Bitten

by Noelle Marie

  “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.

  After they’d been dancing for the better part of a half hour, Melanie hip checked her, immediately getting her attention. “Cutie at six o’clock,” she stage whispered.

  Glancing behind her, Katherine quickly averted her gaze when her eyes locked with the baby blues of a blonde man. He certainly wasn’t bad-looking – cute in a boyish sort of way – but Katherine wasn’t interested in hooking up like most of her friends seemed to be.

  What were they thinking anyway? Sans Penelope and Nathaniel, they were all werewolves.

  She cringed when she felt the man press his chest to her back, boldly digging his fingers into her hipbones as she danced. She stepped away from him. “No thanks,” she declined as politely as she could, deciding it was time for a break from dancing anyway.

  He seemed disappointed, but let her go easily enough, eyeing Melanie like he might try sneaking up behind with her next. She didn’t think the girl would mind.

  Making her way through the maze of people on the dance floor, Katherine decided to head over to the bar to check on Mack and Jon – see how they were doing with the ladies.

  They were both chatting up the same girl.

  She was pretty, with long hair that nearly went to her waist, but she suspected the boys were more attracted to the goods that threatened to pop out of her low cut top.

  “Katherine,” Mack called, gesturing for her to join them. She hopped up on a bar stool. “This is Emily.”

  “She’s a college student,” Jon offered, seeming particularly enamored with this fact.

  “Hey,” Katherine greeted, nodding her head in greeting.

  “Hi,” the girl replied, her bubbly personality immediately apparent. “Katherine – that’s such a pretty name! A little old-fashioned though. I mean, I think I have a great-great-grandma who was named Katherine or something. Oh, I know. Have you ever thought of going by a nickname? Kathy? Kate? What about Kitty? Oh, I like it! I have a kitty, you know. His name is Mr. Snuggles though, not Katherine. Sorry.”

  The girl had obviously had one too many of the little pink drinks she was holding. Maybe even five too many.

  “Uh, that’s okay?”

  Before Emily could share more of her wit with them though – the results of a clearly sophisticated college education – a loud squawk from the dance floor caught all of their attention.

  “Get your greasy hands off of my boyfriend, you tramp!”

  Katherine’s eyes landed on the source of the commotion. Penelope.

  Well, Penelope and another girl, who had a very pink bob of hair upon her head.

  They were arguing rather heatedly and from what Katherine could tell, Pinkie had just shoved Penelope.

  “Tramp?” Penelope screeched. Katherine watched as Melanie grabbed her elbow to stop her from flying at the other girl. “Really? Maybe if you learned how to satisfy your boyfriend’s needs, he wouldn’t have to look for his kicks elsewhere.”

  “Well I can certainly see why it was he was looking here,” Pinkie spat, eying the bust line of Penelope’s dress. “Do you know how to spell easy? Your name.”

  Pinkie took another step toward Penelope and Melanie – she was nearly in their faces – and Katherine knew she had to move. She unglued herself from her seat at the bar, intent on helping Melanie try to defuse the situation.

  “If you got it, flaunt it, honey!” she heard Penelope retort.

  And just when Katherine got to them, it happened.

  “Flaunt this,” Pinkie yelled and doused all three of them with whatever drink it was she was holding in her hand. All Katherine knew was that it was extremely sticky and judging by the awful smell it shrouded them in – very alcoholic.

  Lovely.

  And then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Penelope lost it. And by it, Katherine meant her marbles. Every last one of them.

  She shrieked and with no one holding her back, launched herself at the girl, toppling her over. She swung an arm wildly – totally the wrong way to throw a punch, as Katherine was now well aware – and somehow connected with Pinkie’s mouth. Her bottom lip began to bleed.

  Fortunately, that was when the oh-so-diligent bouncers finally made an appearance and pulled the furious Penelope off of the girl. Unfortunately, they swiftly kicked Penelope – and Katherine and Melanie, who were apparently her cohorts – out of the club.

  Agnes and the boys – minus Jon – immediately found them where they sat sulking on the sidewalk outside of Vertigo. There, Penelope explained that she had, in fact, met up with the boy she’d gushed about the entire drive to Fort Saskatchewan, only to find out he had a girlfriend – that’s right, Pinkie. Or Kristin as Penelope had called her.

  By the time she’d recounted the entire sordid tale, Jon had finally joined then, looking entirely too pleased with himself. Apparently, he’d weaseled a kiss out of college girl Emily.

  Mack wasn’t too impressed.

