Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(52)

Katherine threw her arms in the air in utter exasperation. Honestly, couldn’t the man have just said that? “How do I go about getting marked then?”

Bastian shifted in obvious distress, and she couldn’t deny that she took some perverse pleasure in seeing the usually so put-together man squirm. Even if she didn’t know what it was he was so embarrassed about.

Finally, he opened his mouth. “Your example was actually a rather good one.” He paused. “The one about the dog.”

Katherine felt her whole body stiffen as realization dawned. But there was no way she was understand him right. “Are you trying to tell me that you need to mark me as your territory by peeing on me?!”

Bastian sighed wearily. “I knew you’d be unreasonable about this.”

"Unreasonable? Are you kidding me? I am not going to let you pee on me!"

“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” he repeated her earlier words.

"No,” Katherine snarled. “This, at least, I have a choice in. Hygiene issues aside, I am not your territory.” She was disgusted by the concept. “I’m no one’s territory and I refused to be treated as such!”

Bastian crossed his powerful biceps over his chest, clearly unimpressed. “I can’t let you go to school unmarked. It would be an absolute catastrophe.”

“Why? Who cares if I’m marked or not? Why do I even need to be marked?”

“Wolves are marked so that other wolves know they belong to a pack. All pack members smell like their alpha; it’s just the way it is. If I left you unmarked, no one would respect my pack’s claim on you.”

“So?” Katherine goaded the man, knowing she was being childish, but not liking the fact that he thought he had a claim on her any more than she had appreciated being referred to as territory.

Bastian’s eyes narrowed and his arm muscles bulged under his shirt sleeves. “Don’t you understand?”

Katherine pursed her lips. "Understand what?"

"The danger of attending school unmarked! If they – the students, the teachers – don't smell me on you, there are bound to be unpleasant consequences.”

She snorted derisively. “Like what?”

“You could be attacked!” Bastian softened his tone when he spied the astonished look on her face. “But for the most part,” he admitted, “I’m worried about you being recruited. No one will mess with you if you’re marked.”

Katherine wasn’t sure exactly what sort of recruiting he was talking about, but the way he spat out the word made it clear that it was nothing good. "Why would anyone attack or… recruit me?"

Bastian relaxed his arms and swiped a hand through his hair. “Plenty of reasons. You know turned females are rare. You’ll cause a stir – interest those you shouldn’t.”

Nothing the man was saying was making her feel any better about having to attend school. “I’ll blend in.”

Bastian looked at her like she’d just announced she was a unicorn. “Impossible. Haven Falls is too small a community for any new additions to go unnoticed. I’m sure you’ve already realized that after touring the town with Sophie. Besides, no one could not notice you.”

Katherine had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

“But aren’t there other ways to mark me? I mean, did you have to pee on the others too?” She couldn’t stop the corner of her lips from lifting into a small smirk at the image that assaulted her brain – Markus in the same position as she was.

“No,” he admitted, causing Katherine to deflate as the hilarious image she’d concocted disintegrated. “By the time we formed the pack, we’d all spent enough time together that they smelled like me already.”

It was true, Katherine knew. Although the members of Bastian’s pack all smelled differently, the same underlying scent clung to them all.

"What about Caleb?" she asked. “I mean, he told me he’s not a born werewolf.”

Bastian’s reaction to her question surprised her. His eyes hardened and his lips straightened into a hard, unyielding line under his mouth. “Yes, he told me he shared that with you, but no… it was my father who marked him.”

Recalling the story Caleb had told her, a light bulb went off in Katherine’s head. “Was it your father that saved him?”

"Yes," Bastian divulged, but looked away from Katherine’s piercing eyes before she could ask any more questions. It was clear that he didn’t want to reveal anything else to her.

She couldn’t help but wonder where he – Bastian’s father – was. And his mother for that matter. Obviously, Bastian was old enough to be considered an adult in this culture – he wasn’t in school after all. Her curiosity got the best of her. “How old are you?”

He furrowed his brows at the abrupt subject change, but answered her anyhow. “Eighteen.”

So he was an adult according to American culture too. But that still didn’t explain his absentee parents. A horrible thought occurred to her. What if they were dead? She clamped down hard on her lower lip. It was possible by the way Bastian was acting. He never mentioned them.

She was torn out of her thoughts by Bastian’s voice. “I assure you that I’ll make this experience as comfortable as I can for you. I’ll do it right before you go to bed tonight and you can shower right after. I’ll even transform into my wolf form if it makes you feel better.”