Sophie had once again helped her get ready for the ceremony – styling her hair, painting her face, and donning her in the hides of Bastian’s most impressive kills. Then, after Katherine had taken a moment to compose herself in the bathroom, they’d left the house as a group, and her pack had led her here – to the clearing where Bastian awaited.
Her stomach tightened uncomfortably as Markus, Sophie, Caleb, and Zane abandoned her near the flames of the fire before striding forward to take their places slightly behind Bastian where he stood staring, his eyes unashamedly roaming over her covered form.
Katherine’s hands shook, her heart beating impossibly louder in her ears as the pounding of the drums abruptly came to a halt.
Her heart, however, did not.
Lub dub, lub dub.
Lub dub, lub dub.
For a long moment, the wild thumping of the organ was all she could hear.
Then, after what felt like an eternity – but in reality was probably only a minute or two – had passed, the drums started up again just as suddenly as they had stopped. This time, though, the tempo they played at wasn’t fixed. Instead of a steady rhythm, the music they produced was fast and complex, sending shivers down her spine and sparking within her an impulse to move.
To dance.
So that’s what she did.
Ignoring the hundreds of pairs of eyes on her in exception of one – in exception of his – she began her dance… by collapsing to the ground, clutching her ankle with her hands.
There was a collective gasp among the throng of people watching her, and Katherine quickly sprung herself back to her feet in one graceful movement, stretching her arms far above her head as she reached for the sky – the moon – before anyone could rush forward to aid her.
She wasn’t really hurt. It was all a part of the dance routine she’d prepared for her mate. It was the story of them – of Bastian and Katherine.
She twirled for her audience, the movements of her limbs incredibly sharp and wild as she tried to portray the way she’d felt when she’d been bitten and her world had spun out of her control. She’d been attacked by a hunter, thought she’d gotten her parents killed, and was thrust into a way of life she knew nothing about all in the span of a few days. She was forced to live with a group of people she was convinced she hated. She hadn’t known then how much she’d grow to love them – grow to love him. She was just a scared, resentful, utterly lost little girl.
And then her feelings began to change.
Katherine’s dancing slowed. She exerted more control over her limbs, her movements shifting from wild to something more refined and graceful. Letting the melodious beating of the drums lead her, Katherine’s twirling slowly came to a stop. She clutched her hands to her chest, directly above her heart, and hoped that Bastian knew what it meant.
To her, it symbolized when they’d first spoken aloud their feelings for each other – directly after Cain’s unprovoked attack. She left her hands there for a long moment, feeling her heart fluttering restlessly beneath them.
And then taking a deep breath, she scrunched up her face, dropped her chin to her chest and fell to her knees with a soft thud. She tried to portray how she’d felt when she’d learned that Bastian had lied to her – that despite his insistence that her parents her dead, they were alive – and incredibly worried about her. While mostly healed, her heart hadn’t completely forgotten the betrayal, and it was easy to depict the emotions she’d felt – anger, confusion, and so much hurt – when she’d discovered the lie.
But Katherine forced herself to her feet. Because Bastian had atoned for his actions. Because she’d forgiven him. Katherine would forgive him anything.
Slowly making her way towards the man watching her with rapt eyes, Katherine twirled this way and that, embodying the fact that the road they’d traveled together hadn’t been an easy one. Their journey had been filled with twists and turns, mistakes and bouts of stubbornness, and too many near death experiences to count. But in the end, they’d made it.
They’d fought for each other.
And they always would.
The beating of the drums reached a crescendo as Katherine finally reached Bastian, and not thinking twice about her actions, she came to a stop in front of him – practically on top of him, really, as she contorted her body around his, throwing one of her legs over his and circling her hands behind his neck.
The drums came to an abrupt halt just as Katherine threw her head backwards, the hood flying off of it and her hair dancing in the wind as she bared her neck to the side and presented the mark Bastian had left on her skin for everyone – but most importantly of all, for him – to see.
Katherine’s chest heaved as she remained wrapped around her mate – her Bastian. Her ears finally took note of something besides the drums or the lub dub of her heart as the appreciative cheers and whistling from the crowd registered. But there was only one person’s opinion that she cared about.
When he was finally able to peel his eyes away from the teeth marks he’d left on her neck and immediately captured her mouth with his, she knew without a single doubt that he approved.
* * *
Katherine couldn’t help but stare at the way the droplets of water clung to Bastian’s body, a few of the larger drops following the indented paths of ridged muscle as they slowly trickled off his back and disappeared into the grass beneath him.
It really wasn’t fair how stupidly lickable he look in a swimsuit. In a swimsuit and soaking wet? Well, it was really no wonder why Katherine had lost all sense of self-control and was unabashedly staring at the man sitting beside her like he was a tall glass of water on a hot, hot day. In the middle of the Sahara.
To be fair, it was an uncommonly warm spring day – for Canada anyway – which was how she’d managed to convince Bastian to take her swimming in the first place.
It’d been a week since the claiming ceremony, and she and Bastian had hardly left their bedroom in that time – Bastian had been very “hands on” since the ceremony to say the least – and as much as she loved snuggling in their make shift love nest, she’d been starting to go stir crazy.
Swimming had been the perfect excuse to get out of the house for a bit.
