Shy (Once Bitten, Twice Shy, #2)

  Katherine’s mouth salivated as the smell of buttery meat began to fill the kitchen.

  As the ham warmed, she cracked open a half dozen eggs, whipping them together with some milk before adding half of the yellow mixture to the second pan. Once it had cooked a bit, she added most of the cooked ham and a handful of cheese before folding the hardened mixture in half with a spatula. After a minute, she flipped the homemade omelet over and added just a sprinkle more of cheese and a dash of pepper to the top of it. She then transferred the omelet to one of two plates she had readied while waiting for it to finish cooking.

  As she examined the perfectly shaped morsel of eggs, ham, and cheese, Katherine found herself feeling absurdly proud of the creation. She may not have been as talented in the kitchen as Caleb – or even her mother – but she could make a mean omelet when she set her mind to it.

  Katherine took a moment to put away the butter, milk, and what remained of the block of cheese before quickly starting on the second omelet, pouring what was left of the egg mixture into the newly empty pan.

  Unfortunately, the loud crackle of the ham still sputtering away in the other pan disguised the sound of approaching footsteps.

  “Making breakfast for me, Katherine?”

  The sound of Chad’s voice suddenly materializing from directly behind her had Katherine’s heart nearly leaping out of her chest. She hoped it wasn’t dreadfully obvious that the organ was beating harshly against her ribs when she turned to scowl at the man. Her eyes immediately caught sight of the split, swollen lip he was sporting, and she couldn’t quite suppress a satisfied smile.

  “And here I thought you weren’t as sweet as you looked after the way you treated me last night.”

  The smile immediately fell from her face, and she glared in disbelief. “The way I treated you?” she demanded.

  Chad outright ignored her hostility. Instead, he had the audacity to reach for the plate that had Bastian’s omelet on it. Katherine smacked his hand away with the spatula she was still holding. “That’s not for you,” she reprimanded harshly.

  Her brother-in-law narrowed his eyes at her as he took in the half-cooked omelet and pile of ham she still had heating up in their individual pans. “Oh, really? Then who is all of this for?”

  Chad had inched his way close enough to her that Katherine could smell the stale liquor still present on his breath from the night before. She moved as far away from him as the stove allowed.

  Katherine eyed the enormous omelet she’d already made and the equally large one she still had cooking on the stove. “It’s for me,” she finally said, hoping he’d buy the lie and leave her alone.

  Chad snorted incredulously. “A tiny thing like you? Eat all of this? Please.”

  “It’s true,” Katherine protested heatedly, wishing that the man would just leave her alone already.

  “Oh? So none of this food is for that little boyfriend of yours you have hiding upstairs?”

  Katherine stiffened in shock.

  How…?

  Chad took in her panicked expression and grinned. “It was hard not to notice when he had you moaning like a whore all of last night. The walls are rather thin.”

  Katherine stared in disbelief – her mind refusing to acknowledge the fact that it was her sister’s husband who’d just said something like that to her. But then Chad made another grab for the plate that held Bastian’s breakfast and Katherine saw red. She jumped into action, grabbing the edges of the dish and attempting to yank it from his hands. “I said that this isn’t for you!” she spat at him, refusing to let go of the plate even as he tried to rip it away from her in turn.

  What ensued was a no holds barred tug of war over an omelet.

  Neither of them won.

  Instead, they both lost their grip on the ceramic plate and could do little but watch helplessly as it clattered to the floor. The plate cracked in half – Fantastic, she’d broken yet another one of her parents’ dishes. – and Chad ended up with a cheesy, eggy mess splattered across his shoes.

  They both stared at the destroyed omelet.

  “You stupid bitch.”

  Chad’s foul words had Katherine bristling in anger. “How dare you!”

  She hadn’t seen the backhand coming. Regardless, the knuckles of his hand connected brutally to the side of her face, and blood spurt from her nose at the force of the unexpected attack. For a second, Katherine saw stars.

