by Noelle Marie
Bastian’s eyes had regained their earlier glint and as much as Katherine wanted to challenge his brazen assumptions, remind the man that he’d just told her he didn’t know how she’d gotten sick, deep down she suspected he was right. She’d done it to herself – gotten herself sick.
“Now about your punishment,” Bastian continued and she clenched her teeth together in an effort to stay quiet. “You and Caleb are responsible for preparing and serving meals for the next week – meals, I assure you, that you will eat.”
That... actually didn’t sound that bad. She wasn’t exactly the best cook, but she could make due. But there was one thing Katherine couldn’t allow.
“Don’t punish Caleb. It’s not his fault that I ran away. I tricked him.” She still felt guilty about it too.
Bastian was unrelenting, however. “I’m well aware of what happened, but whether you tricked him or not, Caleb knew better than to go against my direct orders.”
“Markus and Zane did too,” Katherine snipped before she could stop herself.
Bastian glared at her and she almost gave into the temptation to sink into her seat. “They’ve been dealt with,” he promised darkly before pushing back his chair and rising to his feet. "Caleb will wake you up around dawn tomorrow to help him prepare breakfast."
Dawn? As in five o'clock in the morning? Fabulous.
Bastian walked away from the table and was nearly out of the room when he abruptly jerked back around and looked at her. Except that he wasn't looking at her – not really. His eyes were focused on a spot above her right shoulder. "If you leave again," he warned, voice unwaveringly firm, "I won't come after you."
The I’ll leave you to die was heavily implied.
Then he turned away and left her sitting in the dining room alone. His harsh words echoed in her ears.
But she hadn’t once thought about leaving since she’d woken up, she wanted to argue to the unoccupied chair across from her. She hadn’t been trying to escape earlier – just go outside.
But why not?
She had been desperate to escape before.
As crazy as it seemed, Katherine knew the answer. “Because I believe,” she whispered to the empty room.
She sat in the dining room a few minutes longer, stewing in her realization. Feeling utterly drained, she rose from her seat, relocked the two locks she'd popped opened earlier, and made her way back into the bedroom she'd ran from not an hour earlier.
She knew now that the room must have been Bastian's. But he wasn't there. And Katherine no longer cared that the room belonged to the infuriating man – at least, not tonight. She buried herself under the bed covers – the sheets pleasantly cool against her warm skin – and closed her eyes. Within minutes, she was asleep.
She didn't dream.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Punishment.
Katherine realized quickly that it wasn't going to be as easy as she had first assumed.
In fact, it only took about five seconds after being roused at the crack of dawn by a sleepy Caleb for her to understand that cooking wasn't Bastian's real punishment for her.
No.
The true torture was being woken up so early to do the said cooking that it was still dark outside, only the faintest beams of pinks and oranges peeking through the windows' blinds.
And Caleb's real punishment, apparently, was having to put up with her.
She'd been jostled awake by the man shaking her shoulder and startled, Katherine managed to nail him in the nose with a sharp elbow.
The force of the blow caused Caleb to stumble backward and mortified, Katherine tore the sheets off her legs and shot out of bed. "Crap! Are you okay, Caleb?"
"I'm fine," he immediately assured her. He was holding one hand to his injured appendage, however, and the words were somewhat muffled as they traveled between the cracks of his fingers. "I'm sorry for startling you. I called your name, but you wouldn't wake up so I grabbed your shoulder."
She had just smacked Caleb in the face with her elbow and he was sorry?
"Don't apologize. I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't ha-"
"It's alright," Caleb interrupted. He removed his hand from his nose. While she was glad to see it wasn't bleeding, she couldn't help but notice how red and tender it looked.
Katherine bit her lower lip, gnawing at the sensitive flesh there, before hesitantly approaching the man and laying a hand on his bicep. "I actually meant that I'm sorry for the stunt I pulled at the motel in Linburg. Not that I'm not sorry for hitting you," she assured when she saw his brow furrow in confusion, "but back at the motel, I shouldn't have tricked you."
