My Werewolf Professor (12 page)

****

Pain slashed at Alessandro with every step he took. Injuries that didn't heal in a matter of hours were rare for Lyccans, but this was an exception since the wound was a result of having been clawed by his own kind repeatedly. While the wound no longer bled, the Moretti pack's healer told him that it would take at least a week for the scarred tissues to repair itself.

"You should rest, Your Highness. This injury will and is already taking its toll on you, and you'll find yourself unable to function normally."
 

Alessandro had nodded at the healer's warning, pretending to agree even though he had no plans of staying in bed. No fucking way, not when Kassia's tests were scheduled today. She would need his support, dammit, and he would not let anything stop him from giving her what she needed.

Ahead of him, Kassia's unique scent beckoned, and he followed it doggedly. Even though Alessandro didn't want to admit it, his twin's words had disturbed him. 

What was Kassia to him? And what did he intend to do about her?
 

Even now, he was still unwilling to place any kind of label on his feelings for her. All he knew was that he had to see her. He just had to see Kassia again, and he would know everything then.

Kassia's scent became stronger as Alessandro started for the stairs. While it had the same sweet, delicate hint of flowers to it, there was also something different about her. Not with the way she smelled, but the way she...
felt.

It was almost like she was...in heat.

As soon as the thought occurred to Alessandro, he bounded up the stairs, barely able to control himself from using his Lyccan speed to reach her in seconds. When he reached the third landing, he saw her—

Alessandro froze.

She was pressed tightly against the side of another man. A boy. No, not just any boy, the fucking twerp who had been trying to get inside her pants from the start.
Jacob.
He wanted to snarl the name out, wanted to turn into a wolf so he could claw the boy away from her side.

Kassia was his.

HIS.

The boy should know that.
Kassia
should know that, so why the hell was she all over Jacob and clinging to him like she couldn't bear even a mere inch of separation from the boy's body?

He watched them walk together, the smell and feel of Kassia's heat burning his skin like acid.

A moment later and they were entering a room together, the door swinging shut behind them, but not before he heard her laugh.
 

It was the most beautiful sound, as well as being the most devious.

"Oh Jacob. What would I do without you?"

Alessandro spun away.

He had heard enough.

****

“Professor Moretti, please wait.” Midterms were over, the weekend had passed, and yet this was only the first time Kassia managed to catch sight of the professor. Even so, she told herself it was only because he was busy. He wasn’t avoiding her. He. Was. Not. Ellie told her so, and Ellie was always right.

But ahead of her, the professor hadn’t stopped walking. He didn’t even seem to have heard her.

“Professor Moretti, PLEASE WAIT!” She shouted the last two words, loud enough to have the students lounging in the corridors below to look up. She didn’t care about them, but she did care that the professor had finally slowed to a stop just before reaching the door to his office.

She hurried towards him. “Professor?”

Alessandro faced Kassia. “Ms. Summers?” Both his tone and smile were perfectly polite, because he was damned if he would let this slip of a girl find out she had succeeded in making a fool out of him.

Kassia’s mouth opened and closed. She suddenly found herself lost for words as she stared up at the professor’s perfectly chiseled features. Had it really been just a few days since she had last seen him? Right now, it felt like forever.

Alessandro struggled to keep himself expressionless even as Kassia practically devoured him with her eyes. As always, she looked feminine and sexy, good enough to eat. But whereas such a sight would have once made him drag Kassia to the nearest place of privacy so he could have a taste of her, everything about her now left a bitter taste on his tongue.

Damn her.
 

As Kassia continued to gaze at him with eat-me-up eyes, half of Alessandro wanted to shake Kassia for her sheer gall while the other half of him wanted to kiss her punishingly, over and over, until she would only be able to utter his name and no one else’s, not even hers.

As the silence between them stretched, Kassia slowly realized that the professor really wasn’t going to say anything. No explanation about why he had really left in the middle of the night, no explanation why he hadn’t returned any of her calls. Nothing.

So what now?

Did she give up?

She squared her shoulders.
 

No. She wasn’t going to give up.

Clearing her throat, Kassia stammered, “Professor, I had my tests graded in advance.” And then she looked up at him, hoping and praying he would take it from there.

Alessandro felt sick at the way the starry-eyed-look on Kassia’s lovely face still managed to draw a powerful reaction from his body, even though he very well knew by now that it was all an act. Right now, with her little black dress and cute pumps, all she lacked was a pearl necklace and she would have been the classic femme fatale. The thought made him want to laugh bitterly. He was the Lyccan here, and yet it was this girl who had managed to get her claws into him first.
 

Did she look at Jacob the same way she was looking at him now? He wouldn’t be surprised if she did. And what if the boy went down on her? Did she also make the same sounds—

The beast inside him raged, begging to be let out so it could follow the scent to Kassia’s human boyfriend and rip him apart with his bare fangs.

Alessandro’s teeth gnashed. He had to stop thinking about her like that or everything he had planned would be ruined.

“Would you excuse me for a second, Ms. Summers?”

