Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(76)

But Katherine wasn’t done. “You can’t-”

“Be quiet!”

She snapped her mouth shut. Chauvinistic pig.

Katherine stewed in her anger, but forced herself to remain silent for the rest of their journey home. Within minutes, they’d arrived at the house. Feeling petulant, she whipped off her seat belt, slammed the SUV’s door as loudly and obnoxiously as she could, and stormed up the porch steps to dish out the same treatment to the house’s double doors.

“What’s the matter with you?”

“What happened? Are you alright?”

Ignoring a bewildered Zane and Sophie, Katherine marched straight past them to her room. Once there, she paced for a minute or two, trying in vain to keep down the turbulent emotions she could feel rising to the surface.

“Stupid jerk,” she mumbled to herself.

She knew better than to let him get to her like this.

When the pacing didn’t help calm her down, she decided a nice, long soak in the tub was the next remedy she would try. Thankfully, it proved to be the perfect solution for stifling her stormy emotions. Slowly, but surely, the hot water forced her muscles to relax. She felt invigorated when she stepped out of the bathtub, quickly dry her hair and throwing on a clean pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt.

As she slipped the shirt on over her head, however, her stomach rumbled grumpily, reminding her that she’d yet to have breakfast. Knowing there were bound to be left-over banana muffins in the fridge from yesterday – she and Caleb were the only ones who liked them – she left her room and headed toward the kitchen.

She hadn’t quite reached her destination, though, when the sound of Bastian’s stressed voice reached her ears. A peek around the corner of the hallway wall revealed that he – along with Zane and Sophie – were sitting around the dining room table. And more importantly, blocking her entrance to the kitchen stationed behind it.

Great. Hadn’t she dealt with Bastian enough for one morning?

Katherine was debating what was more important to her, retrieving that delicious, crumbling morsel of banana heaven stowed away in the fridge or avoiding Bastian for another couple of hours when Bastian’s words – what he was actually saying, not just the vague impression of his tired voice – registered.

“-made look like a fool in front of the entire council.”

“Forget him, Bastian. Everyone knows what a parasite Rogue is.” Sophie’s voice was a bizarre cross of sympathetic and impatient. Clearly, he’d been unloading on them for a while – probably since they’d gotten back.

“Sophie’s right,” Zane agreed. “No one on the Council even respects Rogue. Don’t let his antics get to you.”

“Regardless on his esteem with the Council, I played right into his hands.”

“Bastian-”

“And you know what the most infuriating part of it all is?” he asked, ignoring his sister entirely. “He was right.”

Silence met his assertion. If the sound of her own heartbeat wasn’t hammering in her ears, Katherine would have been certain that the organ had disappeared altogether – broken and disintegrated at the meaning behind the man’s hastily spoken words.

“Come on, Bastian,” Zane interjected.

“That’s not true!” Sophie insisted.

“No,” Bastian disagreed, “Rogue was right – is right. Katherine – she’s a distraction.”

Katherine desperately fought back the tears gathering in her eyes. She was a distraction, was she?

“She takes up so much of my attention that I’ve been neglecting my other duties.”.

“What other duties?” Sophie spat.

“You know what other duties,” Bastian shot back, using the same tone he’d used with Katherine in the SUV. “She’s a weakness, Sophie – a weakness that I can’t afford. Most days I wish I’d never laid eyes on her.”

I wish I’d never laid eyes on her.

I wish I’d never laid eyes on her.

I wish I’d never laid eyes on her.

Katherine had heard enough.

Trying her hardest to smother the sob that threatened to reveal her position, Katherine pushed herself away from the wall she was hiding behind, her footsteps falling heavily on the floor as she raced past the dining room to the doors leading to the outside.

She needed to get away.

“Katherine?”

Bastian’s voice seemed disjointed to her ears. She didn’t process how shocked – dismayed – it sounded. She didn’t even bother to put on her shoes before she flew out the double doors. She ran barefoot through the lawn, heading towards the surrounding trees without thought.

“Katherine!”

His voice was more panicked now, but she didn’t acknowledge it – didn’t acknowledge him. She zigzagged around trees, running as fast as her legs could take her. She ignored the cold wind that nipped at her nose and paid no attention to the sharp rocks and thistled shrubbery that dug into the soft soles of her feet.

She just knew that she needed to be alone – to get away from Bastian. So she ran – she ran until she couldn’t run anymore, collapsing atop a large tree stump. She pulled her knees up to her face, trying to catch her breath. But it was made nearly impossible by the tears that had gathered at the base of her throat, choking her.