Chad must have believed him because he grimaced at the threat and started moving. His face turned as white as a sheet as he slowly used the edge of the countertop to pull himself up to his feet. Even standing, however, he remained hunched over, arms clutching his abused stomach. Katherine couldn’t find it in herself to feel sympathy for the man, though, especially when he scowled darkly in her direction from where she still sat, half hidden behind Bastian.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered under his breath. Bastian stiffened beside her, his whole body thrumming with tension. For a second, Katherine thought Chad would be dumb enough to say something more, and Bastian would explode into a wolf before her very eyes and tear the man to pieces. But a single glance at the glaring alpha was enough to make Chad hold his tongue and he cowered – or limped, rather – his way to the door.
A heavy silence descended upon the room as soon as the door slammed shut behind him.
“I think I need to lie down for a while,” Samantha said after a tense moment, shooting Katherine an indecipherable look before hastily fleeing the room.
Apparently, that was all that was needed to shock her mother out of her stunned stupor, but Katherine could tell the woman was still inwardly reeling from the grisly scene she’d walked into not ten minutes before. “Who are you?” she asked Bastian bluntly.
Before he could open his mouth, Katherine forced the answer past her own suddenly clumsy tongue for him. “Mom, dad, this is… Bastian.”
Her mother stared as her, comprehension slowly dawning on her face. “Bastian?” she choked. “The man who you stayed with while you were in Canada? That Bastian?”
She turned to face “the man” in question before Katherine could even begin to think of an explanation for his presence. “How did you get here?” she demanded, walking up to Bastian and actually having the audacity to jab a finger into his chest.
Thankfully, her father chose that moment to intervene.
“Elaine, I don’t care how he got here,” her father sternly admonished her, taking his wife off guard. “He saved our daughter. Why don’t you make yourself useful and go check on Sam?” Though it was worded as a suggestion, his tone left no room for argument. Elaine huffed indignantly, but reluctantly retreated from the kitchen.
Katherine didn’t know if she’d ever loved her father more than in that exact moment.
“Step aside.”
And then he had to go and give an alpha wolf a direct order. Katherine knew the man didn’t know that Bastian was what was supposed to be a mythical creature, one that could tear out his throat in a heartbeat if he wanted to, but still.
Predictably, Bastian didn’t budge from where he’d positioned himself in front of her and actually stepped further into her father’s way when he made a move towards her. Katherine didn’t know what was going on in her dad’s head as he warily scrutinized the man, but she was pleasantly surprised that when he spoke again, he didn’t sound upset. “I volunteer as a paramedic on weekends,” he explained to Bastian. “I’m just going to patch her up.”
Katherine could tell that Bastian still didn’t want to let the other man – even if it was her father – anywhere near her, but when she gently squeezed the arm she still hadn’t let go of before finally releasing it, he took the hint and moved out of the way.
“Do you feel well enough to walk to the couch?” her dad asked after quickly taking stock of her injuries. “You’ll probably be more comfortable there while I fix you up.”
No sooner had the suggestion left his mouth than had Bastian quickly murmured, “I’ll carry her,” and preceded to do just that. He sat her down carefully on one of the living room couch’s soft cushions. Katherine quickly latched onto his hand before he could straighten up, tugging on it and indicating that she’d like him to sit next to her.
He acquiesced her immediately.
Her father’s face transformed into a pinched frown as he began mopping up the blood that had started to congeal around Katherine’s mouth and nose with a damp washcloth.
“It’s just a bloody nose,” she said, both to assure the men that were staring at her with such concern and to fill the uneasy silence that had befallen the room. “I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding all over the place, Kit,” her dad scolded gently, tenderly dabbing beneath her nostrils.
He finished cleaning her face in silence, tossing the blood-stained washcloth he’d been using to wipe her up with in the trash can before starting to inspect her nose. He pinched it lighting between his thumb and forefinger, and Katherine winced at the sting. If possible, Bastian tensed up further beside her.
“Well, it’s not broken,” her dad said after a minute more of examining her nose. “It looks worse than it actually is because of the swelling, but it should heal just fine on its own.”
Katherine had to sit still as her father then applied an antibiotic cream to a small scratch on her cheek that she hadn’t even realized she’d acquired and put one tiny – and probably completely unnecessary – suture in the gash on her temple.
“How’d this happen?” he questioned softly as he made the quick stitch.
Katherine blanked for a moment, but forced her lips and tongue to work together when her father raised an eyebrow at her lack of response.
“I hit my head when Chad pushed me down.” The lie that flew from her mouth was the only one she could think of in that moment, but it was the perfect explanation.
Her father’s eyes narrowed and he exhaled harshly from his nose in an attempt to calm his obvious anger. Bastian, on the other hand, clenched the fists in his lap together so tightly that his knuckles turned bone white.
Katherine hoped the man knew that she didn’t hold him responsible for the infinitesimal cut. He’d been so lost in his fury that he’d had very little control over his actions when she’d been pulling at his arm, and she knew he hadn’t meant to swat her away like a pesky fly.