She hoped Caleb would be able to hear the sincerity in her voice.
He must have because he graced her with a smile. "It's okay," he assured.
Katherine had hoped that apologizing to Caleb would have made her feel better and ease the guilt she still felt about the incident, but his easy forgiveness only served to make her feel worse.
It was maddening.
"No, it's not," she insisted, the words thoughtlessly spilling from her lips. "I made you go against Bastian's orders and now you're being punished. It's completely my fault. I tried to tell Bastian that it was all my doing and you didn't do anything wrong, but he wouldn't listen to me. He never listens to me!"
Caleb's eyes widened as the words continued to pour out of her mouth, her verbal filter apparently experiencing a glitch of some sort. "Katherine, it's okay. Really. I don't blame you for what you did. I've been in a position similar to yours and I can't begrudge you your actions. And as for Bastian, well, I mean, he's right. I knew better than to disobey his orders, but I did anyway."
The man's brown eyes were earnest and Katherine didn't know whether to be relieved that the only person in her pack she considered a friend had forgiven her or angry that he was insisting Bastian was right and letting the other man dictate his life.
"But Caleb-"
"Besides I like to cook," he interrupted her protests once more. “I’m usually responsible for the meals anyway.”
Katherine frowned, not knowing if Caleb really did usually do all of the cooking or if he was just trying to pacify her.
If he was, it was working.
"Okay," she sighed in defeat before running a hand through her hair. And was abruptly reminded of the horrendous state it was in. She groaned. "Do you mind if I shower quickly before meeting you in the kitchen?"
The man laughed, but she wasn't sure if it was due to the question or the twisted grimace her face had undoubtedly transformed into as she attempted to untangle her knotted mess of hair with her fingers.
Katherine eyed him. Probably the grimace.
She glared until his laughter subsided.
"Sure," he agreed, a smile stretching across his face, "but, no offense, you look like you might need to upgrade that quick shower into a long bath."
"Ha ha," Katherine muttered, rolling her eyes. She perked up, however, when she remembered the whirl pool bath tub she'd discovered when she was exploring the bedroom the night before. "Actually, I might take you up on that offer. If it's okay with you, I'll meet you in the kitchen in twenty. It's connected to the dining room, right?"
Caleb nodded, though he looked confused as to how she could have known that. Apparently Bastian had informed him that she was awake, but not about the conversation – and she used the term conversation lightly – she'd had with Bastian a few hours earlier. Good. She'd like to keep it that way.
"Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes then."
Caleb agreed and swiftly exited. Katherine took the time to stretch before making her way towards the door she knew led to the bathroom.
The tiled room looked even more exceptional than it had the previous night. The tub especially. She twisted its glass knobs and shucked off her clothes without a second thought. She avoided gazing into the mirror as the porcelain bathtub filled with water, weary of the disheveled girl that had greeted her the last time she had look
ed into its reflective surface.
She filled the tub as high as she dared before turning on the jets and allowing her tense body to sink into the pool of warm water. Her muscles relaxed immediately and she couldn't stop an appreciative groan from escaping. She only allowed herself a few minutes of relaxation, however, before reaching for the hair products she'd snatched from a cabinet before getting into the bathtub.
Katherine thoroughly washed her dark locks before treating her body to the same treatment via soap. A few minutes later, she reluctantly unplugged the tub and shut off the jets. She used a thick, fluffy towel – she'd found it in the same cabinet as the shampoo and conditioner – to pat her wet hair dry before wrapping it around her torso.
Once completely dry, Katherine reluctantly shrugged back on the sullied pair of sweatpants and oversized t-shirt she'd been stuck wearing the past few days. Then she combed through her hair with her fingers – a task made indefinitely easier after said hair had been eagerly conditioned – before finally leaving the bathroom in favor of finding the kitchen to help Caleb with breakfast.
