by Noelle Marie
Besides tightening his hold on her, his fingers curling possessively around her hip bone as he helped her stand, Bastian didn’t acknowledge her words. “Fine,” he finally said, directing the word at Sophie, “but if anything happens to her, I’m holding you personally responsible.”
Sophie nodded earnestly. “Of course.”
Rolling her eyes at their disregard of her, Katherine returned the favor and ignored them as she turned to look at Caleb. “Toothbrush?” she asked.
Caleb quickly handed it over. “Here.”
“Thanks,” she said, eyeing him and the rest of the pack as they continued to stare at her. It’s almost like they expect you to faint next, a dark voice inside her head jested. “Shows over,” she added abruptly, taking two strides towards the sink and roughly twisting the handle labeled “cold”. She shoved the soft bristles of her toothbrush under the running water.
She really shouldn’t have been surprised when they looked to Bastian for confirmation.
“Out,” he agreed, and while the pack grumbled at the order, they obeyed.
Well, all of them but the man who’d issued said order, of course.
Katherine could feel his stare on her, burning a hole through the back of her head, as she brushed her teeth. Eventually, he spoke. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright until tomorrow?” he asked.
Exasperated, Katherine caught his eyes in the reflection of the mirror in front of her. A little of the irritation she was feeling melted away, however, at the very real concern painted on his features.
She turned to face him. “I swear to you I’ll be fine,” she said, trying to convey with her voice that it was absolutely true.
Bastian didn’t look convinced, but nodded anyway, and after pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead, left the room to let her clean herself up in peace.
Despite his decision to allow Katherine to hold off seeing Gabriela until the next morning, Bastian remained agitated for the rest of the evening. Katherine didn’t think his eyes left her form once over the next hour. Mostly he watched to make sure she didn’t overexert herself. After all, heaven forbid she stand on her tiptoes to reach a book from the highest part of the bookshelf in the living room or walk to the kitchen to make herself a sandwich – she had just thrown up and her belly was growling at her for sustenance. Pretty much the only thing she was allowed to do on her own over the next sixty minutes was breathe, and Katherine was pretty sure that if there was a way Bastian could have done that for her, he would have.
Thankfully, for her sanity’s sake, the sky was darkening quickly, and Bastian and the others – excepting Sophie – would have no choice but to leave shortly.
Bastian pulled Sophie aside for a private conversation after tugging on his boots, and while Katherine couldn’t hear what they were saying, she could plainly see the many exasperated sighs and eye rolls Sophie offered her brother, and she could assume well enough what was being said. When he was done speaking to Sophie, he approached Katherine where she sat on the couch, kneeling before her. “Just... be safe,” he said before running a tender hand through her hair.
“I will,” Katherine assured, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “Try not to worry so much,” she added, whispering the words softly in his ear.
A minute later, he, Markus, Zane, and Caleb were forced to leave.
It didn’t even occur to Katherine until Bastian was out the door that it would be their first full moon apart since she’d been turned. Even when she’d run away to Middletown, he’d been there with her for the event. She felt a pang of sadness at the realization.
“You okay?” Sophie asked, plopping down next to her on the couch.
Katherine offered the girl a forced smile. “Yeah. I’m not about to barf again, anyway, if that’s what you’re asking.”
The blonde laughed. “Good. I’d be forced to take revenge if you upchucked on this shirt. It’s brand new.”
Katherine smile became a little more genuine at that.
Considering the fact that the guys had left to go to the moon gathering as late as they possibly could and still arrive on time, she and Sophie had to get ready to leave the house not long after that. They retreated to their separate rooms in order to get dressed into the typical dregs they wore every full moon.
“Ready?” Sophie asked when Katherine had finished changing and returned to the living room. She’d settled on an oversized t-shirt with a large hole in the collar and a pair of pants that had seen better days, while Sophie was donning a ridiculous floral button-up and ratty pair of sweats.
“Yeah.”
Without further ado, Sophie grabbed the backpack they had packed earlier – it contained a change of clothes for them both. After they slipped on their shoes, Katherine followed her out the door.
“Where are we going?” she asked as the blonde led her into the woods. She carefully stepped over fallen branches and overgrown roots as she trailed after the other girl. She kept close to Sophie, the fact that the moon was currently hidden behind a thick layer of clouds making it difficult to see in the dark.
She hoped they weren’t going all the way to the clearing Bastian and the others had taken her to during her first full moon when no one had quite been sure if she’d survive it. It was a hike from the house – nearly as far away as the clearing where the regular moon gathering took place.
“Not much further,” Sophie assured, sneaking a peek at Katherine over her shoulder as she continued to walk. “We’re just going a half mile or so from the house.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself, after all, or Bastian would have my head.”
“Hardy, har, har,” Katherine offered dryly in return.
It wasn’t long before they reached their destination.
Sophie ended up leading them to a tiny space that was nearly entirely taken up by a large, overturned tree. The blonde took a seat on the fallen trunk and patted on a bit of bark beside her, indicating that Katherine should sit as well.
She did so without complaint.
