Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2)

by Marie, Noelle

  Once the submissive partner has been marked, a claiming ceremony occurs shortly thereafter wherein the couple presents themselves as a mated pair to their pack. The submissive wolf must reveal the mark for all to see in addition to performing an elaborate dance as a gift to her dominant mate and to broadcast to the rest of the pack her pleasure at being claimed by him.

  No matter how much Katherine stared – glared, really – at the last sentence of the last paragraph on page 96, the words did not change. She would have to… dance?

  Katherine wasn’t naïve. As tough as she liked to pretend she was, she knew very well who the submissive partner was in her relationship with Bastian. It was her. And she had the mark to prove it.

  Which brought her back to the fact that she was apparently expected to dance.

  Not just in front of Bastian. Not just in front of the pack. But because Bastian was the head alpha of Haven Falls, she was expected to get down in front of the entire town.

  What kind of sadist had made up such a rule?

  Katherine knew there was absolutely no getting out of it either. She doubted Bastian could excuse her from the bizarre ritual without ruffling the feathers – or fur, rather – of the council members who preferred to strictly adhere to tradition. So, like, nearly all of them basically.

  Besides, she didn’t want to hurt Bastian’s feelings by asking him if she could skip out on the dancing part of the ceremony. Somehow, despite the man’s generally stoic nature, she knew that asking him such a question would do exactly that: hurt his feelings. Even if he sometimes pretended not to have them.

  Part of her, though, couldn’t help but feel that Bastian had it coming. It didn’t escape her notice, after all, what the book had said about gift giving. Bastian certainly hadn’t explained to her the significance of accepting the Prince ring when he’d given it to her for her birthday over a month ago. He’d hinted at it in Middletown when he insisted she start wearing it again, but even then, he’d only likened the piece of jewelry to an engagement ring.

  Apparently, it’d actually been a gift to mark his intention to claim her and was meant to keep any other wolves who may have mistakenly thought that she was unattached at bay.

  It certainly explained why he was so adamant that she wear the ring at all times at any rate.

  Sneaky bastard.

  Luckily for Bastian, Katherine was too preoccupied with the apparent “elaborate” dance she’d have to perform to bring herself to be properly mad at him.

  She wondered if a quick shimmy of the hips counted as “elaborate”?

  Besides, she figured the man had already gotten enough of an earful from their pack mates for claiming her last night in the first place.

  Katherine awoke swathed in a mass of heavy blankets, half convinced she was in the midst of a heat stroke. She struggled to shove the oppressive blankets off while at the same time attempting to clear her hazy head. It felt as if her brain had somehow leaked out of her ears the night before, only to be replaced with a lump of scratchy cotton – a common side effect of Not-A-Morning-Personitis, which she suffered from regularly.

  Having successfully kicked the blankets to the bottom of the bed, Katherine was picking off the damp hair stuck to her sweaty forehead when she abruptly realized something important.

  She was naked. Naked as in nude. Completely in the buff.

  But she always slept in some sort of pajamas – even if it was just a ratty, too long t-shirt.

  And just like that, the events of last night came rushing back to her. The concert. Rogue’s attack. Bastian’s reaction. And after all that… she’d asked Bastian to claim her.

  Her memory was suddenly very, very clear.

  They’d had sex. And Bastian had bitten her.

  Katherine’s green eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over the barely noticeable ache on the juncture of her neck and shoulder, tracing with her fingers the indentations that had been impressed into her skin by Bastian’s teeth.

  The small wound was throbbing in time with the beat of her heart, but the pain hardly registered. After all, her entire neck was still incredibly tender from Rogue’s assault the night before.

  Glancing at the bright light pouring in through the gaps of the blinds on the windows – Bastian had replaced the one she’d broken when she’d run away over a month ago immediately upon returning – Katherine estimated that it was already late morning, maybe even early afternoon. Which meant she’d overslept, even by her terms.

