My werewolf professor, p.2
My Werewolf Professor, page 2
“Find mate now.”
I pushed myself harder, inhaling the calming scent of softwood. Leaves rustled gently above me, rays of sun slipping through the tree branches. When I found myself jogging onto Arcane University property, I slowed and decided on a trail that would take me throughout the campus, an easy way to pick up her scent.
Students sat on benches and at picnic tables, eating early dinners. Others passed a volleyball back and forth on the square. And then there was Bria, who lay on her stomach, reading her classics book for tomorrow, on the lawn in front of a dormitory.
Like a fucking creep, I stopped about fifty feet away from her and watched her flip page after page, smiling to herself like she was actually enjoying the reading. Nobody ever enjoyed classics books—at least not in the classes I taught. Strands of her dirty-blonde hair swept into her face, and it took everything inside of me not to walk over to her and tuck them behind her ear. Goddess, I had wanted to do that this morning too.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I shook my head and turned away. I couldn’t fucking do this. Why the hell was I standing around and watching one of my students? If she saw me gawking at her, she could report me to the board and get me kicked out. Worse than that, The Wolf Council would find out about it too.
“I have an idea,” my wolf said in my mind.
“What?” I asked, desperate for something to get me closer to her.
Before I could stop, I found myself heading right in her direction, my legs moving on their fucking own, thanks to my wolf.
“What are you doing?” I scolded.
“Going to talk to mate.”
“That’s your idea?!”
When he didn’t respond, I dug my heels into the ground and forced myself to stop ten feet away. Ten fucking feet. And in the midst of the softwood and food from the café a street down, all I could focus on was her sweet beachy scent that did nothing but drive me fucking crazy for her.
“Professor Lee!” someone called to my left.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Bria look over at me. And being the alpha I was, I couldn’t help but feel my body tense. Not because I was nervous she saw me staring at her, but because I wanted her to like me, to find me attractive in the sea of frat boys and horny college kids from Arcane University.
“Hi,” I said, giving the girl a small smile.
Don’t look over at Bria. Don’t look over at Bria. Don’t look over at Bria.
I glanced over at Bria, my gaze lingering for a moment longer than it should’ve. She gave me a soft, small smile, then looked back at her textbook. When she pushed her legs a bit closer together and I smelled her cunt, I nearly lost it.
“Do we have—” the girl started.
“A quiz tomorrow morning?” I finished, canines extending. “Yes. Don’t forget to read.”
It was a lie. I didn’t have any quiz planned for tomorrow, but I guessed I had one now because I needed to get the fuck out of here before my wolf seized complete control of my body and took Bria on the university lawn.
All I could imagine was running my nose down her neck and sinking my canines into her neck, claiming her, taking her, making her mine. I’d bet her pussy tasted so fucking good. One damn smell of it, and my wolf had already gone wild.
Turning my back toward Bria, I gave the girl a forced smile and jogged in the opposite direction, passing Levi and only stopping when I stepped into the forest. I rested my back against a tree, taking deep breaths to suppress my wolf.
“Hey!” Levi called with a grin, jogging in Bria’s direction. “Bria, right?”
I tensed and glanced from behind the tree to see them chatting. My hands balled into fists, anger rushing through me so heavily that even with my enhanced hearing as a wolf, I couldn’t seem to listen. All I saw was him making my mate smile again.
After a moment, Levi nodded and turned back to the forest.
When he reached me, I growled, forcing him to stop right in his damn fucking tracks. “Don’t touch Bria.”
“I was just inviting her to a party. She’s a first-year and—”
Unable to stop myself, I wrapped my hand around the front of his throat and thrust him against a tree, my canines lengthening past my lips and my claws nearly cutting into his neck. “Don’t fucking touch her. Do you understand me?”
Levi widened his eyes at me. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, Alpha,” he said, bowing his head.
I shoved him away from me and looked back at Bria, who now lay on her back and shielded her eyes from the setting sun as she continued reading her classics book. I should claim her right here, right now. No horny fraternity asshole should have his hands all over my mate at a party.
Bria Benton was mine. Only mine.
Chapter Four
BRIA
After pulling on my fifth outfit for the night, I stood in front of the mirror and sighed at my reflection. Love handles, love handles, and more freaking love handles. All of my party clothes were either too tight around the waist that it shoved all my fat above the beltline or fit me perfectly but didn’t look sexy.
There was no way that I was going to my first frat party ever, looking like this.
So, I changed out my jeans for sweatpants and my halter top for the tank top that I slept in for the past four nights, then threw my hair into a messy bun—and by messy, I didn’t mean cute like all those girls on social media. I meant, hair-sticking-up-in-every-direction messy.
Typing on her phone, Jasmine opened our dorm room door and glanced up at me. “Why aren’t you ready?”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “I’m not going.”
“Come on, Bria. It’s our first semester of college. Don’t you want to have some fun?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have anything to wear.”
“You can wear something of mine.”
Cutting my gaze to her, I raised a brow. She and I both knew that I would never fit into anything her petite ass could. I’d pop all the buttons on her shirt and stretch out her leggings until they became sweatpants on her. So, that was a no from me.