  She quickly recovered, however, blindly groping at her nose. “What’s wrong with you?” she yelled at him.

  The pain hadn’t quite registered yet for Katherine – she was too frickin’ pissed.

  “What’s wrong,” Chad stressed the word, “is that you just ruined my only pair of black Oxfords. They probably cost more money than your entire outdated wardrobe. Now apologize.”

  The delusional asshole had just slapped her across the face and insulted her fashion sense, yet he was demanding an apology from her? Katherine gaped at the man.

  Chad had the gall to sneer at her stunned nonresponse. “Fine, I have a better idea on how you can make it up to me anyway.”

  Sensing danger, Katherine grabbed the handle of one of the frying pans when Chad approached and instinctively swung it at him. She had the pleasure of seeing shock widen his eyes before he managed to jump out of the way. She’d just barely missed connecting the pan with his head.

  She attempted to hit him again, but he lunged at her, grabbing the wrist of the hand that welded the make-shift weapon and twisting it painfully behind her back until she was forced to drop it.

  Immediately after, he slapped a hand over her mouth and forced her to the floor. She made the action as difficult as possible for him, throwing her head back in multiple attempts to nail the bastard in the nose. Unfortunately, she didn’t succeed.

  It occurred to Katherine that she could break Chad’s merciless grip on her wrist by transforming into a wolf. As tempted as she was to try it, however, she didn’t want to kill anyone. Especially not in her parents’ kitchen. Even her sister’s asshole of a husband.

  Unfortunately, in her human form Katherine was no match for a fully grown man. He pressed her face into the tiled floor before roughly flipping her around and sitting atop her chest. He used his knees to effectively pin down her arms. Almost immediately, they began to numb under his not insignificant weight. But Katherine could hardly allow herself to focus on that when she was choking on her own blood. Chad’s hand had yet to remove itself from her mouth, and blood from her injured nose was steadily dripping into the back of her throat.

  He must have sensed her struggle because he rolled his eyes before removing his hand from her mouth. “Oh, what the hell?” he muttered. “Go ahead and scream. There’s no one here to hear you anyway. I saw that boyfriend of your scale down the gutter outside of your room ten minutes ago.”

  Katherine immediately hacked up blood when he released her mouth, disproportionately satisfied when a few of the crimson droplets wound up on his shirt. She continued to glare up at him despite the way his words had made her heart drop into her stomach.

  Bastian had left?

  “Why are you doing this? Get the hell off of me!”

  Chad’s lips transformed into a sneer. “Blame Samantha. The bitch hasn’t let me touch her in months.” He eyed Katherine speculatively. “Oh well, you’re the hotter sister anyway. Even with all the blood.”

  Katherine stomach lurched at his disgusting words, and she thought she might be sick when he started tugging at his belt. “Stop!” she desperately implored him.

  Chad didn’t acknowledge her plea and yanked down his zipper. He pulled the fleshy evidence of his perverse arousal out of his pants, and Katherine fought not to gag as he brought it within inches of her face – her mouth. “Alright, sweetheart,” he mocked, “unless you want this shoved somewhere else, I wouldn’t even think of biting me.”

  Katherine’s heart beat wildly in her chest as Chad attempted to force himself between her lips. Her neck str
ained as she leaned as far away from the revolting man as possible. In the very back of her mind she was aware of the fact that her entire body was trembling and terribly flushed. Her instincts screamed that she transform and dispose of the imminent danger.

  Katherine didn’t know what to do – she wasn’t even sure if she could successfully transform under such stressful circumstances. The only thing that she did know was that she was positively petrified… and then, abruptly, Chad was ripped off of her.

  And in place of him was Bastian, his broad chest heaving as his eyes, darkened to a near black in his senseless rage, refused to leave Chad’s suddenly feeble looking form.

  Katherine didn’t think the man had ever resembled a predator as much as he did in that very instant.

