Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(71)

Katherine was forced to swallow an angry cry when she felt his free hand begin working its way up her sweatshirt. She tried to focus solely on her anger and not the fear causing her stomach to quiver as she attempted to somehow wiggle out of his grasp.

But the fear was winning out.

Tears were rapidly filling her eyes when suddenly, Rip was torn off of her. Katherine watched dazedly as his body went flying into a wooden bench opposite from where he’d trapped her against the lockers.

Breathing deeply and forcing oxygen into her air-deprived lungs, she turned to face her rescuer.

Markus.

But he wasn’t paying attention to her. He only had eyes for Rip. Markus didn’t even let the meathead get to his feet before tackling him to the ground. He held Rip by the throat, his firm grip on the boy’s neck causing him to sputter and wheeze.

With Rip sufficiently detained, he finally chanced a glance at Katherine. His brown eyes were the most serious she’d ever seen them. “Get out of here,” he demanded, voice gruff. “Go out to the truck and wait for me there. Don’t stop to talk to anyone.”

Katherine couldn’t make her legs move.

“I said to get out of here!”

Markus’s raised voice finally forced her into action. She dashed out of the locker room and didn’t slow her pace until she had reached Markus’s truck, pulling on the monstrosity’s rusted handle and lifting herself into the cab.

Only after leaning over the driver’s seat and jabbing down the lock button, did Katherine allow the relief to wash over her. She adjusted the rearview mirror so she could examine the wound on her head. There was some faint bruising and a little blood still oozed from where the skin had been broken, but it didn’t look too terrible. Besides the small injury to her temple, the only evidence of Rip’s attack was Katherine’s wild hair – nearly half of the still damp waves had fallen loose of her pony tail.

Maybe Markus would keep what had happened to himself and she could just tell Bastian that she’d fallen. Katherine couldn’t say why exactly she didn’t want him to know what had happened. Just that she didn’t.

It occurred to her that really needed to learn how to fight. Maybe then, she wouldn’t find herself in situations like this one. Perhaps Bastian would teach her. She’d be able to lay guys like Rip flat on their backs with his tutelage she was sure.

The small brunette was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of sharp rapping on the driver’s side window of the truck. She startled, but willed her racing heart to calm when she recognized Markus. He was pointing at the engaged lock. Katherine immediately reached over and let him into the vehicle.

“For God’s sake,” he muttered when he spotted her bloody forehead. He pulled the shirt off his chest, ignoring Katherine’s involuntary blush as he pressed it against the wound. “Hold this there until the bleeding stops,” he ordered.

Despite the slight sting it caused, Katherine obeyed.

Markus started the truck, but didn’t touch the clutch to put it into drive. Instead, he just sat there – his bruised knuckles nearly turning white as the grip his fingers had around the steering wheel tightened. He spared her a glance, eying her disheveled appearance wearily. “Bastian’s going to kill me.”

He seemed resigned.

Great.

Somehow Katherine knew that he wouldn’t be willing to keep what had happened a secret from Bastian.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


For all that Katherine worried about Bastian’s reaction to her bruised temple, she didn’t see the man at all that evening. Markus, too, disappeared soon after he’d dropped her off at the house. She was asleep by the time they’d finally returned, both with bloody, torn knuckles and Bastian, still harboring a lingering rage in his eyes.

She’d foolishly deluded herself into believing that Markus really would keep quiet about Rip attacking her and that nothing would come of it.

The very next morning, that delusion came crashing down around her.

#

“As leader of the council, I hereby call this meeting to order.”

The head alpha of Haven Falls was the epitome of intimidating. Nearly as tall as Bastian and just as muscular, the middle-aged man’s very presence demanded respect.

Cain, Katherine could vaguely recall was his name. He was Bastian’s uncle.

His steely gray eyes roamed up and down the long, rectangular table that easily seated all fifteen of Haven Fall’s other alphas before landing on Katherine’s petite form. He smiled at her. “Hello.”

Attempting a weak grin in response, she couldn’t help but wonder exactly how it was she’d managed to get herself into this situation.

When Bastian had jostled her awake early that morning – only the faintest beams of yellow sunlight had been filtering in through the windows – demanding that she get dressed, she’d been more than a little confused. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she’d immediately asked to know why he was making her get up at such an ungodly hour.

His answer had consisted of two simple words – “Council meeting.”

Bastian largely ignored the barrage of questions that response had prompted from Katherine. He wouldn’t answer why she was being made to come to what she understood to be private meetings, but it was obvious by the worry lines etched across his brow and the downward slope of his mouth that for whatever reason she was being forced to go, he wasn’t happy about it.