She rolled her eyes. “You’ll look great in anything that you have.”
“Everyone at this school is insanely small and skinny, Jasmine. It’s like everyone takes three-hour runs every day to stay fit. I don’t want to go like this.”
I shook my head and scrolled through my emails, finding one from Professor Lee, addressed to the entire class.
Class,
There will be a five-question quiz on tonight’s reading. Be prepared. If you have any questions, feel free to email me back. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Sincerely,
Professor Lee
“Nobody cares what you look like at frat parties,” Jasmine said. “Half the guys are drunk off their asses anyway. They see a cute face like yours, and they’ll be all over you. Don’t worry too much about it, Bria. Let’s just go.”
I grabbed my classics book from my desk. “I’ll come next time. I have a quiz tomorrow.”
“What?! Who’s the psycho who assigned a quiz on the first day of school?”
“Professor Lee.”
“You have Professor Lee?” she asked with wide eyes. “Isn’t he the most gorgeous person that you’ve ever seen?”
“Do you have him?” I asked, curious as to how she found out about him already. She was a first-year student like me and wasn’t taking any classics classes as far as I knew. She must’ve been on RateMyProfessor.com or something.
She paused, opening and closing her mouth, then hurried to the door. “Oh, I … saw him in the hallway. One of my friends has his class. Anyway, have fun studying. Next time, you’re coming out with me. See ya.”
When she closed the door, I slumped my shoulders forward and let out a breath. That was … easier than I thought it would be. At first, she was so adamant about me going with her, and then she quickly dropped it.
Deciding not to think so much about it, I sat at my desk, opened my book, and studied for the next five hours until twelve a.m.. Jasmine still wasn’t home yet, and even though she told me that she wouldn’t be home until after two a.m., I was still worried. Was that what people did in college? Stay up until all hours of the night?
As I closed my textbook and hopped up onto the bed, my phone lit up with an email notification.
Bria,
Have you read this?
https://www.amazon.com/ahd …
—Callum Lee
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and suppressed a smile, my cheeks flushing for no good reason at all. Professor Lee didn’t sign his professional name like he did when he sent an email to the entire class earlier, but he signed his real name to me.
Callum Lee.
And an email after midnight?
Callum—Professor Lee was up late, thinking about me.
Surely, it didn’t mean anything, but the thought of my hot professor thinking about me and our conversation this late at night did something bad to me. I pressed my thighs together, like I did while watching him run around the campus until he stopped and saw me gawking at him earlier. God, he looked so sexy with a layer of sweat covering his body and his muscles swelling underneath his shirt.
I swallowed hard and clicked on the link, getting directed to a book titled The Red Hammer, which explored the tales of Hephaestus and his relationship with his mother.
While I thought I read everything on that god—at least within the classics books—I hadn’t touched this one yet. I made a mental note to pick it up tomorrow in the school library and typed out a quick reply back to Professor Lee, unable to stop myself.
Professor Lee,
It’s added to my TBR list! Thanks for the recommendation.
Sincerely,
Bria
After scrunching my nose, I erased my sign-off, then typed the same exact words over again. I couldn’t decide if it was too formal or not formal enough. But he wasn’t formal at all in his email. Deciding not to overthink it, I hit Send and placed my phone facedown on my stomach, smiling stupidly to myself as I stared up at the ceiling.
Here I was, a first-year college student, who declined attending a frat party in order to lie in her bed and get butterflies that her much older professor was emailing her this late at night. It was a damn fantasy that would never come true, a small act of good attention that I ached for.
It wasn’t like I ever got that at home.
Shutting off my bedside lamp, I closed my eyes and felt the phone vibrate against my stomach. I tilted the phone up slightly, so the brightness wouldn’t blind me, and shot up in the bed when I saw another email from Professor Lee.
I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s one of my favorites.
—Callum
No Callum Lee this time. Just Callum.
My stomach fluttered. I hugged the phone to my chest and smiled like a complete idiot at the ceiling, then shook my head and plugged my phone into the charger. I couldn’t be stupid. I was making something out of nothing, and if I didn’t control myself, that something was going to control me.
Tomorrow, I’d thank Professor Lee for the recommendation again and get the book from the library. That would be it; I’d be done with the little crush I formed because I needed to study this semester. I had worked damn hard to find the money to attend college without the help from Mom or Dad. I couldn’t let it go to waste.
Chapter Five
CALLUM
“As promised”—I passed out sheets of paper with quiz questions on the front—“a five-question quiz about the assigned reading last night. For those of you who recently switched into my class, this quiz will have to be made up during office hours.”
After a collective groan, the room became quiet, everyone taking out pens or pencils to complete the quiz as quickly as they could so they could leave. Bria answered the questions at lightning speed, like she was ready for it, and it made me smile. In all my years of teaching, I hadn’t found anyone as enthusiastic about this material as I was. But now … my mate was here.
“When you’re finished, please drop your quizzes up front.”
