Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(82)

“A race?” she asked, her interest mildly piqued.

Leander, who’d been quiet since Katherine had arrived – it was nothing new, she hadn’t heard him speak more than a handful of words to anyone since she’d met him – nodded. “Some of the alphas are interested in who the fastest of the upcoming recruits are. I heard Rip talking about it – complaining about how he couldn’t participate, what with his hand and all.”

Katherine had seen Rip at school since the locker room fiasco a few weeks back, of course. She wasn’t sure how he felt about the cast that’d been present around his right wrist ever since. He’d been ignoring her though, so she couldn’t deny that she was grateful for that at least.

“You’re such a good runner, Katherine. You should definitely compete. Jon, Agnes and I are going to.”

She blushed a little at Mack’s praise, but wavered on her answer. “I don’t know. I don’t think Bastian wants me to stray too far from him.”

What she didn’t say was that she didn’t think she wanted to stray too far from the man herself. The anxiety that overtook her whenever she allowed herself to think of his upcoming fight with Rogue made Katherine more than a little hesitant to leave his side for too long. She wasn’t sure what worried her more – that Bastian could get seriously hurt, or what would happen to her if he somehow lost.

“Oh, come on,” Agnes attempted to persuade her. “You can’t possibly pass up the opportunity to show up some of the dunces in our class.”

“Yeah, and think of the alphas that’ll be watching. You’re pretty fast – you stand a good chance of impressing a few of them,” Jon added.

“I don’t care about that,” Katherine mumbled, glancing at the faint sheen of moonlight that was beginning to creep in through the tops of the trees. She sighed. “I should probably go find Bastian.”

“I think you should compete too, Katherine,” Melanie pointed out, ignoring what she’d just said about finding Bastian. “The alpha fight won’t start until midnight if that what’s stopping you,” she continued, correctly guessing what Katherine’s hold up was. “The race is scheduled to start pretty much as soon as the moon rises and should be long over by then, right Leander?”

Leander bobbed his head up and down.

Katherine still hesitated. “Maybe…”

“Please?” Mack practically begged. “It’ll be fun.”

“Imagine the look on those boys’ faces when we girls kick their butts,” Agnes tried to entice her.

And with all of her friends looking at her with pleading eyes she couldn’t just say no. “Okay, okay. I’ll race.” Paying no mind to the cheer that met her announcement, she looked back up at the sky.

Katherine’s heart nearly leapt right out of her chest. The full moon – round and impossibly white against the near blackness that surrounded it – was already beginning its ascent over the trees.

Before she could think too much about the trouble she knew she was going to be in with Bastian, it started – the change.

It was almost exactly like the first time. Her body temperature rose to such a degree that it almost felt like her insides were burning. And then with a disjointed twist of her spine and a sickening crack, the edges of her vision blurred until there was nothing.

#

When Katherine forced her eyes open moments later, she was surrounded by five unfamiliar wolves.

Unfamiliar, yet not.

She knew immediately that the wolf furthest on her left – the one whose bright eyes gleamed intelligently as he stared down at her – was Mack. And the slightly larger, dark one right by him was undoubtedly Jonathan. The next – he was covered in shaggy, russet fur – could only be Leander. Then Agnes, or the wolf version of her anyhow, who was about the size of Mack with a coat a similar shade of gray as Caleb’s. And finally, Melanie, whose wolf form was small and black with equally dark eyes.

Mack and Jon began yipping excitedly when they noticed Katherine stirring. A nudge from the former had her shakily getting to her feet – or paws rather.

She didn’t know if she’d ever get used to transforming into a wolf. Thus far, Zane had been unsuccessful in teaching her how to do it voluntarily. And she could attest that transforming involuntarily – it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

Although this transformation had been easier than the first, she still wished that Bastian had been there to help ease her into it – to help her get used to her wolf form again liked he’d done for her the last full moon.

But, of course, he wasn’t there. And she had no one to blame for that but herself. She allowed her eyes to wonder back to the iridescent moon hovering above them all in the sky. Bastian was going to kill her.

The guilt that thought brought on made her shrink into herself a bit. She wasn’t allowed to dwell on it, however, as her friends quickly began prodding her and encouraging her to follow them into the thick of the forest.

What was going on? Where were they going?

They didn’t make it far, though, before they came upon a relatively small group of wolves, and Katherine remembered. The race. Of course.

Including Katherine and her friends, there were perhaps two dozen or so wolves. Three, who were larger than the rest and gave off auras of power, were obviously alphas. She strongly suspected that the light brown one with the mean eyes was Rip’s father. He smelled horrible – like decaying rot.