My Werewolf Professor (32 page)

Somehow, Kassia instinctively knew that the man, whoever he was, wasn’t lying, even if it didn’t make sense to her at all. “Why, mother?” She realized she genuinely wanted to understand how someone in her position could still be driven to kill for profit. Because that was what this was, wasn’t it?
 

Kimberley’s answer was indifferent. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“B-but you’re rich,” she stammered.

Kimberley threw her a disgusted look. “Idiot! Do you really think rich old men would give women like me control over their money just because we share the same name now? If merely having sex with disgusting aging lechers would have made me a millionaire, I’d have done it a thousand times over, but life isn’t that easy.” She spat the words out with undisguised hatred.
 

Even now, she couldn’t understand how someone like her stupid, provincial daughter was able to land a guy like Alessandro Moretti. She had been so much prettier, so much sexier and more sophisticated than Kassia when Kimberley was her age! So how had Kassia gotten herself someone young, handsome, and loaded while Kimberley had been forced to service men with wrinkly, shriveling cocks?

Jealousy spurring Kimberley on, she walked to her daughter and slapped her hard in the face without warning.

One side of Kassia’s face flamed with pain, but even now, she knew that what hurt more was how…
odd
Kimberley could be.
 

Behind her, Mel laughed. “Look at that, darling. You made your daughter cry.”

Kimberley smiled and slapped Kassia again, saying conversationally. “I can get addicted to this. Maybe we should keep her around longer after Alessandro Moretti—”

Kassia’s blood curdled at the mention of the professor’s name.
 

Kimberley smiled coldly. “Don’t you have any questions?”

“H-he’s my professor—” Kimberley cut her words off with another slap, and this time the corner of her lip started bleeding. A second later and her mother yanked her head back by the hair, and a gasp of pain escaped her.

“That will teach you for lying to me,” Kimberley snapped. She raised her hand to hit Kassia again, but this time Mel stopped her, his fingers encircling her wrist and tightening painfully.

“You can play with her later. But for now, we need to make sure you don’t accidentally kill her or all our plans will be for nothing.” Releasing his hold, Mel waited for Kimberley to stalk away from her daughter before turning back to Rocco. “You have her phone?”

Rocco nodded eagerly. “Yes, sir.”

“Then call him. It’s time for us to cross a Moretti off our target list.”

****

“Get facial recognition software to identify him,” Alessandro commanded. He and Domenico Moretti were in the university’s security room, facing a wall of monitors connected to the numerous surveillance cameras installed in the compound.
 

Last night, Alessandro had deliberately kept himself away from Kassia, wanting to give her time and space to think things through. But when Kassia had sent him her text message this morning, he immediately knew that his brother had interfered. And now Kassia was gone.

Rather, CCTV cameras showed Kassia being assisted inside a limousine by a complete stranger.

“This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered to Domenico.
 

Before his brother could answer, the security officer exclaimed, “We’ve got a match.” Both Domenico and Alessandro leaned forward to take a closer look at the results.
 

“A rogue Lyccan,” Domenico gleaned grimly from the report on the screen.

Alessandro’s lips tightened. “He’s working for Kassia’s mother, too.” Briefly, he shared with Domenico what little Kassia had told him about her parent, none of it good.

“She’s had a change of heart?” Domenico asked skeptically.

Alessandro shook his head. “I’m not buying it either.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, and when he pulled it out, his heart slammed against his chest as Kassia’s name and photo appeared on the screen.

“Kassia? Where the hell are you?”

A recorded voice answered him, and the line went dead right after the message had been delivered.

Alessandro looked at his brother. “Her own mother’s kidnapped Kassia. If I want her safe and sound, I’m to deliver myself alone to the address provided.”
 

“You know that this is a trap, don’t you?” Domenico asked in a dangerously soft voice.

Slowly, Alessandro nodded.

Exactly one hour later, Alessandro reached the warehouse specified in the voice message, unaccompanied. There were several dozen men standing guard outside the warehouse, and their malignant gazes followed him as he stepped inside the darkened place.

His mental countdown started.
One, two, three…
 

A thousand scenarios played in the back of his mind, all of them showing how anything and everything could go wrong.
 

Even so, Alessandro couldn’t find it in himself to experience fear. He would be cautious as hell, but that was it. If someone had thought to ask where all of Alessandro’s faith was coming from, he would have honestly answered that he had no idea. All he knew was that everything in his life had rearranged itself the moment he realized he loved Kassia with all his heart. He lived because of Kassia. He breathed because of Kassia. And if things did come down to it, he would die because of Kassia, too.

He didn’t give a damn about himself, but he did give a damn about Kassia, and both mind and heart refused to believe that God wouldn’t help him protect Kassia. She deserved to live, and God had to know that.

“I see you weren’t stupid enough to come with any kind of weapons or GPS devices,” a voice in the darkness drawled. “This place is equipped with every scanner imaginable, and the only thing it tells me is that your heartbeat’s probably a little faster than you’d like.” The voice laughed. “Does this mean a great Moretti prince like you is
scared
?”

Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six…

Alessandro didn’t trust himself to answer just yet, his senses having identified the people around him. A woman whose scent had the faintest resemblance to the girl he loved, the Lyccan he had seen on the screen, a human male, and…
Kassia.

