Page 36 of Cold Foot King

“I want you to breed me.”

He lowered his chin to his chest and rested his hands on his hips. “I hate the way you just said that.”

Sitting up straighter on the counter, Katrina asked, “Why?”

“I did formal before. And then I did emotionless with you when you were a stranger. You aren’t a stranger anymore. Don’t ask me like that again.”

He turned and grabbed his pants off the floor, then left the bathroom.

Katrina was mortified. She didn’t know why she’d said it like that, looking back. She’d thought she was talking sexy. She’d thought he would melt into it and take her quick and hard, and fix the intimacy issues that lingered between them. His reaction made her feel embarrassed, and very unsexy.

She felt shame.

There was the rustling of him getting dressed in the bedroom, and then the click of the door handle opening. “Don’t overthink it, Kat,” he barked out, and then the door closed firmly.

But…he was a male. And she was offering herself. It didn’t matter what words she used to a rutting male. Right?

She looked at the coffee he’d brought her and then slid off the counter, cheeks on fire. Feeling the full slap of rejection, she went into the bedroom, and startled hard when someone yelled a cuss word in the hallway. Sounded like King.

She peeked her head out into the hallway just in time to see him shove the door open and leave the building.

Next door, the shifter she’d met last night…Reed? He was frowning at her. “What did you do?”

“I…” She shook her head, at a loss for how to explain. She didn’t understand herself. “It’s none of your business.”

He made aclicksound behind his teeth, left his room, and followed King out of the hotel.

Well, now she somehow felt even worse. God! Everything she did and said was wrong here. She hated it. Hated the way all of this made her feel. First, Raynah called her out last night at the gas station, and then Silver was watching her at the bar but wanted nothing to do with her, and now King was mad at her for…for…what? Asking him to breed her? That’s what they’d done! That’s what it was called in Cold Foot! He was a breeder!

“Fuck this,” she ground out, shoving her way out of the door.

“You good?” Raynah asked as she passed.

“I’m great,” she gritted out.

Outside, the Fastlanders were sitting around a firepit, all looking toward the woods where Katrina could make out Reed jogging into the trees.

“What’s going on?” Silver asked, standing.

Katrina ignored her and stalked the opposite direction that King and Reed had disappeared. Behind her, she could hear Silver trotting to catch up.

“Kat,” she called.

“Don’t call me that. I’m Katrina to you now!” she yelled over her shoulder. She picked up her pace to a jog.

“Where are you going?” Silver called.

She pushed her legs into a sprint. The tree line across the icy road was her sanctuary. If she could just reach it and Change, this stupid world and all of the overwhelming emotions of this body would cease to exist.

“Hey!” Silver grabbed her arm and spun her, and Katrina shoved her hard.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m not!” But the wind was blowing on her cheeks, and they stung with dampness. Angry at herself, she wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I just want to be alone.”

“Tell me what’s happening! Did King hurt you?”