He actually had the nerve to laugh at her.
Katherine refused to acknowledge the feeling of a thousand pleased butterflies flapping their wings in her belly.
“He also said that you had his permission to go home with me,” Bastian added softly after a moment, and Katherine risked peeking up at him.
“He did?”
“He did.”
Katherine beamed, unadulterated joy forcing a smile on her face despite the slight ache it caused her.
“When did you want to go?” she asked.
“Whenever you want,” Bastian assured, taking in her smile with slightly dazed eyes.
“Tomorrow?” Katherine suggested without hesitation.
“Tomorrow,” Bastian agreed softly.
And so Katherine spent her last night sleeping under her parents’ roof, Bastian’s arms wrapped around her in a protective embrace as she eagerly awaited “tomorrow”.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Saying good-bye to her parents the next morning as they bustled about the kitchen was a surreal experience for Katherine. Because although they undoubtedly assumed their daughter was simply seeing them off to work, she was in actuality bidding them farewell because she was the one who was leaving.
She knew her father probably suspected that might be the case when Katherine very uncharacteristically pulled her mother into a tight hug before she could leave for her office job. She inhaled deeply as she dug her nose into her mother’s shoulder, attempting to preserve in her memory the flowery scent that was unique to the woman. Elaine was elated by the unexpected embrace and didn’t question it, squeezing her daughter back fiercely before she hurriedly took off for work.
Her father, on the other hand, took his time going out the door, purposefully burning his toast twice before deciding on cereal instead. It took him nearly twenty minutes to finish his Cheerios before he began to meticulously rinse the bowl. Katherine wrapped her arms around him in a hug as soon as he was done at the sink. She feared he was going to change his mind – tell her he’d call the police if he came back home after work and she was gone – but he didn’t. He merely released a resigned sigh.
She squarely met his eyes after she pulled away from attempting to memorize the scent that clung to him – something akin to worn leather. “I love you, dad.”
He brushed a strand of loose hair out of her face, his fingers lingering on her cheek for just a moment. “I love you too, kiddo.” He kissed her forehead. “Be safe.”
And then determinedly refusing to look at her, he grabbed his briefcase and left.
Katherine stood in the empty kitchen for only a minute, waiting to hear the tell-tale sound of a car engine starting up and tires peeling out of the driveway before turning and heading for the stairs.
She wished she could say good-bye to her sister as well, but Sam hadn’t left her bedroom since the morning before, and the brunette didn’t want to disturb her. Besides… part of Katherine couldn’t help but think that the blonde somehow blamed her for her impending divorce with Chad, despite the fact that Sam had spoken of it long before her husband had assaulted her.
Pushing the memory of said assault into the deepest recesses of her mind, Katherine skirted past Samantha’s bedroom door and quickly entered her own. Once inside, she threw the small backpack she’d stuffed with her favorite sweatshirt – it used to belong to her dad and smelled of him – and a handful of candid family photos over her shoulder and waited.
Bastian had left shortly after dawn to go pick up the SUV, which he’d apparently been keeping hidden in a small grove a few miles west of Middletown, and direct the pack – they’d been staying at a hotel in Hayfield all this time, just as Markus had told her – to get together their things because they were heading back to Haven Falls. She’d been told that he’d pick her up immediately after.
It was half past seven when she finally caught a glimpse of the hulking vehicle and wasting no time, Katherine rushed down the stairs, stopping only to fish out the note she’d pre-written from the pocket of her shorts, unfold it, and stick it on the refrigerator door where it could easily be found.
She’d written it after Bastian had left that morning. She had stared at the plain sheet of notebook paper for a long time trying to think of what she could possibly say to her parents – her mother, at least – to explain her absence. In the end, she’d merely addressed her parents, scribbled that she loved them and told them that they shouldn’t worry about her. She also assured them that she would call as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
After tacking the note to the fridge, she swiftly slipped on her shoes and headed out the front door, opening and closing it soundlessly as she left. Katherine glanced back at the house that had served as her childhood home only once before hurrying to Bastian’s SUV, wrenching open the passenger door, and sliding inside.
As somber an occasion as leaving her family behind was, Katherine couldn’t help but flash Bastian a jubilant smile as she pulled her seatbelt across her lap. Because as much as she’d tried to keep them banished from her thoughts, she’d missed her pack mates tremendously and couldn’t wait to be reunited with them all. Even Markus.
It hadn’t even occurred to Katherine to be nervous for the reunion until Bastian was parking his massive vehicle in the tar lot of the hotel they’d been staying at in Hayfield.
Suddenly apprehensive, she glanced sideways at Bastian, who’d just pulled the keys from the ignition. “Are they mad at me?” she asked.
She’d run away, after all, and had disrupted their lives for what seemed like the hundredth time since she’d been made a member of their pack all those months ago.
Bastian’s crinkled brow spoke of true bafflement. “Why would they be mad at you?”
“Because I ran away,” Katherine said like the answer should have been obvious to him, “and they were forced to follow me. Because for weeks, they’ve had to stay holed up here,” she gestured vaguely at the hotel with a hand, “in a cramped room instead of running freely through the forests of Haven Falls.”