“Does it hurt anywhere else?” her dad asked when he finished with the suture.
“No,” Katherine hastily assured him. “Like I said, I’m fine.”
Both men frowned, but neither pressed her.
“Should I call the police?” her father asked instead. “Do you want to press charges?”
Katherine paled. “No!” she immediately denied. She’d dealt with enough questions from Sheriff Sanders after she’d returned from her seven month absence. Besides, she didn’t want him to get wind of the face that Bastian was in town. Then he’d have to deal with the police too. “Can you make sure mom knows that too, please?”
She hoped her mother hadn’t called them already. She wouldn’t put it past her.
Benjamin sighed, but nodded. “Speaking of your mother, the woman could do with better timing, but she made a good point when she asked you how… Bastian,” he said slowly, testing the name out on his tongue as he glanced at the man, “got here.”
Katherine bit her lip.
“She called me,” Bastian spoke up gruffly from where he still sat beside her.
Her dad eyed the man before turning back to face his daughter. “I thought you said he didn’t have a cell phone,” he reminded her gently.
Katherine nervously played with her fingers. “I lied.”
About so many things.
She was even lying about having lied for God’s sake. Bastian, in fact, didn’t have a cell phone.
“Is there anything else you feel the need to fess up to?” Her dad pinned her into place with an analytical stare.
So much.
But she had a feeling she knew what her dad was not so subtly referring to. “Bastian is… more than a friend to me.”
“More than a friend” was an abhorrent understatement and didn’t come close to defining their relationship, but she couldn’t exactly tell her father that they were destined mates, now could she?
Katherine knew that her dad was going easy on her due to the ordeal she’d just been through when instead of prying for more information at her c
onfession, he merely ran an agitated hand through his graying hair. She didn’t know if she’d ever seen him look so lost.
After a moment, he angled his body towards Bastian, not quite looking at him as he directed his next words in his general vicinity. “Thank you for saving my daughter. I am grateful beyond words, but I think it’d be best if you leave now.”
Bastian’s eyes noticeably darkened, and Katherine sensed immediately that he was not going to oblige, so thinking quickly, she hastily threw her arms around his neck and whispered surreptitiously in his ear. “Climb in through my bedroom window. I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”
When she reluctantly pulled away, his irises were a tad lighter, but his posture was still incredibly stiff as he reluctantly stood up to leave.
“Go ahead. I’ll talk to you later,” she said aloud for her father’s benefit. The man didn’t need to know that “later” meant as soon as she could escape to her bedroom.
Bastian nodded jerkily, his feet literally dragging across the floor as Benjamin led him to the door. Katherine heard it close behind him with a quiet click.
Her father reappeared in the living room. “I’m going to go make sure your sister’s okay,” he informed her. “Stay here. We still need to talk.”
He returned a few minutes later with her mother in tow. If Katherine had known that by “talk”, he’d really meant she’d have to brave a teary interrogation, Katherine might have tried to make a break for it.
“Oh honey!” he mother exclaimed, sitting in the same space that Bastian had just occupied and squeezing her hand in what Katherine knew was supposed to be an attempt at solace. It was hard to feel comforted, though, when the tears swimming in her mother’s eyes looked like they might overflow at any moment. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Katherine assured quietly, but the words tasted suspiciously like a lie. While it was true that she was physically okay, now that the shock over the events of the last hour was beginning to wear off, she found that her insides felt a bit like they were trembling.
Her mother nodded doubtfully. “Has Chad ever touched you before?”
Katherine’s breath caught in her throat. Not unless one counting harassing her at his wedding reception or making a grab at her last night in the bathroom. She exhaled shakily. “No, never.” Another lie.
She must have been convincing enough, though – or her mother wanted to be convinced, at any rate – because the woman’s shoulders slumped in relief and she pulled Katherine into a one sided hug. “Oh, thank God,” she muttered. “I was so worried that he’d maybe done something like this before and you just hadn’t said anything. Your sister felt so awful that maybe she hadn’t noticed. I felt so awful.”
Katherine stiffened and retreated from her mother’s embrace, but the woman didn’t seem to notice her tense posture. Her mother felt awful? Her sister felt awful? Had it occurred to either one of them that maybe she felt beyond awful at what had just almost happened?
She had been the one pinned forcefully to the floor, after all.
“Now, honey,” Elaine started, seemingly willing to let the subject of Chad drop for now, and Katherine was relieved until the woman revealed who she did want to talk about, “your father told me that you and this Bastian character, well, that you’re… more than friends.”
Katherine pursed her lips at the way her mother said “this Bastian character”, but nodded anyway. “Yes,” she answered matter-of-factly, “we are.”
“And you felt the need to hide this from us? You denied it when we asked you if you were romantically involved with him. Why would you do that?”
“Because you already thought that he was some demented rapist, mom!” Katherine exploded before she could get a handle on her temper. “But you don’t have to worry; he’s not anything like your precious Chad!”
Her mother flinched at the words, and the guilt they’d inflicted upon her made the woman’s gaze drop to her lap. “I’m so sorry that Chad hurt you, honey. I truly thought that he was an exceptional young man, but you’re right. As your mother I should have seen the signs of something like this coming.”
