Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(69)

Priscilla’s friend, who’d been watching the entire debacle, released a loud squawk as they went down and it wasn’t long before the librarian intervened and separated them.

She and Priscilla had immediately been escorted to the secretary’s office. The secretary? Yeah, Mrs. Wright – Priscilla’s mom.

Mrs. Wright, who hadn’t bothered with her usual fake smile, completely berated Katherine, not even giving her the chance to tell her side of the story. The only upside to the entire ordeal had been that apparently, the school had no principal. It was up to pack leaders – or alphas, in other words – to discipline their underlings.

Mrs. Wright had told her in no uncertain terms that she’d be informing Bastian of her “atrocious behavior.”

But Katherine wasn’t wholly convinced that she had. If she did, Bastian hadn’t confronted her about it. He certainly didn’t punish her. She somehow suspected he’d be criticized for not punishing her, though, and kept the that little tidbit – that she’d gotten off scot-free for tussling with Priscilla Wright – to herself.

“Katherine!”

She was startled out of her reverie by the sound of Melanie’s voice. “Yeah?” she asked, quickly surveying the cafeteria and realizing that nearly everyone had left.

“Are you alright?” Melanie asked, furrowing her brow. “The bell rang a while ago. We need to get to class.”

“I’m fine,” she assured her friend, picking up her empty plate before following the other girl out of the room. “Just tired, I guess.”

Katherine wasn’t lying either – she was tired. It had been a long week. She was just glad it was finally Friday.

“Have you decided if you want to go to The Bistro with us tonight? We were talking about possibly going to Mack’s place afterwards to watch a movie or two at the lunch table, but I don’t think you were really listening.”

Katherine smiled sheepishly at the black-haired girl. “Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay,” Melanie grinned back. “But have you decided? Are you going to come?”

Katherine shook her head. “I don’t think so. I really am exhausted.”

She reasoned that Bastian probably wouldn’t let her go even if she did want to – not without a chaperone anyway. The man really could be ridiculous sometimes.

For a second, the corners of Melanie’s lips slipped into a frown, but she recovered quickly. “Oh. That’s understandable. I remember what it was like after I survived my first transformation. It really messed with my head.”

“Yeah,” Katherine agreed, her mind once again wandering back to the last week and her own erratic behavior and fluctuating emotions. Soon, the two girls arrived at their classroom.

Pack Dynamics and Mating Rituals passed without incident. P.E., too, flew by. For once, Markus had arranged for the class to play a somewhat non-violent game – badminton. She and Melanie partnered up to play against Mack and Leander until Markus dismissed them a little after three thirty.

He pulled Katherine aside, however, before she could reach the locker room. “I have to clean up some equipment from the field behind the school before we leave. If I’m not here by the time you’re done showering or whatever it is you girls do in there, just meet me at my truck, yeah?”

“I think I can manage,” Katherine muttered, yanking her arm out of Markus’s grasp and making her way to the locker room to shower.

It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the warning – he’d been ready and waiting in the gym to take her home every day since she’d started school again. It was just that she despised being babied. And ever since she’d survived the change, that was exactly what the pack had been doing – babying her.

It was maddening.

Only made more so by the fact that she knew she was at least partially to blame for their behavior. She did start crying when Bastian bought her a new coat, after all. And then went and punched Markus in the face the very next morning for making fun of her for it.

Still, the kid gloves were a little much.

“See ya, Katherine. If you change your mind about hanging out with us later, we’re heading out to The Bistro ‘round six.”

Nodding in acknowledgement of her friend’s comment, Katherine waved good-bye to Melanie and Agnes with one hand and used the other to towel dry her hair. After throwing her brown locks in a sloppy ponytail, she took advantage of the empty locker room and shucked off the towel still wrapped around her waist to tug on her red sweatshirt and jeans. She quickly picked up her tote bag and slung it around her shoulder, readying herself to leave.

It’d be vindictive of her to make Markus wait for too long.

Besides, she didn’t particularly want to deal with the attitude she’d catch if she did make him wait.

Pushing the heavy locker room door open, she stepped into the gym. She didn’t make it more than a few feet, however, before something – or rather, someone – yanked hard on the hood of her sweatshirt, propelling her backwards.

Twisting around, Katherine glared at the perpetrator.

It was Rip. How utterly surprisingly. And he’d even brought a friend. She wasn’t completely sure, but she thought his name might have been Thomas or Tommy or something.

“Hey kitty cat, where do you think you’re going?”