  She pulled herself up and made a move to get off of the bed. As soon as she attempted to put weight on her feet, however, a fierce ache shot up her legs and straight through her core. She was startled to realize that she was very sore between her thighs. She braved a glance down there and eyed puffy, pink skin, but was relieved to see that at least there wasn’t any blood streaked between her legs.

  All the same, it served as more physical evidence to what she and Bastian had gotten up to last night. They’d really done it. They’d claimed each other as mates.

  Katherine gauged her feelings with as much honesty as she dared, praying that regret didn’t rear its ugly head.

  She could honestly say that she didn’t feel one ounce of it. A small grin broke free across her face. She was actually really, really happy – the happiest she’d felt in a long time, maybe even ever.

  Except… where was Bastian?

  The grin faded as insecurity welled in her throat.

  Determined to find the answer to that question, Katherine forced herself to stand on wobbly legs, this time prepared for the pain that immediate sparked between them. Steadfastly ignoring the discomfort it caused her, Katherine clumsily pulled on the robe that had been discarded on the floor the night before and peeked into the bathroom to make sure the man wasn’t hiding in there before heading for the hallway. Softly shutting the bedroom door behind her, she made her way towards the sound of voices that seemed to be coming from the direction of the dining room.

  “-Katherine.”

  When she heard her name spoken in the deep tenor of Bastian’s timbre, instinct had her immediately halting. Creeping forward just slightly, Katherine kept herself hidden behind the corner of where the hallway ended and the dining room began and unashamedly eavesdropped.

  “Oh, Bastian, how could you?” It was Sophie who’d responded to whatever it was that Bastian had announced, and Katherine didn’t know if she’d ever heard the blonde sound so disappointed before.

  “I’m… I mean… I don’t know if I entirely approve either.” Caleb was apparently in on the conversation as well.

  “Making good on the first opportunity that presents itself, huh?” And there was Markus, adding his two cents as usual, except that he sounded unduly… angry?

  What was it that Bastian had said?

  The clamor of a scuffle breaking out had Katherine straightening, and she was about to reveal herself when a noise that sounded suspiciously like a head cracking against the wall echoed in her ears. Bastian’s authoritative voice boomed from the other side of the wall. “How dare you suggest I would take advantage of Katherine? She asked me to claim her. Who would I be to deny her such a request when I’ve long for it so long myself?”

  So that’s what it was that Bastian had proclaimed – he’d told them that he’d claimed her. But why did they all sound so distraught? She thought they all liked – even loved – each other in their own way. For a moment, she allowed insecurity to reign.

  Zane speaking over Bastian’s loud growling confirmed her suspicions that, indeed, the entire pack was discussing her love life – without her even present to object – in the frickin’ dining room of all places. “Markus didn’t mean anything by it,” Zane attempted to mediate. “He just… we all just…” he trailed off.

  Sophie took over for him. “What Zane – what we all – are trying to say is that Katherine was really upset last night. Who wouldn’t be after being ambushed the way she was? She was probably feeling extremely vulnerable when she aske
d you to claim her. You know that we all want you and Katherine to get together already. We’re just saying that last night might not have been the best time to actually do it.”

  The blonde’s spiel reminded Katherine eerily of the concerns that Bastian had aired the night before – the man had been worried that she didn’t really want him to claim her and that it was just the trauma Rogue had enforced on her talking.

  She could practically feel Bastian beginning to doubt himself – beginning to doubt their bond. It incensed Katherine.

  “Does she even know what being claimed as the mate of the head alpha entails? How she’ll be looked to as a leader in her own right? How about the fact that she’ll have to complete the final stage of the claiming – the actual ceremony – in front of the entire town?”

  “I…” Bastian floundered for a moment, clearly abashed by the chiding questions.

  Katherine had had enough.

