Katherine clutched her father's shirt even more tightly in her fists. Because they were hunters. And she was a werewolf. "No, I have no idea."
She felt him nod, a large hand coming up to soothingly rub her back. "Okay. It's okay."
Her dad allowed her to pull away from him after a few more minutes of mutually drawing comfort from each other. Before she could settle back into her chair, however, Sam asked a follow up question that had her already coiled muscles tensing further. "One of the men who broke into the house was found dead near the bottom of the stairs. According to the coroner's report, he'd literally been ripped to pieces. Obviously you aren't nearly strong – or vicious – enough to pull off something like that, but do you have any idea how it happened? Did his partner kill him? How did he do it?"
Both of her parents shot Sam disapproving looks, clearly afraid that the question would distress Katherine, but her sister shrugged unapologetically. "I'm just curious," she defended herself.
She’d already known, of course, that Bastian had killed the deceased hunter, but until that moment, she’d never heard how. Considering the fact that the hunter he’d killed had had a hand in murdering his parents and had nearly succeeded in offing hers as well, however, Katherine could hardly bring herself to be upset by the revelation. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know anything about it."
They all seemed to readily accept that answer, and as they reached the end of their interrogation – Katherine could think of no other word that appropriately described the borage of questions her family had just thrown at her – she took the opportunity to glean a little knowledge of her own.
After all, what had happened after she'd been chased away from her home on that fateful night had been haunting her for months.
"So," she began hesitantly, "what happened after you told me to run, dad? How badly hurt were you and mom? How did you end up getting help in time?"
But it wasn’t her father who answered her. It was her mother.
Elaine frowned, her eyebrows puckering together in confusion. "I was never injured, honey. I wasn't home when those horrid men broke in. I had just finished making supper – beef stew, I remember – when I’d realized we were out of dinner rolls, so I told your father to keep an eye on the food for me while I ran to the grocery store uptown. I’d bumped into Ester Johnson while I was there, and you know that old bird, she insisted on unloading all the neighborhood gossip she'd collected over the week onto me." Her mom allowed an ironic smile to briefly grace her face. "Oddly enough, she was talking to me about you. She told me she'd seen you talking to some strange man outside of her house," her mom shook her head, "or some nonsense like that."
Katherine blanched and hoped her parents didn't notice her suddenly pale complexion. She vividly recalled running into Bastian in front of Mrs. Johnson's house all those months ago. Of course, back then, she’d had no idea who he was – what he was.
Thankfully, neither of them seemed to take note of her sudden pastiness. In fact, her mother’s eyes glazed over as she became an unwilling prisoner to her memories. "When I got home, the first thing I saw was that the garage door had been destroyed," she relayed softly. "Minutes later, I found your dad unconscious in the dining room, covered in blood. Our belongings were in shambles. Your friend Brad was buried under what used to be our table. I called 9-1-1 and they were both rushed to the hospital in Hayfield." She paused and audibly swallowed. "I hadn't even realized that you'd been home, too, until your dad woke up from emergency surgery – the doctors had to remove his spleen – and told me.” She sniffled and Katherine’s heart ached for her mother. It obviously pained her to relive the memory. "I kept calling your phone. I remember being so angry with you for not answering," she admitted. "I left nearly a dozen furious voicemails for you before I realized that you… that you were gone. God, I felt like an awful mother."
Katherine reached out to her mom, wrapping her arms around the distressed woman's neck in what she hoped was a comforting embrace. "It's okay, mom. You didn't know."
Elaine immediately huddled her daughter closer. "We reported you missing right away, of course. As soon as your father had woke up and told me that you’d been in the house too. Due to the circumstances of your disappearance, the police suspected you'd been kidnapped.” She took a deep breath. “Your car was found nearly a hundred miles away at some remote gas station called Gary's Rest Stop, but there wasn't any other sign that you had been there. With no further clues, your trail quickly turned cold, so your father and I came up with the idea of offering a monetary reward to anyone with information that led to us finding you. I swear we never stopped looking, honey."
"I know, mom, I know," she assured her clearly distraught mother. After a moment, Elaine allowed Katherine to slowly extricate herself from where she sat, practically in her lap.
"Sam and Chad have been so helpful," Elaine added, wiping away the tears that streaked her face in an embarrassed manner. "They moved in right away when they’d heard what had happened and that you were missing.”
Katherine glanced her sister's way, hoping Sam could somehow sense the immense gratitude that swelled within her at the revelation. "Thank you," Katherine mouthed to the blonde.
Sam nodded.
Katherine's green eyes shifted to once again meet her mother's teary gaze. "And what about Brad? You said that he was taken to the hospital with dad. Is... Is he okay?"
Please let the answer be yes.
"He's alive," Elaine answered meekly after a fleeting silence.
The corners of Katherine's mouth dipped into a frown. She was relieved, of course, that her classmate had survived the savage attack that the hunters had waged on her home, but was highly suspicious of the solemn way her mother had announced his survival.
