The Alpha's College Mate

Chapter 16

Clara’s POV

I did not even mean to ask Lucan about lycans and werewolves. The words seemed to tumble out of my mouth on their own. But now that I had said them aloud, I desperately wanted his answer because certain things simply were not adding up.

Professor Vance stared down at me with wide hazel eyes. Instead of confirming that all the fantasies in my head were real, he let out a soft chuckle, the deep sound warming me in all the right places. “Where did you hear that?”

“I… I have just been reading,” I whispered.

“Did you finish The Legend of Lycaon?”

“Yes.”

“Did you like it?”

“Yes.”

“Did you”

“Why are you not answering my question?” I asked.

Again Professor Vance’s eyes widened and he ran a hand through his scruff. If there was anything I had learned from that book, it was that some wolves, especially the male ones, the alpha type did not like being confronted and did not tolerate disobedience.

Vance liked neither.

Still, I could barely believe werewolves existed myself. The idea was so outlandish it was almost laughable. If werewolves were real, the government would surely have discovered them by now. I could not imagine any government being comfortable with supernatural creatures roaming freely.

“In Greek mythology, I think people believed in”

“No,” I said, somehow finding the courage to push back. “I want to know what you think about them here and now. Not in Greek mythology. In today’s time and in today’s world. Do you think they exist?”

Lucan stared at me for several moments, his jaw twitching and a sudden flash of gold appearing in his eyes. After stepping away from me he glanced at his desk. “Why would I believe in something like that, Clara?”

“So you do not think they are real?” I asked, moving closer.

Part of me wanted him to break. After finishing that mythology book about wolves, I had researched online and found an entire collection of dirty, smutty romance novels about werewolves, especially alpha wolves and I might have… touched myself while reading a few of them.

A few tense, silent moments passed between us. Heat built between my legs as I thought back to those books the violent, vicious nature of a man who grew claws and canines during a full moon, the possessive claiming and marking of another, the pure aggression every wolf carried.

Fuck.

They were all made-up stories, yet I could not stop thinking about them. The truth was I kind of wished Professor Vance would snap, show me his canines, sink them into my neck, and take me. That would be the highlight of my entire life.

“No,” Professor Vance finally said, but he was lying. He could no longer look me in the eye.

“So you do not believe in people who can lengthen their stubby nails into sharp claws?”

“No.”

“What about people who can extend their teeth into viciously long canines?”

“No.”

“And their eyes?” I said, my voice lower. “It might be easy for someone to hide claws in balled fists or canines behind their lips, but eyes that change to gold…” The more I spoke, the harder my heart pounded. “Nobody can hide their eyes changing colors.”

“Eyes do not change colors, Miss sterling.” Lucan placed his hands on the desk, every muscle in his back flexing so hard that I wanted to run my hands over his taut body. “It is impossible.”

But it was not.

Professor Vance was not the only man whose eyes had flashed gold that I had seen.

Draven had eyes like that too.

“You should get back to your dorm, Clara,” Professor Vance said, grabbing a shirt from his closet and holding the door open for me. After he tugged the shirt over his head he followed me out of the room and down the hallway. “We have a quiz tomorrow morning. I hope you studied.”

He thought he was good at changing the subject.

“Yeah,” I said, playing along. “I did.”

“You have to make up your quiz from today too.”

“Can I do that during office hours?” I asked, moving closer to him as we stepped out into the chilly fall night. Goose bumps rose on my skin and I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth.

Professor Vance chuckled slowly. “I do not have office hours tomorrow.”

“You would not open them up for me?”

Hell, I did not know where all this confidence was coming from, but I liked it. And I could not stop flirting with him. Every day that passed I felt a stronger need to be closer to him, for him to take me, for him to crave me.

Maybe I was… lonely after all the years I had spent alone back home.

This was the first real thing I had ever had.

