Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(60)

“I know,” a voice Katherine didn’t recognize agreed. “It’s a disgrace that they even let her attend the school before her first full moon. They’re only encouraging her to get her hopes up and well, you saw her performance in the gym.”

Fuming, Katherine bit down hard on the flesh of her inner cheek and cranked the handle of the shower to shut it off. She quickly tied a towel around her torso and stomped back to her locker.

Both girls immediately shut up and took off when they saw her round the corner.

What did they know, anyway?

Katherine had the now empty locker room to herself so she took her time changing back into her regular clothes. Ten minutes later, she put the pair of sneakers Melanie had loaned her back into the girl’s locker before grabbing her bag and finally leaving.

She wondered where she was supposed to be meeting Markus.

She didn’t have to wonder long. He was waiting tensely for her right outside the door.

“What took you so long?” he immediately demanded.

“I wasn’t aware I was on a time limit,” she snapped back. Not that she would have abided by it even if she was.

But he didn’t need to know that.

“Whatever, let’s go.”

Katherine reluctantly followed him to the grassy parking lot. He hopped into a crimson truck that she could only assume was his so she climbed into the passenger seat.

As soon as he pulled out of the lot, Katherine let loose her tongue. “Did you have to embarrass me like that today? Push-ups, really? Christ, you are such a prick!”

Markus, as maddening as usual, only rolled his eyes. No doubt he thought that she was just being dramatic. “Why do you even care what your classmates think? Most of them are as pathetic as you.”

Katherine ignored the insult. “I don’t,” she insisted, “but a bunch of alphas were there and recruiting is-”

Markus jerked his truck so hard to the right, they nearly crashed into a tree. “You care about recruiting?” he immediately demanded, turning to face her, only keeping half an eye on the dirt road.

Katherine was startled by his intense reaction. Then debated baiting him. She decided against it. “No,” she admitting with a sigh.

“Good,” Markus growled, directing his eyes back to the road. “Bastian would never let you go without a fight.”

She snorted derisively.

“If I were him, I wouldn’t either.”

Katherine risked a glance at the man, wondering what he could possibly have meant by that. But his eyes were still burning holes through the windshield. He wouldn’t look at her.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN


The next two weeks passed by in a senseless blur.

Despite Katherine’s initial reaction to Bastian forcing her to attend the werewolf school in Haven Falls, she quickly found that it served as an excellent distraction to the absolute wreck her life had become.

She thought less of her parents.

Of Brad.

And even the ever-looming date of the next full moon.

Instead, Katherine concentrated on learning all she could in her classes and getting to know her new friends. Although she was at first reluctant to befriend the gaggle of teenagers she’d met on her first day, Melanie made it near impossible for Katherine to ignore them. The black-haired girl had dragged her to sit with them at lunch every day she’d been at the school so far. She reminded her a great deal of her best friend Abby. That, of course, only made it more difficult for Katherine to resist her charms.

She was warming to the others as well. Of Nathaniel and Mack, Katherine had grown especially fond. She couldn’t explain why exactly – the boys were virtual opposites. Despite the incident at The Bistro, Nathaniel was quiet and unassuming whereas Mack was loud and often obnoxious. If pressed, Katherine supposed she’d say it was because both had wound up in Haven Falls through rather tragic circumstances and she could sympathize.

The small brunette had learned Nathaniel’s story on the Friday of her first week of school.

“Christ, Katherine, what’d the asparagus do to you?”

Katherine ignored Melanie’s question, continuing to crush the steamed stalks with the blunt side of her fork. She thought if she pulverized the veggies enough, then the awful smell coming from them would cease to exist.

She was wrong – the resulting green sludge proved to be just as nauseating.

Why the lunch ladies even bothered to serve vegetables in a werewolf school, Katherine didn’t know. Potatoes were the only kind she’d encountered thus far that didn’t make her want to barf. And judging by the untouched asparagus on the rest of her classmates’ plates, they felt the same way.

With a sigh, Katherine gave up on attempting to annihilate her asparagus and tuned in to the conversation going on around her.

“Oh my god! Did you see the shirt Rip’s wearing today? It’s practically translucent! I swear I can see his-”

“Penelope,” Katherine interrupted sharply, immediately wishing she hadn’t tuned in. “I cannot be held responsible for my actions if you finish that sentence.”

She did not want to know what Penelope could see under his shirt.

And Katherine had endured enough of the girl going on and on about frickin’ Rip of all people. Every time Katherine saw her, she was talking about him – usually gushing about what he was wearing on that particular day.