Before she could query her mother further, however, her father surprised her with a question of his own. "So where is this Bastian person that took you in? Did he drive you here? If... if what you said is true, I'd like to thank him personally for keeping my daughter safe all this time."
The request had the contents of her stomach suddenly churning with something that felt ridiculously similar to guilt. She was taken off guard by the intense emotion. And positively furious when she recognized it for what it was.
Regret.
Because she certainly didn't regret lying to her parents the way she had. She didn't feel the least bit of remorse about leaving them in the dark about her newly acquired creature status and untimely introduction to the supernatural world.
No. She felt guilty for leaving Haven Falls the way she had. She regretted abandoning Bastian without giving the man a chance to explain himself.
And she was furious because she knew logically that she shouldn't feel that way at all. Katherine gripped the underside of the wooden island countertop as tightly as she could in an effort to suppress both of the unpleasant emotions.
Her father cleared his throat, and Katherine abruptly realized that she had yet to answer his questions. "Uh, no, he didn't drive me. He's still in Canada as far as I know. My memory came back to me so suddenly that in my shock, I took off without telling him or anyone else what had happened. I actually hitchhiked here."
"What?!"
"Katherine, do you know how dangerous that is?"
Just as she had suspected it would, that admission earned her an immediate lecture. But Katherine tuned out her parents' voices, only able to truly focus on the absolutely absurd regret that was gnawing away at her insides.
She had every reason in the world to be infuriated with Bastian – every reason in the world to run from him.
The man had outright lied to her.
But a small part of her still couldn't believe that he'd actually done it. It insisted that he had to have had a good reason at least. But try as Katherine might to think of even the flimsiest of excuses for his behavior, she came up empty. Nothing she could think of could justify what he had done.
He'd told her that her parents were dead.
He
knew firsthand the pain of losing one's mother and father and yet he'd still done it. He knew how awful she felt about what had happened to them – knew how much her heart ached for them – and yet he’d continued to deceive her for months. For God's sake, he'd held her in the forest only two nights ago as she’d broken down about having to celebrate her birthday without them and still, he hadn't told her that they were alive.
In fact, all evidence seemed to point towards the conclusion that he'd been prepared to let her believe the godawful lie he'd told her until she herself was dead in the ground.
The betrayal stung something fierce. And yet her double crossing heart still had the nerve to feel regret.
As if what Bastian had done didn't make her want to vomit.
Forcefully jerking herself out of her spiraling thoughts, Katherine spoke out, thoughtlessly interrupting her mother as she continued to scold her about the dangers of hitchhiking. "I'm tired," she blurted, roughly rubbing her closed eyes with the palms of her hands. "Is it okay if I go to bed now?"
Benjamin sighed and Elaine's stern expression softened. Her father wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Of course, kiddo. We'll talk more about all of this tomorrow, okay?"
Katherine nodded. "Alright."
"And," her mother quickly interjected as Katherine moved to stand up from her chair, "we're going to get you thoroughly checked out by a doctor first thing in the morning. No objections.”
Katherine cringed. "Okay," she agreed, knowing she didn't really have a choice in the matter.
With that, she fled the kitchen.
She hadn't been lying when she'd told her parents she was tired. As she huddled under the covers of what used to be her bed, however, her chaotic thoughts refused to let her drift off. It didn't help that despite the heaviness of her eyelids and the aching in her limbs, her bed didn't feel like it belonged to her any longer. The mattress was too small and too soft. The comforter was too heavy, the pillows too lumpy. No matter what way she positioned herself, she couldn't get comfortable.
What made it all even worse was that every time the Sandman nearly had her under his spell, the door to her bedroom would noisily creak open. Her parents weren't exactly subtle about checking in on her. She could hardly blame them, though, even as night gave way to morning and she'd yet to get any semblance of sleep.
It was as the pink and orange hues of the sunrise began to stream through her window's blinds that she was finally able to doze off.
What felt like mere minutes later, she was awakened by her mother's thin fingers softly stroking her hair. "Rise and shine, Katherine, this morning is going to be a long one."
Somehow she managed to drag herself out of bed and change into some clean clothes.
After her mom fixed her breakfast – a couple of sausage patties jammed between two buttermilk biscuits – Katherine was ushered into her parents’ car, where they preceded to drive her to Hayfield Medical for the dreaded hospital visit that they’d promised the night before.
Apparently they'd called ahead, and Katherine was immediately whisked into a private room the moment they stepped foot into the pristine building. It was on the tip of her tongue to object when she realized that the room was located in the pediatrics unit, but she supposed at only seventeen she was still considered a kid in most people’s eyes.
Even if after everything she'd been through she felt like anything but.
A smiling nurse donning pink scrubs quickly recorded her height – 5’3” as always – and weight – a whopping 117 pounds – before running a thermometer over her forehead in one smooth swipe before it even occurred to Katherine to object.
Both the nurse’s eyebrows shot up as she jotted down the results onto an official looking chart. "102.7 degrees. Are you feeling alright, dear?"
Crap.
