Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(77)

“Katherine, please. You need to calm down. Just breathe.”

Of course. Of course he had followed her.

“Shut up,” she managed to snap at him between hitched breaths. She refused to pull her head up and look at him. “I don’t even know why I’m crying. I don’t even like you!”

Katherine knew, even as she forced the words out, that it was the most pathetic lie she’d ever told.

“You can not like me all you want. Just please calm down. You’re scaring me here.”

Couldn’t he tell she was trying? It’s not like she wanted to have a mental break down in front of Bastian of all people. It was humiliating.

“What happened to not coming after me if I ran away?” she demanded, though the words were garbled by her tears and hiccups.

She remembered the promise he’d made vividly – though it’d been over a month since then. It had hurt her at the time – the idea that he would leave her to die if she ran away. Now, she just wished that he’d kept his promise.

Katherine tensed when she felt him tentatively place a hand on her upper back, rubbing it in slow circles between her shoulder blades as he spoke. “Just breathe.”

She was torn between ripping the hand away from her and shifting closer to him so he’d have easier access to her back. Eventually, though, when she got her breathing under control and had managed to subtly as possible swipe the tears from her cheeks, she forced herself to move away from him and his soothing fingers.

“Are you okay now?” Bastian asked hesitantly.

“What other duties am I distracting you from?” Katherine didn’t know why she picked that question from the dozens of others buzzing in her brain, but as soon as she’d asked him it, he tensed.

When his eyes met hers, though, they were the clearest blue she had ever seen them. “I didn’t mean it,” he told her, voice rough with an emotion Katherine couldn’t place. “You’re not a distraction – a weakness – or whatever you heard me say in there.”

What he’d said was that he wished he’d never laid eyes on her.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Bastian looked away from her and for a long moment, Katherine didn’t think he’d answer her. Then, just as she was about to get up and stalk away from him, he took a deep breath and turned to face her again.

“I lied to you earlier,” he announced, startling and confusing Katherine all at once, “when we first met and you asked me why we were in Middletown. I let you believe we were there on council business, but that wasn’t true.”

Katherine blinked. “Okay…” she trailed off, not understanding what that had to do with her question, but assuming that he’d explain.

“We had Cain’s permission, of course, but we were there because I – my pack – we,” he paused, as if struggling to get the words out, “well, we were tracking my parents’ killers.”

Katherine inhaled sharply. “What?”

Bastian’s eyes bore into hers. “The same hunters that went after you and your family… they murdered my mother and father.”

Katherine was vaguely aware that she was trembling – from the bitter wind or the new piece of information revealed to her, she didn’t know. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, truly meaning it.

“Don’t be sorry,” he muttered, once again looking away from her. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s I who should be apologizing. It was because of me – my vendetta – that we were even in Middletown to begin with. I bit you – changed you. Probably even led the hunters right to you and your family with my carelessness. I as good as killed your parents. Nearly got you killed too. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

The mention of her family stung, but Katherine kept the tears at bay. “It’s not your fault.”

The speed at which Bastian jerked his head around would have been funny in any other situation. His expression was beyond incredulous. “Did you not hear a word I just said?”

“I don’t care why you were in Middletown that night, and Caleb and Sophie – they told me why you bit me. They said your wolf – that he… he was attracted to my scent.” Katherine was glad that her face was already red from crying. “They said it wasn’t your fault. And I believe them. Those hunters – the ones that killed your parents – they’re the only ones responsible for what happened to my mom and dad.”

Even after all this time, she couldn’t bring herself to say it – that they were dead.

It looked like Bastian wanted to argue, but thought better of it when she jutted her chin out at him, just daring him to disagree with her. “Anyways,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, “the other duties I was talking about, it was tracking those hunters. I’ve hardly even thought of them since you’ve joined our pack.”

“Oh,” Katherine muttered, having momentarily forgotten that he was telling her all this in answer to a question she’d asked. She bit her bottom lip.

“It’s not the only time I’ve lied,” Bastian continued, surprising Katherine.

She released her tortured lip. “Is that so?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, the corners of his mouth inching upward. “You obviously remember that I told you I wouldn’t go after you if you’d run again. Clearly, that was a lie.”