The crystal clear water had felt amazing against her flushed skin on such a warm day, and she’d been having a blast until Markus – the entire pack had tagged along, of course – had dared her to jump from the top of the falls. Despite Bastian’s protests, Katherine had propelled herself up the wall of rock. Only to completely chicken out when she got to the top and looked down. Or she would have chickened out, anyway, if Markus, who’d followed her up, hadn’t taken it upon himself to pick her up and fling her off the ledge.
The embarrassing scream she’d let out as she’d plummeted towards the water mirrored nearly exactly what she imagined a dying cat would sound like.
Bastian, amidst cursing and threats of bodily harm to his beta, had caught her at the bottom. Markus remained cackling at the top of the falls.
Katherine had taken it upon herself to prevent bloodshed – namely Bastian’s promise to rip Markus apart with his bare hands (even if the man deserved exactly that) – by telling him she was tired of swimming and asking if he wanted to step out of the water ad sunbathe with her for a while.
The chance to ogle him to her heart’s content was a side benefit she hadn’t anticipated, but was all too happy to take advantage of nonetheless.
At least until his amused blue eyes caught her in the act.
Crap.
A violent blush burst across her face and she quickly averted her eyes. How transparent could she possibly be?
“What are you thinking about?” Bastian prompted mischievously from his spot to her left.
Certainly not how much she wanted to lick his damp skin.
Katherine shouldn’t have been as affected by his body as she was. She’d seen him in less than a swimsuit after all. And more than once, too. In the week since the resched
uled ceremony, there had definitely been sex. Lots and lots of glorious sex.
Clothed or unclothed, she didn’t think she could ever get sick of looking at Bastian.
Not that she was about to tell Bastian that. There was no way he didn’t already know how stupidly attractive she thought he was. Instead, Katherine brought up something that had been on her mind for quite a while, but that she hadn’t yet had the courage to voice.
“Don’t you find it strange that we’ve only known each other for a handful of months, but that our feelings for each other are so strong? I mean, I know we’re true mates and everything that entails, but there’s a lot about me that you don’t even know. You don’t know what kind of music I like or the names of my favorite authors. You don’t even know my favorite color!”
Bastian offered her a bemused smile. “I know what’s important.”
Katherine couldn’t help but raise an incredulous eyebrow at that claim. “Oh yeah?”
“Of course,” he assured. “I know that you’re the sweetest, most compassionate, courageous person that I’ve ever-”
Katherine slapped a hand over his mouth, stopping him before more flattering adjectives escaped from the orifice. She doubted she was the most compassionate or courageous person who’d ever walked the earth, and she knew damn well that she wasn’t the sweetest, but the fact that he thought it about her, well… it was almost enough to make her believe that maybe one day she could be those things.
But that wasn’t what she said. What she said was: “You’re full of crap.”
Gently prying her hand off his face, he laughed. “Okay, well if it makes you feel any better, I also know that you’re such an awful morning person that I’m half convinced you’re allergic to the sunrise, that you drool in your sleep, and that you have a foulmouthed predisposition for name-calling when someone flusters you.”
Katherine sputtered. “Yeah, well… you’re a jackass.”
“And you said we don’t know each other.”
Katherine rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop a treacherous grin from curling up the corners of her lips.
An easy silence overtook them once more.
“So, what is your favorite color?”
Katherine furrowed her brow. “What?”
“What’s your favorite color?” Bastian repeated. “You seemed to think it was important that I know.”
Staring into his eyes, Katherine blurted out the answer – “blue” – without thinking, a fierce blush overtaking her face immediately after.
He smirked. “Oh? And, why’s that?”
He knew exactly why.
“Well, because the sky is blue,” she blurt out dumbly, refusing to give him what he wanted. “And… blueberries,” she added, cringing internally at how vapid she sounded. “I like blueberries.”
What?
Bastian laughed – the guffaw that escaped his mouth the loudest she think she’d ever heard come from him. It was music to her ears and made a smile pull unbidden at her lips.
“Yeah, well, what’s your favorite color?” she pretended to huff.
His smirk softened into a smile as he tucked a damp strand of hair behind her hair. “Green, of course.”
She swallowed around a nonexistent lump in her throat, suddenly feeling emotional. “Because of the grass?” she ventured.
“No.” He slowly shook his head in denial.
She glanced at the trees towering above them. “The leaves?”
His eyes crinkled around the edges as his smile widened, seemingly amused by the game she was playing. “Wrong again.” He brought his hands up to gently cup her face, rubbing his calloused thumbs over the healthy skin beneath her eyes. “It’s because of these that my favorite color is green.” He allowed one hand to stroke her flushed cheek. “Though I have to admit that red is a close second.”
Katherine reluctantly disentangled her face from his hands. “Yes, well I retain that I like the color blue because-”
“Because of blueberries,” he finished for her, his tone of voice speaking of endless amusement.
They both knew she was a reprehensible liar.
“Exactly.”
“I love learning new things about you,” Bastian spoke after a moment of contented silence. “The best part is I have an entire lifetime to do just that.”
“An entire lifetime with you, huh?”
Bastian grinned. “That’s what you signed up for. Not regretting it already, are you? I suppose I could hardly blame you if you were. After all, as you so sweetly pointed out, I am a jackass.”
Katherine laughed before pressing her lips to his in a chaste kiss.
“Regret it?” Regret Bastian? “Not even a little.”
END
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Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2) Page 30