LOGINKAIRAThe first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the silence. The kind where you reach out and already know before your hand moves that the space beside you is empty. I stared at the ceiling for a moment, blinking slowly, letting my brain catch up with the rest of me.Then everything from last night walked back in, uninvited and very detailed. I sat up fast, the room looked exactly the same as morning light coming through the curtains.Everything exactly where it was supposed to be. I looked down at myself and felt heat crawl up my neck immediately. I was in just my underwear and my nightwear was folded neatly at the edge of the bed, which meant someone had done that and that someone was him. I quickly grabbed it and pulled it over my head. “So it was not a dream” I pressed my hands flat against my face and sat there for a second. My phone was on the bed beside me, I didn't even remember picking it up. I checked the time. 8:14am. I stared at that number for longer than neces
ALPHA ZANEI carried her to the bed and set her down slowly, making sure her head found the pillow before I pulled back to look at her.Something had shifted in the last few minutes. Not just in the room, not just in the way she was looking at me. Something inside me had shifted too, I felt too relaxed especially for someone who wouldn’t stop thinking about everything.I hovered over her, one hand braced beside her head, and I let myself actually look at her. The low light in the room was doing things I was not going to think too hard about, and she was watching me with those eyes that had been quietly taking me apart since the first day she walked into my class and refused to look impressed.I reached out slowly and placed my hand flat against her chest, just over her heart, feeling the rhythm of it under my palm. It was fast. Fast and uneven, which meant she was not nearly as calm as she was trying to look. Good, because I wanted her just as ruined as I felt.A tiny, needy sound sli
KAIRAThe shirt came off his shoulders and I almost stopped breathing. I had seen men without shirts before. This was not new information for my eyes to process. But my eyes were being completely useless right now because they refused to move and they refused to behave and they were taking in every single detail of him like they were trying to memorize something they would never see again.The tattoos covered the left side of his chest and wrapped around his ribs and climbed partway up his shoulder, it was so detailed in a way that made my fingers itch. I could not even make out the full design from where I was standing and I already wanted to trace every line of it with my hand.I pulled my eyes up quickly but from the slight tilt of his head, it was not quickly enough. He was still talking, something about Draven, something about my concern and his concern and the building, but the words were arriving slightly delayed because half my brain was still stuck on the image in front of me
ALPHA ZANEThe first thing I noticed when she opened the door was that she had changed and the second thing I noticed was what she had changed into.It was the nightwear, the one I had come to ask about, which meant I had my answer before I even opened my mouth, which also meant I had no real reason to be standing here anymore. But my brain had stopped processing useful information the moment my eyes moved from her face downward and found the thin fabric doing a very poor job of being fabric at her chest area.It was not scandalous, it was just slightly transparent, the kind of transparency that was easy to explain away in daylight and completely impossible to ignore at this hour, in this light, with her standing right in front of me. The shape of her breast was right there, all of it pointing directly at me like it had something to say.My chest did something it had no business doing and my body? It was doing worse so I pulled my eyes back up to her face and kept them there.She had
ALPHA ZANEI walked away from her door without looking back and that part was deliberate.I had learned a long time ago that the worst thing you could do in a moment that required control was to look back so I kept my eyes forward and my steps even and I put as much corridor between us as I could in the time it took to reach my own room.I closed the door behind me.My wolf kicked me the moment the latch clicked.It was not subtle about it either. It hit somewhere behind my ribs, sharp and insistent, the way it only did when it had an opinion it considered urgent and felt I was being too slow to act on.“What exactly do you mean by goodnight?”"Exactly what it sounds like," I said quietly.She is literally two rooms away. Two rooms, Zane. You could go back right now. You could end this tonight."End what?"You know what. Claim her. Make her yours. Stop performing this whole indifferent routine and just go and get her.I pressed two fingers against the bridge of my nose and stood in t
KAIRAHe still held the door open and gave way for me to pass through first.I walked past him and as I did, I caught it from the corner of my eye. A flash of red across his eyes, quick and gone before I could properly look at it. It was probably just his body reacting to the rain. Alphas were like that sometimes, their eyes doing things in response to shifts in the environment, the cold, the pressure in the air, the particular kind of tension that came with a heavy downpour. I had read about it once, somewhere. I filed it away and kept walking."Straight down," he said from behind me.His voice was calm, like everything else about him. I started moving down the corridor and after a moment I became aware of how it felt to have him walking behind me instead of beside me. It was strange in a way I did not expect. Not uncomfortable exactly, just somehow weird. Then I remembered this morning, the flat look on his face when he saw me on the grounds. The single cold nod, the deliberate, w
KAIRAThe moment his lips met mine, I felt every wave of regret wash over me but since I had already done it, I might as well do it right.I moved my lips against his, doubting at first. He didn't respond immediately and panic started to set in. What had I done? This was my professor, the head alph
ALPHA ZANEI was standing by the window in my office, staring out at the grounds of the estate without really seeing them. My mind was elsewhere, replaying last night over and over again. The way she had looked at me in that dark room. The way her body had felt when I pulled her close. The way she
KAIRA“Go meet him?? Oh my God," I typed quickly, showing the screen to Jessica.Jessica looked at me with an apologetic expression. "I can't go with you though," she said before I could even finish typing my next message.I frowned immediately, my heart sinking. The thought of facing Professor Zan
KAIRAAs she asked that question, my eyes widened and I didn't know how I could answer or where to start from.Jessica was staring at me now, waiting for an explanation, her fork suspended in mid-air. Her mother had stepped further into the room, curiosity written all across her face.I set down my







