Chapter 31

Chapter 31

I'm going to fucking kill him.

It was bad enough when I'd had to endure whatever the fuck happened this morning while in the middle of a lecture on Finite Element Analysis, but his audacity was boundless.

She wasn't helping matters either, though. She was willingly and openly playing with fire in the middle of my classroom, knowing it was a full moon tonight. Who was she trying to tempt into this mess?

I was starting to question if there was anything innocent about her, whether she understood the implications of her predicament or not.

I fucking endured that Astrology Club by willpower and discipline alone, and I shot Marcus a death glare as the hour wrapped up. Of every stunt he'd pulled, somehow this one had hit the hardest. Maybe that was the Aries moon talking. It was already dark at this hour. This was the first time the full moon had coincided with Astrology Club since I'd marked her, and it was maddening.

Not acting with any of the urgency I wished she would, Lila packed with that irritatingly precious nervousness she so often exhibited, while Marcus whispered something into her ear .

He grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers, and I determined this was a good time to ruin his day.

"Miss Denton, I'd like to speak to you if you don't mind." I interjected, and she recoiled from him immediately, like she didn't want to seem too friendly with him in front of me. I might have laughed, but I wasn't trying to win her over like he was. That came naturally.

"Of course, Professor Karras," she responded with a nod, while Marcus eyed me suspiciously. "I'll text you tomorrow." She told him, and not even he could hide the way his whole heart sank.

What do you know—the second I'm an option, the whole game changes.

Here he thought he'd won.

"I'll look forward to it." Marcus made his best attempt to save face. He patted her on the shoulder, then headed out with his tail between his legs. He shot me one last look before he left, but he didn't have anything to say this time.

Once the class had cleared out, and it was just me and my biggest mistake, I walked over to the door and latched the lock.

I drew a deep breath through my nose before I approached my uneasy student.

"That was cute." I opened the floor for argument. "You're aware that, as an incubus and a man with a mate claim on your body, I have to feel every time you're aroused, getting fucked, or letting a vampire finger you in the middle of Astrology Club, correct? "

Lila choked on her own saliva. "I had no idea…" She didn't make eye contact. She wasn't a good liar. Marcus probably told her as much. I may have misjudged who was the most manipulative among us.

"Really? No clue at all?" The scoff that escaped my throat was involuntary. "You're not lying to me are you, Miss Denton?"

"How would I know something like that? You kicked me out of your house without explaining much of anything, and you've hardly spoken to me since last month."

Ah, she's angry. She's also still lying, but I'll let that slide. If she was fooling around with Marcus as a form of revenge to get my attention, she was dangerously clever. But then, that tracked for my experience with her thus far.

"What would you have preferred I do?" I paced closer to her. "Did you want me to keep pursuing you? Flirt with you in the middle of Physics? Ask you to be my woman and spend another full moon with me?" Before she could react, I caught her by the wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. I shoved her down, chest on the desk, pinned and bent over in front of me. Her skirt was too short to cover her in this position. She was completely naked beneath her skirt, and her physical and emotional reaction to this dynamic was immediately overwhelming.

It was abhorrent that I had to internally remind myself that I was making a point and absolutely not here to fuck her.

What the hell was she doing to me?

I leaned down, close enough to whisper in her ear. "Is this what you were looking for? Would this have satisfied you enough to get you to behave on the one day a month that you're in the most fucking danger, Lila?" The emotions pouring from her soul were filling my power reserves with more satisfying intensity than anything I'd ever experienced, and I wouldn't admit, even to myself, that it was an exhilarating rush.

"No." She whimpered as if I was hurting her. More bullshit.

"Really? Because your heart rate, your breathing, the small widening of your eyes, and the slight temperature rise—all of these easily readable cues tell me this is exactly what you want. If I've learned anything from our past interactions, it's that small movements like this are all it takes to get you out of your mind." I twisted harder to make a point, and she yelped. "I can sense it in every bit of tension in your body, the quivering lip, the way you're trying to focus on your breathing to distract yourself—that monster in my soul knows that you would happily be my meal, right here, right now, on my brother's desk."

