Chapter 18
Katrina sat in the kitchen listening to all the Warriors.
Looking around, she noticed only a few were missing, but most of them were there.
Her shift didn’t start for another hour, so she figured she’d grab something to eat and then head out.
She was working with Blaze again, and she wondered if he had fixed it so she was with him.
Not that it mattered. She liked working with Blaze, but he needed to loosen the leash a little and actually let her work.
Not give her the easy stuff to do. He probably didn’t think she noticed, but she did.
“I don’t know how I feel about this,” Sid was saying, breaking her out of her thoughts. “Something isn’t adding up. I mean, how in the fuck after hundreds of years are vampires suddenly able to spawn a kid?”
Katrina frowned at his word choice. “Spawn a kid?” she whispered, glancing at Jill, who was glaring at Sid.
“We don’t even know if this will affect our vampire mates,” Jared piped in with a frown. “Does this mean they are fertile?”
“Fuck if I know. I mean, Daniel could be wrong,” Sid replied as he shoveled food into his mouth, looking thoughtful.
He chewed, not realizing he was getting death stares from the women in the room.
“And how in the hell can a doctor just waltz into a hospital and implant a woman’s frozen eggs into her without her knowing or being caught?
Isn’t there a lot of people in an operating room?
I don’t know, guys. I mean, I’m just spitballing here because, in all honesty, I’m not real happy about having to wrap the manhood if you know what I mean. ”
“Yeah, not looking forward to that myself,” Jax agreed from where he sat across from Sid.
Sid snorted. “You guys with vampire mates are lucky if this is true.”
A few of the Warriors mated with humans nodded in agreement.
“You’re a fucking idiot.” Katrina stood, her eyes blazing hotter than any flame Blaze could conjure.
“Katrina,” Blaze said in warning, causing her glare to swing his way.
“What?” Katrina snapped, her eyes flaming with anger.
Blaze held her stare, his voice calm, which only pissed her off more. “We’ve all been given news that’s a little hard to wrap our heads around.”
“Yeah, well, give me a break.” Katrina snorted, shaking her head before turning back to Sid, then the rest of them.
“What is your spitballing telling you, Sid? If it’s not the Golden Blood because that’s too impossible, and if an operating room would have too many people for someone to pull off implanting eggs inside a woman, then the doctor definitely couldn’t have violated her in other ways, right? ”
Sid didn’t answer, but instead stared at her with a frown.
“Come on, you had a lot to say a few seconds ago,” Her voice shook, but she didn’t stop. “So, what is it? You think she cheated? Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what all of you are thinking?”
No one said a word.
“What if that was Lana?” Katrina asked Sid, then looked at Blaze. “Or me?”
“That’s enough,” Blaze said, his frown deepening, and Katrina felt her heart drop.
“Yeah,” Katrina whispered, then nodded as she looked around the room, her eyes moving over each of them one by one.
“It is enough. Not one of you knows what Becky has been through, what she has dealt with, but I do. And you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Right now, I don’t see Warriors.
I see boys who are only worried about themselves. ”
She had never been more disappointed in anyone in her life. She had looked up to these men, but right now, that was definitely not what she was feeling for them.
Katrina started to leave, but stopped. Slowly, she turned back, her eyes locking on Sid. “And Sid,” she said, her voice low. “I hope you never spawn a child.”
Katrina stormed out of the kitchen, not giving a shit whether she had pissed off every single Warrior in there.
Screw them. They needed to learn to read the room.
This was serious, and Katrina knew how they dealt with things with jokes, but this hit different.
It was as if Sid was judging Becky, and if there was one thing Katrina was, it was loyal.
Becky was like an older sister to her, and Katrina would be damned if she stood there and listened to any of them say shit about her.
“What the hell was that?” Blaze’s voice came from behind her as his heavy footsteps caught up to her. “Katrina!” he growled when she kept walking.
“What?” Katrina snapped, turning toward him.
“What is wrong with you?” Blaze frowned down at her.
“What is wrong with me?” Katrina snorted, shaking her head. “Typical male question. How about what is wrong with you? With them?” She swung her arm toward the direction of the kitchen.