Katherine found the man standing over one of two metal stoves, a white apron tied neatly around his waist. She wasn't sure what she was more impressed by – the massive kitchen and its state of the art appliances or the heavenly aroma that permeated the air of the room. Katherine followed her nose to the source of the smell that was causing her mouth to salivate. She looked around Caleb's shoulder to see that he was scrambling a dozen or so eggs in a frying pan. There was also a large pot of delicious smelling white gravy coming to a boil on a separate burner.
The brown-eyed man must have sensed her presence behind him because he turned to greet her. "Oh, good, you're here. I was just about to start the bacon. I'm nearly finished with the eggs and the biscuits are in the oven."
"You're making more?" Katherine questioned mouth slightly agape.
There was enough food on the stove to feed a small army.
Caleb laughed at her expression. "Yes, we're making more. You have seen Markus eat, haven't you?"
Katherine felt the heat blossom across her cheeks. Yes, she had seen the man eat. Or rather, she'd seen him stuff himself with enough food to feel a not-so-small army. "You're right," she conceded, "we need to make more."
"Exactly," Caleb agreed before handing her the spatula he'd been using and heading over to the large freezer pushed up against the far corner of the room. He dug around for a moment before pulling out a large zip lock bag filled with thick-cut strips of bacon.
"Here," he said, tossing the bag over to Katherine, who deftly caught it. "Could you start frying these on the griddle? It should be warm enough by now."
She glanced at the griddle set up near the second stove before turning her attention back to the bag of bacon in her hands. "All of it?"
"All of it," Caleb confirmed, digging another spatula out of a cabinet drawer – the cabinets were beautiful, a similar wood to the mahogany of the dresser in Bastian's room – before turning his attention back to the eggs.
"I hope you prefer your bacon crispy,” she muttered, having never really cooked it before.
Caleb offered her a bemused grin. "Crispy is fine. The bad news about cooking for the pack? A ton of food needs to be made. The good news? No one's picky. Sophie can be particular about some things, but trust me, the others will eat anything."
Ten minutes later, Katherine had finished the bacon – it was only a little burnt – and Caleb was pulling the biscuits out of the oven. She helped the man transfer the food they had made onto large serving platters.
As she was setting a tray of bacon on the dining room table, she absentmindedly noticed that the mess Bastian had made by throwing the mug against the wall last night had been cleaned up. The sharp shards of glass had been cleared from the floor and the brown stain on the wall had been wiped clean. Katherine wondered if Caleb had been the one stuck cleaning the mess and berated herself for not having the sense to do it the night before – even if Bastian was the one who had chucked the unoffending mug at the pale-colored wall.
She had just set the plate of biscuits on the table – Caleb was searching in the refrigerator for some butter – when a bright-eyed Sophie bounded into the dining room. "Something smells divine," she greeted Katherine, offering her a cheerful smile. "I can't tell you how happy I was when Bastian told us you were feeling better.”
Before Katherine could respond to the exuberant blonde – she was clearly one of those obnoxiously happy morning people – Zane, too, came striding in the room. "Good morning," he greeted amicably enough before taking a seat at one of the six chairs set around the table.
Any latent fear Katherine may have felt at having to face the rest of the pack after having run away – and failing rather spectacularly at it at that – was slowly dissipating.
And then Markus walked into the room.
As soon as the brawny man spotted her, his eyes hardened and a sort of disgusted grunt escaped him. Good morning to you too, Katherine thought sarcastically, unable to withhold the urge to roll her eyes. Before she could confront Markus about his attitude problem, however, she noticed the discolored purple and yellow skin surrounding one of the man's hazel eyes and another bruise that had flowered along the sharp edge of his jaw. The sight of them made her hold her tongue.
What had happened to him?
She was debating whether or not she wanted to ask the man what he'd done to earn his face such a beating – though she suspected it had something to do Bastian’s promise that Markus too had been punished for Katherine’s little disappearing act – when the man in question entered the room. He strolled right past her – saying nothing and making no gesture to acknowledge her existence – and sat in the seat at the head of the table.
