Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(95)

It didn’t help that whenever she thought of her wolf form, she thought of Bastian’s wolf form. Which, of course, led her to thinking of Bastian. Which led her to thinking about, well… the kiss.

“I can tell you aren’t focused,” she heard the man mutter from where she knew he sat, cross-legged on a snow covered stump in front of her.

She risked peeking open an eyelid. He was staring at her. She immediately closed it.

He released a frustrated sigh.

“I’m trying,” Katherine pointed out defensively, eyes still clenched shut.

“Well, try harder.”

Gritting her teeth, Katherine did just that. Concentrating on her breathing, she pictured her wolf form in her mind – dark brown fur, sleek build, sharp teeth. She managed to do this successfully for all of five minutes before images of Bastian and his infuriatingly perfect lips began to once again invade her thoughts.

The small brunette sighed in defeat, snapping her eyes open.

Her bright green orbs landed on Bastian. Bastian, the wolf, to be specific. So focused on not focusing, she hadn’t even heard him transform.

And yet, there he sat – flaunting his ability to do exactly what she couldn’t no matter how hard she tried.

Katherine stood. Her hands curled into fists and she could feel what she knew to be irrational anger rising from the pit of her stomach, burning up her esophagus and throat until she had no other choice than to spew it out – in the form of words – from her mouth.

“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you?”

Somehow it was easier to talk to Bastian the wolf than Bastian the man. And as she looked into the beast’s eyes, she couldn’t stop herself from bringing up what she promised herself she wouldn’t.

“You kissed me,” she said, the ire in her voice making it seem as if she was accusing him of a crime. “You kissed me, and yet you make it so obvious that you don’t even care about me.”

The wolf growled – the noise low and originating from deep in his throat. The sound should have scared her – startled her at the very least – but it didn’t.

“You think that I’m some pathetic girl that you can jerk around — use as some form of sick entertainment. Sure, you’ve felt obligated to protect me since dragging me into this demented fairy tale three months ago, but you don’t care. Not really.”

The growling grew louder.

Katherine’s fists loosened at her sides as she lost some of her steam. “I guess that someone like you could just never like someone like me,” she continued, her voice lowering an octave. “Not little Katherine Mayes. Not like that, anyway.”

Before the last sentence had even fully left her mouth, Bastian was changing. In a nearly instantaneous blur, the man stood in the space that the wolf just was. And, of course, he was as naked as the day he was born.

N-A-K-E-D.

Momentarily stunned, Katherine allowed her gaze to dip inappropriately low before she realized what she was doing. Her face positively burned as she hastily turned around, forcing her eyes to stay locked on a nearby evergreen tree.

“Christ! A little warning would have been nice,” she choked out, listening to him shuffle around behind her, no doubt changing into the spare clothes he always insisted each of them bring to these little sessions.

After all, if Katherine did actually manage to transform into her wolf form, she’d need some clothes to dress into when she changed back.

She heard Bastian snort. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” he pointed out, seemingly amused.

Katherine was all too aware of that fact. She shifted uncomfortably as she recalled her first transformation and waking up trapped under Bastian’s arm – how she’d ogled his bare backside.

She didn’t think he had known about that.

“That’s not the point,” she sputtered, crossing her arms over her chest. “Traipsing around naked… it’s – well, it’s indecent!”

That little gem prompted a chuckle from Bastian and Katherine turned around, ready to defend herself.

The half-smile on his face stopped her in her tracks, however. He was being the most open he’d been with her since their meeting of the mouths nearly two weeks ago.

“Bastian.” The name left her lips entirely without her permissions. It was said softly, pleadingly. Entirely too pathetically, in her opinion.

The half-smile fell from his face. A hard, unyielding line took its place. “We should get back to the house. It’s already getting dark.”

The sun was still visible above the tree line.

“But, Bastian-”

“Katherine,” he interjected sharply, shutting her down. He ran an agitated hand through his hair. “Let’s just get back to the house.”

Without further ado, he turned his back on her, gathering both of their bags and heading in the direction Katherine knew led to the Prince house.

He didn’t look behind him to make sure she was following even once.

She knew with certainty then that Bastian understood perfectly what she was saying when he was in his wolf form.

He just didn’t have anything to say back to her.

Katherine had never felt more rejected than she had in that moment. Humiliated was another apt description. She was all too willing to avoid Bastian the rest of the night – much like he’d been avoiding her the past week.