and Matt
mouthed “See?” at him, then nodded at Keira. Yeah, Daniel could
totally see why Matt found her intimidating.

“Keira!”
Jordan hissed, reaching for Daniel’s hand again. “This was your
idea. Either be nice, or leave.”

She stared at
Jordan, neither of them blinking, some silent conversation going on
that Daniel wasn’t privy to. After an uncomfortably long moment,
Keira rolled her eyes and her whole posture relaxed. “You’re no fun
anymore, Jordan.” She plopped down onto the grass in front of them,
and leaned back on her hands. Clearly the cold ground didn’t bother
her in the least.

“Hey, I’m
Charlie, Keira’s better half.” Charlie winked over at her as she
snorted.

Daniel shook
the hand Charlie offered him and easily returned the smile this
time. Charlie looked like he meant it, at least, and Daniel thanked
God he wasn’t at all like Keira.

He was just
about to introduce Matt and Ash when a huge dark-brown beast of a
dog sauntered over and settled onto the grass at Keira’s side.
Daniel opened his mouth without thinking, and the words were out
before he registered the look on Matt’s face. “Oh, you have a
dog?”

He caught
Jordan’s wince out of the corner of his eye and realised his
mistake when Keira shot him a murderous look.

Bollocks
.

“So, um, not a
dog, then. Sorry.” Now that he looked closer, it was on the large
side for a dog, and the eyes were far too intelligent and knowing
as they watched Daniel with… well, he wanted to say amusement.
Daniel wanted to slap himself.

Jordan
squeezed Daniel’s fingers to get his attention. “This is Sam,
Keira’s twin brother.”

A long list of
questions popped into Daniel’s head, all of which were bound to
piss off Keira, and possibly her brother—if he could understand
them. Finding out if Sam knew what they were saying was probably
top of Daniel’s list. “Hi.”

Sam’s ears
twitched when Daniel spoke, so he was going to go with yes as the
answer to that last question. Wisely, in his opinion, he chose to
just accept Jordan’s statement and not comment. He didn’t trust
himself not to put his foot in it again.

Sam’s gaze
switched from Daniel, to Matt, then Ash. Where it stayed.

“This is Matt,
and Ash.” Daniel pointed to each of them in turn, trying to break
the silence that had settled between them all. He smiled when he
noticed Ash was wearing his hat, gloves, and a huge woolly scarf.
“Ash works at the library with me, and the three of us share a
house.”

Sam continued
to stare at Ash, his head tilted to one side as though Ash were a
puzzle he was trying to solve. Ash had obviously noticed as well,
and he shuffled on the spot, focused on his shoes as he toed at the
grass.

“Since no one
else is going to say it, I will.” Keira narrowed her eyes in Ash’s
direction. “Why the hell do you live with a human?” She turned her
attention to Daniel, briefly, and then to Matt. “You’re an altered
who already has a seer for a best friend—isn’t that enough danger
for you? What, you thought you might as well throw a human into the
mix?” She got to her feet and brushed the bits of dirt and grass
off her jeans. “From his lack of reaction, I take it he knows about
us.”

Matt had
already stepped across to partly block Ash from Keira, and she
shook her head and laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt
him.”

She took a
step closer to Ash, and Daniel wasn’t surprised when Ash
immediately took a step back. But what did surprise him was the way
Sam lowered his belly to the ground and growled. His lips curled
back, revealing sharp white teeth, and despite the way they’d joked
earlier, this was the first time Daniel had thought things could go
wrong. He tugged on Jordan’s hand to get his attention, but before
he had a chance to ask, Keira started talking again.

“Hey.” She
turned and crouched down in front of her brother. “You don’t have
to worry. After Ash and I have a little chat—”

Sam growled
again and shot forward. Daniel was up on his feet ready to rush
over and help—not that there was much he could do—but Sam didn’t
attack Ash. He skidded on the grass, turning his body to place
himself squarely between Ash and Keira. And this time when Sam
snapped and bared his teeth, there was no mistaking who it was
aimed at.

“Sam?” Keira
stared at him, her expression a mixture of hurt and confusion.

Charlie came
to stand next to her, slipping his arm around her waist. “I don’t
think he likes you threatening Ash.”

Keira turned
and fixed him with a withering stare. “You don’t say.”

Ash, who had
been quiet so far, cleared his throat, his gaze never leaving Sam.
“I can’t say I like it much when you threaten me, either.”

Daniel
smothered a near-hysterical laugh into Jordan’s shoulder. Of all
the times for Ash to come out of his shell with strangers. He
peeked over to make sure everyone was still in one piece, and
oh
.

“Jordan?”
Daniel whispered, even though nearly everyone present could still
hear him, anyway.

Matt stood to
one side of Ash now, a little farther back than before, but close
enough in case he was needed. And Ash… Daniel couldn’t quite
believe it, but Ash had settled himself on the bench seat opposite
them and had his fingers curled in the thick dark-brown fur of
Sam’s coat.

Jordan
shrugged but didn’t turn away from the scene in front of them. “I
have no idea. I mean, Sam’s not wild or anything.” That earned him
a glare and bared teeth from the wolf in question before he
returned to resting his head on Ash’s thigh. “But he’s not usually
that
friendly, especially with humans.”

“Huh.” Daniel
continued to watch them, fascinated. He’d never seen an altered
shift into full wolf before. Matt couldn’t do it, and Daniel didn’t
know any others well enough to ask if they’d be prepared to show
him. It wasn’t something you could casually bring up in
conversation… not in Daniel’s limited experience, anyway.

Charlie still
had his arms around Keira, who had finally stopped glaring at
Ash.

She glanced
over at Matt, smirking when he instantly looked uncomfortable.
“Hey, Matt. What do you think of the gym, then? Gonna be a full
member now?”