The lights in the warehouse suddenly blazed into life one by one, and his mind took in the faces that came with the scents.

The Lyccan, Rocco, he considered an unpredictable target, his innate weakness making him dangerous because people like him would do anything to survive, even sell their own mothers.
 

Kimberley Dresden, he dismissed. Women like her were never as cunning or powerful as they liked to think they were, and it was their arrogance that often proved their downfall.

The human male…Alessandro assessed him as his likely opponent. The way he looked at Alessandro made him realize the human considered the two of them equal. It only meant one thing. He had found a way to neutralize a Lyccan’s strength over humans, but
how
?

“No need to play cool, Your Highness,” the human taunted. “We know you’ve come for her. We’ll give you a moment to see for yourself how your girlfriend is.”

Slowly, Alessandro’s gaze turned to Kassia.

She was bound in a chair, her lip swelling and bruised.

Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine…

Alessandro breathed deeply. “Who did that to you, Kassia?”

But Kassia didn’t answer.

Her mother stepped forward. “Will you beat me if I said it was me?” Kimberley knew she was playing with fire by drawing the werewolf prince’s attention to her, but she simply couldn’t help it. She wanted Alessandro Moretti to look at her and find out that a mousy little girl like Kassia could never compare to a full-fledged woman like her.

But then Alessandro Moretti’s gaze did slide towards her, and Kimberley almost stumbled a step back at the murderous intent that glinted in his emerald green eyes. No one had ever looked at her with such revulsion, and that it was someone as beautiful and virile as the prince made Kimberley feel old and ugly.
 

Her blood boiled, and before she could stop herself, she slapped Kassia, knowing that by hurting her daughter, she was hurting the cocky wolf in front of her.

Alessandro growled. One moment he was a dozen feet away, the next moment he was right beside Kassia, shoving Kimberley away with enough force to have her flying and her back hitting the wall with a scream.

Kassia screamed, too, but it wasn’t fear for herself. As Alessandro had reached for her, a seemingly invisible force shoved the professor away at the same time the man called Mel shot him in the chest.

“The next silver bullet will be to your heart, prince,” Mel gritted out. Things were happening too fast and spinning out of control, and he didn’t like it. Every assassination he carried out had always been meticulously organized and normally, Kimberley was a big help to him in those instances. He should have known this time would be different, with the stupid slut too caught up with her infantile jealousies over her own daughter to be her usual sensible self.

“I’ll make it simple for you, Moretti. You tell us what we need to know about the Lyccan Council, and we’ll set you and the girl free.”

Alessandro only stared at him, his cold green eyes giving nothing away.
 

Mel shot the prince’s other leg and was rewarded by a brief spasm of pain crossing the younger man’s face. But that was it.

A Faerie,
Alessandro was thinking grimly. No wonder this man considered himself equal to a Lyccan. He had a fucking Faerie working for him, the only race in this world capable of turning invisible…
for a time.

If he had a Faerie on his side, and of course a rogue Lyccan, too, did he have other races working for him? If he did, Alessandro’s plan would fail.

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground caught Alessandro’s attention, and when he looked up, it was to see Kassia trying to get to him, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Professor,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know how much was at stake when you told me…but then Domenico told me and I’m s-sorry.”

Mel rolled his eyes. “Are we really having a fucking lover’s reconciliation right now?” Annoyed, he shot the prince again, this time on his knee to ensure that Alessandro would have a more difficult time moving.

Kassia screamed. “Stop it!” If she could have swapped places with the professor, she would have at that moment. She didn’t think she could bear seeing him in so much pain. She tried to wriggle closer towards him, but it was a slow journey, with Kassia still bound to the chair. Her helplessness chafed at her, and more tears ran down her cheeks.

“Oh, Professor, why did you come here alone?” Kassia didn’t know which was worse, having the professor die because she had been too hard or having the professor die in his attempt to rescue her.

Eighty-seven, eighty-eight, eighty-nine...

Alessandro looked at Kassia. “I didn’t.”

At the exact minute and a half mark, Caros crashed into the warehouse from every direction, bursting through overhead windows, blasting through holes they had made on the roof, and surging inside the entrance.
 

Although the blood-drinking race and Alessandro’s kind used to be ancient rivals, Domenico’s efforts in disposing of their common enemy had allowed the two races to forge an alliance.

Today, that alliance had stood true.
 

He heard Kimberley Dresden screaming while the rogue Lyccan cried out his surrender. In the periphery of his vision, Alessandro saw Mel disappearing and knew that the Faerie the human commanded had taken him away.
I’ll see you again, bastard,
Alessandro promised to himself. But for now, something else was more important to him.

Ignoring the agonizing pain caused by silver mixing in with his bloodstream, Alessandro made his way to Kassia as swiftly as he could. She started crying harder as soon as he reached her. The moment he set her free from her restraints, she threw herself at him, causing him to topple backwards and for Kassia to fall on top of him.

“I thought you were going to die,” she told him tremulously.

“I don’t die that easily, little chick.” He wanted to sound teasing, but his voice came out hoarse with pain.