When Katherine bit nervously into her plump bottom lip with her teeth, Bastian reached forward and gently released it with a calloused thumb. “Look at me,” he ordered.
Who was she to defy him?
“First of all,” the man began, “nobody made anyone do anything. I didn’t force the pack to come with me when I followed you, they wanted to. They care about you, and staying in a crummy hotel for a couple of weeks is only scratching the very surface of what they would be willing to do for you. Understand?”
Katherine nodded dumbly, a warm blush blooming across her cheeks at his proclamation.
“Secondly, not one of them fault you for running away. They wish you hadn’t no doubt – I wish you hadn’t – but they understand that it was a consequence of my decision to keep the truth from you. I should have told you a long time ago that your parents were alive. This whole mess was my fault, not yours, and believe me, they’ve let me know it.”
Bastian’s words had their intended effect and Katherine’s nerves were reduced to nearly nothing. “Okay,” she said, unbuckling herself, “let’s go.”
They exited the vehicle, and Bastian led her to the hotel room they’d been staying at for nearly an entire month. Katherine waited impatiently for him to unlock and open the door before she unceremoniously entered with him.
Her eyes searched the plainly decorated room until they’d located each member of her pack. Markus was lounging on one of two beds, idly flipping through the channels of a flat screen that hung on the wall opposite him, Zane was sitting on the other bed reading a book, and Sophie and Caleb were playing a game of cards on a small, collapsible table. It was a terribly domestic scene. And just… wrong, on so many levels.
One by one, they noticed her, and it was more than a little amusing watching them instantly jump up and abandon their banal tasks. What wasn’t amusing was the way all of their faces were creased in concern.
It took Kath
erine a moment to work out why. She’d nearly forgotten about her bruised nose and cut up forehead.
Markus’s voice was the loudest as they swarmed her. “What happened to your face?” he demanded, tactful as ever as he pushed himself up from the bed and strode towards her.
Katherine hadn’t noticed Bastian’s possessive arm around her waist until the man was pulling her behind him at his beta’s fast approach, growling lowly at Markus in warning.
Katherine shot Bastian a confused frown, but he wasn’t looking at her, so she coughed and attempted to clear the somewhat awkward air that had befallen the room. “My brother-in-law thought it’d be prudent to introduce me to the back of his hand,” she said as casually as she could manage, giving the pack the short version of the story. They didn’t need to know what else Chad had done as far as she was concerned.
She ignored Sophie’s outraged gasp and the way Zane and Caleb’s faces darkened at her words, choosing instead to concentrate on Markus and the way his pupils narrowed into slits. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, though. His entire focus was on Bastian. “Well, I hope you introduced,” he mocked the word Katherine had chosen to use, “the asshole to your fists.”
Katherine snorted, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. “More than just that,” she confirmed in Bastian’s stead. “I think Chad is better acquainted than anyone would ever want to be with Bastian’s boots.”
That pulled an amused grunt from both men. Katherine rolled her eyes, but was inwardly relieved, when they bumped shoulders good-naturedly. She didn’t know why they were acting so odd around each other in the first place.
Sophie snuck around behind Bastian and pulled Katherine into an exuberant hug when the men were sufficiently distracted. “I missed you so much,” she exclaimed. “I can’t even begin to tell you how positively boring it was without you around.”
“Yeah,” Zane agreed sarcastically, popping up beside her. “I don’t know how we managed to go about living our lives without you stumbling into trouble every other second.”
Sophie smacked the man’s broad shoulder. “Seriously, I can’t handle these jerks all by myself. Don’t ever leave me again.”
Katherine nearly squeaked when instead of responding to the blonde, Zane surprised her by pulling her into a one-armed embrace. “I missed you, trouble and all.”
Before Katherine could tell them that she’d missed them too, Caleb was in front of her, hands clasped together in front of him and brown eyes incredibly wide as he stared at her. “I’m so sorry,” he said, his soft tone catching the attention of the entire room. “We all are.”
Katherine could have heard a pin drop, it had grown so quiet. “For what?” she asked.
“For lying to you all this time. For pretending that your parents were dead when they weren’t. For making you feel like you had to run from us. All of it.”
Katherine batted back the tears that threatened to well in her eyes. “I…” she hesitated. “It’s… okay. I know Bastian ordered you not to tell me.” Direct orders from alphas weren’t binding exactly, but breaking them was means for punishment or even expulsion from one’s pack. “I even understand why he ordered it of you. I still wish that you hadn’t listened to him, of course, but I get why you did and I… I forgive you.”
Markus broke the subdued silence that followed by reaching forward and roughly ruffling her hair. “Hey!” Katherine squawked at him, stepping backwards and patting her head in a desperate attempt to get the disgruntled bird’s nest to lay flat again.
Markus just grinned. “Welcome back, princess,” he quipped. “I almost hate to say it, but you were sorely missed. The pack just isn’t complete without you.”
The spike of annoyance the man’s actions had caused all but disappeared at his words, a pleased warmth taking its place in her belly. She wasn’t complete without them either – the space they took up in her heart was just too great. “I missed you all too,” she admitted quietly.
