The Professor’s Rejected Mute Mate

THE MEETING

Ayla's POV

"I think whoever is framing you wants you isolated and vulnerable. They want the pack to turn on you, to make you an easy target." He released my hands and stood, moving back to the weapons rack. He selected two daggers, each about eight inches long with wickedly curved blades. "Which is why you're going to learn to protect yourself."

He brought the daggers back and set them on the table in front of me. The metal gleamed in the afternoon light streaming through the windows.

"I can't fight," I wrote.

"You can learn." He picked up one of the daggers and placed it in my hand, adjusting my grip. "Silver-reinforced steel. Won't kill a wolf, but it'll hurt like hell and buy you time to escape."

His hand lingered on mine, showing me how to hold the weapon properly. I could feel the heat of his body behind me, close enough that his breath stirred my hair.

Part of me wanted to lean back into him. Part of me wanted to run.

"Your instinct will be to s***h wildly if you're attacked," he said, his voice low near my ear. "Don't. Quick, controlled strikes. Go for the throat, the eyes, anything that will make them flinch."

He guided my hand through a few practice movements, and I tried to focus on the technique rather than the way his proximity was making my skin tingle. Tried to focus on survival instead of how safe I felt with him this close.

"There's something else," he said after a moment. "Something I need you to understand about what's happening to you."

I turned to face him, our faces suddenly inches apart. His amber eyes dropped to my lips for just a heartbeat before meeting my gaze again.

"What?" I wrote, my hand trembling slightly.

But before he could answer, his phone buzzed loudly on the table.

We both jumped apart like we'd been caught doing something we shouldn't. Which, I supposed, we had been.

He grabbed his phone, his expression darkening as he read the message.

"What is it?" I wrote.

He looked at me, and something in his eyes made my blood run cold.

"They found something else at the warehouse," he said quietly. "Something they want us to see."

I lowered the dagger and turned to look at him. He was so close now, close enough that I could see the flecks of gold in his amber eyes.

"Your wolf isn't like other wolves," he said. "I've been around long enough to recognize something ancient when I see it. Whatever bloodline you come from, it's powerful. Possibly divine."

"Divine?" I wrote, incredulous.

"The way you shifted last night, the pull you felt toward the ruins, those are signs of something awakening. Something that's been dormant your whole life." His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb brushing my cheekbone. "And it scares the hell out of me."

"Why?" I wrote with shaking hands.

"Because powerful things draw attention. And not all of that attention is good." His eyes searched mine. "Promise me you'll be careful. Promise me you won't go anywhere alone, not even to the vending machine at midnight."

I nodded, unable to look away from his intense gaze.

"Say it," he whispered. "I need to hear you promise."

I grabbed my whiteboard, but he stopped me. "No. Out loud. I know you can make sounds, even if you can't form words. I need to hear your voice promise me."

My throat tightened. I hadn't tried to make a sound in front of anyone in years. The last time I did, the pack had laughed at the broken, animal-like noises that emerged.

But Professor Arkon wasn't the pack. And the way he was looking at me made me want to try.

I opened my mouth and forced air through my vocal cords. The sound that came out was barely more than a breath, rough and unpracticed. But it was something.

His eyes widened, then softened. "Again."

I tried again, and this time it was slightly clearer. A whispered promise that held no words but all the meaning he needed.

"Good girl," he murmured, and the praise sent warmth flooding through me despite myself.

Before I could process those words or the way they made me feel, a sharp knock sounded at the door.

Professor Arkon's entire demeanor changed instantly. His hand dropped from my face and he stepped back, putting appropriate distance between us. The transformation was so complete I almost doubted the intimacy we'd just shared.

"Come in," he called.

The door opened to reveal a woman I had never seen before. She was tall and elegant, with silver hair that fell past her shoulders and eyes that were an eerie pale blue. She wore flowing robes that seemed to shimmer in the light, and there was something otherworldly about her presence.

"Arkon," she said, her voice melodic. "You called for me?"

"Elena." Professor Arkon gestured toward me. "This is Ayla. Ayla, this is High Priestess Elena Moonwhisper. She's going to help us figure out what's happening to you."

The woman's pale eyes locked onto me, and I felt like she was seeing straight through to my soul. A small smile curved her lips.

"Ah," she said softly, moving closer. "So you're the one. The Silent Wolf child."

My blood ran cold. I wrote quickly: "How do you know that?"