“He doesn’t mean to be such an overbearing prick, you know,” Sophie offered after a minute of comfortable silence. “I know it’s not an excuse, but he just loves you so much.”
It said a lot that she didn’t have to name the “he” she spoke of.
“I know he does,” Katherine agreed, and she did know that. She also understood that it was not only in his nature as a werewolf, but as an alpha and a pack leader, to be the way he was. It didn’t help – and she’d be the first to admit this – that she had an independent streak a mile wide paired with an unfortunate talent for falling ass-backward into trouble.
Still, she couldn’t help but feel suffocated at times.
“All the same,” Sophie piped up, shaking Katherine from her reverie, “if you ever want somebody to punch him for you – and you know, actually live to see another day – I’m your best bet.”
Katherine laughed outright at that. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Seriously, she would.
A minute later, the moon became visible above them, emerging from behind the clouds. Katherine leapt from the log in her excitement, shooting Sophie an ecstatic smile when the other girl followed suit. Her smile lost some of its vigor, however, when she noticed that the blonde was watching her oddly, head tilted slightly to the side as she stared at her with unknown intent. But Katherine didn’t have time to question the odd, almost searching, look before she felt the bright rays of the full moon upon her face.
She closed her eyes in anticipation.
She waited for the familiar feeling of her body heating up and twisting bones and shifting organs to overtake her.
After a long minute of waiting, however, she felt nothing of the sort.
Confusion, and yes, okay, a little bit of panic, tickling her senses, Katherine forced open her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was that Sophie was in her wolf form beside her, cerulean eyes still drilling into her from where she stood. The sec
ond thing she noticed was that as for herself, well... despite the beckoning power of the full moon above her, she had remained as human as could be.
CHAPTER FOUR
Shock.
It was an emotion Katherine had grown bitterly familiar with over the past year. So familiar that she thought she had mastered the feeling by now.
Werewolves exist? Okay.
She was one such creature now? She could deal with that.
Her parents were alive? Bastian was her destined mate? Bastian’s uncle, Rogue, and a hunter she’d thought long dead all wanted to kill her?
Well, she’d survived, and promptly dealt with all of nature’s surprises, hadn’t she?
But Katherine clearly wasn’t as used to the feeling as she’d thought. Because the shock that threatened to overwhelm her as she realized that despite the fact that the full moon had reached, and indeed surpassed, its highest peak in the sky, she was still human wasn’t a dull, used up version of the sensation at all.
She stood there, frozen in her disbelief for what had to have been a solid minute.
Katherine’s brain whirled as she desperately tried to think up a logical reason for the fact that she was still in her human form – a reason that didn’t entertain the possibility that she’d somehow lost her inner wolf. She couldn’t come up with anything, though, and the harder she tried to think of a reason, the more her train of thought began to falter, stuttering along until it came to a grinding halt on its tracks.
She couldn’t think.
She was so numb that just the act of breathing was almost too much for her right then. She wasn’t even sure if her heart was beating.
But then a sudden noise – a growl, low, menacing, and reverberating from the back of Sophie’s throat – made Katherine perfectly aware of the fact that her heart was, in fact, working. Her eyes traveled to Sophie, and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she took in the white wolf. Sophie’s ears were lying flat against the sides of her skull, her sharp teeth bared in an ugly snarl as she growled menacingly.
At Katherine.
You see, the reason that she was so suddenly aware that her heart worked just fine was because the organ had somehow climbed from her chest into her throat where it pounded away as she stared at the she-wolf she thought of as a sister.
But the question was, did Sophie still recognize Katherine as her sister?
Fear threatened to overtake shock as Katherine considered the situation before her. Despite the pull the full moon should have had over her body, she hadn’t shifted. Zane had also informed her not long ago that her natural scent was changing. All things considered, it was perfectly plausible that Sophie may not be able to identify Katherine as a member of her pack in her more primitive state.
It was an unpleasant realization that made the small brunette’s belly swirl with a kind of sickness that had nothing to do with her earlier nausea.
After all, if Sophie no longer recognized Katherine as pack, there was nothing stopping her from attacking her right then and there, as evidenced by the growling that grew increasingly louder and more threatening.
“Sophie...” Katherine managed to choke out past the jackhammering organ in her throat. She prayed that even as a wolf, the girl somehow recognized her name.
And then Sophie lunged.
Before Katherine could react – her fight or flight instinct seemed to be malfunctioning as she simply froze – she heard something move from within the undergrowth behind her. As foolish as the action undoubtedly was, Katherine turned her back on the wolf before her and managed to spot the source of the noise. Leaves rustled as what looked like a large muskrat, or maybe even a beaver, darted out of the bushes and scurried away.
By the time Katherine realized her mistake and managed to whip her head back around to face the real threat to her well-being, it was to take in the sight of a much more relaxed Sophie. In fact, the she-wolf looked downright tranquil as she sat with her hind legs on the ground, seemingly congratulating herself on chasing off the muskrat that had been invading her space – their space – as she lapped at one of her paws. She met Katherine’s bemused gaze and tilted her head just the slightest to the side as if asking her companion, “You didn’t really think I was growling at you, did you?”
