Escaping The Beast: A Darkhills Romance (The Darkhills Series Book 2) by Elizabeth Greene (young adult books to read TXT) 📕

“I’ve got bacon, sausage, eggs, fried potatoes, and waffles,” she hollered from the stove in the kitchen.

Katherine’s stomach groaned, she wasn’t sure if it was in eagerness or revulsion but she grabbed her coffee and stumbled dutifully over to the kitchen counter.

“Can I help at all?” She asked doubtfully, by the looks of things everything was ready.

“You can grab the sauces from the fridge if you’d like and butter the toast,” Rose replied, casting her a kind smile.

“On it.”

Within a couple of minutes, the two women were sat at the counter silently devouring the delicious feast. After her fourth slice of bacon, Katherine had to slide her plate away.

“I think I’ve reached my limit,” She smiled, patting her stomach, “I’m not used to so much protein on one plate, but I guess for a wolf it’s a requirement.”

Rose nodded in agreement, her mouth full of waffles and eggs. She swallowed hastily and swept the remainder of Katherine’s bacon and sausage onto her own plate.

“Protein is life.”

Katherine laughed and stood to grab the coffee pot to top them both up. Rose shook her head and pointed to her softly rounded stomach.

“Ah, not too much caffeine for the baby,” Katherine nodded her understanding, “got it.”

She placed the pot back and leaned back against the counter, thinking back on the past twenty-four hours. She’d awoken in Lucian’s arms in his penthouse, they had driven home to Tumbricane, they’d made love, she had confessed her feelings and then been shoved aside like yesterday’s news.

Her heart still hurt. Deep down she knew it would always hurt. But she had somehow been swept up into a warm and welcoming safety net by near-strangers, only they didn’t feel like strangers anymore. She would miss Lucian after she returned to the city, she already did, despite his harsh dismissal. And she’d also miss her new friends who had caught her as she fell with a broken heart.

“Thank you, Rose,” she said quietly, staring into her steaming black coffee. The resemblance to a certain someone’s dark gaze was too strong to ignore. Her eyes watered and she looked at her friend instead. She’d rather let her see her pain than face the painful reminder of the man she loved.

“For what, hon?” Rose asked, putting her knife and fork down upon her plate.

“For everything. You hardly know me, and I turn up here out of the blue and disturbed your night, and yet you’ve shown me nothing but kindness. You all have. I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve it, but I’m grateful. If I can make it up to you in any way,”

Rose held up her hand to silence her.

“Why wouldn’t you deserve it? Why should you need to earn kindness or make up for it?”

“Kindness just doesn’t happen. There is usually a price to pay for it or an ulterior motive. I learned early on to look for the real reason behind someone’s motives. Most people are out for themselves, and it pays to remember that,” Katherine explained sadly.

Rose stood and came to stand in front of her, taking the coffee from her hands to hold them in hers.

“Not everyone is selfishly motivated, more often than not, people show kindness purely on instinct. Wolves are pack animals, we stick together to protect and support each other. It makes us stronger,” she explained, “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of reasons for feeling the way you do, but from now on you don’t have to try to be strong on your own. You can accept kindness, you can accept someone’s help, you can get hammered with a shamefully horny, old lady,” Katherine snorted out a laugh at that, “because you’ve got a pack now. And your back is covered, just as I know you’d have mine.”

Katherine choked back a sob as she threw her arms around the petite woman and hugged her tight.

“Would it be weird if I asked you to be my friend?” Katherine whispered as she squeezed Rose.

The woman laughed, “Yes. But only because I already am.”

Katherine finally let go and stood back, her cheeks pink from embarrassment. She hadn’t expected to become so emotionally soft, just at the prospect of friendship.

“Come on, let's clean up before we figure out when you can head back to your place in the city.”

“Oh, I was going to head off this morning. It’s quite a drive and-”

“No can do, I’m afraid,” Rose shook her head sadly, “sorry hon, Cayden went and picked up the truck this morning and it was a non-starter. It’s in the shop now. We’re trying to find a wolf willing to do the journey and drive you.”

“This morning? How early do you guys wake up?” Katherine screwed her face up. She thought she was bad, getting up for morning runs before her classes began.

“Are you kidding? This is the first time Cayden has slept in since he took over as Alpha. It’s two in the afternoon hon,” Rose chuckled.

“Afternoon?!” Katherine’s heart suddenly kick-started.

“Yeah, why is that so bad? You kinda needed the rest so I let you sleep.”

Shit, Shit, Shit.

“My father. He’s coming to Tumbricane. He’s going to try to blackmail Lucian.”

Panic swelled within her and she leapt over to her bags to hunt for her phone.

“What? Why would he do that?” Rose asked.

“Because he’s a crook, it’s what he does, I was supposed to help him,” Katherine said bitterly.

“OK, so I know I’m missing a lot of details here, but why would you do that? I thought you had feelings for Lucian?” Rose, folded her arms over her chest.

“Because I was scared, and stupid and desperate to just escape him and what I was feeling. When my Dad said it would be the last thing I had to do for him, I just panicked,” Katherine explained,  “but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do that to Lucian.”

“So you are scared of Lucian and you wanted to escape him