Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
She choked back a laugh. “N-no. You’re definitely no Transformer. You’re more like a Wolve—-” She shut up when she saw the professor glaring at her.
“Try to say that one more time,” he warned pleasantly, “and I’ll bite a chunk out of you. Got it?”
She remembered his fangs and paled. “Yes, sir.” She couldn’t say it fast enough. She expected him to laugh or even just smile, but instead the professor remained silent, his gaze brooding but unreadable.
Never a patient man like his twin, Alessandro forced himself to stay still and wait. As the seconds passed, he watched Kassia’s nervousness visibly turn into unease, with the way her brown eyes darkened and she started biting the tips of her hair again. He could read her every thought as various emotions flitted over her face, and he knew the exact moment when the truth hit her, and the need to ask became inevitable—-
“Why did you let me see you shift, Professor?” Kassia’s voice was tremulous and her body stiff, as if expecting to ward off words that might hurt her.
Holding her gaze captive, he answered simply, “Because you wanted proof that I think of you as a permanent part of my life.”
Chapter Two
Kassia couldn’t sleep.
She had tried to do so for the past two hours, but eventually she had given up and simply lay down in the bed.
Staring into the dark, she was unable to keep the professor’s last words from her mind.
After the professor’s staggering revelation of his true nature and why he had chosen to let her know, Kassia had succumbed to another shock that, even now, she wasn’t sure had completely worn off.
Alessandro Moretti was a werewolf – no, a Lyccan. That was what his kind was called, the professor had said to Kassia, and he didn’t like being called a ‘werewolf’ because it made him feel like a pop star with fangs.
After – Kassia wasn’t really sure how or why – but the professor had been able to make the necessary excuses to take her away from the rest of the class. He had said something about personal emergencies and makeup classes, but Kassia doubted anyone had really asked for an explanation. The professor’s family owned the university, after all. His word was law.
The professor had then taken her to a waiting limousine, and inside he had made no attempt to touch her or even sit next to her, as if sensing Kassia’s need to think things through on her own.
During the ride, the professor had explained other things to her in his soft, beautifully accented voice. Even knowing he wasn’t human, Kassia had clung to the sound of it. Listening to him speak, she had gradually realized that what he was made no difference.
He was not human, but she still loved him.
He was not human, but it didn’t excuse the way he had kept hurting her, blowing hot and cold that the love she felt for him had turned into a weapon that hurt no one but...herself.
She closed her eyes, and the sound of professor’s voice played in her mind like an addictive melody.
You must not speak to anyone about this.
Such an act is punishable by death in my world.
My kind is allowed to reveal the truth to only two types of humans. Those who are or will be blood-bound to us with an oath of loyalty or, like you, someone a Lyccan intends to be his future mate.
Kassia shivered at the memory of those last three words, but the cold seeping into her skin had nothing to do with the temperature inside her room.
His future mate.
Then, she hadn’t the presence of mind to ask what it meant. She had been too stunned, too overwhelmed by the turn of events, that she had only nodded and followed the professor like a puppet when he helped her out of the limousine and took her to a posh-looking hotel and straight up to the penthouse suite.
When she had entered the suite, the professor remained at the doorway, and at her bemused look, he had explained tautly, “I want you to have time and space to think on your own. I don’t want to be...unfair...and pressure you into choosing a life with me.” The professor had drawn a harsh breath after that. “Because that will be the kind of choice you’d have to make. When you choose me, it’s for the rest of your life.”
Then the professor was gone, and that time, he hadn’t even bothered to conceal just how fast his kind moved. In a blink, the professor had been gone, and only the sound of the elevator doors closing halfway down the hall told Kassia where he had disappeared to.
So what now, Kassia wondered numbly.
In one fell swoop, the professor had destroyed all her defenses, and everything she had held against him was shredded into inconsequential pieces the moment he revealed the truth about himself.