Chapter 05

Lucan’sPOV

"As promised"  I moved down the rows handing out quiz sheets  "five questions on last night's reading. Anyone who added the class late, you'll make it up during office hours."

A round of groans swept the auditorium before the room settled into that particular hush of pens scratching against paper. Rue tore through her sheet like she'd been waiting all morning for the chance, and something about that made me want to smile despite myself. In all my years standing in front of a classroom, I'd never had a student care about this material the way I did.

Now I had one who did. And she also happened to be my mate.

"Bring them up front when you're finished."

Students trickled up one by one to drop off their quizzes, but Rue stayed put at her desk in the front row, clearly finished. I could see the answers filled in, even a short explanation scrawled beside one of them  and still she didn't move. Waiting, it seemed, for the room to clear first.

Declan was the last one standing, and the second he did, so did she.

"Rue." He slung his bag over one shoulder, grinning in that way that made me want to put him through a wall a second time.

My jaw tightened. He clearly hadn't absorbed a single word of yesterday's warning.

"Skip the party for some studying? Nadia mentioned it. Kind of a rookie move, if you ask me."

"And if you ask me," Rue said, gathering her notebook without missing a beat, "nobody's used the word 'rookie' unironically since middle school. But for the record, I had a great night. Got some reading done, and"  her eyes flicked toward me, caught me watching, and color rose in her cheeks before she looked away  "found my next book."

"Who even reads for fun anymore?"

"Apparently not you, which would explain last semester," I cut in, unable to stand watching him linger so close to her a second longer. It hadn't even been forty-eight hours and she already had me wound tighter than I could ever remember being.

Rue's mouth curved, eyebrows lifting at Declan. "Maybe try it sometime instead of another Monday night party."

Declan just shook his head, turned, and dropped his paper on my desk. "For the record, I got a hundred on that quiz. Look."

I scanned it, brows raised. "Good work, Declan. Solid start to the year." I kept my professor's tone steady while adding, through the mind-link, something considerably less friendly. Keep hanging around Rue Callahan and this will be the only good thing that happens to you this semester.

He straightened, gave us both a tight smile, and made a quick exit  nearly jogging up the aisle. Once the door swung shut behind him, it was just the two of us again.

Rue hitched her bag onto her shoulder and held her quiz out to me. "Here. I went back and forth on question four, so I explained my reasoning just in case."

I took it from her, fingers brushing hers for a half second, and my wolf reacted like I'd been struck by something. Every nerve in my arm lit up. Her scent seemed to sharpen, filling the space between us entirely.

Mate. Claim her.

I glanced over her answers, warmth spreading through my chest at how thorough she'd been. "Everything's correct, except"

"Except?" Her eyes went wide, scanning the page again like she could make the mistake into visibility. She had the look of someone who'd stayed up far too late for a five-question quiz, determined to get every single one right. "It's question four, isn't it."

"Your name."

She pressed a hand to her chest and stared at the blank line at the top of the page. "Oh my god."

"Could cost you points, technically."

"Is there any way to... make those points up?"

Something in my chest caught. I couldn't tell if she was actually asking or if there was something else underneath the question, but either way my wolf was pacing, restless, wanting more of her voice, more of this.

"For you, there will always be extra credit available. Though I don't think you'll need it."

I hoped she would anyway.

"What if I wanted it?" She worried about the inside of her cheek, then added quickly, "In case I ever do bomb a quiz. Or an exam. I just like knowing the option's there."

Before I could think better of it, I tipped her chin up so she had no choice but to meet my eyes. "It's always there. Extra credit whenever you need it."

"Good to know," she said, voice barely above a whisper, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She hugged the textbook to her chest, lingering. "So, um. I saw you running by the dorms yesterday. Do you do that every afternoon?"

"I do." A lie, technically  until yesterday, I never had. But if she was going to keep studying on that same patch of grass every afternoon, I'd find a reason to run past it daily for the rest of the semester. Better than the alternative, which involved a level of hovering near her dorm that would get me removed from this campus entirely.

She went quiet, shifting again. "Good to know," she repeated, softer this time.

"You're welcome to join sometime."

I hadn't meant to say that out loud. She was my student. That fact alone should have ended the sentence before it started.

But she was also my mate, and once the words were out there, I didn't take them back. I just leaned against the desk and waited, watching color bloom across her cheeks again, my wolf pressing harder against the edges of my control with every second of silence.

"God, no," she blurted, eyes going wide, before immediately backpedaling. "I mean  not that I wouldn't want to. I would. I just said " Her face went even redder, like she could feel herself digging in deeper with every word, and I found I couldn't look away from it. Eventually she gave up and stared at her shoes instead. "I really hate running. Like, genuinely."

"You hate running." I crossed my arms. "What do you do instead, then?"

She lifted her chin, met my eyes despite the blush still climbing her neck, and said, "Other things," in a tone that had absolutely no business affecting me the way it did.

I had to look away first, dragging in a slow breath, forcing my thoughts somewhere other than exactly what "other things" might mean, or how badly I wanted to find out.

After a beat of silence, she smiled and stepped back. "Anyway, I should get going. I want to grab that book from the library before my next class. See you tomorrow."

Don't let her walk away yet.

"Wait." I reached into my bag and pulled out my own copy of Bound in Ash, holding it out to her. "Had this one lying around. Take it, save yourself the trip."

Her eyes went wide. "Are you sure? This is your copy."

"It's fine. Just get it back to me eventually." I started gathering the stack of quizzes on my desk, not trusting myself to look at her a moment longer than necessary. "Hope you like it."