Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,9
a real possibility.
“I’m still not going after Steve,” the younger woman said.
“Then why are we here?” her mother replied with asperity.
There was a sudden knocking on Katelyn’s door that sounded as loud as gunfire. She jerked, but managed to keep silent.
“Kat, honey, how’d that fit?” Babette asked.
“Umm, fine,” she said, freaking out. The mother and daughter in the other dressing room would have to know that she’d overheard them.
“Well, come on out here and let us see,” Babette insisted.
Katelyn opened the door and stepped out, smoothing down the dress. It was black, simple and elegant with white straps, a sweetheart neckline and a full skirt that swirled just above her knees. She knew it showed off her legs well. She executed a little turn, then smiled at Babette — a smile that faltered when the other dressing-room door opened.
“Perfect,” Babette said, cocking her head, appraising her. “What do you ladies think?”
“Lovely,” the older woman said, a chill in her voice. Katelyn recognized her at once: her name was Myrna, and she was a werewolf.
“Looks like everyone needs something special,” Myrna’s daughter said. Katelyn had forgotten her name, but they’d been forced to kiss each other’s cheeks when Katelyn had been introduced to the pack — the standard method of greeting from werewolf to werewolf within the pack. She was pretty with tapered, curly hair that framed a cherubic face, big brown eyes, and cupid-bow lips.
“This didn’t work,” the girl added, fingering the fabric of the dress she wore.
“We’ll find you the perfect dress, Hannah,” Babette said.
Hannah. The name suited her. Hannah glanced sideways and gave Katelyn a hesitant smile and Katelyn smiled back.
“Ladies, you’ve all met, right?” Babette said cheerfully.
Katelyn nodded slightly.
“How are you, Kat?” Myrna asked.
“Good,” she lied. “You?”
“Just fine.”
And this couldn’t be more awkward if we tried.
“You know, I think I’ll take this,” Katelyn said to Babette. “Let me just go get changed.”
She hurried back into the dressing room and quickly put her other clothes back on, then forced herself to walk back out. She saw with relief that Myrna and Hannah were at the very back of the store so she hurried over to the cash register and presented Babette with the dress.
“You looked so pretty in this,” the older woman gushed.
“Thanks.”
Babette put the dress in a bag. “Tell Cordelia I said hello and not to forget about those winter formals I’ll have coming in.”
“I will,” Katelyn said faintly.
She hurried out onto the sidewalk and lost her composure for just a second. She guessed it was to be expected. Sooner or later she had to run into other members of the pack in town by accident. She’d just hoped the day would come much, much later.
She walked toward the coffee shop, grateful for cold, crisp air that made her blood sing — a brief moment of pleasure. Before Wolf Springs, she’d lived her whole life in southern California where it rarely got this cold, but she liked it.
She walked inside Cowffeine, the cute little coffee shop that sported a cartoon cow wearing an enormous cow bell on its sign. She ordered herself a hot chocolate and sat down at a table near the windows on the far side of the café with her back to the door, not eager to encounter anyone else she might know while she waited for her grandfather to finish his errands. She made a mental note to ask Justin how she was supposed to handle accidental meet-ups with other pack members. Should she treat them like friends, strangers, or acquaintances?
“This is so screwed up,” she whispered to herself.
People were talking around her, but Katelyn tried to focus on her hot chocolate, how it smelled, how it tasted. Then she heard footsteps behind her. They came to a stop.
“Hey, sexy. Whassup?”
She froze. No way. Not now. Then she pivoted and looked into the face of Mike Wright, resident asshat of Wolf Springs High, and his smarmy smile vanished.
“Oh, it’s you,” he managed, clearly shocked.
“Uh, yeah, who did you think it was?” she asked, her anger rising. He was a bully and a jerk who had dissed Cordelia at every chance, and he was always baiting Trick. She knew the two boys had been in a couple of actual fights and she was sure he was the one who’d slashed Trick’s tires on her first day at Wolf Springs High.
He flushed. “Someone a lot hotter than you,” he said, before turning and stalking toward the front of the café.