Winter Wolf(64)

“What? Isn’t that what you wanted to hear? Did you think I sought her out with the intentions to steal her away? That I wanted to take your pack? Well, I’m sorry to inform you, I never had any intention of taking River Run, and I had every intention of fulfilling my father’s wishes. You see, he thought it would be quite poetic, if his son killed your daughter. He’s trained me from the moment I could walk so that I would be ready, but then I saw her. Beautiful and broken, dressed in white, with the moonlight in her hair, she looked like an angel, an angel stained red with blood. I knew who she was to me the moment I saw her. I didn’t think about the consequences. She’s mine and that is all that matters. You should understand what I mean when I say she’s my mate. Those lucky enough to find the one person on this planet who is made for them, will stop at nothing to keep them safe, and if they fail… Well, this war is proof of the pain the one left behind feels. She is my mate, Jackson. That is all the explanation you should need.”

Jackson stared. Bass stared back, neither seemed like they were going to back down.

Katalina threw her hands up. She’d had enough; she was too tired to fight, too heartbroken to care anymore. All she wanted to do was get as far away from Jackson as possible and forget he had ever existed. “I’m leaving. Tell Toby I’m sorry. I couldn’t stay.”

She turned on the spot, her hair fanning around her. The late evening sun caught each fine thread, glistening as she strode away. She didn’t wait to see if Bass followed, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to follow.

I had every intention of fulfilling my father’s wishes…

“Urgh, stupid asshole,” she muttered. Sometimes she forgot he was a shifter. He’d been so different in her world, relaxed and funny, but in this world, in his world—her new world—he was an alpha’s son: controlled, practical, talking with logic and not emotion.

How could he talk so flippantly about going against his father?

“Katalina, where are you going?” Bass ran past her. He walked backward in front of her as she stomped. “Kat?”

“I’m leaving. I don’t care where. Anywhere that isn’t here.” She’d reached the truck. Opening the door, she let Arne out.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t you hear what he said? He’s accepting us, Kat.”

Katalina stopped. “I don’t need his acceptance, Bass,” she sighed. “I didn’t come here for approval.”

“Why did you come here then?” he asked gently.

“I’m not even sure I know. I’m not sure of anything anymore. It’s all messed up. Everything is a mess. I’m a mess.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes I am. How can you not see that?”

He tried to take her hand but she pulled away. “Don’t, just leave me, Bass.”

“I can’t do that, Kat.”

She looked at him, at the boy who could be two people, who could change from her Bass to Sebastian Evernight in the blink of an eye. When she looked at him now, there was no doubt of his love, but she just couldn’t shake his words, the way he spoke so unemotionally to Jackson.

“I can feel you’re mad at me but I don’t understand why?” he said.

“Argh!” she screamed. She shoved him, her hands possessed taking on a life of their own.

“Do you know what I don’t understand? I don’t understand how you can talk about wanting to kill me in such an offhand tone. It is not nothing, Sebastian!”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why? It’s who you are being.”

“Kat, you are being irrational.”

“Irrational! I’m fucking livid!” It infuriated her that he could stay so calm when she felt ready to rip him apart. She knew she wasn’t really that mad at him. She was just angry in general; angry at the world, at Jackson, at herself.

They stood there; Bass calm, the frown mark between his eyes the only outward sign of emotion, and Katalina, trembling in fury, her hands in fists, each knuckle pulled tightly against white skin.

“I don’t know what you want me to do,” he said quietly.

Katalina looked at him as he sighed. She breathed deeply, and released her breath, uncurling each finger as she did. Her anger dissolved in a puff of breath. “Get mad, Bass. Shout, scream, do something, other than act as if nothing affects you.”

“Is that what you think? That none of this affects me? That the thought of laying a single finger on my father doesn’t tear me up inside? Do you think I don’t hate myself every minute of every day for ever thinking of hurting you? Because I do, Kat. I feel as lost and as angry at what we’ve been dealt as you. The difference is I’ve had years to perfect my mask, to play the game, to be Sebastian Evernight.”