My Werewolf Professor (33 page)

Kassia noticed the graying pallor of his skin. “Alessandro, what’s wrong?”

“I just need…” His eyes closed with pain. “Call…Domenico.”

She did more than that. She screamed his brother’s name, loud enough to have most of the Caro warriors turning towards her, startled, loud enough to wake the almost dead, which was the professor himself.

As she placed the professor’s head on her lap, Domenico appeared next to her, causing her to jerk in surprise as the older man knelt beside his brother.
 

“How many bullets?” he asked Kassia grimly.

She hastened to answer him and pointed out where the bullets had landed.

“Thank you.” And then just like that, he dug into the holes in Alessandro’s body.

Kassia screamed. “What do you think you’re doing?” She would have screamed again if not for seeing the professor wince.
 

“He can’t heal if I don’t get the bullets out,” Domenico answered without looking at her. His face was a mask of concentration as one by one he tore out the blood-soaked bullets from his brother’s body.
 

Kassia expected Alessandro to heave his last dying breath after it, but to her shock, she saw his color gradually improving. When Domenico ripped Alessandro’s shirt open to check his wounds, Kassia felt close to fainting at the sight of his ruptured skin closing in…and healing itself.

She crossed herself, unable to help it. “Oh God. Thank You God.” She mumbled her prayers in a mixture of fear and gratitude. But then the professor’s eyes drifted open slowly, and suddenly her heart felt fit to exploding. “Y-you’re alive,” she whispered.

The professor’s lips curved. “Not for long,” he said gravely, “if the Lyccan Council has anything to say about it.”

She paled, having forgotten completely about the other threat to the professor’s life. Biting her lip, she asked, “But is it safe for you?”

“I suppose so?” Alessandro was bemused. Did Kassia consider herself a danger to him because of what had happened?
 

Kassia’s gaze returned to his wounds – or where his wounds used to be – and saw he was completely healed. Even so, she pointed out uneasily, “But what about them?” There were so many people around them!

Alessandro was impressed at the way she had somehow figured out the men with them weren’t all Lyccans. “Don’t be afraid, little chick. These Caros are on our side.”

“C-caros?”

He nodded. “That’s what they’re called. They drink blood to survive, but they’re not vampires. When we learned that Rocco, a rogue Lyccan, was involved, we figured that whoever was holding you captive was also using Rocco to detect our presence. If I had come here accompanied by other Lyccans, it wouldn’t matter if they hid themselves. Rocco would have known what and where they were by their scent. So we took a calculated risk—”

Kassia’s eyes darkened when she remembered just how much of a risk that was. “You almost died,” she half accused.

The professor’s face softened. “I’m sorry for making you think that. But Domenico was nearby and I knew if I needed help, I only had to call him. The only reason he wasn’t with the Caros was because his Lyccan scent would have alerted Rocco.”

“But Rocco can’t smell Caros?” she asked, confused.

“That was the risk we took. We’ve gathered as much information as we could about him, and we gambled on the fact that since none of his records showed any encounter with a Caro, it meant he wouldn’t have any idea what a Caro’s scent was.”

“And that’s why they were able to come undetected,” Kassia realized.

“I would never have been able to rescue you if not for them,” Alessandro said quietly.

Kassia couldn’t stop herself from reaching for the professor’s hand, saying shakily, “I’ll forever be grateful to them for saving us.”

“I feel the same, and I am determined to return the favor.” He paused. “They’re good people although…” His smile turned wry. “They can be a little too precise.” Whereas a Lyccan would simply promise to beat the hell out of his enemy, a Caro would instead provide an estimated amount of time necessary for neutralizing a threat.

Coming to his feet, he helped Kassia up and together they came face to face with Kimberley, who was about to be taken away by Lyccan guards.
 

Kimberley spat at Kassia.

Enraged, Alessandro raised his hand to slap the woman, but Kassia’s cry of protest stopped him.

“
Don’t.
” Kassia wiped the spit off her face. “It’s enough that she’s been caught.”
 

Kimberley started cursing her, and she didn’t stop even as the guards dragged her away.

“I never thought it was possible for a person
not
to love until her,” Kassia whispered.

Alessandro pulled her into his arms. “It’s not your fault she can’t love.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded against his chest.

Tipping her chin up, he saw the troubled look still hadn’t left Kassia’s face, prompting him to ask teasingly, “Now that we’re finished with Caro history
,
can we do something about the Lyccan Council?” He only wanted to take Kassia’s mind off her mother, but instead she ended up blushing. “Kassia?” he asked, bemused.

“Are there any members of the Lyccan Council here?”

He nodded towards Domenico. “The ones he’s speaking to are guards from the Council.”

Kassia took a deep breath at the professor’s answer.
“Could you call them?”

After giving her a speculative look, the professor did as asked.

Courage,
she told herself. She had to do this. It was her turn to save him now.

“Your Highness?” one of the three guards asked when they reached Alessandro and Kassia.

The professor raised a brow at her.

