My werewolf professor, p.6
My Werewolf Professor, page 6
“Same though,” Levi said, sitting back and grabbing a beer from the waiter.
Lips curling into a wider smile, I laughed and grabbed a fry from my plate. “I don’t know if Professor Lee likes you back, Levi,” I teased. “He kept glaring at you all class yesterday. I was scared that he’d rip your throat out.”
Levi chuckled tensely and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, rip out my throat …”
Jasmine bumped her shoulder into mine. “Maybe you can make your move on him during the Full Moon party next Friday.”
“The Full Moon party will be the perfect time,” Levi said, stealing a fry from my plate and nodding to Jasmine with a sly smirk on his face. “He won’t be able to resist her then; he’ll turn into a wild animal.”
Again, Jasmine kicked Levi in the shin. I furrowed my brows at the intense and silent exchange between the two. Levi seemed like the type of guy to spill a bit too much information, which could definitely be useful at some point … maybe.
“What’s a Full Moon party?”
“During the first full moon of the school year, the university throws a party for new freshmen to celebrate.” Levi leaned back and glanced around the room. “Last year, the party was a rager.”
The waiter came over with the checks, and I handed him a few dollars, then I slid off the chair and walked with Jasmine and Levi toward the exit. People waved to Jasmine and Levi as we walked by, slapping them on their backs like they had known them for years.
Jasmine looped her arm around mine and pushed through the doors, stepping into the crisp fall night. I inched closer to her, freezing at the wind, which she seemed to be fine with, even in a tank top and some shorts.
“You have to go,” Jasmine said. “It’s so fun.”
“You’ve been before?” I asked.
“My friends and I used to sneak into the party while we were still in high school.”
“You live around here?”
“We both do,” Levi said, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. “Many of the students that go here come from around the forest that surrounds the university. That’s why we know the majority of them.”
“Oh,” I said, brows furrowed. “I didn’t think that there were that many communities around here. The school seems pretty secluded.”
Levi and Jasmine shared another tense glance, then Jasmine cleared her throat.
“It is,” she said. “We live a bit south, about forty-five minutes from here.”
Suddenly, howls erupted through the forest. I tensed and found myself stopping and gazing into the dark woods, my heart pounding in my chest. Another howl sounded, then another. It sounded like … a pack of wolves.
Jasmine tugged on my wrist a bit harder and dragged me toward our dorm with Levi in tow. “Let’s get back inside. It’s getting late, and don’t you have to be up early for Professor Lee’s class? You don’t want to miss too many classes or else he’ll deduct some points.”
I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Are there wolves around here?”
Both Levi and Jasmine stayed quiet.
Levi finally nodded and opened the front dorm door for me. “Yeah, some. I’ve seen them around here for a few years now, but usually, they’re not dangerous.”
A loud yowl sounded through the dark forest.
“Not dangerous?” I whispered.
That sounded like one of them was in pain and lots of it, like one attacked the other—or worse … one attacked a student.
Jasmine pulled me into the stuffy building and waved Levi off. “See you tomorrow.”
After a couple moments, Levi rounded the building’s corner and disappeared into the night, heading right for the noise. I swallowed hard and watched him run off. Something wasn’t right, and I wanted to find out what it was.
Chapter Fifteen
CALLUM
“Alpha Lee,” Milo said through the mind link. “We’re tracking Alpha Adan. He’s approaching university grounds. We need you to meet us at the northeastern borders, so he doesn’t harm any students.”
I tensed and stood from my desk, gazing out into the hallway to make sure nobody else was around. Just as I was about to end the fucking day, this asshole had to show up. And I hoped to the Goddess that Bria was still with Jasmine, like Jasmine had told me she was earlier.
Running out into the darkness, I surveyed the woods once more and shifted into my wolf, sprinting toward the northeastern borders to meet my pack and to stop Adan from advancing farther onto university lands.
When I saw him standing among his warriors, I growled harshly and shifted into my human again, smelling my pack close behind. “You’re not moving any farther onto the university.”
Adan turned around, eyes a blazing gold.
“Bria Benton,” Alpha Adan growled. “I need to find her.”
“Why do you want Benton?”
I asked the question like her name didn’t affect me, like I didn’t know who she was.
But, Goddess, I did.
If Adan found out that Bria was my mate, then things would get a whole lot worse for us very quickly. I needed to keep Bria safe from everything that she didn’t even know about yet.
“That’s none of your fucking business.” He moved closer to me with his claws drawn. “Where is she?”
Hands balled into fists, I stepped closer to him to show him and his pack that I wasn’t afraid of him because I wasn’t. My pack could defeat him easily. But we were on school grounds with humans less than half a mile from us, and Bria’s dorm was close. Too close.
“I already fucking told you that I don’t know who she is.”
“And I thought I made it clear that you needed to find her.”
“I don’t take orders from anyone, Adan.”
Growling, Adan leaped into the air and shifted into his wolf, rushing at me. I shifted into mine, spotting my warriors approaching their pack from behind. And before I knew it, the forest turned into a bloodbath with fur flying everywhere, the needle-covered path becoming a river of thick wolf blood and howls drifting through the air.
