Alpha's Desire: The Hidden Mate

No, wait!Zaria Rose Carrington blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening.The afternoon light streaming through the window fell across Damian Aberforth’s face, sharpening the lines of his jaw. He was standing too close — so close that Zaria could hear his steady, deep breathing, almost matching the erratic rhythm of her own racing heartbeat.“Professor, I—”The sentence never made it out. Damian’s hand lifted and his long, cold fingers brushed her cheek so lightly that the touch barely made a sound. Yet it was enough to send a shiver rippling through her skin.For a moment, Zaria’s mind stopped working. She could only stare at his face, frozen in place and caught in his deep grey eyes that showed no emotion but reflected something she couldn’t name.Zaria wanted to step back, but the edge of the desk behind her held her in place. The wood pressed against her waist, grounding her trembling body.“Relax,” said Damian in a low voice, almost a whisper. ‘Why do you look so tense

To others, Damian was a psychology professor renowned for his brilliance and quiet authority. His field of expertise was perception, consciousness and cognitive control—three things that, ironically, had become a mask for his true self.Every day, Damian walked the faculty corridors with composed steps and an expression almost devoid of emotion. Students watched him with respect—some with admiration, others with unease. In the classroom, every word he uttered sounded precise and deliberate, as if the entire world were merely a collection of concepts that could be governed by thought.Yet beneath that calm exterior lay something far more personal: teaching was his escape. The university provided a space where he could pretend to be ordinary—a man who researched, wrote and lectured about consciousness as if he had never lost control of his own. In that room scented with paper and ink, he could forget, if only for a moment, what it truly meant to be himself.But such calm was always an i

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that? Why did you call for me, Zaria?”Damian’s voice was deep and calm, yet it echoed inside Zaria’s chest as though trapped in an endless corridor. Each word pierced her senses—not a simple question, but something that felt more like an accusation... or a summons from something unseen.Zaria flinched. Still caught between the remnants of her dream and her waking consciousness, she began to doubt her own sanity. Confusion tangled in her thoughts. Instead of explaining why he was in her room, Damian had turned the question back on her.“W-what?” Zaria stammered, swallowing hard. Panic flickered across her face. “I called you?”Damian didn’t answer. He simply looked at her in silence, allowing the tension to grow heavier with each passing second.Zaria’s nerves frayed further. His gaze was sharp and unwavering, yet not cold; it felt invasive, as though it stripped bare every hidden thought she had.“Professor, you must be mistaken,” Zaria said, her vo

“Zaria, what do you mean?”The question hung in the air, cutting through the remnants of her dream. She was still half-asleep, her vision blurred by the dim library lights. But that voice—deep, low and familiar—rang clearly in her ears.Zaria blinked once, then twice. She drew in a long breath, her expression tightening with irritation. “Stop haunting me, Professor,” she said hoarsely but firmly. “Stop showing up in my thoughts. Stop appearing in my dreams. Stop circling around me like a shadow that doesn’t know when to leave.”Damian watched her in silence, as if holding back one enormous question.Unfortunately, Zaria wasn’t finished. She didn’t give him a chance to speak. Her words spilled out like a dam finally giving way. “Professor, I’ve had enough. I’ve thought about it enough. Yes, you’re handsome—that’s an undeniable fact. But that doesn’t

What did Anna just say? That a student and a professor were getting cosy in the library.Zaria froze in the middle of the hallway. Her breath caught in her throat. Anna’s voice, spoken lightly yet poisonous, kept echoing in her head. Every word pierced her, slipping into her mind and settling there, impossible to deny.No, Zaria told herself. No way.Zaria tried to convince herself that the rumour had nothing to do with her. Anna and her friends could have been talking about someone else. After all, that's just how Anna, Portia and Iris always were—constantly gossiping.But another part of her—the smaller, more honest and far more irritating part—said otherwise. What if it was true? What if the student they meant was actually you?Zaria tried to push that thought away, but she couldn’t. Her instincts kept whispering softly—and annoyingly convincingly—in her head, insistin