She swallowed but didn't say anything. So I obliged her.

"Do you want me to fuck you right here, Lila? Do you want to know what my cock feels like without magic or transformation tainting our every interaction?"

I laughed, and I knew I was being cruel. By the devil, how did she keep bringing this out of me? I bit hard into my lip in an attempt to ground myself, as that scent of Apples and Cinnamon teased at my fucking brain.

Lila shook her head, despite her speeding heart that clearly didn't want to turn me down. She understood that this was a test, not an offer .

"Good girl." I released her and stood up straight. A subtle smirk played at my lips, and it took several seconds before I managed to hide it. I couldn't keep letting her bait me like this, but I was too riled up from the day to keep a hold on myself. I cursed that lust demon blood that pulsed through my veins, and I cursed the moon and the tie of Capricorns and Virgos. I took a step back as she righted herself and fixed her clothing. She wrapped her arms around her chest in a defensive gesture, and it took genuine internal negotiation before I was able to convince myself to feel bad about that.

I was her teacher. I couldn't expect her to be tough or knowledgeable. I was in the wrong.

I fucking knew that, and I couldn't help myself.

"I'm sorry. I'm going through a lot right now, and he was there for me, and you weren't." She said next.

"Marcus isn't there for anyone or anything unless it serves him. You included." I snapped. I had enough of him manipulating and lying to her. "Neither of us are safe, but he's worse than I am."

Lila rubbed her neck subconsciously. "You're wrong about him." She muttered. She was wrong, but I wasn't going to convince her of that now. Not after that stunt I'd just pulled. The important takeaway was more that she'd admitted to fooling around with him because I wasn't giving her attention, and not because she was falling for him.

"What are your plans tonight, Lila? Please tell me you're not doing something stupid. "

"I was just going to stay in my dorm room tonight." She gave the right answer, and it seemed she was being honest this time. Though I still didn't trust her entirely.

"Give me your phone." I demanded next. I should have done this sooner, but clearly staying impartial wasn't possible at this point. It was reckless on my end to have set up a situation where I couldn't easily contact her, anyway.

"Why?" She took a hesitant step back. Pointless, since I was between her and the only door.

"I'm going to give you my number, so if you end up getting yourself in a bad situation again, I can help you." Deep breath, calm down.

"I don't see why I would end up in a bad situation staying in my dorm room." She said under her breath. I damn near rolled my eyes.

"This isn't negotiable." I put out my hand, and she did as she was told with a sigh. She'd been much more malleable when she was shifted, and I could easily control her with a stern, Alpha command.

"This is so dumb." She waited patiently as I entered my contact, then sent a message to my phone so I'd have her number as well. I had to question whether I was truly doing this for her own good, or if I was out of my mind. "If I get into any ‘trouble' I promise I'll call you." She added with a touch of petulance.

"I wish you understood how serious a situation you're in." I tossed her back her phone, then shoved my hand through my hair.

"Maybe now that I can text you, you can explain that better without being so terrified of being seen as unprofessional." There was unexpected bite in her tone, and I was taken aback by that defiant confidence. Any fear she'd felt towards me before was completely gone now, not because she was in a shifter form, but because she was genuinely getting more bold around me.

Had I just gotten played by my own hand?

I drew in a full breath and settled into a sense of rational calm. "I think we can start working towards that"

"Good." Her lips lifted into that adorable smile of hers. "I'm going to my dorm room then. I'll see you in Physics tomorrow, Adrian ."

I stared at her, wide eyed, as she so casually and sweetly used my first name, and I remained in that state of surprise as she walked past me and unlocked the door.

I heard that door open, then shut, and I found myself alone in my classroom.

It was then that I realized that I was completely falling apart. If Marcus' goal had been to force me to face who I really was, and take away my ability to hide behind the emotions I stole from others, then I'd already completely lost to him.

Incubus or not, Zodiac blood or not, I was going to have to start facing a lot of truths I wasn't looking forward to over this coming year.