  The drive back to Haven Falls seemed to take forever – much longer than it’d taken to get to Fort Saskatchewan. She didn’t know if it was because it was well past ten o’clock by the time they’d finally left and she was tired or because she was covered in sticky alcohol and extremely uncomfortable.

  Or perhaps the most obvious reason of all was the culprit – Bastian. She had no idea what awaited her back in Haven Falls.

  But she was about to find out.

  As soon as Melanie’s tiny car was parked safely in the gravel lot outside her house, the front door smacked open. Luther stepped out, looking grim. Behind him, followed none other than the man who’d occupied her thoughts all night.

  “He looks mad.”

  And the award for understatement of the century goes to you, Melanie.

  Agnes kicked the back of Katherine’s seat, snapping her out of her momentary stupor.

  “You did get permission to go out with us, didn’t you?” she asked.

  Steeling her resolve, Katherine shook her
head. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be intimidated by Bastian – even if her friends were. “I don’t need his permission for anything,” she spat, wrenching open Melanie’s car door. She marched across the lawn, towards the two men, only vaguely aware of her friends scrambling to catch up to her.

  The closer she got to Bastian, however, the more she realized that her wrath was no match for his.

  He was the angriest she’d ever seen him. The air around him positively cackled, like a lightning storm. Both terrifying and beautiful.

  Her proud march turned into a much more subdued shuffle.

  That made no difference to Bastian, however, who was more than willing to meet her halfway across the yard, grabbing her by the crook of her elbow when he reached her.

  “Hey!”

  Ignoring her protests, he dragged her to his parked SUV, which had gone unnoticed by Katherine until then.

  Still holding onto her arm with one hand, he yanked the passenger side door open with the other. Finally, he let go of her. “Get in,” he ordered.

  “But what about my friends? I should say-”

  “Get in,” he repeated slowly, stressing each word between clenched teeth.

  Biting down hard on the soft tissue of her inner cheek, Katherine did as she was told. Bastian slammed the car door shut as soon as she’d pulled her seatbelt across her chest and was in the driver’s seat, starting the SUV, in the blink of an eye.

  He hit the gas, and tires squealing, they were off. The sound of the engine purring softly beneath the hood made the edgy silence between them seem somehow more intense to Katherine.

  When he finally parked the vehicle beside his house, she prepared herself for a fight. Instead of yelling, however, he remained frightfully silent, ducking out of the SUV as soon as he’d turned the ignition off. He pulled Katherine’s door open. “Out,” was all he said.

  But Katherine had had enough of being ordered around. “No.”

  A disbelieving – almost feral – grin transformed Bastian’s handsome face into something dangerous. “No?”

  “I don’t have to listen to you,” Katherine once again denied him.

  Grin abruptly wiped off his face, Bastian reached across her lap to unbuckle her and grabbing her by her hips, easily lifted her up and out of the car. Before she could react, he’d set her back down on her feet and slammed the door shut again.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Katherine demanded, furious at the thought of being manhandled – treated like a doll.

  “What’s wrong with me?” he repeated incredulously. “What’s wrong with me is that I have a reckless little girl under my care who takes great pleasure in worrying me to the point of insanity whenever she gets the chance!”

  “I’m not a little girl-”

  “No,” Bastian cut her off. “Be quiet and listen for once. I couldn’t find you!” His already bright eyes were blown wide, the blue and black nearly overwhelming the white. “All these scenarios were flying through my head,” he cut himself off, obviously not willing to share what exactly those scenarios were. “You’re always running – running away from me! Do you really hate it here that much?” He took a deep breath. “Do you really hate me that much?”

  “No!”

  “Then why?”

  “I just wanted to prove to you that I’m responsible enough to make my own decisions – that only I know what is best for me and that I can take care of myself. That’s all.”

  “That’s all, huh? Well, I have news for you, little girl. All you’ve managed to prove is how utterly irresponsible you are!”

  Bastian’s continued use of that particular phrase – little girl – was getting on Katherine’s last nerve.

  “Why is it irresponsible to go out with my friends? I had fun.” Sort of. “Nothing bad happened.”

  “And you’re damned lucky,” Bastian spat. He ran an agitated hand through his hair and for the first time, Katherine noticed the man’s obvious preoccupation with her current outfit. “Dressed like that, you’re just asking for trouble. And I can smell the liquor on you from here.”

  And that was it for Katherine.

  She’d had enough.

  The connotations of what Bastian had just said – the implication behind his words – finally pushed her over the edge. She wasn’t some drunk floozy!

  And so she took the only action that made sense to her at that moment.

  She threw herself at the man. And kissed him.