When we reached my dorm building, Professor Vance looked at me with those beautiful hazel eyes that seemed to sparkle under the moonlight. “I do not make special requests, Miss Sterling. Not usually.”

“But for me?”

He smiled and turned away. “I will set aside an evening for you, Clara. Anytime.”

When I reached the dorm room I heard two voices inside, so I stopped and pressed my ear to the door.

“Vance is going to kill us,” Jasmine whisper-yelled behind our door. “What are we going to do? Where could she have gone? She barely leaves the dorm to go anywhere! Why would she just”

Suddenly Jasmine stopped, and I backed away from the door.

Fuck.

Has she caught me?

A moment later the door swung open.

“Clara!” Jasmine scolded as I walked back into the room. When I left she had been sleeping soundly, but now Levi sat on her bed while she rushed over to me, clearly worried. “Where the hell have you been?”

“I was”I shifted from foot to foot“out.”

“You cannot go out at two in the morning!” Jasmine said, teeth grinding together. “Something could have happened to you. If you are going to leave, tell me first. I will come with you.”

“I did not want to wake you.”

“Well, do not do that again, please.”

Levi hopped off Jasmine’s bed and walked over to me, brows drawn together. He took a few strands of my hair in his hand and sniffed mefreaking sniffed me the way a dog would. “You have been out with Professor Vance.”

It was not a question. It was a statement.

Levi glanced over his shoulder at Jasmine, and for the second time that night they shared a silent look I could not decipher. I pulled my hair away from him and marched to my bed, kicked off my shoes, and wiggled out of my jeans. I was too tired to be scolded by my friends.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Levi covered his eyes with his hands. “You cannot strip in front of me. He will kill me if I”

Jasmine elbowed him hard in the ribs and jumped onto her bed, looking far more relaxed than she had a few moments earlier. “Were you out with Professor Vance?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I pulled on some sweatpants. “Maybe.”

“Girl, details! Now!” Jasmine said even though it was two in the morning and we had class early the next day in Professor Vance’s Classics course.

I both wanted to spill everything and tell her nothing.

Professor Vance was mine, and I did not want to share any details about him with anyone else.

Once I was dressed in pajamas, Levi finally lowered his hands, muttered something about not wanting to lose his eyes, and jumped onto Jasmine’s bed with her. “You know what they were probably doing.” He winked, making Jasmine scrunch her nose.

“Can you not?”

“What?” Levi said.

“Do not be weird.”

“How am I being weird?”

“We have not had s*x,” I said sharply. But damn, did I want to.

Levi’s mouth dropped open. “You have not?”

“No.”

He threw his head back and chuckled. “Oh my Goddess. What is he waiting for? If he keeps holding back, he is going to lose control during the Full Moon party.” Levi clapped his hands together as if he was happy or excited about something.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Ugh, why do I keep you around?”

Levi wiggled his brows. “Because you love me, babe.”

She shoved him off her bed. “Do not call me that.”

“Has, um…” I chewed the inside of my cheek and lay back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. My chest tightened. “Do you think he has lost control with other students before? I cannot be the only one, right?”

Jasmine and Levi stayed quiet for a few moments.

When I looked over at them, Levi shook his head. “I am only a second-year student, but… when I took his class last year he barely spoke to anyone. Nobody really enjoys his class because it is a classic. And, I mean, who likes classics?”

“I do.”

“Well, of course you do. You are his”he paused and glanced at an angry Jasmine“favorite student.”

Jasmine hopped off the bed, placed her hands on Levi’s back, and pushed him toward the door. “Levi has to go now.” She marched right out with him and slammed the door behind her, and they began bickering back and forth like an old couple outside.

I pulled the blankets over my head, turned onto my side, and took out my phone, staring down at the steamy werewolf stories I had been reading earlier. Lucan would lose control during the Full Moon party, huh?

My lips curved into a smile.

Good, because I would do everything in my power to make that happen.

I wanted to see who the real Lucan Vance was.