And just like that Katherine no longer thought that Markus's grunt was quite so rude. He, at least, hadn't blatantly ignored her. She viciously bit down on her bottom lip to prevent herself from saying something she'd probably regret and reluctantly took the last available spot at the table – on the chair directly on Bastian’s left. Caleb was on her other side, at least, which almost made her closeness to the blue-eyed man bearable. Unfortunately, she was also seated straight across from Markus.
Ugh.
Katherine observed as Bastian filled his plate with a copious helping of bacon and eggs before the others began hastily taking their fill as well. Trying not to watch Markus mash his food together in his open mouth, a dribble of the gravy Caleb had made making its way down his chin, Katherine helped herself to some bacon and snatched one of the delicious smelling biscuits. She spread some butter on the still steaming bread, which immediately melted.
A heavy sort of silence fell as everyone concentrated on their food – silverware scraping against plates the only sound that permeated the quiet dining room.
"Who made the bacon?"
Katherine glanced across the table and met the hazel orbs of the man seated across from her.
"I did."
Markus snorted. "Figures."
She tensed, her eyebrows furrowing together. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," he spoke slowly, as if talking to an exceptionally dim-witted person, "that it tastes more like charred ash than anything resembling food."
Katherine immediately felt an angry blush burst across her cheeks, heating her pale skin. What a prick! She opened her mouth to call him exactly that – and a few more colorful names, if she was honest – but wasn't even able to get out the soft sound of the "p" when a fist came down on the table, the force of the blow causing more than one plate to rattle.
She immediately turned her attention to the man who'd slammed his fist, still clenching a fork that speared two slices of bacon, onto the wooden table. He looked more than a little frustrated, the muscle on the right side of his strong jaw twitching noticeably.
"Enough," Bastian spat through clenched teeth.
Katherine fought the urge to talk back. She hadn't done anything! It was al
l that stupid bully of a man.
"Yeah," Sophie immediately agreed with her brother, though her glare was aimed at Markus and not Katherine. "Wouldn't want another bruise to match the one around your eye, would you?"
So Bastian had been the one to rough up Markus.
"So Katherine, I've been thinking,” Sophie announced, interrupting the tense quiet that the room had once again fallen into.
"Didn't hurt yourself, did ya?"
A spark of annoyance crossed the blonde's face, but neither girl made an effort to acknowledge the belligerent man.
"Yes?" Katherine inquired politely.
"If you were feeling up to it, I was hoping you'd let me show you around Haven Falls today. We can kill two birds with one stone and do some much needed shopping too. I'm sure you're getting sick of having to wear Bastian's retched shirt."
Katherine was thankful her cheeks were still an angry red from squabbling with Markus as she was sure a wild flush would have taken hold of her otherwise. She hadn't known she'd been wearing Bastian's shirt. Though now that she knew, it made sense – the thing nearly hung to her knees after all.
She couldn't stop her curious eyes from glancing at the man sitting on her right. He was staring resolutely at his plate of food, however, and refused to look at her. He shifted awkwardly, perhaps uncomfortable with her scrutiny.
Unless his discomfort stemmed from her wearing his shirt.
Well, it wasn't like she'd had a choice, Katherine thought angrily. She hadn't been the one to pick it out – or even put it on for that matter!
Unconscious people didn't exactly have superb motor skills.
"It's okay if you have something else planned..." Sophie trailed off, sounding confused. Her voice brought Katherine back to the present and the small brunette realized abruptly that she'd taken too long to answer the girl's question, having been staring unabashedly at Bastian instead.
"No, um," she flustered, desperately searching her mind for an excuse to say no. She wasn't exactly a huge fan of shopping. But the fact of the matter was that she was in desperate need of some new clothes. And she couldn't help but be curious about Haven Falls. If it was truly where she would be staying for the foreseeable future, she'd need to learn all she could about the place. "That plan sounds good," she finally hedged hesitantly.