Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(75)

“Katherine, this is Gabriela. As I’m sure you’ve deduced my now, she’s another alpha of Haven Falls and one of the town’s best healers. Gabriela, this is Katherine, my… well, she’s the newest member of my pack.”

The redhead, Gabriela apparently, offered Katherine a smile. It seemed genuine, but Katherine could only muster up a half-hearted one in return. She didn’t know what was wrong with her.

Before she could dwell too much on it, however, Bastian was bidding his friend an abrupt good bye and placing a hand on the small of Katherine’s back, leading her out of the building and to his SUV parked on the side of the road.

If Bastian was expecting a silent ride back to the house, however, he was in for a disappointment. As soon as he’d put the car into drive, questions were spewing from Katherine mouth.

“Why did you agree to fight that jerk – Rogue? And what’s an alpha fight anyway? Why didn’t you tell me what we were getting into before dragging me to this meeting?”

Bastian took a deep breath, running a hand through his wild hair with the hand not grasping the steering wheel. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know for sure what the meeting was about. I suspected, of course, but-”

“Then why didn’t you tell me your suspicions?” Katherine demanded.

Bastian frowned at the interruption. “I didn’t want to unnecessarily concern you.”

“Yeah, because waking me up at the crack of dawn and dragging me to an alpha meeting didn’t concern me at all,” Katherine agreed sarcastically.

“I’m sorry,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “In hindsight, perhaps it was counterproductive to keep the truth from you.”

The apology – the idea that Bastian was capable of apologizing, let alone admitting that he’d done something wrong – shocked Katherine into a temporary silence.

But the silence was exactly that, temporary.

“Yes, well, thank you,” she managed to sputter. “But you know, we wouldn’t even have been put in that situation in the first place if you’d have just restrained yourself from going after Rip. I don’t know what Markus told you, but the only injury I sustained from our little confrontation in the locker room was a cut on my forehead. Hardly worth the trouble you caused by attacking him in retaliation.”

Katherine knew it was the wrong thing to say – even as the words poured from her mouth, she could see the way Bastian stiffened, the way furious tremors began to take hold of the tense muscles of his arms.

He turned to face her, not at all minding the dirt road he was driving on. His blue eyes, darkened with palpable rage, were made to look nearly black. “I’m your alpha. You don’t get to question my decisions. What I did, I did to protect you. You’re my responsibility and you can be damn sure that I wasn’t going to let that boy get away with forcing himself on you.”

Katherine fought to keep her cheeks from reddening in mortification. “He was hardly forcing himself on-”

“Markus told me what he saw happen in that locker room!” Bastian boomed before snorting derisively. “A cut forehead.”

Katherine pursed her lips together tightly, forcing back the angry words that threatened to spill out of them. “Are you going to answer my other questions?” she asked instead of cursing him like she wanted to. “What’s an alpha fight and why’d you agree to one with Rogue?”

Some of his anger seemed to deflate at the change of subject. He turned his eyes back to the road. “An alpha fight is exactly that – a physical fight between two wolves wherein at least one of the contenders is an alpha.”

When no further explanation was forthcoming, Katherine rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks for that riveting description.”

The grip Bastian had on the steering wheel tightened, but despite his obvious ire, he acquiesced to her less than subtle request for a better answer to her question.

“Typically, an alpha fight occurs when the beta of a pack makes the decision to vie for the alpha position of that pack. Occasionally, however, an alpha will challenge another alpha to a fight because he has something he wants – like a member of that alpha’s pack.”

“And that’s what happened today?”

“That’s what happened today,” he confirmed.

How could he be so calm about this?

“Why did you agree?” she asked, trying to mask how upset she was at that fact. Couldn’t he have just said no to Rogue’s challenge?

“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” Bastian replied, almost as if he could read her mind. “If I didn’t agree, I feared Cain would simply order me to hand you over to him.”

Katherine blanched. “He could do that?”

Bastian shrugged, but when he met her eyes a moment later, she had her answer. Yes, he could do that.

“But what if you lose?” Katherine demanded, fighting the near hysteria building in her chest.

Bastian looked almost offended by her question. “I won’t lose,” he assured.

“But what if you do?”

“I won’t,” he repeated, adding a hard edge to his voice.

“You can’t possibly know that!”

“Do you have no confidence in me – your alpha? I assure you that I’ll win. Now this discussion is over.” His words rang with finality.