Surrounded by her smiling pack mates, and with Bastian’s warm arm still wrapped securely around her waist, Katherine abruptly realized she hadn’t left her only family behind in Middletown. This was her family too. And regardless of the fact that she had yet to step foot back into Haven Falls, she was home.
* * *
Home, sweet home, unfortunately, wasn’t quite an accurate depiction of the shenanigans that followed the week of the pack’s return to Haven Falls.
Apparently, Bastian had never told Luther exactly why it was that he had left Haven Falls. And while Katherine had had no idea, it was customary for wolves who intended to claim one another as mates to disappear together anywhere from a couple of days to an entire week to ensure that they were truly a good match before they announced their intentions to their pack.
Never mind the fact that Bastian and Katherine had been gone for nearly a month or that their entire pack had disappeared along with them, the alpha council had concluded that Bastian was on the cusp of claiming Katherine as his mate.
And the jerk didn’t deny it either.
Yeah.
She’d found out the entire community was eagerly awaiting for Bastian to claim her – have sex with her, basically – when her school friends had stopped by two days after she’d arrived back into town.
Knock. Knock.
“Want to play some football?”
Katherine was pleasantly surprised to find her friends – Mack, Agnes, Jon, Leander, Nathaniel, and even Penelope – on the porch when she answered the front door. She’d missed them nearly as much as her pack in the months she’d been gone.
“That sounds great,” she immediately acquiesced, calling over her shoulder to let Sophie know she was going outside – Bastian, Markus, and Zane were all off running various errands – before slipping on her shoes and joining her friends on the porch.
They all agreed it’d be easiest to just play in Katherine’s backyard.
Katherine thought it a bit odd that not a single one of them said anything about her month long absence, but she certainly wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up and merely nodded her head when she was assigned to be a team with Jon and Agnes.
They were beating Mack, Leander, and Nathaniel by no less than three touchdowns – Penelope had insisted on sitting out and acting as a referee, which made sense considering the ridiculous heels she was wearing – when the sky unexpectedly opened up on them and they were forced to sprint inside to avoid the sudden downpour.
After offering everyone a towel to dry off with, Caleb was kind enough to whip up the hungry group of teenagers a couple dozen BLT sandwiches. Katherine was popping the last piece of her heavenly sandwich into her mouth when she realized how incredibly thirsty she was.
“Anyone want something to drink?” she asked, springing up to forage the fridge for something that would quench her thirst.
A resounding “yes” was her answer.
After she’d passed out the various sodas that had been requested, she plopped back down on the couch cushion she’d been sharing with Mack. Apparently she’d miscalculated the trajectory of her behind, however, because a second later she was halfway on her friend’s lap.
Mack shot up out of his seat at the unexpected contact before Katherine had a chance to reposition herself, and as a result, she almost crashed face first onto the floor.
“Sorry,” the apology burst from Mack’s mouth as he settled himself in a new spot on the floor. “I’ll just sit here.”
Katherine stared at him, completely incredulous.
Mack had done the exact same thing – practically run away from her – when she’d tackled him while playing outside.
In fact, she’d noticed during their impromptu football game that not a single one of the boys had even attempted to tackle her when she was thrown the ball. It’d made for an easy victory for her team, but it’d certainly struck her as strange.
“Do I smell or something?” Katherine demanded abruptly and all heads swiveled in her direction.
Mack frowned, just a hint of color tainting his cheeks. “No, of course not,” he immediately denied.
“Then what’s your problem?” She ignored the feeling of everyone’s eyes on her. She didn’t care what they thought about her outburst. Of all of her school friends, she considered Mack to be her closest, and he’d hurt her feelings.
“Katherine…” he said, obviously at a loss. “I just don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“Trouble? What are you talking about?”
Mack sighed, glancing at Sophie and Caleb who’d huddled themselves into the living room with the group of teenagers, before running a hand through his hair. “I don’t fancy being beat to a pulp by the head alpha, that’s all,” he admitted, sounding vaguely sheepish.
That cleared up absolutely nothing. “Why would Bastian beat you up?”
“For daring to touch his intended, of course,” this came from Penelope, from whom the words practically surged out of. “Why didn’t you tell us that you and Bastian were so close? I can hardly believe that he means to really claim you for his mate.” Katherine could tell by the rushed way the words escaped that the girl had been holding that in for a while.
She ignored the thinly veiled insult, focusing instead on the fact that they all knew Bastian wanted to claim her as his. How utterly mortifying.
She wondered how they could have possibly known, face turning an impressive shade of red as she struggled to find something to say.
“What?”
Apparently that was all she could force to come out of her uncooperative mouth.
Penelope rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb. The whole town knows about it. It’s why you’ve both been AWOL the past few weeks. He’s been romanticizing you.”
…Is that what they thought?
Katherine didn’t know whether to laugh or cry about how utterly wrong that assumption was. Due to their silence on the matter, she hadn’t even known for sure if her friends had realized she’d been gone, let alone that they’d thought they knew the reason behind it.
Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2) Page 20
