Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(24)

"For me, the change in diet was the worst. I was a vegetarian before... well, before," Caleb added in a sincere attempt to be helpful.

But to Katherine, his words were like poison – proof that the changes her body had been experiencing weren't all in her imagination. And she just couldn’t accept the alternative that he – that each one of them – was offering her.

"Werewolves aren't real," she finally managed to bite out. "They don't exist."

Katherine ignored the hurt look that spread across Caleb's face and dismissed the ache in her chest that her own words seemed to cause her.

She also refused to acknowledge how her current company tensed at her response. Markus seemed to be the least affected. He merely rolled his eyes. "She's a goner."

"Shut up, Markus," Sophie immediately spat at the rude man. But Katherine found the driver's response – Blue Eyes, as she'd christened him – much scarier. His glare – though directed at Markus and not her –sent a thrill of chills though her body. Markus, catching sight of the look on Blue Eye's face, immediately bowed his head and shut his mouth.

An uneasy silence descended upon the vehicle, but Katherine was far from satisfied with the answers these people had given her and was quick to break it. "Where are you taking me?"

Blue Eyes, who Katherine had discerned was the leader of this pack – group, she corrected herself fiercely, he was the leader of this group – sighed at the question. As if answering it was somehow a huge bother. "Canada," he said shortly.

Canada? Katherine blanched. Why were they going to Canada? She didn't want to go anywhere with these people. And besides, she'd never traveled out of the U.S. in her entire life and didn't have a passport.

She quickly blurted this out, as if it would change their minds. Stop them from taking her.

Right.

Nameless merely glared and condescendingly explained that she wouldn't need one where they were going.

"And where exactly is that?" she demanded. "And why are you taking me there?"

"Why, to a werewolf colony, of course. Honestly, where else would we be taking you?" The dark eyed man's tone made it clear that she should have known that. This, of course, only served to make her angrier than she already was.

"I thought I already said that I didn't believe in that garbage. Now take me home this instant!"

Markus, apparently, couldn't keep his mouth shut for long. "Splendid idea. You heard the girl, Bastian."

So that was Blue Eyes’s name. Katherine had been wondering what it could be.

Bastian. The name fit him.

Katherine quickly snapped herself out of such thoughts, annoyed with herself for even caring what his name was in the first place.

"How can you possibly expect me to believe in something as crazy as werewolves?" she asked. "If such... creatures... existed, then how could people not know about them?"

"People did used to know about us," Sophie explained from the passenger seat. "But during the seventeenth century there was a... misunderstanding of sorts... and let's be honest, communication between normal humans and werewolves had always been strained. They hunted and killed so many of us that we were forced into hiding."

"Right." Katherine wouldn't have been able to keep the disbelief out of her voice even if she wanted to.

"It's true," Nameless insisted. "Our existence has been reduced to inaccurate legends of monsters. And how else do you think stories of such beasts came to be? The people who lived in that time told of our existence to their children, and them to their own young, and so on."

"What do you mean, inaccurate legends?" Katherine demanded, stuck on that phrase. "Do werewolves not turn into huge, hairy wolves on the full moon?"

Not that they exist, she added inwardly.

Nameless looked annoyed. "Yes," he agreed, "but that is perhaps one of the few grains of truth the legends still have."

"So what are these nefarious legends so wrong about then?"

"Well, the most important fact that they're missing," Sophie once again took over, "is that there are two types of werewolves. Born and changed."

Caleb piped up from his seat next to Katherine. "Born werewolves are those who are born with the gene. It's recessive, so both parents must be werewolves for the child to be one as well. Changed werewolves are humans born without the gene, but who've exchanged fluids with a werewolf during a full moon."

"Exchanged fluids?" Katherine questioned incredulously, a dark pink slowly covering her cheeks.

"Being bitten," Caleb quickly explained, "is usually how it happens."

Oh. Katherine fought the blush off her face.

"People aren't changed often," Sophie immediately assured from her seat. She turned and Katherine met her cerulean eyes. "And even when someone is bitten, it usually-"

"Stop," Bastian immediately demanded and the blonde did, but she continued to gaze at Katherine like she wanted to say more.

Katherine glared at the man. Why was he denying her information? Not that it mattered, she assured herself. It wasn't like she believed them. Not really.

"I still don't understand," Katherine muttered. "You say you're in hiding, whatever that means, but how is it that no one has ever seen you? It's not as if you can disappear." Katherine thought for a moment. "Can you?"