Page 525 of Hate Mates

“Try looking in front then, genius,” I say, rolling my eyes. When her eyes narrow, I kind of regret it. I’m trying really hard to get her to like me, but teasing her and treating her like shit is almost like second nature after all of these years. “Sorry.”

Karter turns to face me as she leans forward and reaches for the crotch of her jeans. Her brow furrows in confusion, and Iwatch as she shoves her hands into the waistband of her pants, feels around inside frantically, then extracts her hand. The tips of her fingers are coated with blood, and she looks up at me with wide eyes and a trembling lower lip.

“Harlan?” she asks in a shaky tone.

“It’s okay, Karter. This is supposed to happen,” I console as I walk over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.At least it is if it’s what I think.“And to think I just called you innocent.”

The grin on my face strikes the wrong chord with her because instead of at least cracking a smile, a sob escapes her as she shoves her hands back into her jeans and presumably attempts to stop the bleeding.Gross,I think as I wrinkle my nose. I grab her as gingerly as I can by the wrist and do my best to wrench her hand out, damn near gagging when I see how much blood she now has on her hand.

“Stop doing that, little wolf. We’re going to have to go back to the home. You need to get cleaned up, and then you have to tell Mrs. Jessop. She’ll have to give you some girly stuff.”

Karter looks up into my eyes as fresh tears stream down her cheeks. It’s obvious that she doesn’t want to walk through the home with messy pants, so the only other thing I can think of is to clean her up out here somehow.

“Alright, just … follow me,” I say, letting go of her wrist. I figure that if we’re surrounded by trees, there has to be water around here somewhere. Trees and water usually go hand in hand.

The fallen branches, from what I assume was a wicked fight between squirrels, crunch under my boots as I start walking, listening for the sound of running water. But the further I get on my little voyage, the more I’m aware of the fact that Karter hasn’t begun to follow me.

“You coming?” I call out, glancing over my shoulder. I sigh internally when I see that she’s still standing in place, paralyzedwith fear over a little bit of the ol’ womanhood descending on her, and feel kind of bad. I know this is something I’ll never have to deal with, so I can’t say I know what she’s going through.

She keeps her hand up in the air, eyes on me, completely void of focus as she starts shuffling forward. She’s going to fall and hurt herself if she doesn’t watch where she’s going.This won’t do.

I head over and meet Karter at the halfway spot between us, then scoop her up into my arms. I cradle her as I continue walking, feeling her unfocused gaze on me, careful to keep my chin lifted so that I don’t get grazed by her fingers. Mother Nature or not, if she manages to touch me with those, I’m bound to drop her from being grossed out.

A frustrated breath escapes me as I continue walking, not making any headway.Maybe we are lost after all. I wonder how she’d feel living out here in the woods with me?

I smile at the thought as I readjust Karter in my arms, making sure that I’ve got a good grip on her still.She’s small enough to be a nymph, but what would that make me, then? That half-goat thing with pipes?

I dismiss the thought instantly when I realize that the only option I would have out here would be as some kind of hybrid monster.

“Um …” my voice trails off as I turn to the left, then right. “I have no idea where we are, little wolf,” I admit with a laugh. “But I’ll get ussomewhere.”

I maintain as confident of a tone as I can, no matter how uncertain I feel right now.Take control and be a man, Harlan. You’re the only one who can get us out of this.

I walk about another half-mile, so sure that I’ve probably gone in a circle by now, when I finally hear the faintest sound of water rushing nearby. I feel excited and pick up my pace, carrying the still-catatonic load in my arms, then let out a happyshout when I see a creek. Craning my neck to the right, I can see a small waterfall not too far away, and reason that it had to be the sound that I heard.

“Alright, little wolf, let’s get you cleaned up,” I say, setting her down on her feet. Her knees buckle almost instantly, and I wrap an arm around her waist as swiftly as I can to keep her standing.

With another roll of my eyes, I inch her slowly toward the water til we’re both ankle deep. “Do you trust me, Karter?” I ask glancing down at her. Without looking up, she nods. She’s lying—I know she doesn’t trust me anymore than I trust her, but at this point, she’s out of options, and she knows it.

“Good.”

I remove my arm from around her waist, then move to stand in front of her. I busy myself unbuttoning her jeans, pushing them down her thighs, then lifting her to the left, then right so I can pull them off. After I toss them onto the mossy bank, I reach for her underwear. Her mouth becomes a tight line, her plump limps damn near invisible now, her jaw shaking. I can’t tell if she’s angry or embarrassed, but if she isn’t going to do this for herself, someone has to help her.

And as luck would have it, I’m the only one here.

I turn my eyes up to the sky as I begin to shove her panties down her thighs. I lift her and give her a gentle shake so she knows that I want her to finish pulling them off herself. I can feel her shift and move, grunting quietly until I see the white, blood-stained fabric being tossed toward the crumpled jeans.

“In you go,” I say, walking blindly to the right, Karter still firmly dangling over the water, until I’m able to gently place her in the creek. “Get yourself cleaned up and then wrap this around yourself.” I pull off my black t-shirt and lay it next to her ruined clothes.

“When you’re done, give me a shout, and we’ll head back to the home.”

Chapter Nine

KARTER

Thirteen Years Old

The blades of grass are tickling the bottoms of my bare feet as we walk over them. Every now and then, I step on a pebble, but I don’t make a sound. I don’t want Harlan to do anything more for me than he already has. Besides, I’m a grown-up now. At least that’s what he’s been trying to convince me on the way back to the home.

---