Blaze remained silent as he stared at her, and it was frustrating because obviously, he didn’t see a problem with what was being said in the kitchen. But she saw it and definitely had a problem with it.
“What if that was me they were talking about, Blaze?” Katrina tried her best to calm her voice because she really wanted him to hear her.
“Sid was just—”
“Spitballing,” Katrina interrupted, using Sid’s word. “Bullshit. He was doubting what Daniel said, but it was more than that. Every question, every joke, every stupid comment about wearing a rubber made it sound like Becky was the problem instead of what was done to her.”
Her voice cracked, but she kept going. She refused to show weakness.
“I believe Daniel, Blaze. I’ve seen too much evil in this world not to.
I saw it before I was turned, and I’ve seen things since that I will never be able to explain or understand.
Becky and Sloan’s lives were hit by it today, but every single mate, whether human or vampire, is vulnerable. Why wasn’t that the conversation?”
Katrina took a deep, calming breath as she searched Blaze’s eyes to see if anything she was saying was getting through to him. She couldn’t tell. Blaze only showed what he wanted seen, and right now, he was a closed book.
“I can’t speak for Jill or Raven, who were in that kitchen, but I know how I felt as a woman.
I felt like I didn’t matter. That Becky didn’t matter.
” Katrina shook her head when his eyes narrowed.
She would finish this conversation before he could try to make excuses.
“All I heard were doubts about what really happened to Becky. And in all honesty, if I had Adam’s gift of reading people, I’d bet my life that at least a few of them doubted Daniel and went straight to Becky cheating.
And that, Blaze, pisses me the fuck off.
I have firsthand seen women victimized and then blamed.
I was one of them, and by damn, I will not stand by and see it done to someone I care about.
Becky deserves respect and to be believed. ”
“Sid did not accuse her of cheating.” Blaze finally broke his silence, and honestly, it would have been better if he had remained silent.
Katrina laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“And sadly, that’s exactly what I expected you to say.
And he didn’t have to, Blaze. I know how to read between the lines of...
spitballing bullshit.” Tilting her head, she studied him for a minute.
She loved this man more than life itself, and maybe she was being too hard on him, but yeah, she was done being nice Katrina.
Quiet Katrina. “I’m calling off tonight. ”
She started to turn, but Blaze stopped her.
“Katrina, where are you going?” Blaze had grabbed her arm, but she snapped it away.
“It’s Kat,” Katrina spat out, not really knowing why she reverted back to the name she despised so much because it was what her piece-of-shit father used to call her.
The name she went by when she was part of the Iron Drakes.
That name went with the way she was feeling in the moment, and maybe now Blaze would know this wasn’t just a female having a temper tantrum.
“And you all best hope Sloan never finds out about that conversation in the kitchen.”
“What conversation?” Sloan asked, coming up behind them.
Katrina looked up at Sloan as she walked by. “Ask Sid.”
She didn’t even look at Duncan who was with Sloan as she made her way toward the exit and was glad Blaze didn’t follow her. She needed to be alone. What she really needed was a long ride on her bike to clear her head and calm the hell down.
Stopping at Sloan’s office she looked inside.
Not seeing Becky, but seeing the door to the small room off the office with the door closed she figured Becky was laying down.
Backing out she headed outside straight toward her bike.
Once on she started it then took off. She didn’t know where she was going and honestly didn’t care. She just wanted to ride.
So many thoughts went through her head as she rode, she was surprised when she ended up at the home she had grown up in.
There was yellow tape hanging haphazardly across the walkway.
Turning her bike off she stared at what was left of the house she grew up in.
It seemed like forever when Blaze had set it on fire after they had cleared it of firearms and anything else the Iron Drakes and her father had stolen.
Getting off the bike she walked to the edge of the tape, then stepped over it.
Her eyes seeing what it used to look like before it burned.
She could actually hear the music in her mind as it blared out into the neighborhood.
The mind and memories were a cruel reminder of where she came from.
Closing her eyes, she sighed. No matter how far she ran she would always be soiled with this life, the life she was born into.
She would always be Kat. Today in the compound kitchen proved that.
Katrina never would have stood toe to toe with the Warriors, but Kat would have and did just that.