Elena knelt gracefully in front of me, taking my hands before I could pull away. Her skin was cool, her touch gentle. "Because I knew your mother, child. And I was there the night the ritual was performed."

The room seemed to tilt. Professor Arkon moved to stand behind me, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder in a steadying gesture.

I yanked my hands from Elena's grip and wrote furiously: "You were part of it? You helped them take my voice?"

"No." Elena's expression was sad. "I tried to stop them. But I was outvoted by the council, overpowered by their fear. All I could do was watch and remember, so that one day I could help you reclaim what was stolen."

I wanted to believe her. But I'd learned the hard way that people with power rarely used it to help people like me.

She released my hands and stood, pulling something from her robes. It was a small crystal pendant on a silver chain, glowing faintly with inner light.

"Your mother gave this to me before she disappeared," Elena said, holding it out. "She made me promise to give it to you when the time was right. I think that time is now."

I stared at the pendant, not reaching for it. "Why now?" I wrote. "Why not years ago? Why let me suffer?"

Elena's expression flickered with something that might have been guilt. "Because the seal on your power was necessary. You were too young to control what you are. If you had awakened as a child, they would have killed you." Her pale eyes met mine. "Your mother sacrificed everything to keep you safe. This pendant is her gift to you but only when you were ready to claim it."

I took the pendant with trembling hands, still uncertain. The moment my skin touched it, I felt a pulse of energy like a half-forgotten lullaby. Like my mother's arms around me in a memory I shouldn't be able to have.

"What is it?" I wrote, my hand shaking.

"A piece of your mother's power. A key to understanding what you truly are." Elena's pale eyes held mine. "But be warned, child. Once you put it on, there's no going back. The awakening will begin in earnest, and those who fear you will move against you."

I looked up at Professor Arkon. He was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read—concern mixed with something that looked almost like fear.

"It's your choice," he said quietly. "But whatever you decide, I'll be here."

I looked back at the pendant, at the way it seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat. Somewhere deep inside, my wolf stirred, more present than it had ever been before.

A choice. That's what my father had given me when he sent me here. A choice to find out who I really was.

But was this really a choice? Someone was framing me for attacks I didn't commit. Damien was missing, possibly dying. People thought I was a monster. Without answers, without power, how could I defend myself?

Maybe it was time to stop running from what I was. Maybe it was time to stop being afraid of my own voice, whatever form it took.

Or maybe I was making the biggest mistake of my life.

I lifted the chain and fastened it around my neck.

The world exploded into silver light.

---

The sensation was nothing like I'd imagined. It wasn't painful, not exactly. It was like every cell in my body was waking up after a lifetime of sleep, stretching and remembering what it was supposed to be.

The last thing I heard before the visions took me was Professor Arkon calling my name, his voice filled with alarm. Then I was falling, drowning in memories that weren't mine, swept away by a tide of ancient power that had been waiting decades to finally come home.

A woman's voice, singing. Silver light bathing a forest clearing.

Hands… my mother's hands placing something around a baby's neck. A seal. A lock.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "But they'll kill you if they know what you are."

Running. Always running. Hiding what we were.

"Find her when she's ready. When she's strong enough to survive what comes next."

I could still hear Professor Arkon's voice from somewhere far away, but I couldn't open my eyes. It felt like my entire body was locked in place, frozen by the surge of power flowing through me. I tried to scream but couldn't hear myself, it felt like everything was happening inside my head.

The visions kept coming, faster now. My mother. The council. The ritual that stole my voice and sealed my wolf. And underneath it all, something ancient and powerful, something that had been sleeping inside me for twenty years.

I didn't see anything with my physical eyes. They refused to open. And then suddenly, a brilliant silver light flooded my consciousness, so bright it felt like staring into the sun.

I screamed, actually screamed with my voice, loud and raw and terrified.

The light grew brighter. My chest constricted. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The power was too much, filling me up until I thought I might shatter from the inside out.

"Ayla!" Professor Arkon's voice cut through the chaos. "Elena, what's happening to her?"

"The awakening," Elena's voice said calmly. "Her body is remembering."

"She's suffocating!"

I felt hands on me… Arkon's hands, familiar and warm. Then a sharp, precise pressure point at the base of my skull.

Everything went silent.

The light vanished. The visions stopped. The crushing weight of power eased.

I fell into darkness, and for the first time in my life, it felt like peace.