We fought for what must’ve been almost an hour until Adan lifted his nose in the air and howled. His wolves retreated through the woods, and I almost wanted to follow after him to end this all right here and right now, but I …
I smelled Bria’s scent drifting through the woods.
She was close.
If Adan found her …
After ordering my wolves to get home safely so we could come up with a plan, I ran toward her scent. From a distance, I spotted Bria standing out on the quad all by her-fucking-self. It must’ve been one in the morning already, and Alpha Adan was searching for her. I didn’t know if he knew what she looked like or smelled like, but I wasn’t taking any chances, so I shifted behind a tree.
“What are you doing out here, Bria?” I scolded, rushing toward her, completely naked because my clothes were stuffed in the bush behind her.
She must’ve thought I was fucking insane, stalking at her bare and covered in blood, but it didn’t matter. I needed her out of here fast. Alpha Adan was on my ass about finding her as quickly as supernaturally possible.
“Professor Lee,” Bria said in a breathy whisper. With wide eyes, she took her time, glancing down my naked body, her mouth forming a small O. “Wh-what are you …” When her gaze reached my cock hanging between my thighs, her cheeks turned bright red. “Oh my …”
I snatched her upper arm and dragged her into the classics building, slamming and locking the door behind me. After bringing her to my office and locking the door, in case that asshole smelled us, I finally released her.
Rubbing her arm, she looked everywhere, except at me. “I just needed some fresh air.”
“You could’ve gotten fresh air outside of your dorm. Why’d you come all the way here?”
She gnawed on the inside of her cheek and glanced down at my junk again. “Because …” After crossing her legs and rubbing them together, the scent of her cunt coming off her in waves, she turned away and shuffled toward the window. “I … smelled something good … um, you. Is that weird?” She groaned and rubbed a hand over her face. “Gosh, it’s even weirder to say out loud.”
Rummaging through my closet, I pulled out some spare clothes and tugged them on. Then, stepping closer to her, I gripped her waist from behind. “It’s not weird,” I murmured into her ear.
To a human, it might’ve been.
But this was the mate bond taking full effect. It was so strong that it even affected humans.
She stayed quiet for a long time, then cleared her throat. “Why’re you covered in blood?” she asked me, voice tense and awaiting an answer. Yet she didn’t turn around to face me again. It was almost as if she was scared.
I swallowed hard, wanting to desperately tell her what I was and what she meant to me. It had barely been a fucking week, and my mate was driving me so fucking crazy. I wanted to keep her safe any way possible, and keeping this quiet until Alpha Adan went away was best.
The more she knew, the less safe she was.
“That’s a story for another day.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, Bria,” I said, dragging my nose up the side of her neck and inhaling her sweet scent. My shoulders slumped forward at the smell, relaxing me down to my very core. I had never experienced so many emotions from a single scent before.
Bria remained quiet for a couple more moments, her body tense in front of me.
“What’s wrong?” I murmured into her ear.
“I …” She paused and curled her fingers against the windowsill. “I have another question.”
“About what?”
“Mythology.”
“What is it, Bria? You can ask me anything.”
She turned around and stared deeply into my eyes with her intense ones. Nervously, she gulped and chewed on her lip. “Do you believe in supernatural creatures, like … lycans and werewolves?”
Chapter Sixteen
BRIA
I didn’t even mean to ask Callum about lycans and werewolves. The words seemed to tumble out of my mouth. But now that I had said them out loud, I so desperately wanted his answer because some things weren’t adding up.
Professor Lee stared down at me with wide hazel eyes. Instead of telling me that all the fantasies in my head were true, he let out a small chuckle, the deep sound making me warm in all the right places. “Where did you hear that?”
“I … I’ve just been reading,” I whispered.
“Did you finish The Legend of Lycaon?”
“Yes.”
“Did you like it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you—”
“Why aren’t you answering my question?” I asked.
Again, Professor Lee widened his eyes and ran a hand through his scruff. If there was anything I learned in that book, it was that some wolves—especially male wolves, the alpha type—didn’t like to be confronted and didn’t like disobedience.
Lee liked neither.
Still, I could barely believe werewolves existed myself. The thought was so outlandish that it was laughable. If werewolves existed, surely, the government would’ve discovered them by now. I didn’t think any government would be okay with having supernatural creatures roaming around.
“In Greek mythology, I think people believed in—”
“No,” I said, somehow and somewhere finding the courage to talk back to him. “I want to know what you think about them here and now. Not in Greek mythology. In today’s time period and in today’s world. Do you think they exist?”
Callum stared at me for a few moments, jaw twitching and a sudden flash of gold in his eyes. After stepping away from me, he glanced at his desk. “Why would I believe in something like that, Bria?”
“So, you don’t think they’re real?” I asked, moving closer.
Part of me wanted him to break. After finishing that mythology book about wolves, I researched online and found a whole slew of dirty, smutty romance books about werewolves, especially alpha wolves, and I might’ve … touched myself while reading a couple.
