Page 36 of Plug and Drain

With one hand on the door handle, Susie spun around to face him. “With all due respect, Headmaster…you better be fucking far from here when I return.”

She bared her teeth, wishing she could morph into a wolf more keenly than she ever had before, just so she could threaten him with a full display of vicious wolf fangs. She threw the door open.

“Susie,” he tried again, his voice so reasonable it was impressive.

She exhaled through her nostrils. “It’s Susanna. Please shut the door on your way out.”

She stalked out into the corridor, which was mercifully empty as she half walked, half ran to the bathroom, tears streaming down her face.

Arken was nothing to her.

And clearly, she was nothing to him.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but the feeling of loneliness within her deepened. It left her feeling worse than she had before he’d entered her room, as though she’d just lost something precious that she hadn’t known she wanted.

Like most of her dreams, this one belonged in her fantasy books.

Because that’s all they were: foolish, dangerous fantasies.

She shut herself in the bathroom and turned the hot water on, clutching the cool tiled wall as she tried to make sense of what had happened. She washed their combined juices from between her legs—not only his semen, but her arousal as well.

Her head spun. Arken had helped her reach an orgasm.

He was the first man to do so.

She only wished the moment had been special.

Chapter 10

Starved of Control

Arken

Arken licked Susie’s blood from his lips as he left her room, shutting the door behind him. His chest felt heavy, his ears ringing with the combination of exhaustion and fading bloodlust.

The corridor was deserted, and the magical lights flickered eerily. Susie had disappeared, but when he neared the shared bathroom door, he could hear the sound of running water from inside.

He contemplated waiting for her. The brief taste of her blood had been rich and tempting, but Susie had stopped him before he’d had a chance to feed properly. The small amount he’d consumed had given him a new lease on life, but it was not nearly enough to sustain him, and he could sense that the new energy coursing through his veins was fleeting.

He would stay. It was his right to finish what he’d started, but Susie’s sudden burst of anger had startled him. No student had ever dared address him in such a manner. As he lingered outside the bathroom door, he did something he hadn’t done in a long time: reflect on his behaviour.

She’d looked so scared after he’d bitten her, and the memory of her frightened expression made his stomach churn with guilt. Or perhaps that was his body screaming at him for blood.

Definitely guilt.

It was sharp and unexpected, and he had the strange, overwhelming urge to not only feed on Susie, but to console her as well. He had not meant to scare her.

He scowled, chastising himself for losing control. He had bitten Susie almost involuntarily. For all intents and purposes, he’d blacked out, and was barely aware of what was happening as his aching fangs sank into flesh and hot blood coursed through his mouth.

The sound of Susie sobbing had pierced his consciousness, and he’d pulled away from her neck in alarm, with only a vague recollection of having bitten her.

He’d been teetering on the edge of hunger and lust, postponing his needs in order to prioritise hers.

That had been his mistake: putting another’s needs before his own. A silly mistake, but one he should have known better than to make in his current state. He’d been arrogant enough to think he could ignore the need to feed and retain control, and with another wolf, he might have been able to.

But Susie had radiated a tenderness of spirit that made him suspend all other thoughts.

And he’d slipped. He’d embraced his primal instincts and transformed into a starving predator.