Chapter 009

TALIA

I was walking and then running down the school’s hallway, which for some reason was deserted. Behind me, I could hear someone struggling to catch up with me.

“Come back here!” a voice, that I realized was Tessa’s, shrieked. “Come back here now! Let me smear your face with lipstick and sauce. A pig will always be a pig!”

“Talia!”

My eyes flew open and the dream shattered around me like glass.

“Talia, wake up!”

The voice was real now, and it was Ruby's. Still half caught between sleeping and waking, I blinked and focused on the face leaning above me.

“What are you doing in my house so early?” I asked groggily, rubbing my knuckles over my eyes. “And why are you screaming?”

“It’s not early, Talia," Ruby said with a sigh. "It’s 10 a.m. already. Besides, I have new information about Cassian.”

I sat up so quickly that Ruby grinned.

“What information?” I asked, clutching Ruby’s arm, my heart pounding with excitement.

“We are going to number two today, which is ‘learn your target’s routine’ I found out through the grapevine that Cassian loves doing one thing in his spare time. Guess what it is? Golf!”

“Golf?”

“Yes. He has an exclusive tier membership at the Golden Golf Club.”

I heaved a sigh. “Well, thank you very much for the information, Miss Resourceful,” I muttered, rolling my eyes as she gave a dramatic bow. “But you forgot just one important detail. How are we supposed to get into the golf club without a membership card?”

Ruby’s answering smile told me she had a plan. With the air of a magician doing a trick, she whipped out a card and waved it in front of my face.

“Guess whose parents have a membership at the Golden Golf Club?” she trilled.

I stared at the golden-embossed card, hardly believing my eyes for a few seconds. With a squeal of delight, I leaped on Ruby, covering every inch of her face I could reach with kisses.

“I love you, Ruby!” I squealed. “I love you, I love you, I love you! You’re the best!”

“I know,” she said, laughing and disentangling herself from me. “But keep your shirt on. We have to get dressed quickly. He’ll soon be at the club and we don’t want to miss him.”

I was so excited I could barely keep still enough for Ruby to work what she called her magic on me.

******

We arrived at the club at noon. Ruby had made me wear a white tennis skirt and a matching white T-shirt. She was dressed much the same. Even I had to admit I looked rather nice.

“Card, madam?” asked the blonde receptionist as we entered the lobby. Almost immediately his face lit up as he spotted my friend. “Ah, Miss Ruby, welcome.”

He hardly glanced at her card before waving us in.

“Whoa,” I breathed, unconsciously clutching my golf bag a little tighter as I took in the tastefully and expensively furnished lounge.

People sat talking, laughing, and sipping wine while a muted golf game played on a giant flatscreen TV. Every single person I saw looked rich. A professor could not possibly afford a membership at this sort of club... not on his salary. So how was Cassian doing it?

“Come on, come on,” Ruby whispered out of the corner of her mouth as she tugged lightly on my arm and I realized I had stopped walking.

We headed for the golf course.

“Where is he?” I heard Ruby ask.

Almost before she had finished speaking, we heard a loud whack and saw a golf ball arcing high across the sky.

“Oh There he is,” Ruby said, pointing to the man who had sent the ball flying.

With his back to us, he was squinting against the glare of the sun as he watched the ball soar through the air. My stomach clenched as I recognized the stance, the broad shoulders...

My wolf began to flutter and whine.

Cassian stood still for a while and then began to swing his club back and forth. It looked like he was really good at golf. But then, a man like Cassian would be good at anything he did. He was perfect that way.

“Remember the plan,” Ruby was saying. “First we need to act like we are surprised we found him here, and then we approach him, okay?”

I nodded to show I understood. We moved on like two golfers looking for a nice spot to play.

Ruby said, loud enough so that Cassian could hear, “Wow, this place is really... oh! Professor Cassian, is that you?”

I barely had time to register that Ruby’s tone of pleased surprise was very nicely done before I saw Cassian stiffen. He slowly turned around and saw us.

His eyes widened in shock and then narrowed into slits. His fingers clenched around the golf ball he was holding in one hand.

His muscles, barely concealed by the polo shirt he was wearing, bunched in response. On his arm, I spotted what looked like a tattoo. Before I could get a good look at it, he yanked down the sleeve of his shirt, hiding it from view.

“Hello, Professor,” I said as steadily as I could, fixing a smile on my face and resisting the urge to pat down my hair, which Ruby had already perfectly styled.

There was no warmth in Cassian’s eyes, no smile on his lips as he demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“We are here to play golf. We come here every Saturday to unwind. Isn’t that right, Talia? Talia?” Ruby prompted.

My mouth had gone dry as I stared at his face. My words tangled and died on my tongue. Suddenly I felt the burst of pain shoot up my leg as Ruby stomped on it.

“Yes!” I gasped, my eyes watering in pain. “Y-yes, that's right. We come here every Saturday to play.”

Gritting my teeth, I resisted the urge to hop from one foot to the other. At least what Ruby had done had enabled me to think and talk again.

“Would you like to play a round of golf with us?” I asked him.

“No, I will not,” Cassian answered flatly.

He began to pack up his things, waving off the caddie who had started forward to help him. Ruby and I exchanged a look.

Cassian was doing it again. He was pushing me away. This time I had really thought that he would a least relax a little bit since we weren't in the school environment.

“Say something to him,” she mouthed, and I turned again to Cassian.

“Professor, are you... leaving because of us?”

His lips twisted as he replied in a cold, hard voice, “A professor should not be seen in golf clubs in the company of his underage students.”

“Underage?” I said. “I’m 18.”

Cassian said nothing. He had finished packing. His grip tightened on his golf bag, and as he walked away, it felt like he was taking a little bit of my breaking heart with him.

Every other person thought I was looked pretty enough now. So why was Cassian different? Was I that unattractive to him? And had he really mean it when he said he would never acknowledge our mate bond?

I turned away from him, struggling to swallow past a sudden lump in my throat.

“Let’s go,” I told Ruby.

Ruby shook her head. “Oh no, we are not going to give up that easily. Come on, Talia, you have to keep at it. What you should do next is...” She stopped, thought for a moment. "Go after him. Try to talk to him privately.

“But-"

“No buts. It’s possible he didn’t want to say anything because I was with you. Maybe if both of you are alone, you would finally be able to break the ice.”

Slightly heartened by what Ruby said, I went in search of Cassian, moving in the direction he had gone. I found myself some minutes later in the golf club’s locker room.

A man wearing the golden T-shirt of the club’s staff was just walking past me, headed for the exit. I started to ask him where Mr. Lennox was when I spotted him.

He was having a conversation with a young, pretty woman who was smiling up at him. From the look on her face, it was obvious she liked him, and as I watched, she quickly scribbled something on the back of a card.

“And there is my number,” she said, handing the card over to Cassian with a flirtatious smile. “You can call me anytime, Cassian. Anytime."

It felt like I had been punched in the gut. Cassian wouldn’t even look twice at me, his mate, and yet he was taking the number of some random woman? It could only mean he had no objections to other ladies, only to me.

A tear ran down my cheek and another followed.