Katherine sighed, her anger disappearing as quickly as it’d come. “It’s not your fault, mom.”
She thought that was the line that they were supposed to be feeding her after nearly having been forced to… been forced to…
Katherine couldn’t even think it.
And she suddenly felt very tired. It was almost like she could physically feel the last remnants of adrenaline leave her system, and in its place, exhaustion settled in her bones.
It wasn’t even noon.
She abruptly realized that her father was talking and forced herself to focus on the sound of his voice. “Look, Kit, your mother and I aren’t mad at you, but we need to know if there’s anything else that you’ve refrained from telling us about – if there’s anything else that we need to know.”
Only that she’d been changed into what was supposed to be a mythical creature. And nothing as flashy or flamboyant as a unicorn or sparkly vampire either.
Katherine curled into herself. “No,” she muttered.
Her parents sent each other what Katherine suspected were supposed to be furtive glances. “Nothing at all?” her father hedged.
She felt like she may as well have had the word “liar” branded onto her forehead with capital letters by then, but forced herself to shake her head in the negative anyway.
Her father sighed, but accepted the answer. “Alright. I know you said that you didn’t want to press charges against Chad,” he spat the man’s name from his mouth, “but I encourage you to rethink that decision.”
Katherine wouldn’t change her mind, but knew her father meant well so she nodded jerkily. “Okay.”
After she had agreed to think about it, her father surprised her by enclosing her stiff form in a tender embrace. He pressed his face into her hair. “Just say the word, and I’ll make sure his worthless ass is thrown in a jail cell, okay?”
Her dad didn’t wait for a reply, pulling away after scrutinizing her facial injuries one last time.
Her mom offered Katherine a hug of her own. “I’m going to clean up the kitchen,” she said after releasing her. Katherine tried very hard not to think of the splattered egg and smeared blood currently decorating the room in question’s floor. “Did you want me to make you something to eat when I’m done?”
She shook her head, her appetite having disintegrated into nothing long ago. “That’s okay. I think I’m just going to go upstairs and rest.”
She needed Bastian.
Her mother and father both agreed that lying down for a while was probably ideal, and Katherine took her leave.
As soon as she stepped foot into her bedroom, her entire being was smothered by warmth. Bastian’s body folded itself around hers, his strong, protective arms encircling her small form and easily carrying her to the bed centered in the room. His hands were everywhere as he checked her over for nonexistent injuries. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded gruffly.
And Katherine lost it.
Whatever it was that had been holding her together in the immediately aftermath of the near assault buckled under the perceived blame in his voice, and Katherine collapsed into the man’s arms. “I’m sorry,” she choked out as tears began overflowing from her eyes.
The true horror of what she’d been through was quickly catching up to her.
Bastian recognized his mistake immediately. “Hey, no,” he cooed, patting her hair as she buried her face into the crook of his neck. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who’s sorry.” He peppered a dozen chaste kissed to the small gash on her forehead as if to prove his point. “I saw Sophie loitering near the house after my shower this morning and knew that the pack was probably concerned that I hadn’t return the night before so I went out to assure her that everything was fine.” So that was why Chad had seen him climbing out of her bedroom window. “When I got back, I
heard you yelling downstairs. I rushed down, but I… I failed to protect you.”
Katherine could hear in his words how terribly ashamed Bastian was of this, but she was sobbing so hard that instead of telling him that he had protected her, all she could manage to do was clutch him to her more tightly.
“I swear on my life, Katherine, I will never allow anything like that to happen again.” He vowed, whispering the words into her hair as he held her and allowed her to cry.
Eventually she was all out of tears. She refused to move from her spot on Bastian’s lap, however, even as her breathing calmed and the soothing hand rubbing her back became still. Swollen, aching eyes still buried into Bastian’s neck, she finally forced herself to speak. “I want to go home,” she muttered against him. “I just want to go home.”
Bastian’s solid arms held her all the more securely.
* * *
“I’m glad to see you eating something.”
Katherine had heard the approaching footsteps as she idly waited for the leftover beef stew to reheat in the microwave and kept her red-rimmed eyes averted as she half-heartedly acknowledged her father. “Yeah.”
It’d been nearly midnight by the time Katherine had finally decided to leave the bedroom she’d barricaded herself in with Bastian and hadn’t anticipated meeting up with her father in the kitchen. She’d locked herself up in her room in the first place because she didn’t want her parents or sister to see the shiny, swollen skin around her eyes, clear evidence of the repeated crying fits she’d suffered.
But her stomach’s angry growling could only be ignored for so long after skipping as many meals as she had. Bastian had to have been hungry as well, and she would have offered to bring him up something to fill his belly with, but he was fast asleep when she’d managed to somehow pry his heavy limbs off of her and sneak downstairs.
All her hiding had apparently been for not, though, because there her father was, taking in her pink, puffy eyes with a frown. He refrained from commenting on her haggard appearance, however, and Katherine was grateful. She was grateful for all her father had done for her that day.
Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2) Page 18