Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(4)
Elaine Mayes, in appearance anyway, was perhaps the complete opposite of her teenage daughter. Although well into her forties, the woman didn’t look a day older than thirty-five. She was tall, regal and the epitome of aged beauty with long, blonde hair and soft grey eyes. Perhaps the only physical trait that the mother and daughter shared was a pale, smooth complexion.
“Are you alright, Katherine?”
Pulled out of her reverie by her mother’s concerned inquiry, Katherine realized she’d been staring and quickly averted her gaze. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Elaine didn’t look convinced, a deep frown marring her otherwise pretty features, but wisely chose to let the matter drop. “Alright, but it’s already past seven. You should probably be getting ready for school.”
Taken aback, Katherine hastily looked at the alarm clock on her night stand. She groaned aloud when she saw the time – 7:13 – blinking innocently back at her. She had overslept.
“Thanks mom, I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”
Acknowledging her daughter with a nod, Elaine left the room.
Katherine fought for a moment to untangle herself from her bed sheets. In her restless sleep, she had somehow managed to wrap them around herself in a complicated cocoon. Once up, she quickly stripped off her pajamas – an old, discarded shirt of her dad’s and a pair of too big sweats – and hurried across the room to the small adjoining bathroom. Ignoring the small chill that swept through her as her feet hit the cold, tiled floor of the room, she hopped into the shower. She knew she was already running late and probably should have foregone the quick wash, but after waking up in a cold sweat, with pieces of her long, brown hair sticking to her damp forehead, she felt the shower was needed.
After fiddling with the silver knobs of the rather ancient-looking shower, Katherine breathed a sigh of contentment when warm water finally burst from the worn shower head. Relaxing under the spray, she allowed her mind to wander.
It had been three days since she had been attacked by that wolf on Miller Road and she doubted she would be forgetting the incident anytime soon. After Abby had helped haul her home that Friday night, she had been bombarded by her worried parents, made even more frantic after the two girls had explained what had happened. As predicted, Katherine was immediately driven to the hospital of the town over – Hayfield Medical – to have the wound looked over.
In a turn of good luck, which Katherine still had trouble believing, the wolf bite was found to be clear of any infection, and she was sent back home, ankle bandaged in soft, white wrappings, in less than an hour. In the weekend of rest that followed, the pain of the wound had slowly subsided into nothing and she found she could walk and put pressure on the limb without feeling any discomfort at all – almost like she hadn’t been mauled by a wolf just three days ago.
No, the only side effect Katherine seemed to be suffering from was the dreams.
Every night since the attack, the intense blue eyes of the dark wolf had haunted her sleep. They weren’t nightmares – she didn’t feel the least bit afraid in them – but they were bizarre, and not just a little unnerving.
After waking from them, she’d always feel guilty that she couldn’t understand what the blue eyes were trying to tell her – like she was failing the owner of the eyes in some way. Katherine sighed softly at that thought, scolding herself for thinking so absurdly.
She grabbed the shampoo and began working it through her thick hair. Why should she feel guilty about upsetting a wolf – one that had attacked her no less?
Now that she was out of immediate danger and far away from the violent beast and its strong jaw and sharp claws, she often found herself looking back on Friday night and admiring the beauty of the animal that had attacked her. Both the wolves she had seen had been remarkable, but the blue-eyed one especially. Its body had been huge and powerful, and its dark – almost black – fur had been sleek and beautiful. Even the snarl that had dominated the wolf’s face had done little to take away from the animal’s handsome features. He – Katherine was almost positive the wolf had been a male – had truly been a magnificent creature.
Katherine shook her head a little at the directions of her thoughts. Was she really describing the ferocious animals that had attacked her as magnificent?
Perhaps she had been infected by the wolf’s bite after all and one of the side effects of said infection was slowly going insane.
Reaching for the shower knob to turn off the warm spray, Katherine forced herself to stop thinking such thoughts.
Quickly rinsing her hair of excess water, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry herself off. After wiping herself down, she used the same towel to clear away the condensation that had formed on the bathroom mirror during her brief shower.
Katherine sighed when confronted with her reflection.
She had never been particularly impressed with her looks. Growing up with an exceptionally beautiful mother and older sister, she had always thought that she herself was rather plain looking. Her pale face was mostly unremarkable with a small nose and nondescript pink lips. Big, wide eyes dominated the majority of it, their color an odd mix of green and grey. Neither color really overpowered the other, giving them a rather murky appearance overall – almost like mud. Unlike her mother and sister, who both had beautiful – not to mention manageable – blonde hair, Katherine’s was a dark chocolate brown and refused to lay straight no matter what she did with it.