“I don’t know. He may.”
Alyssa turns to Marcus, as though there’s anything he could do, but I’ll be without my honor guard for the Yule break.
“I plan to hex him in the fucking dick if he tries, though,” I tell her, trying to sound brave and unconcerned, as though fear hasn’t been eating away at me for weeks now.
“Girlie, I hate this. That alpha is such a fuckingsnake. Promise me you’ll call one of your guys if he tries anything.”
I could make her promises all day and night, but even calling my guys won’t be enough if Rad sets his mind to mating me. They’ll be in Fairhaven, and I’ll be in Greenwich, more than five hundred miles away.
“I will,” I say, and wish her luck when Ian calls her back for the second part of her final.
Once again, I’m the last student to be called back for my practical exam.
I walk to the center of the classroom, ready to cast, but he doesn’t immediately launch into the test. “I want you to know that I’ve already recorded your grade for the written portion of your exam.”
“Did I ace it?” I ask, my eyes dancing, grinning at him.
He rolls his eyes. “You know you did, brat. You got full marks.” He studies me for a moment and then drops his gaze. “Full marks no other professor could contest. I graded you without bias. If anything, I graded you harder than I’ll grade any of your classmates. You earned your grade, fair and square.”
I bite my lower lip. I know being my professor again has been hard on Ian, that he’s done everything in his power to be a fair teacher, but in his attempts to be fair, he’s easily worked me harder than anyone else. But I don’t mind. I’ve risen to every challenge he’s issued to me.
Just as I do during my practical exam.
Ian tests me on every spell we covered during the semester, watching me intently as I perform every single one of them with practiced precision.
He marks a few things in his grade book and then nods to himself. “Any professor, even Cadigan, would have marked you how I have. I’ll enter your grade before the end of the day.” He looks up at me, a forlorn look in his bright blue eyes. It’s an expression that speaks of the gulf between us, the desire to find each other again on the other side of the tension between us. “Your work today was exemplary, just as your other casting has been of late. I believe with all my heart that you’ll be able to protect yourself over Yule. I just wish you didn’t have to.”
“Oh, Ian,” I murmur, wishing I could go to him, wishing I could slip into his arms and kiss both of our worries away. “Will I see you tonight?”
His lips tick up in a grin. “You couldn’t keep me away, my darling.”
* * *
We findeach other again that night, tangled together in my nest. The space between us vanishes, our disagreement not forgotten, but forgiven. We don’t speak of it, but somehow, we meet in the middle. I understand why he tried to forbid me from going home for Yule, and he understands why I must.
He loves me, his heart bared to me, and holds me close when his knot swells inside me, moves in me until we find our bliss, until the gulf between us vanishes. He whispers promises in my ear, the things we’ll do, the things he’ll teach me, when I’m back to Fairhaven in January and it’s a perfect, beautiful dream that carries me through the rest of my finals.
CHAPTER22
That perfect, beautiful dream shatters the moment Marcus and I pull into the parking lot, ready to pack up the town car and drive back to Greenwich but find another car there waiting for us.
Willow steps out of the sleek, silver rental the moment Marcus opens my door. She eyes the black SUV with no small amount of curiosity but says nothing about it. “There’s been a change of plans. I’ll be escorting my sister home.”
I eye the car, my stomach sinking. That’s not my sister’s expensive sports car, which can only mean one thing: we’re flying home.
Willow hands Marcus an envelope. “You’ve been booked on a flight to San Francisco out of Fairhaven International this afternoon. Feel free to take the town car to the airport. One of my father’s staff will pick it up and return it to the estate.”
Marcus hesitates and takes the ticket from my sister, his eyes never leaving me.
“What’s going on, Willow?” I ask.
She ignores me. “Mr. Haley, I recommend you leave immediately. Fairhaven International is a notoriously busy airport, and your flight is in a few hours.”
My honor guard recognizes a dismissal when he hears it, and so do I.
Saints, we don’t even get the chance to say goodbye.
He nods and sighs, his shoulders heaving. “I wish you a Good Yule, Miss Rose. I’ll see you at the end of break.”