The relief that rushed through her at the sentient stare had Katherine dropping to her knees. She was practically choking on the feeling and didn’t register the jolt of pain that shot up her knobby joints as they connected with the hard, dirt ground beneath her. She buried her face into her hands. “Holy crap,” she muttered, digging the palms of her hands into her eyes. “Holy. Crap.”
She didn’t hear Sophie’s approach, but felt her soft snout press against her hands as the wolf attempted to nuzzle Katherine’s face with her own in a show of comfort. Katherine accepted the figurative hug, throwing her arms unthinkingly around the wolf before her and burrowing her face into the soft fur of her neck. “Oh God, Sophie, what’s wrong with me?” she murmured lowly into the white pelt.
She didn’t even care that at the moment she was talking to someone who couldn’t talk back. Sophie managed to respond in her own way, regardless, circling Katherine and rubbing her fur-covered body against the brunette’s in an action not unlike that of an affectionate cat before going so far as to lap at one of her cheeks with a long, canine tongue.
Katherine couldn’t help but release a snort of laughter, even if it was tinged with just a touch of hysteria. She wasn’t amused for long, however, because after another minute of attempting to comfort Katherine, Sophie was bounding away.
“What...?”
Before Katherine could truly fear that Sophie would leave her, however, the she-wolf came to a stop near the fallen tree they’d earlier been sitting on. She used her teeth to pick up the knapsack they’d packed by one of its straps, and she dragged it across the forest floor before finally dropping it in front of Katherine, who’d remained sitting on her knees.
“What do you want me to do with this?” she asked, grabbing the bag by its unabused strap.
Sophie stepped forward and nipped at the knapsack’s zipper.
“You want me to open it?”
Sophie yipped excitedly.
Katherine’s eyebrows rose to nearly her hairline. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Without further ado, she did what wolf-Sophie had essentially ordered of her and unzipped the bag. She was surprised when the first thing her eyes took in wasn’t the spare change of clothes that she and Sophie had earlier packed for themselves, but a puffy, worn-looking sleeping bag.
Katherine knew her confusion must have been painted plainly enough across her face, a prominent crinkle etched into her brow, as she pulled out the rolled-up sleep sack. “What’s this?” she asked.
Sophie huffed, somehow managing to sound equally parts exasperated and condescending.
“Yes, I know it’s a sleeping bag,” Katherine retorted waspishly, “but why...” She paused as realization dawned. “Wait. Did... did you know this was going to happen? That I wouldn’t be able to shift tonight?”
It was impossible to discern the answer by the way Sophie merely continued to stare at her.
“Sophie, did you know?” Katherine demanded more sharply, honestly expecting the wolf in front of her to either shake her head in denial or nod her head in admittance.
She did neither, of course. In fact, Sophie had the audacity to snatch the sleeping bag from her hands, clamping down on the fabric with her teeth and depositing it on the forest floor. She nosed the sleep sack, clearly expecting Katherine to follow her unvoiced instruction and unroll it.
Katherine ignored the pseudo order completely. “Sophie, if you know what’s going on, you have to tell me.”
Sophie shot her a particular look that made her response to Katherine’s own order obvious enough: “I can’t exactly talk right now, honey.”
“I swear to God, Sophie-”
Sophie pressed forward and shoved the flat
of her snout firmly against Katherine’s chest, the force of the “push” nearly knocking Katherine over.
“Oof.”
She managed to prevent herself from toppling backward by shooting her arms out on either side of her. Sophie continued to push her weight on her, however, and Katherine was forced to concede before she ended up sprawled out in the dirt. “Okay, okay! Fine!”
The wolf immediately backed off.
Katherine righted herself and ran an agitated hand through her mess of wavy hair before reluctantly unrolling the sack. “There, happy?” she snarked.
Sophie nodded her head towards the sleeping bag, clearly expecting Katherine to follow the next logical step and get in the thing.
Katherine rolled her eyes, incredibly tempted to defy the wolf in front of her. She wasn’t in the mood for arguing, however, and decided to agree on one condition. “Fine,” she relented, unzipping the sack, “but you better be ready to explain yourself in the morning.”
Katherine took the responding yip as a promise to do just that.
Grumbling about the unfairness of the situation under her breath, Katherine reluctantly climbed into the sleep sack. Despite its poufy appearance, it wasn’t terribly thick and didn’t provide much buffer from the hard ground beneath it. Still, Katherine was much more comfortable that she would have been attempting to sleep without it, and she would have thanked Sophie for so thoroughly considering her well-being if she wasn’t also incredibly irritated by the girl’s refusal to answer her questions.
She hadn’t shifted. Not even with the full moon shining above her, demanding it.
What did it mean?
As Sophie settled herself beside Katherine, however, standing guard and using her large, canine body to keep her warm, Katherine couldn’t bring herself to be as mad as she knew she rightly should. After all, despite her recent inability to shift, she was clearly still considered pack. The knowledge of that indisputable fact caused something in her chest that Katherine hadn’t even known was tight to loosen, and desperately clinging to the comfort it brought her, she eventually managed to fall asleep.