She threw her arms around him and kissed the professor in the mouth.
 

Alessandro froze, and his body stiffened even more when a moment later her tongue slid boldly into his mouth. “Kassia, what the hell—” It was hard to think with Kassia kissing him so passionately, but when his erection started throbbing and rubbing itself against her sex, Alessandro finally found the strength to pull away. If he had allowed things to continue for another second, he
would
end up making love to her in the nearest private corner.

In front of him, Kassia stammered nervously, “Was that enough proof?”

Alessandro was even more perplexed. “Proof?”

She turned to the guards, her cheeks on fire as she asked, “How much more do you need to see to know that we’re mating and you don’t need to execute him? I love him, completely, and—” She turned to the professor in confusion. “Why are you laughing?”

“Kassia, my love.” Her heart tripped all over itself at the endearment, but then she heard his next words—

“This
isn’t
how mating works.”

Kassia paled. “It’s…
not
?”

The guards’ faces were stoic. “May we leave now, Your Highness?”
 

Alessandro nodded. “Please let the Council know that she will be bonded by blood oath tonight.”

“Understood, Your Highness.” They bowed to Alessandro and left, all the while scrupulously preventing their gazes from crossing the still red-faced Kassia.
 

“Professor?” Kassia only found the courage to speak when she and Alessandro were walking to his car, which had been driven by one of his men. Behind them, Domenico walked the opposite way, where his own car waited.

“Mm?”

“Will I always make a fool of myself around you?” she asked very seriously.

His lips curved. “Probably.”

Her shoulders slumped. “You don’t have to sound so cheerful about it.”

“I can’t help it,” he said. “Right now, I’m on top of the world, knowing how much you love me. You’re such a shy creature, and yet you actually attempted public fornication in the name of love—”

“Professor!”

Laughing, he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. “I love you, little Kassia.”

She stilled.

“All my life, I was waiting for you and I hadn’t even known it. I never dreamt that someone like you could exist, that someone could make me feel so damn happy and terrified all the time.”

Tears started stinging her eyes again. “Oh, Professor. I never knew you could be so wonderfully romantic.”

In the distance, he heard Domenico laugh at Kassia’s words.

“Your words were so much like a poet’s…”

While her words,
Alessandro thought,
were making him sound like a lovesick idiot.
 

Her eyes suddenly started shining, and Alessandro became even warier when her voice took on a hopeful note. “Professor?”

“What is it?”

“Do you think you’ll ever write me a love letter?”

Almost every Lyccan in the vicinity, his traitorous brother included, doubled over in laughter at the request.

He opened his mouth to refuse, but then he made the mistake of looking into Kassia’s eyes—

Ah.

So this was love.

“Every day if you want me to,” he heard himself promise.

Epilogue

Two Years Later

Alessandro and Kassia were enjoying a secret meal in his office when across the table she released another dreamy-sounding sigh. Since he didn’t think it was the taste of their cafeteria’s spaghetti that was making her swoon mentally, he had to ask, “What is it?”

“I just can’t forget how beautiful Domenico and Misty’s mating was.” She sighed again. “It was so romantic.”

The professor raised a brow. “
Banging
is romantic?”

Ignoring his words, she continued, “Just imagine how much love it took to—”

“Do you mean how much load he shot out that day?”

She glared at him. “Stop twisting my words.”

“Then stop forcing me to talk about my brother’s love life.”

“When do you think you’ll propose to me, Professor?”

The sudden question had him choking.

“When you do, you must be as romantic as your brother—ah!” All of a sudden, Alessandro was down on one knee in front of her, and Kassia’s breath caught when she saw one of the professor’s hands was hidden behind his back.

Was this it,
Kassia wondered, fearful and excited at the same time. It had been two years since they had started going out, and every new day always seemed to manage to be better than the last. Life wasn’t perfect, of course. There was her mother, incarcerated and still unwilling to cooperate. And somewhere in this world, her mother’s mysterious lover, Mel, still lurked. But even so, she couldn’t remember being this happy—

“Kassia?”

The professor’s husky, accented voice made her heart race, and her entire body trembled as their eyes met. “P-professor?”

The professor pulled out something from behind him.

Her eyes widened.

It was…
not
a ring.

SWAT!

“Ow,” Kassia exclaimed as the professor swatted her forehead with his paper scroll.

“That’s for your disgusting hero worship of my brother.”

“But he’s—oww!”

“That’s for filling your head with nonsense when you’re about to fail another subject.”

She made a face. “It’s not my fault that horrible teacher wants to fail me—”

“Pass your subject and we’ll see,” the professor murmured.

She continued hotly, “I honestly think she’s jealous and…” She stopped, the professor’s words only sinking in just now.
Pass her subject and they’ll see what?
She turned around, but the professor was suddenly nowhere to be found.

“Are you actually playing hide and seek with me?” she demanded. Hurrying towards the table for a clue, Kassia had the fright of her life when she saw the professor in his Lyccan form, hidden under his desk, green eyes gleaming.