  “What the hell?” Chad spat, picking himself up off the floor onto which Bastian had just viciously thrown him. The fall must have addled his brain because he actually had the nerve to smirk when he spied Bastian glaring at him. “Oh,” he mocked, “this must be the boyfriend. Don’t worry, dude, I was just going to use her mouth, you still own the rights to her precious p-”

  Katherine didn’t know if Chad was actively suicidal or just prepensely dumb, but before he even had the chance to finish his sentence, Bastian was upon him, plummeting him with his fists. A brutal blow to the abdomen sent Chad once again sprawling to the floor.

  Bastian didn’t give him a chance to get up. He sent a ruthless kick at the man’s ribcage, and Katherine heard a loud crack right before Chad curled up around his belly and howled in pain.

  Katherine didn’t think that the loud wail even registered in Bastian’s ears as he continued to reign merciless blow upon blow down on him. Chad was quickly reduced to little more than a limp punching bag.

  In that moment, Katherine truly feared that Bastian would beat the man to death. She almost didn’t recognize him, so wrapped up was he in his homicidal rage.

  Katherine knew she had to stop him.

  As much as Chad deserved what was being dished out to him, she wasn’t about to let Bastian murder her sister’s soon to be ex-husband in the middle of her parents’ kitchen. The potential consequences were too dire for her to bear.

  “Bastian!” she yelled, hoping somehow that the sound of her voice would bring the man back from the brink of his ferocious rage.

  But not a spark of recognition lit his eyes, and Katherine cringed when he delivered a particularly vicious blow to Chad’s mouth, reopening the split lip she’d bestowed upon him the night before.

  “Bastian, please stop!” she tried once more.

  Again, he failed to acknowledge her.

  Katherine saw no other option than to try to physically stop him, so swiftly approaching the man, she wrapped both her hands around an impressive bicep before pulling fruitlessly at his arm. Bastian merely shook her loose and punched Chad again.

  Katherine grit her teeth before latching on once more. This time, though, she refused to let go. At least she’d refused to let go until a particularly violent jolt sent her careening to the floor. She smacked her head on the corner of the kitchen island on her way down and felt just the slightest trickle of blood dribble down her face to join the crusty crimson pool forming around her nose and mouth.

  Bastian’s entire being froze, and for the first time since entering the kitchen, his eyes cleared enough so that Katherine could finally see blue. His colored irises swirled with concern and remorse as he took in her prone, bloodied form.

  He looked incredibly distraught.

  Of course, it was at this precise moment that Katherine’s parents chose to come waltzing in through the door.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  For a second, time stood ominously still.

  Her mother and father gawked in the kitchen entryway. Katherine had the perfect view of them from where she lay on the cold, hard tile. Both pairs of eyes took in her crimson-stained face with horrified alarm.

  And then chaos erupted.

  She heard her mother shriek at the same time that her vision of her parents was blocked by Bastian’s powerful form. He scooped her up carefully in his arms, and Katherine tried not to fret over the fact that he was shaking – violent tremors wracking his body every other second.

  The man sat her gingerly on the countertop, tucking wayward strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail in her tussle with Chad behind her ears as he perused her wounds. He was seemingly ignorant of the other people that occupied the room as he tenderly inspected the small gash on her temple.

  Katherine knew it was a farce, though. Especially when Bastian tensed at her father’s frantic approach. “Who are you?” Benjamin demanded while her mother continued to screech on the other side of the room.

  “Get away from my daughter!” the hysterical woman hollered.

  Bastian reluctantly turned to face them – it was obvious to Katherine that he didn’t want to take his eyes off of her for even the second it would take for him to acknowledge them. His subtle movement, however, once again gave her an ample view of the kitchen.

  And it was just in time to see Sam emerge from where she’d apparently been hidden behind her parents. Her sister’s already pale completion whitened further upon taking in the scene. Katherine’s heart lurched when she immediately rushed to her prone husband. “Oh my God, Chad! What happened? Someone call an ambulance!”