  Stepping out from around the corner she’d been hiding behind and ignoring her pack mates’ startled expressions and the fact that Bastian had Markus pinned against the wall, she began to speak. “Bastian didn’t do anything wrong,” her voice was as sharp as the bruising of her throat allowed as she scolded at them. “He’s right – I did ask him to claim me. But certainly not because I was scared or whatever convoluted reason that it is you’ve all come up with. I do have needs, you know, just like any other person. I’ve wanted Bastian for a long time, and what we did last night was… well, it was beautiful, amazing, exhilarating – whatever word you want to use. It was just… right. So please don’t stand there and tell Bastian otherwise because you are the ones who are so utterly wrong, not him.”

  The only response to her unexpected rant was dumbstruck silence. Giving her pack a minute to digest her words, Katherine turned to face Bastian, who looked as flummoxed by her sudden appearance as the rest of them. “Can you please put Markus down now?”

  The man immediately obliged.

  Markus rolled his shoulders and straightened his crumped t-shirt as soon as he was released. “Thanks,” he muttered lowly to Katherine. “And I’m sorry,” he added somewhat begrudgingly.

  Markus’ apology seemed to set off a chain reaction and three more apologies echoed throughout the room, Caleb’s especially repentant as he popped up in front of Katherine and entreated her forgiveness.

  But it wasn’t hers to give. She wasn’t the one they owed an apology to after all. She immediately told them so.

  “It’s Bastian you all accused of taking advantage of me. Shouldn’t you be apologizing to him?”

  “Of course,” Zane immediately agreed, standing and bowing before Bastian. “We’re sorry for questioning you, alpha.”

  Sophie stood up as well, fiddling for a moment with the ends of her long hair before sighing and squarely meeting Bastian’s eyes. “I should have known better than to ever think that you could hurt Katherine,” she admitted. “I see the way you care for her.” Her gaze shifted to Katherine. “The way she cares for you. I’m sorry, brother.”

  Bastian offered a terse nod. “You were out of line,” he agreed, “but, I suppose I can forgive your misconduct this once.” He glanced around the room. “I know you were all just doing your best to look out for Katherine.”

  Katherine scowled when Markus mused her already tangled hair with a too rough hand. “It’s hard not to feel a bit protective of princess here, especially after she came waltzing in all bloodied and bruised last night.”

  She grumpily batted the man’s hand away, but he just laughed at her put out expression.

  Rolling her eyes at Markus’s antics, she wrapped her hand around as much of one of Bastian’s thick wrists as she was able and tugged. “Now that that’s all settled, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”

  “Yeah, she does have needs, you know. And you apparently meet them so beautifully. Or was it amazingly? Exhilaratingly?”

  Dear. God.

  Her face, she was sure, reddened enough to rival an overripe tomato. Just barely managing to reel in the urge to punch Markus in his smart mouth, she ignored the others’ snickering at his obscene comment and dragged an obliging Bastian back to their bedroom.

  She’d only just closed the door behind them when she found herself crushed against a hard chest, strong arms encircling her in an unyielding grip. A chaste kiss was pressed to her forehead. “I love you.”

  Ignoring the way her heart fluttered at the softly spoken confession, Katherine craned her neck up in such a way that she could look into the man’s eyes. “You do know that I don’t regret last night, right? I meant everything I said. I… I’m happy to officially be yours.”

  Bastian grinned. “Just happy? Not Overjoyed? Elated? Blissful?”

  Katherine fought the urge to smile at the light hearted teasing. “Fine, I’m over the moon to be yours.”

  Bastian’s grin widened, his lone dimple making an appearance at the pun. “I love you.”

  Katherine couldn’t possibly stop the corners of her mouth from rising this time. “You already said that,” she pointed out lightly.

  “It’s no less true now than it was a minute ago.”

  Katherine bit down on her bottom lip. “So, you’re... happy to be mine then, too?”

  “Katherine, it’s like I’ve already told you, I’ve always been yours.”

  She had reached up on her tippy-toes and pressed her lips to his after that. What had meant to be a chaste peck had quickly progressed into something more, but worried that she might still be sore from the night before – which, okay, she was – Bastian hadn’t let it progress to anything more intense than kissing.

