Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(85)
All around Katherine, wolves starting barking and yapping excitedly. Sophie, whom Katherine had paid only a minimal amount of attention to up to that point, was hopping up and down and butting her head against Katherine’s affectionately.
But she only had eyes for Bastian.
Katherine watched as he stepped down from his position over Rogue and made his way to where she stood with the rest of his pack. His blue eyes were bright with remnants of adrenaline and anger undoubtedly reserved for her. But he didn’t snarl, bark, or even glare at her.
He bounded up to her and pressed his face hard against hers before he began to brush his side up alongside hers. It could be taken as nothing but the tender gesture that it was.
Obviously, he was just relieved that she was okay. Katherine was glad that he was okay too.
When she attempted to pull away from him, though, he growled – the noise low and originating from deep within his throat. She immediately pressed herself back up against him, whining softly in apology.
Alright, so maybe he was still a little mad. Somehow Katherine doubted she’d be let out of his sight any time soon.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Please, Katherine. Please, please, please.”
The small brunette sighed, trying hard not to let her aggravation show as she leaned back against Markus’s red truck and listened to Melanie plead with her for the umpteenth time that day.
Monday and Tuesday she’d been forced to endure her friends apologizing every other minute – apparently they’d felt responsible for her getting lost in the woods at the moon gathering. Once she’d convinced them that she didn’t blame them, however, and that she wasn’t in that much trouble with Bastian, they’d moved on to begging her to go out with them on Friday after school.
They’d launched their campaign on Wednesday, cajoling her every spare second they had. Even Penelope, whom Katherine strongly suspected didn’t even like her, was insistent that she tag along. And today – Thursday – they had moved on to phase two of their little operation…
“Please Katherine.”
… which basically involved wearing down her defenses with the overuse of the word please.
“Melanie, you know I can’t go.”
The girl in question frowned – though it would have been more of a pout if her lips weren’t so thin. “Can’t or won’t?” she demanded.
“Can’t,” Katherine answered honestly, crossing her arms over her chest. While it was true that Bastian hadn’t been nearly as mad at her as she’d thought he’d be after her disappearing act at the moon gathering, he’d still been quite obviously upset. Even more obvious was that he didn’t want her wandering far from his sight.
Not only had he driven her to school every day that week, he’d picked her up too – even though Markus was already there and could have easily done it. Today, in fact, was the first time since the incident that he was actually allowing his beta to chauffeur her home.
And Katherine assumed the only reason Bastian was even permitting it was because he had some sort of important meeting scheduled with Cain that afternoon.
Katherine didn’t want to admit it, but she’d been getting used to Bastian’s constant attention and had been a little disappointed that morning when the man had informed her he wouldn’t be able to pick her up after school.
Thankfully, her excitement at the prospect of Markus and Zane being able to resume her secret fighting lessons had quickly overshadowed it.
She just wished that Markus would hurry up whatever he was doing in the gym so she could escape her friend’s probing gaze and they could get going.
Melanie’s eyes narrowed at her answer. “Have you even asked Bastian if you can go?”
Katherine shifted uneasily, her fingers fiddling with the thick hair of her ponytail as she debated what to say to the girl. Because the short answer was no, she hadn’t asked Bastian.
She didn’t doubt what he’d say if she did, but the truth of the matter was that she didn’t want to go.
“Come on, Katherine,” her friend whined when she took too long to reply. “It’ll be a blast. We hardly ever get the opportunity to leave town.”
And that was precisely why she didn’t want to go. Her friends weren’t just going out anywhere after school tomorrow. They were actually leaving Haven Falls altogether to hang out in some other city. Fort Something or Another. According to Melanie, it was about three hours away by car.
From what Katherine understood, they were planning on eating out before, as Penelope put it, they hit the clubs.
It all sounded so… normal. Like something her friend Abby would have tried to coax her into doing before Miller Road – before she’d been bitten by a gargantuan wolf with sharp teeth and piercing blue eyes.
But she had been bitten by that wolf. And for whatever reason, the very idea of doing something so normal in an ordinary, human town made Katherine uncomfortable. Nervous, even.
And thus, she’d said no each and every time her friends had urged her to go with them.
“Sorry, I just can’t. Maybe next time,” Katherine finally offered.
Melanie allowed her shoulders to slump. “Fine, okay,” she muttered, looking down and making patterns in the sludgy snow that covered the parking lot with the toe of her boot.