  Chad groaned pitifully from his place on the floor, and Katherine’s eyes widened in disbelief when he started talking. She didn’t know how the severely beaten man was conscious, let alone in control of his motor functions. What he said, however, was even more outrageous than the fact that he could still somehow form words with his gory mouth.

  “Call the police too,” he begged his wife, crimson blood dribbling from his lips. “That guy,” he gestured vaguely at Bastian, “assaulted me!”

  Katherine’s own blood rushed to her face as fury enveloped her.

  “What?” she cried, speaking up for the first time since her parents had entered the room, and taking everyone off guard by the unmistakably panicked tinge her voice contained if their concerned expressions were anything to go by. “You’re the one you attacked me,” she immediately refuted him. “He was only protecting me!” Her small hands wrapped themselves around one of Bastian’s impressive biceps in a death grip.

  Sam’s mouth dipped into a skeptical frown. “This is the result of that man protecting you?” she demanded. “Chad can barely move.”

  Sam’s defense of her husband – a man who Katherine knew her sister barely even tolerated anymore –hurt more than words could ever say. Probably about as much as Katherine’s next words were going to hurt her.

  “Sam, Chad slapped me. He forced me to the ground, sat on my chest, and tried to… he tried to…” Katherine faltered in telling the last part of the story, not quite able to make the awful words come out of her mouth, but it was obvious enough to everyone what she was implying.

  Bastian’s arm was trembling where she had latched onto it, his skin practically vibrating as the soft sound of an unmistakably threatening growl emerged from his throat. Katherine prayed she was the only one who could hear it.

  Luckily, the commotion that her accusation had caused sufficiently disguised the noise. “Is that true?” her father thundered at Chad. Her mother’s watery eyes demanded an answer to the same question as she stared reproachfully at him.

  When the man was quiet for a second too long, Samantha took a faltering step away from him. “How could you?”

  “How could I what?” Chad asked, his mouth finally functioning again – unfortunately. “You’re actually going to believe her? Babe, come on, you know that your sister has always had a bit of a crush on me.”

  Katherine just barely managed to keep the shock-induced laughter – tainted with more than just a hint of hysteria, she was sure – from bubbling up her throat. Really?

  “She came on to me!” Chad continued. “I was trying to let her down gently when she went in for a kiss.
That’s when her little boyfriend walked in and jumped to conclusions.”

  Katherine was dumbfounded at the pure absurdity of Chad’s bold-faced lie. That was the best he could come up with? Surely her sister could see through the pile of garbage that’d he’d just spewed at her? At least, Katherine assumed she could. She knew that despite the trouble the couple had been having and the divorce that her sister insisted was imminent, Sam immensely enjoyed the expensive lifestyle that her marriage to Chad afforded her.

  Still, she couldn’t possibly believe him… right?

  “Sam, you know I would never do that,” Katherine asserted quietly.

  Her sister’s troubled gaze met hers. Whatever she saw in Katherine’s green orbs made her gray eyes softened marginally. “Of course not,” she agreed, shoulders slumping for just a second before they hunched up again, tense as can be as she turned to face her lying scoundrel of a husband. “You’re disgusting,” she spat at his pathetic form. “I want you out of my parents’ house immediately. You’ll be served with divorce papers first thing in the morning.”

  “What?” Chad exclaimed, seemingly truly flabbergasted. “Come on, Sam. Babe… I… I was drunk!” he shouted in a last ditch effort to worm his way out of the predicament he’d found himself in.

  “You heard her,” Katherine’s father boomed, hastily taking two steps towards the man still slumped pitifully on his kitchen floor. “Get the hell out of my house!”

  Chad stared incredulously. “But I need an ambulance!” he whined.

  Her dad’s neck turned so red it bordered on purple as his temper exploded. “Like hell you do! You put your filthy hands on one of my daughters and in doing so, hurt the both of them. You got what you deserved as far as I’m concerned. Now pick your pathetic self up and get. If I have to do it for you, you better believe you’ll be leaving this house in a body bag and not a goddamn ambulance.”