“I am a teacher,” I told her, omitting to tell her I hadn’t been until I called in a favor.
“But what were you doing down there when you met me?” The wrinkle in her brow made me smile.
“I was on my way home from a shifter convention when my bear caught your scent. When I woke up after being stunned, I called a friend and discovered there was a job opening here. So I applied, and here I am.” Luckily, she didn’t question me further on how easily I’d found a job here at such short notice.
She chewed her lip as her brow wrinkled further. “I heard some students talking about how the last coach got attacked.” When she shivered in my arms, I pulled her closer, not caring that we were in full view of the windows overlooking the running track.
There were rules preventing student-teacher relationships, which the headmaster had made a point of telling me about, but they couldn’t prevent mates from being together. Our society prized soulmate bonds, given how rare they were. And also because they amplified the power of those mated.
Shifters became stronger and witches and mages more powerful.
Once I claimed my witch, I’d inform the headmaster. If he spewed any mage-supremacist bullshit at me, I’d rip his fucking head off. I didn’t much care for the mages and their rhetoric. They liked to think they were more powerful than us shifters, but most of them hadn’t met my Kodiak.
“Never mind about that. It’s not important,” I told her. She didn’t need to worry about feral shifters. Not with me here to protect her. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the exit.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused, when I turned toward the staff accommodations.
“Taking you back to my cabin.”
“No!” she protested. “You can’t do that! I’m in enough trouble as it is without everyone thinking I’m trying to sleep my way to a better grade in PT and combat!”
“We won’t be sleeping.”
“We won’t?” Her eyes widened as intoxicating arousal perfumed the air. I groaned. Fuck, she was not making it easy to hold back. I’d love nothing more than to sink my now-hard cock into her, but it was too soon.
I forced my bear down and swallowed hard. “I meant you need to take a hot shower, dry off, and put some fresh clothes on. Then I’ll cook you dinner.”
“Oh.” She slumped in disappointment. “It’s fine. I still have a dry set of PJs in my room.” I watched as she nibbled her lip thoughtfully while making no effort to extricate herself from my arms. Her body felt the soul-bond even if her mind still had some catching up to do.
Thank fuck she hadn’t grown up in one of the elite mage families. If I’d ended up bonded to, say, the Blake witch, I’d have fucking thrown myself off a mountain and waited for the goddess to take me.
Those elitist bitches would never have accepted a shifter mate.
Raven’s mouth opened to protest again but soon snapped shut when I growled at her.
“You’re coming back to my cabin, so stop arguing.”
She pouted at me as I pushed through the rear exit so the students running laps didn’t see us leave. I had no intention of letting them off early. They could suffer for a while longer.
“I don’t want you to get fired!” Icy rain pounded my head as I hit the path along the edge of the forest. Damn, this storm was brutal. Even I, with my shifter metabolism, was not entirely immune to the chill in the air.
I had a feeling this was Vane’s work. He’d looked extremely pissed off when I ordered them all outside to run laps.
“The headmaster won’t fire me. He needs me right now.” There was zero chance of the previous coach returning. The healers had struggled to reattach his legs, and while he’d mostly recovered, the poor fuck had serious PTSD.
“I’ll escort you back to your room once you are dry and fed.”
Raven huffed loudly but let me carry her down the path through the trees toward my cabin.
11
Alaric
It hadn’t even been funny. The minute everyone fell about laughing at the little witch, I wanted to pick her up and fold my arms around her. She broadcast first her panic and then her embarrassment to the entire room because she’d not remembered to shield her thoughts.
I laughed even though it left a bitter taste in my mouth. But what else could I do? If I did what my magic wanted, someone would figure it out. They’d realize she meant something to me, and I couldn’t afford for that to happen.
“I fucking hate you, man,” Arron grumbled as he caught me up. “This bastard rain is killing me.”