  As soon as her lips made contact with his, Bastian froze. But that made no difference to Katherine. She pushed all of the emotions pulsing through her into that kiss – anger, frustration, her goddamn reluctant affection of the man. What she didn’t expect was for the softness of his lips, combined with the roughness of his stubble, to send a powerful tingle shooting down her spine.

  It was like nothing she’d ever felt before.

  She pulled away with a breathless gasp. “Do I taste like liquor to you?” she challenged, feeling more brazen than she ever had in her entire life.

  For a long moment, Bastian remained as still as stone.

  But then he shook his head. And slowly wrapped a calloused hard around the back of her neck, allowing his fingers to entangle themselves in the hair he found there. “You are absurdly beautiful,” he muttered, and slammed his lips back onto hers.

  Hands grasping either side of his face, Katherine kissed him back, responding with equal fervor. He swiped her bottom lip with his tongue, begging for entrance into her mouth, which she immediately granted him. Their mouths clashed in a battle for dominance that he easily won. Every sensual lick and twist of his tongue set her body afire – a heat that was only amplified as he used his free hand to caress the small of her back and press her body closer to his.

  And then, as quickly as it had started, it was over.

  Bastian retreated, tearing his lips from hers and digging his face into her hair, breathing in deeply, like he couldn’t get enough of her scent. Not the alcohol that covered her dress, but her.

  She’d never wished so zealously to know what she smelled like to him than right at that moment.

  For a long minute, the only sound that filled the air was their noisy breathing. Then, he spoke. “You have no idea, Katherine. When Markus told me he’d lost you this afternoon, I… I lost it.”

  Still feeling lightheaded from the kiss they’d just shared, Katherine offered her first breathless apology of the night. “I’m sorry.”

  “Just promise me you’ll never do anything so reckless again. You have to tell me when you’re planning on going somewhere. This world we live in – the one I dragged you into – it’s a dangerous one. I can’t stand the thought of something happening to you.”

  Swallowing around the wad of guilt that suddenly made itself known in her throat, Katherine offered another apology. “I’m sorry.” But she couldn’t allow herself to be completely swayed by him. “But, Bastian, I still think-”

  “I’ll allow you to learn how to fight, if that’s what you really want,” Bastian interrupted, knowing exactly where she was going with the protest. “I still don’t approve, but I understand that it’s not something you’re willing to give up. But you have to compromise with me. Let me teach you, Katherine. Please.”

  Didn’t he realize that was all she ever wanted in the first place?

  Nothing could have stopped the giddy smile from creeping onto Katherine’s face just then. “Okay.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  For the next week, kissing Bastian was all Katherine could think about. The feeling of his lips pressed against hers – the heat of his body as it enveloped her own – haunted her every waking thought.

  Non-waking thoughts too, if she was being perfectly honest.

  She became aware very quickly, however, that she was the only one who’d been so utterly consumed by what she referred to in her head as the kiss.

  Bastian, on the other hand, was acting as if it had never happened. As if he’d never gripped the
back of her neck and slammed his mouth onto hers. Never held her close afterwards, burying his face in her hair and breathing her in.

  He treated her as he always had.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He became more distant. He stopped driving her to school. He didn’t boss her around. He merely offered her a courteous “good morning” when she awoke every sun up and bid her an equally polite “good night” when she retired at sunset.

  He was merely... cordial.

  It was exactly what Katherine thought she’d always wanted from him.

  But it wasn’t. Not anymore. Not after the kiss.

  Now his behavior just left her cold. Still, she played along. Made believe, like Bastian, that their lips and tongues had never met. That, even if they did, it didn’t mean anything to her. She didn’t know what else to do.

  Katherine was pleased, at least, that the man had kept his word about helping her learn how to fight. After talking to Markus and Zane and discovering what they’d already taught her, Bastian decided that teaching her how to voluntarily transform into her wolf form would be the next logical step in her education. He took her outside to practice nearly every day, always traveling a ways into the woods before beginning.

  Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t seem to do it. Without the powerful pull of the moon, Katherine’s wolf seemed content to lay dormant inside her.

  She grew more and more frustrated as their sessions lagged on. And it was just the afternoon before, in the midst of such a session, that she’d finally cracked.

  Katherine didn’t know when Bastian had turned into some Zen-loving guru, but this whole meditation business was getting on her last nerve.

  After a week of attempting to teach her how to voluntarily transform – and utterly failing at it, she might add—Bastian had apparently decided that meditation was the key to unlocking her inner wolf. He was fixated on the idea.

  Thus far, however, no amount of introspection or reflection had helped.

  She could sit there with Bastian, trying to picture her inner wolf until kingdom come and she was convinced that absolutely nothing would come of it.