Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(87)

Katherine brought a hand up to her slender neck. “But couldn’t that seriously injury someone?”

Markus looked exasperated. “Yeah, Katherine, it could. Even if someone as little as you was doing the punching. So if you’re ever really in trouble, you don’t question it. You go for the throat, alright?”

“Alright,” she stammered, forcing her hand to move back down to its place at her side.

“Good. Now tell you what, princess? You actually manage to land a hit on me in the next five minutes and I’ll let you choose what you want to learn next. Deal?”

Katherine narrowed her eyes, recognizing a change of subject when she heard one, but she wasn’t about to pass up on that offer. Maybe she could sweeten the pot first, though? “I land a hit and not only do you let me pick what you teach me next, but you go a whole week without calling me that nefarious nickname.”

Markus grinned. “Deal.”

As Katherine sized up her opponent, she was only vaguely aware of Zane groaning and muttering to himself not far away. “Not a good idea, guys.”

Ignoring Zane, Katherine aimed low, attempting to kick Markus’s legs out from under him instead just punching wildly. It didn’t work, of course. And as the first and then second minute ticked by, she resorted to doing exactly what she had wanted to avoid – punching wildly.

She’d punch left and then right, adding in a cheap shot here and there, like a shoe to the shin or a knee to the groin. Unfortunately, the infuriating man managed to block them all of her attempts with ease.

As the fourth minute withered away – Zane, acting as their official time keeper, kept them well informed – and one of her punches came a hair’s breath away from connecting with Markus’s ribs, however, he’d clearly had enough. Grabbing first her right fist and then her left the next time she jabbed them at him, he quickly spun her around so that he had her hands trapped behind her back.

“That’s not fair!” Katherine protested, trying to hit him in the nose with the back of her head like she’d been taught. But, of course, Markus was ready for it and already well out of reach.

Refusing to give up, she lifted her leg and stomped down hard on the man’s toes. With a startled curse, Markus let go of one of her wrists. Caught off balance and with one arm still restrained behind her, Katherine squealed and fell forward, somehow managing to drag Markus with her.

It would have been entirely hilarious if the brunt of the man’s weight had not have landed on her, knocking the wind right out of her lungs.

“Damnit! Are you alri-”

Concerned with the way Markus had cut himself off so quickly, Katherine looked up from where she’d been inadvertently pinned.

And immediately understood why the man had been unable to finish his question. Why Zane was staring, his usually dark-skinned face downright ashen, at the same exact spot as Markus.

Bastian stood in the entryway.

They hadn’t heard his SUV pull up or the front door open over their noisy tussling, but his presence was impossible to miss now.

With his jaw clenched tightly shut and his attractive face quickly turning a fiery shade of red, he looked the very definition of anger. Katherine could even see a vein throbbing on his right temple from where she lay, uselessly trapped under Markus.

Zane was the first to find his voice. “Bastian, it’s not what it looks like.”

It became evident that Bastian thought it was exactly what it looked like, however, when he crossed the floor before Zane had even finished his sentence. He grabbed Markus by the scruff of his shirt, lifting him off of Katherine and throwing him against the nearest wall.

“Bastian, man, seriously-” Zane tried again, but a sharp look from his alpha had him hastily shutting his yap.

Katherine picked herself up from the floor, but her voice was stuck hopelessly in her throat.

“You have one chance to explain to me what I just saw before I beat the snot out of you,” Bastian snarled, shoving Markus against the wall again when he made a move to approach him.

“Really?” Markus scoffed, sounding awfully confident for someone who found himself being threatened by a man as powerful as Bastian was. “And what is it that you think you saw?”

“You were hurting her,” he spat, obviously enraged. His whole body was tense, the muscles of his arms straining against the sleeves of his white shirt.

Markus actually laughed at that – the disbelieving chortle ringing throughout the room. “You actually believe that? That Zane and I would hurt her on purpose? What – that we torture her while you’re away? Pick on her, push her around?”

“Shut up!”

“She’s pack. Why would we hurt her? Listen to yourself.” This time it was Markus shoving Bastian.

“I never would have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes,” he said, stepping into Markus’s space. The difference in the two men’s heights was miniscule and as they stared each other down, they were nose to nose.

Zane’s eyes were imploring Katherine to intervene. And finally finding her voice, she did. “Stop!” she demanded, reaching out to grab onto Bastian’s taut forearm. She attempted to pull him away. “Markus wasn’t hurting me.”

Those words seemed to have a calming effect on the man. He relaxed his stance some, allowing her to tug him away from Markus. But he still didn’t look entirely convinced.