Once everyone began finishing up, Bria sat at her desk in the front row. From where I stood, I could tell that she had answered all the questions and even written an explanation for one. But she still didn’t get up. It was as if she was waiting for everyone else to leave first.
And when Levi, the last person to finish, stood, she did too.
“Bria …” Levi swung his backpack over his shoulder and smiled.
My blood fucking boiled. This kid didn’t listen to a word I fucking said yesterday.
“Enjoy your night in? Jasmine said you wanted to study instead of party. Kinda makes you seem like a lo-ser, if you ask me.”
“Well, if you ask me, nobody cool sounds out the word loser anymore,” Bria said, gathering her notebooks and returning Levi’s smirk. “But I had a great time, thank you. I got some studying in and”—she glanced in my direction, looking right fucking at me watching her, blushed, then looked away—“I found my next good read.”
“Who reads anymore? I don’t.”
“And that’s why you failed my class last semester, Levi,” I interrupted, loathing the fucking way he stood so close to her. I wanted to rip her away, claim her. It hadn’t even been two days yet, and she was already driving me wild.
Bria smiled and raised her brows at Levi. “Maybe you should be doing that instead of partying on a Monday night.”
Levi shook his head, turned to me, and handed me his paper. “You know, I aced the quiz. One hundred percent. Check it out.”
I glossed over the answers and raised my brows. “This is good, Levi. You’re off to a better start this year.” I gave him my best professor smile and continued the conversation through our mind link. “But if you don’t stop messing with Bria Benton, you won’t be.”
Straightening his back, Levi gave us a tense smile and waved us off. “Well, I gotta get going. Don’t want to be late. See ya.” And with that, he was off, rushing up the aisle and out of the room.
After Levi exited the room, leaving Bria and me alone again, she hiked her backpack onto her shoulder and handed me her quiz. “Here you go. I was stuck between two answers for question four, so I wrote a detailed description as to why I thought it was the answer I chose.”
I took the quiz from her, my fingers brushing against her slender ones, and my wolf howled inside of me. The mere touch sent tingles up and down my arms, her scent becoming even more powerful somehow.
“Mate. Claim mate.”
After I glanced over her answers, a warmth spread throughout my chest. “Oh, Bria, you’ve gotten everything right, except …”
“Except?” she asked with big eyes, staring down at the quiz and going over the questions and answers again. She looked to be one of those students who stayed up all hours of the night, studying for a simple five-question quiz, needing to get all the answers correct. “It’s question four, isn’t it?”
“Your name.”
She placed a hand over her heart and let out a breath, staring down at the empty line on the top of the sheet for her name. “Oh gosh …”
“You could get points taken off for such a simple mistake.”
“I wouldn’t be able to … to make those points up somehow?”
My breath caught in the back of my throat, and I didn’t know if Bria really wanted extra credit or if she was flirting. All I knew was that my wolf was going wild for her right now. I needed more, a taste, something to calm him.
“For you, Bria, there will be extra credit, but I don’t think you’ll be needing it.”
Though I hoped she would.
“What if I wanted it?” She gnawed on the inside of her cheek, then quickly followed up with, “You know, in case I fail a quiz or an exam or … something else. I just … I want to make sure that it’s an option for me.”
Unable to stop myself, I grasped her chin and forced her to look me in the eye. “It will always be an option for you. I’ll have extra credit for whenever you need it. Discipline too.”
“Discipline,” Bria whispered, shuffling her feet. “So, I, um …” She hugged the book to her chest and lingered at her desk. “I saw you running yesterday afternoon. Do you run every day around the quad?”
“I do.” Lie.
I never ran around the quad, but I did now. If Bria studied on the grass every afternoon like she had yesterday, I’d be running around this campus every day to see her. It was that or stalk her dorm room, which would definitely get me kicked out by the council.
She became quiet, her thighs suddenly pressing together. “Good to know.”
“You’re welcome to come with me sometime.”
Fuck, why did I fucking say that? She’s my student, for Goddess’s sake.
Instead of taking it back—because she wasn’t only my student, but she was my mate too—I leaned against the desk and patiently waited for her answer, my wolf growing restless inside of me every time she blushed.
“God, no,” Bria said, eyes widening in surprise. She glanced up at me through her lashes. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to. I would love to run with you. I …” Her cheeks turned even redder, as if she thought she was digging herself an even bigger grave. But I couldn’t get enough of it. Eventually, she looked back down at her shoes. “I just hate running. Kinda with a passion.”
“Hate running?” I asked, crossing my arms. “What do you do for exercise?”
To my surprise, Bria looked me right in the eye with her cheeks still flushing and said, “Other things.” Her voice was filled with a tinge of sultriness, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about bending her right over my lap and punishing her for making me so fucking hard during class today.
I inhaled the sweet scent of her salivating cunt.
Goddess, Bria was going to fucking destroy me. One of these days, I wouldn’t be able to handle myself. I’d throw my office door open, pull her into the room, and claim her with everything I had, my teeth in her neck, my tongue on her pussy, my hands all over her body.