Kassia blinked. “Umm, of course, professor.” She watched the professor take out his phone, his fingers moving swiftly over the screen. Who was he texting?

Afterwards, the professor slid his phone back into his pocket. “I’m sorry for that.”

“It’s okay.” She tested another smile as she told him for the second time, “I have my grades from Professor Matthews now.”

An odd smile curved on the professor’s lips. “And?”

Kassia couldn’t answer right away, her gaze drawn to the professor’s smile. It was so…
odd.
In a way that she didn’t like to think about.
 

Telling herself she was imagining things, she took out the grade slips from her pockets and handed it to the professor nervously. Strangely, it took a while before the professor accepted them, making her feel even more nervous. “They’re both B-plus,” she stammered. “It’s a miracle, really, considering…” She stopped.

He asked pleasantly, “Considering what?” Considering
she
had betrayed him with the human boy the very same day she was supposed to be acing that test for him?
 

It was beginning to be clear to him now. Maybe Kassia had played with him just to ensure she could get him to tutor her for those two tests. Maybe Jacob had told her he didn’t want an idiot for a girlfriend.
 

So many damn possibilities, Alessandro thought grimly, but none of them mattered. She had made a fool of him, and he had let her.

In front of him, Kassia was shifting on her feet, all blushing shyness, and he had to force back the growl of rage that threatened to come out of his throat.
 

“The day I took those tests, I was sick.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I was burning up with fever, and my temperature – it was crazy. I think you could have probably boiled an egg on my skin.”

Alessandro didn’t answer. Puzzle pieces in his mind were scrambling to rearrange themselves, and they all started to paint a different picture of the past.
 

“Just getting up those stairs…I really wanted to cry, Professor.”
 

Alessandro felt himself going pale with each word. That day he saw her with Jacob was still a vivid memory in his mind. He remembered how she smelled
and
felt hot, and his fists clenched. He remembered how the healer had warned him about his senses not functioning normally, and Alessandro knew then he had just committed the most devastating mistake.

In front of him, Kassia was still babbling about the day. “If not for Jacob, I would never have made it to class, Professor.
Never.
” She didn’t look at him as she spoke, but anxiety was written all over her, and the way she kept tugging the tips of her hair tore his heart into pieces.

How the fuck had he gotten everything so damn wrong?

He opened his mouth to say something, anything to stop his world from crashing down on him, but it was too late.

“There you are,” a voice sang gaily from behind.

He knew who it was, even without having to hear those words. He knew, just by watching Kassia stiffen and her gaze jerk up to meet his in hurt confusion.

Kassia watched with sick fascination as Professor Y – the chemistry teacher she loved to hate – took hold of Alessandro Moretti’s arm and wrapped it around her own waist, as if she knew that was where it belonged.

The older woman faced her with a smile. “Everything all right, Ms. Summers?” She threw a coy look the professor’s way. “Or is this wicked man of mine giving you trouble about your grades?”

The older woman laughed, and with just that sound, Kassia knew. That sound said it all. Deep down inside, people never failed to recognize the sound that would destroy them.
 

“Why aren’t you saying a thing?”

Why was she saying too much?

Professor Y snuggled closer towards the professor, and Kassia’s world started to spin faster and faster when the professor didn’t pull away. He did not!

The older woman patted the professor’s cheek. “Leave this naughty man to me. If he bullies you, I’ll punish him…after our quickie.” She pulled away with a sigh. “I should have come to you as soon as I got your text. Maybe I’d have caught you alone then.”

With another sigh, she took a step back from the professor. “Maybe next time.” She glanced at Kassia and winked. “You’ll keep our secret, right, Ms. Summers?”

Kassia managed a smile. “Of course.”

She watched Professor Y leave while the professor watched…
her.
She could feel his eyes on her. She didn’t understand why, and she didn’t care.
 

Alessandro knew he should have pulled away from Melissa, but honor had forbidden him from moving away. He had been the one to flirt with the other woman first. He had been the one to make all the moves, the one who had not told Melissa about Kassia when he had invited her to his home and fucked her the entire weekend.

He had fucked up with Kassia. He had fucked up with Melissa. And now, it was fucking killing him to see how his cruelty had extinguished the light in her eyes.

“Ms. Summers—” He reached for her.

She flinched. “
Don’t
.”

He froze.
 

Her voice was so damn thin, and the sound had the professor lowering his arm back to his side. If he pushed, she might just crumble, and he didn’t want that for her.

Kassia stared up at him. She wanted to curse him, wanted to cry, wanted to ask him why. But no words came out. All she could suddenly think about was that odd smile on his face earlier and how stupid she was to have ignored it.

He was
odd.
Just like her mother. And because he was odd that way, he had been able to play with her like she was no better than a toy.

“Kassia, I—”

She shook her head jerkily, not wanting to hear her name on his lips. “Goodbye, Professor.” She turned around and walked away. If her shoulders shook a little, well, that was fine. At least the tears didn’t fall, not until she was able to lock herself inside one of the restroom cubicles.