4. Professor Voss II

Earis 

I lunged at him, the hairpin angled at his throat. But he caught my hand mid-strike like it was nothing. 

A sharp gasp creaked from my lips in a silent moan as heat exploded inside my veins the very second his palm enclosed over mine. 

He didn't just grab my waist, his fingers slid lower, palm splayed over my hips, dragging my body over his. I felt every fiber of muscle, his well-built chest and abs carved like stone. Every breath he exhaled was like it was mine to take. 

The mark on my neck pulsed in sync with my heart which was pounding heavily against my ribs. 

He pulled my hands closer to his neck, the sharp tip of the pin slowly grazing his neck like he was daring me. 

A low gasp rippled through the classroom. 

“Don't worry, Miss Lockwood would never hurt me,” he said, turning to the class while keeping my body locked tightly against his. 

“Would you, little hunter?” He whispered as his lips grazed my ears. My body jerked in response, betraying me by leaning in further. 

He chuckled low — that cruel, amused rumble that twisted something deep in my belly. Then his knuckles moved up my throat, grazing the mark and it lit under his touch. 

I hissed from the pain, then pulled away, forcing myself out of his grip. Heat flooded low in my belly. 

My pulse was a war drum in my ears. I gripped the hairpin so tight I felt it bite my palm.

What the fuck is happening to me?! 

He just stood there — infuriatingly calm. Waiting. 

“Want to try again, little hunter?” His voice was low, silk, threaded with a threat only I seemed to hear.

“Go, Earis… put up a good fight would you,” someone cheered from the crowd. 

I turned. The redhead! She was smirking like this was all for her amusement. Vanya was cheering alongside her like she thought this were an actual demonstration. 

My eyes met Cassian's and he was fuming. His face was streaming red as he clenched his seat. His eyes locked on me like he wanted me to acknowledge his rage. 

This was all a game for his amusement. And if he thinks I wouldn't actually stab him then that's what I'm going to use against him! 

 I tightened my grip on the pin and when I lunged again, I didn’t aim for his chest — I slid.

One heartbeat I was in front of him — the next, I was behind him, breathless, heart pounding like a drum in my skull.

“Enough. Thank you, Miss Lockwood,” he said, that same amused calm dripping off his tongue right before I could actually stab him. 

He tried to pull me forward, back into place. But this time I was faster.

I drove the hairpin right between his shoulder blades.

A sharp inhale. A flicker of something dark in those eyes as he glanced over his shoulder at me.

A smile curled at my lips as I dragged my fingers over the blood seeping through his shirt. I wiped it on my collar. 

Let them think it was part of the show.

He didn’t flinch. He just reached back, pulled the hairpin out of his back like it was nothing. Then he smirked at me — that predator grin that said you’ve just made this interesting.

He took my hand, forced me into a shallow bow beside him like it was all a performance. The theatre erupted in whistles and applause.

I met his eyes as we straightened. The pin, still firmly in his grip.

Next time, I thought, as he leaned in, so close I felt his blood warm on my skin.

“Good girl,” he whispered, too soft for anyone else to hear. A moan rippled low in my throat but I clenched my jaw refusing to feed his delusion. 

Then, he slid the hairpin laced with his blood into my hair tucking my hair behind my ear. 

I pulled the hairpin out of my hair the moment I turned to the stairs. I ran to my seat avoiding the amazed gaze of the students as they clapped. 

“I wish I was used for the demonstration,” someone hissed as I passed. “Now Earis the weird girl got a feel of the new professor,” 

What the fuck? They hate me because of him? 

“Oh, Mr. Voss, let me be your prey,” another giggled as I walked past her. She was totally lost slamming her hands together in applause, literally drooling at his name.

“I’d fail this class ten times just to be pinned under him,” another girl said as she cheered with her friend looking at him with obsession laced in her eyes. 

If only she knew the monster he was. 

I clenched the hairpin tighter, almost ripping my palm with it as anger pooled over me. That's my fucking problem with Mundanes! They are fucking blind! How can they love him?! 

I crumbled into my seat as my body shook from exhaustion. I turned to him and he had been staring at me the whole time with a satisfied grin on his face. 

I dragged the pin across my palm until I felt it bite. A promise to myself and to him. Next time, I'll bury it in his fucking throat!

*******

Magnus 

I love it when she thinks she's winning. The way my voice makes her body react, it makes me hard. I can't wait to show her just how hard. 

I could hear her ragged breathing and her heart calling my name as it pounded in her chest when she's near me. She wants all of me but she doesn't know it yet. 

She has never lost a fight since the day she was born and I know this because I watched her mother when she was just a fetus. I watched her shoot her first practice arrow. I watched her become a blade her father thought he could wield. 

Strigha–my Lycan was ready to mate her the moment the first seed of womanhood sprouted on her chest. But I waited. I watched her sharpen her claws, and let her think she was the predator. 

Now she's ripe and I've come to collect what had been promised to me for over a thousand years. 

When I felt her pin bite between my shoulder blades Strigha purred. She’d marked me back. Good girl. I’ll make her do it again — deeper next time. And next time, it won’t be my shoulder she tastes.

She'll feel the heat of my cock—the hunger that coils in me whenever I scent her untouched blood. 

She doesn’t know how far I’ll go to make her end this torment that’s been mine for centuries.