  He’d left to gather the alphas of Haven Falls for an impromptu council meeting nearly immediately after. Even knowing that he was calling the meeting in order to inform the other alphas that he’d had sex with her and claimed her as his mate, Katherine wasn’t bothered by his rushed departure.

  Mostly because as soon as she heard the SUV start up and the gravel begin crunching under its massive tires, she was free to jam her hand between the mattresses of the bed and pull out the book that Zane had borrowed her only a few days before – The Physiology of Mating.

  She’d firmly shoved the questions she’d overheard Sophie demanding of Bastian to the back of her mind at the time in favor of defending the man, but one question in particular – the one about what Katherine would apparently have to do in front of everybody at the claiming ceremony – had a curious mix of curiosity and dread forming in the pit of her stomach.

  After reading what she had on page 96, she’d quickly come to the conclusion that she’d had good reason to feel that way. Because Katherine would have to dance at the ceremony. By herself. In front of everyone.

  She recalled that Bastian had likened a claiming ceremony to a wedding reception when he’d first brought the topic up in Middletown. Katherine supposed that what she was expected to do could be equated to a first dance of sorts – except, of course, that she would be the only one dancing while Bastian got to sit there and watch her make a fool of herself in front of the entire town.

  Yeah.

  At least she didn’t need to say any vows – public speaking wasn’t exactly her forte. But, then again, neither was letting her body speak for her.

  Which was precisely why she was having a bit of a meltdown.

  Katherine didn’t doubt that the council would demand the ceremony take place as soon as possible. That probably gave her a couple of days then – if she was lucky – to come up with some sort of “elaborate” dance.

  Sighing at the predicament she found herself in, Katherine took the only action she could think of and reluctantly trudged out of her bedroom and peeked her head into the dining room. Sophie, Caleb, Markus, and Zane were all still there and accounted for.

  “Um, guys? I need your help.”

  * * *

  After an embarrassing brainstorming session with her pack mates – “For the last time, I’m not going to give Bastian a lap danc
e, Markus! – Katherine had thought that she’d come up with an idea that was… well, actually pretty good to be honest.

  The only problem, of course, was that she doubted she’d be able to perform the dance as flawlessly as she’d conjured it in her mind. While her natural grace and flexibility had improved drastically upon becoming a werewolf, cheerleading practice was the closest thing to a dance lesson she’d ever had in her life. And the dance she had planned didn’t exactly involve any “rah-rahing” or waving around a pair of pom-poms.

  Fortunately, upon hearing of the circumstances that had prompted Bastian to claim Katherine – namely that Rogue had attacked the small brunette and choked her brutally enough to leave an array of ugly bruises around her neck as evidence – the council had agreed to delay the claiming ceremony for an entire week so that she may have a chance to recover. Apparently, the reveal of the claiming mark was considered to be the most important part of the ceremony, and the council wanted the crescent shaped punctures that Bastian’s teeth had formed on the juncture of her neck and shoulder to be visible, not hidden amongst an array of discolored bruises.

  Katherine hardly cared why they’d chosen to delay the ceremony, she was just glad that they had. She needed the extra time to practice.

  Unfortunately, every time Katherine attempted to sneak away to do said practicing, some well-meaning visitor would drop by the house to offer his or her congratulations to the newly formed couple.

  It didn’t take long for news of their mating to make it around the town – approximately two hours after the meeting Bastian had called if Katherine were to hazard a guess. It was when the first visitor had stopped by after all.

  Visitors of the female persuasion came baring gifts.

  Women and girls she didn’t know the names of brought her all sorts of trinkets. They ranged from homemade soaps and body salts to books of recipes and hand forged jewelry. Priscilla, even, had stopped by to fork over a generously sized tub of body oil that she’d apparently made herself. Agnes, too, who had been sporting an enormous grin on her face at the time, had gifted her a bottle of wine.