CHAPTER 4.

Green’s POV.

The moment I stepped in, her face told me everything. Her eyes widened, her entire body locking in place as if breathing itself had become difficult. I could see the thoughts moving through her without needing to hear them, the panic rising fast, sharp, immediate. She thought I had come to call her out, to expose what happened between us, maybe even punish her for it.

That wasn’t why I was there.

The truth was, I didn’t even know why I had come.

I had told myself to stay away from her. She was trouble, not the kind that caused noise or scandal, but the kind that settled deeper, the kind that reached beneath the surface and made control feel like something fragile. The kind that could make a man like me forget exactly what he was supposed to be doing.

I had only stepped in last night because she was my mate, and she had been burning in a way that couldn’t be ignored. If I hadn’t done something, she might have broken completely. The heat had been too much for her to handle, and I understood exactly what it meant. The moment Lucas humiliated her, the bond reacted, snapping into place without warning, pulling me toward her before I had the chance to stop it.

That was why I followed her.

That was why I intervened.

That was why I didn’t walk away.

Now she stood in front of me, frozen, her fingers curled around her arm where Sandy had struck her. I shifted my attention from her to the girls behind her, letting the silence settle just long enough to make them uncomfortable.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

Sandy straightened immediately. “Nothing, Professor Green. We were just playing with her.”

I looked at her without reacting. I didn’t need her explanation. I already knew. I knew exactly who Ravenna was in this place, what position she held in the pack, how easily she was dismissed. I had seen it the night before. I had watched it unfold in front of everyone.

I made it a habit to know my students before they stepped into my class. Their names, their families, their standing, their history. Ravenna was someone I should have avoided from the beginning, someone I had no reason to involve myself with.

And yet, I couldn’t leave her there.

I slid my backpack off my shoulder and handed it to her. “Follow me.”

Her eyes widened again, uncertainty flickering across her face, but she didn’t argue. I didn’t give her the chance to. I turned and walked toward my office, already knowing she would come after me.

Behind us, I heard Sandy’s voice, low and sharp, but I ignored it. Whatever she was saying didn’t matter.

What mattered was the fact that I had stepped in again.

I should have walked away.

I didn’t.

I kept my expression neutral, my pace steady, aware of Ravenna trailing behind me, her presence quieter now, more uncertain. She probably resented this, being pulled away from something familiar into something she didn’t understand.

The truth was, neither did I.

By the time we reached my office, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. She followed, still holding the bag like she didn’t quite know what to do with it. I gestured toward the desk.

“You can drop it there.”

She placed it down carefully, then drew in a slow breath, as if steadying herself.

“I just want to apologize,” she said suddenly, the words coming out too quickly, like she had rehearsed them in her head. “For what happened. I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t supposed to do that.”

I closed the door behind her and leaned against it, watching her. The reaction didn’t surprise me. It made sense that she would take the blame, that she would carry the weight of something she hadn’t chosen.

If she believed that, she would keep her distance.

That was what I needed.

“I helped you,” I said. “That’s all. It’s over. Don’t speak about it again. Not to anyone. That protects both of us.”

Relief flickered across her face, mixed with something else she didn’t fully understand. She nodded.

“I understand.”

“Good.”

I moved toward my desk. “You’re dismissed.”

She turned, reaching for the door, but paused with her hand on the handle. Something had caught her attention, something she wasn’t willing to let go of.

She turned back to me.

“How did you find me?”

I held her gaze. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I want to know,” she said. “How did you get there in time? Why were you even close?”

The truth pressed forward immediately, too easy, too dangerous.

“I happened to be passing by,” I said. “Something didn’t look right, so I stepped in.”

She didn’t look convinced.

“You expect me to believe that?”

I didn’t answer. I let the silence sit between us.

She stepped closer, her voice lowering, steadier now. “And this morning? Were you just passing by again when Sandy slapped me?”

“I was in the hallway.”

“You’re lying.” There was no hesitation in her voice, but there was something unsettled beneath it. “You didn’t just help me. There was something else. Last night… when you touched me.”

I stilled.

Her gaze didn’t waver. “I don’t know what it is,” she said, quieter now, as if she was trying to follow the thought even as she spoke it. “But it didn’t feel like it was just me.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said quietly, forcing the words into something dismissive. “How could you think there’s anything between us when you don’t even have a wolf? You’re nothing but a weak omega.”

The words came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t take them back.

Her expression hardened.

“Don’t lie to me,” she said. “Don’t stand there and pretend you don’t feel it too.”

I didn’t respond.

Because she was closer to the truth than she realized.

And I couldn’t admit that.

Not when everything I had built depended on keeping that truth buried.

I expected her to step back.

She didn’t.

She drew in a breath and looked straight at me.

“I can feel it,” she said. “Not just… whatever this is. I can feel you.”

I went still.

Her brows pulled together slightly, like she was reaching for something she couldn’t fully grasp, but she didn’t look away.

“There’s something different about you,” she said slowly. “You’re not like the others.”

The words settled between us, incomplete but heavy enough to matter. My breath caught before I could stop it. For the first time in years, someone had stepped close enough to the truth to make it dangerous.

And I had no way to deny it.