Katherine's teeth clamped down on the flesh of her inner cheek. She'd completely forgotten that her body's base temperature had risen dramatically since being changed into a werewolf. Thankfully, the nurse didn’t seem to expect a response to her question as she busied herself attaching Katherine’s arm to a blood pressure machine.
The machine tightened around her bicep before it beeped and began to relax its grip on her arm. The nurse frowned. "Your blood pressure is a bit low," she explained to Katherine as she wrote down those results as well. “That can be due to a number of things, the mostly likely culprit being exhaustion." She pointedly eyed the dark shadows Katherine knew to be present under her eyes. "It's still in the normal range," she assured, "just a bit concerning when taking into consideration your fever."
The woman handed her a papery, pale green hospital gown to change into. "Why don't you slip this on? I'll give you some privacy and go fetch the doctor."
As the door clicked closed behind the nurse, Katherine reluctantly stripped and poked her arms through the holes of the oversized gown, looping the attached strings behind her back before tying them in front of her waist. The gown was intended to be backless, but was large enough for Katherine to cover herself completely. She was thankful as she didn't exactly fancy her rear end hanging out for all to see.
Even if the only ones around to see it were medical professionals.
A sharp knock on the door signaled the arrival of the doctor.
"Come in," Katherine called, taking a seat on the exam table in the corner of the room.
A tall woman with her hair pulled back into a severe bun, who Katherine assumed to be the doctor, entered the room, followed by the nurse who'd taken her vitals. The doctor wasn't dressed in typical hospital garb, but rather a flattering, crème pant suit. Her greeting smile was friendly enough, but also detached – clinical. "Hello there Katherine, I'm Dr. Morgan and I'll be the one performing your health examination today."
Dr. Morgan quickly flipped through the chart the nurse handed her before offering Katherine a hand to shake. The small brunette hesitantly did so.
"Do you have any aches and pains in addition to your fever?" she asked once Katherine had resettled herself.
Katherine furrowed her brows. “No,” she admitted cautiously.
"Hm. How about any allergies?"
She shook her head. “None that I know of.”
"In that case, I'm going to recommend alternating Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen every four hours until your fever goes down, alright?"
As soon as Katherine nodded her head in acceptance of the recommendation, Dr. Morgan disentangled her stethoscope from around her neck. “I'm going to start my examination by listening to your heart and lungs,” she explained bluntly. “Is it alright if I move your gown around a little?”
Katherine nodded her permission, wincing as the cold, metal device touched her bare skin. She inhaled, exhaled, and held her breath as the doctor instructed.
"Perfect," Dr. Morgan praised, before moving on to check her eyes, ears, and nose. Those too were given her stamp of approval.
Katherine’s face heated slightly when the doctor asked to examine her breasts next, but she obligingly slipped off enough of the hospital gown so that it was hanging from her waist before lying back on the exam table.
When Dr. Morgan was finished, she quickly pulled back on the top portion of her gown. She was surprised, though, when instead of performing a pelvic exam next, the doctor allowed her to sit back up.
"Alright, Katherine, before I assess at you any further, I have a sensitive question to ask."
She folded her arms across her chest, not even an inkling of an idea of what that question could be. "Okay?"
“When your mother called and made this appointment for you, she mentioned that you’ve been being housed by an unknown male for the past several months. Is that information correct?"
Katherine frowned. "I suppose to her he's," she used her fingers to emphasis the implied quotation marks around the words, "an unknown male. But I know him."
Dr. Morgan pursed her lips. "Yes, well be that as it may, she's concerned that you may have been forced into having nonconse
nsual intercourse with this man."
…What?
Katherine could literally feel the blood rushing to her head as the words "nonconsensual intercourse" echoed in her ears – the sensation causing an unexpected surge of dizziness to pass through her.
Aware that an angry flush had exploded across her cheeks and was slowly spreading to the rest of her face, Katherine tried without to success to compose herself. "What?" she deadpanned.
"I'm asking your permission to perform a rape kit," the doctor clarified. "It's a fairly invasive procedure, but the evidence garnered from it is often essential in successfully convicting sex offenders.”
Katherine's brain had stopped functioning after the “r-word” had escaped the doctor's mouth.
Rape. Her mother had essentially accused Bastian of rape when she'd spoken to Dr. Morgan.
For a moment, hysterical laughter threatened to bubble up her throat. For God's sake, Katherine had been practically begging the abstentious man to touch her for months.
At least she had been before she'd discovered what a heinous liar he was.
And just like that the urge to laugh vanished.
But the anger was still there, brewing deep in the pit of her belly.
"Get my mom," she forced out between gritted teeth when it became apparent that the doctor was still waiting for a response from her. "Please get her right now."
The pink-clad nurse who'd been silently observing the exam thus far immediately obliged, exiting the room and returning with Katherine's mother in seconds.
Pure concern radiated from Elaine as she took in Katherine’s blotchy, red face. "What's wrong?"
Still perched atop the uncomfortable exam table, she jerked her hand away when her mother attempted to give it a comforting squeeze. She used it to gesture choppily at the doctor, who looked on benignly. "Did you tell this woman that it was okay to perform a rape kit on me?" she demanded.
Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2) Page 9