A couple of silently tense moments passed between us. The heat grew between my legs as I thought back to those books—the violent and vicious nature of a man who grew claws and canines during a full moon, the possessive claiming and marking on another, the pure aggression that every wolf had.
Fuck.
They were all made-up stories, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Truth was that I kinda wished that Professor Lee would snap and show me his canines, sink them into my neck, and take me. That’d be the damn highlight of my entire life.
“No,” Professor Lee finally said, but he was lying.
He couldn’t look me in the eye anymore.
“So, you don’t believe in people who can lengthen their stubby nails into sharp claws?”
“No.”
“What about people who can extend their teeth into viciously long canines?”
“No.”
“And their eyes?” I said, my voice lower. “It might be easy for someone to hide claws in balled fists or canines behind their lips, but eyes that change to gold …” The more I said, the harder my heart pounded. “Nobody can hide their eyes changing colors.”
“Eyes don’t change colors, Miss Benton.” Callum placed his hands on the desk, every muscle in his back flexing so hard that I wanted to run my hands all over his taut body. “It’s impossible.”
But it wasn’t.
Professor Lee wasn’t the only man whose eyes flashed gold that I’d seen.
Adan had eyes like that too.
“You should get back to your dorm, Bria,” Professor Lee said, grabbing a shirt from his closet and holding open the door for me. After he tugged the shirt over his head, he followed me out of the room and down the hallway. “We have a quiz tomorrow morning. I hope that you studied.”
He thought he was good at changing the conversation.
“Yeah,” I said, playing along with him. “I did.”
“You have to make up your quiz from today too.”
“Can I do that in office hours?” I asked, moving closer to him when we stepped out into the chilly fall night. Goose bumps rose on my skin, and I wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm.
Professor Lee chuckled lowly. “I don’t have office hours tomorrow.”
“You wouldn’t open them up for me?”
Hell, I didn’t know where all this confidence was coming from, but I liked it. And I couldn’t stop flirting with him. Every day that passed, I felt the need to be closer to him, for him to take me, for him to crave me.
Maybe I was … lonely from all the years I spent by myself back at home.
This was the first real thing I had.
When we approached my dorm building, Professor Lee stared at me with those beautiful hazel eyes that seemed to twinkle under the moonlight. “I don’t make special requests, Miss Benton. Not usually.”
“But for me?”
He smiled and turned away. “I’ll set aside an evening for you, Bria. Anytime.”
When I made it up to the dorm room, I heard two voices inside, so I stopped and pressed my ear to the door.
“Lee is going to kill us,” Jasmine whisper-yelled behind our door. “What are we going to do? Where could she have gone off to? She barely leaves the dorm room to go anywhere! Why would she just—”
Suddenly, Jasmine stopped, and I backed away from the door.
Fuck.
Had she caught me?
A moment later, the door swung open.
“Bria!” Jasmine scolded when I walked back into my dorm room. When I left, she had been sleeping soundly, but now, Levi sat on her bed as she ran over to me, worried. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I was”—I shifted from foot to foot—“out.”
“You can’t go out at two in the morning!” Jasmine said, teeth grinding together. “Something could’ve happened to you. If you’re going to go out, tell me before you leave. I’ll come with you.”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Well, don’t do that again, please.”
Levi hopped off Jasmine’s bed and walked over to me, brows drawn together. He took a couple strands of my hair in his hand and sniffed me—freaking sniffed me like a dog would. “You’ve been out with Professor Lee.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
Levi glanced over his shoulder at Jasmine, and for the second time tonight, they shared a silent look that I couldn’t decipher. I pulled my hair away from him and marched over to my bed, kicked off my shoes and wiggled out of my jeans. I was too tired to get scolded by my friends.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Levi covered his eyes with his hands. “You can’t strip in front of me. He’ll kill me if I—”
Jasmine elbowed him hard in the ribs and jumped onto her bed, looking way more relaxed than she had a couple moments ago. “Were you out with Professor Lee?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me.
I pulled on some sweatpants. “Maybe.”
“Girl, details! Now!” Jasmine said even though it was two in the morning and we had class bright and early tomorrow in Professor Lee’s Classics class.
I both wanted to spill everything and tell her nothing.
Professor Lee was mine, and I didn’t want to share any details about him with anyone else.
Once I dressed in my pajamas, Levi finally pulled his hands away from his face, said something about not wanting to lose his eyes, and jumped on Jasmine’s bed with her. “You know what they were probably doing.” He winked, causing Jasmine to scrunch her nose.
“Can you not?”
“What?” Levi said.
“Don’t be weird.”
“How am I being weird?”
“We haven’t had sex,” I said sharply.
But, damn, did I want to.
Levi’s mouth dropped open. “You haven’t?”
“No.”
He threw his head back and chuckled. “Oh my Goddess. What is he waiting for? If he keeps holding back, he’s going to lose control during the Full Moon party.” Levi smacked his hands together, as if he was happy or excited about something.
