Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Bastian had to have been the most handsome man that Katherine had ever met. It really was unfortunate that he was also the most stubborn, controlling, downright infuriating jackass she'd ever known as well. Oh, and there was the fact that he was a werewolf-a werewolf who has bitten her. Sixteen-year-old Katherine Mayes had never believed in mythological creatures like werewolves or mermaids-certainly not those sparkly vampires that her friend Abby was obsessed with. Even when she's bitten by a massive animal after a reckless night of teenage adventure and her body begins to change in mystifying ways, she can't force herself to believe in what she's convinced is impossible. Little does she realize, she's been infected with a disease a little more permanent than the rabies she feels fortunate to have not contracted-lycanthropy. Her fierce denial is soundly shattered, however, when she is simultaneously saved and kidnapped by Bastian and his pack. Forced to leave small-town Iowa behind and adjust to their way of life in a hidden society, Katherine must also deal with fighting the pull she feels towards the man-or wolf, rather-who has bitten her and disrupted her life so completely.

If Katherine thought that her life would get any easier in the months following her realization that Bastian was her mate, she was wrong. But dealing with the man's hot and cold behavior-it was like he had two times of the month-and surviving the Recruiting Rites were pieces of cake compared to the fierce emotional storm that envelops her when a secret is revealed, turning everything Katherine thought she knew on its head. Once betrayed, it's hard to bring herself to trust again. Once bitten, it's hard not to be shy.

"Look at you! Such a healthy flush." "You're positively glowing! Luminous, even." Katherine didn't think she had ever heard so many creative ways of being called fat before. Except she wasn't fat, of course. Even worse, she was pregnant. When Katherine begins experiencing seemingly random physiological changes a few months after being claimed as Bastian's mate, she's terrified that she may somehow be losing her supernatural abilities-her "inner wolf," so to speak. In many ways, though, the truth is even scarier: she's pregnant. Amidst dealing with morning sickness, wondering how she's going to push a baby the size of a melon out of her you know, and, oh yeah, figuring out a way to tell Bastian the life-altering news, Katherine finds herself shedding her initial apprehension over her pregnancy and becoming enamored with the idea of a baby. Unfortunately, in a world where fertile wombs among werewolves are as rare as they are revered, envy and covetousness abound. Evil-both the kind that lurks in shadows and the kind that blatantly rears its ugly head-threatens to rip away from Katherine everything she never knew she wanted.