Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(91)

“Who are you and what have you done with my friend Katherine?” Mack demanded, bumping shoulders with her.

“Hardy har har,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

Melanie snatched the bag of chips off the counter, folding the opening shut before throwing it back into a random cupboard. “You guys shouldn’t ruin your appetites like that.”

Before she could continue to chide them for it, the sound of the front door creaking open and slamming shut reverberated through the room.

Katherine’s whole body tensed, completely unfounded paranoia flooding her. The man that turned the corner into the kitchen, however, wasn’t Bastian – why would it be? – and Katherine allowed her shoulders to sag in relief.

The man – well above six feet tall, but rather haggard looking overall – stopped short when he saw the small crowd in his kitchen. “Hey kids,” he muttered, stepping around Nathaniel and Leander to get into the refrigerator and pull out a cold beer. “I thought you were going out after school.”

“We are. We just needed to change first,” Melanie volunteered, waving Katherine over to her. She reluctantly stepped forward.

“Luther, this is my new friend Katherine. Bastian’s Katherine.”

Bastian’s Katherine, was she?

Trying to ignore the way her friend had emphasized her alpha’s name, Katherine focused on determining if the man had been at the council meeting she’d been forced to attend not long ago. She wasn’t sure.

Luther offered her a tired smile. “Good to meet you, Katherine.”

“You too,” she mumbled.

“Anyway,” Melanie continued, “we were just leaving. See you later Luther.”

“Yeah, you kids have a good time. Try to be back before midnight.”

“Of course,” Melanie agreed.

“Yeah right,” Penelope snorted. Mack and Jon smirked at each other.

Without further ado, they all took their leave.

Just as they had after school, the group split up – the girls with Melanie again and the boys with Mack – for the drive to Fort Saskatchewan. Despite the fact that Penelope spend the whole three hours it took to get there gushing about a boy she’d met the last time they’d visited the city, the three hours it took to get there passed relatively quickly.

It was nearing eight o’clock when they arrived and they decided on having supper at a bar and grill that Agnes insisted served the best steak ever. After trying it, Katherine wasn’t sure if it was the best ever, but it was certainly delicious. Rare and filled with succulent red juices, she was tempted to order another. Mack and Jon both did.

The pork that Melanie and Nathaniel ordered looked tasty as well.

Katherine paid for her meal with a credit card of some sort that Bastian had given her months ago when she’d first arrived at Haven Falls. She didn’t feel the least bit guilty about it either. Well, maybe a little.

As they left the restaurant, Katherine had to admit that she was having a good time despite her initial reservations about going out with her friends to Fort S-Whatever. Not even the horrible pick-up lines that Jon was testing out on her – he planned to use them on the girls at the club they were walking to – could sour her mood.

“Okay, okay. How about this one? If this was a meat market, you’d be the prime rib.”

Katherine groaned. “Really?”

“What was your last one?” Agnes chimed in. “If you were a steak, you’d be well done? I just got done eating some awesome steak, and it still makes me throw up in my mouth a little.”

“Maybe you should try one that, you know, doesn’t mention meat,” Melanie suggested.

“But why? I’m a pretty meaty guy if you know what I mean.” He actually wiggled his eyebrows.

“Gross,” Penelope scoffed.

“Sounds to me like you’re a guy who is pretty into meat, if you know what I mean,” Katherine retorted.

The comment had even quiet Leander in titters.

Soon, they arrived at the club her friends insisted didn’t check their patrons for ID’s. Katherine was pretty sure she didn’t even have a Canadian ID so any other club was out of the question.

The club’s name – Vertigo – was illuminated in bright, neon lights over its entrance. Just as she’d been promised, they got in without any trouble. The inside was exactly what Katherine suspected most night clubs were like. There were flashing lights, a fog machine, and loud, fast paced music that blared from speakers above the bar. Booths lined the walls, boxing in a packed dance floor.

Penelope, spotting a “hunk” getting down, abandoned them nearly immediately. After setting her purse on the plastic table of the booth they picked out, Melanie joined her on the dance floor. Mack and Jon left not long after, taking off to go chat up some “hotties” they saw at the bar.

Katherine and her other friends – Agnes, Nathaniel, and Leander – were perfectly content to sit at the booth and talk, sipping on the sodas they’d ordered. It wasn’t long, though, before Melanie was back and dragging all four of them out on the dance floor with her.

At first it was a bit awkward, lifting her arms in the air and shaking her hips to the beat. Soon, however, she began to enjoy herself. She got used to dancing by her friends without ever actually dancing with them.