That seemed to
break whatever tension had seeped into the group, because much to
Daniel’s surprise, Matt smiled and stepped closer to Charlie and
Keira. The three of them quickly fell into a discussion about the
best way to build muscle while staying under the radar.

Ash had
sprawled out, leaning back against the seat, one hand still deep in
the fur at Sam’s neck, idly stroking back and forth. Sam had hopped
up next to him and appeared to be asleep, his nose tucked under the
hem of Ash’s coat, and Daniel would bet good money it was resting
against Ash’s bare skin.

“Well.” Daniel
changed position, sliding around and pulling one leg up onto the
bench so that he could face Jordan more easily. “That went better
than I expected.”

Jordan smiled
as he looked around their small group before turning back to
Daniel. “Yeah. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with those
two.” He nodded over at Sam and Ash. “But there’s no bloodshed, so
I’m happy.”

If any of the
others heard them, they didn’t react. Matt, Keira and Charlie
weren’t paying them the slightest bit of attention now, too wrapped
up in whatever they were talking about.

“Can I ask you
about Sam? Or is that topic off limits?” Daniel remembered how
cagey Jordan had been earlier and didn’t want to push the issue
when things were going so well.

Jordan still
held Daniel’s hand, not having let go of it once, and he looked
down at their joined fingers. He rubbed the pad of his thumb over
Daniel’s knuckles, over and over, the repetitive rhythm seeming to
help him gather his thoughts. “What do you want to know?” he asked
eventually, meeting Daniel’s gaze.

“Everything,”
Daniel answered, following it with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, but
he’s the first altered I’ve seen in full shift. And it’s…. ” He
tried to think of a word that aptly described the thrill of seeing
a wolf standing in front of him, which could at any second change
back into a human being… and
oh
.

“It’s what?”
Jordan prompted.

“Well, it’s
amazing, but… can he change back? I mean he’s not stuck like that
is he?” Daniel had always assumed altereds with the ability could
shift at will, but maybe that wasn’t the case. He thought about not
being able to change back, of being stuck like that forever, and he
shuddered.

Jordan clearly
mistook it for Daniel being cold, because he inched closer and
wrapped an arm around Daniel’s shoulders, pulling him in close.
Daniel didn’t bother to correct him, and besides he was started to
get chilly.

“No, he’s not
stuck like that. He’s just been like that for a long time and
doesn’t want to change back.”

“Why?”

Jordan sighed
and quickly glanced up when Keira called his name.

Charlie and
Matt were still talking, seemingly oblivious to anything else, and
she nodded once. “You can tell him, if you trust him to keep our
secrets.”

Jordan leaned
in and kissed Daniel’s cheek, lingering a little after and
breathing deeply. With his fingers under Daniel’s chin, he turned
Daniel’s face toward him and looked him right in the eyes. “I trust
him.”

“Are you sure
they won’t kill each other while we’re gone?” Daniel glanced back
over his shoulder to where they’d left their friends.

Jordan tugged
on Daniel’s hand. “Yes. They’re all adults. They’ll be fine. Come
on.”

Daniel went
willingly. He was still stuck on what Jordan had said a few minutes
ago and for now was happy for Jordan to take the lead. After their
disastrous evening together, the last thing Daniel expected to hear
was that Jordan trusted him. Let alone for him to say it in front
of everyone.

Daniel had
been stunned speechless—which Matt had laughed at, the bastard—but
Keira had given him an odd look. Well, she’d given both him and
Jordan an odd look, but Jordan had ignored it as though it happened
all the time. Maybe it did.

He’d worried
about it until Jordan suggested they go back to his place to talk.
Then Daniel’s mind had taken a back seat while his body took over.
He hoped “talk” was a euphemism, because the pull in his belly had
only got stronger as they’d sat pressed up against each other on
the park bench.

Seeing their
friends getting on so well calmed something deep inside him, and a
wave of warm contentment settled under his skin. It left him
feeling open and happy, and Jordan had looked at him with such
intensity as he’d said, “I trust you.” It had gone straight to
Daniel’s groin, and it was all he could do not to crawl into
Jordan’s lap right there and then.

With a flush
of embarrassment, Daniel realised that everyone except Ash had
probably been able to smell it too. There’d been no complaints when
Jordan had pulled him to his feet and told everyone they were going
back to Jordan’s for a few hours.

Alone.

“Hey? You
okay?” Jordan pulled them to a halt, and reached up to stroke
Daniel’s cheek. “You look a little flushed.” He managed a straight
face for about ten seconds before breaking out into a huge
grin.

“Oh, fuck
off.” Daniel narrowed his eyes, but didn’t move away from Jordan’s
touch. “Everyone knew didn’t they?” He gestured in the direction of
his crotch.

“Yes. Well,
maybe not Ash. But I couldn’t be sure, Matt probably told him.”

Daniel rolled
his eyes and huffed. Not that he cared about Matt knowing, but
Keira and Charlie? That was a little embarrassing. He stepped close
enough to Jordan to whisper in his ear. “I hate shifters and their
enhanced…
everything
.”

Jordan slipped
his arms around Daniel and refused to let him back away. “Not all
of them I hope? I know one shifter who’s particularly interested in
showing you how those enhancements can be a good thing.”

“Is that
so?”

“Mm-hmm.”
Jordan let his hands slide down until they cupped Daniel’s arse and
gave it a squeeze as he rubbed his hips against him.

Jordan was
hard already, and Daniel’s semi instantly perked up as Jordan
continued with his tiny little thrusts. Each roll of his hips had
Daniel breathing heavier, and if they didn’t stop soon, they’d be
in danger of public indecency.