Chapter 4 The man I kissed is my professor

“You know you didn’t want another fight,” I demanded of Rebecca.

“What? You are scared now?”

She cackled in response, and I knew she wasn’t backing down, which was a problem. The last time we got in a fight she hit me hard, I hit back harder. It had broken her nose and her daddy had just bought her a new face, so she was pissed. 

The fight was worse because we had both been in human form, for me because I couldn’t shift, and for her, probably because I didn’t shift, either. She was stronger in wolf form, but the stronger we could fight in human form, the more powerful we could be as a wolf. That was why we did a lot of sparring as humans–so that our wolves would grow stronger and we could become powerful warriors.

At least, she could be more powerful as a wolf. For me, human fighting was all I was going to get.

She had another advantage over me last time, even though I broke her nose. Her healing journey had been a fast and easy one, thanks to her wolf. She was back in the new face her daddy had given her the very next day. I wasn’t as lucky and had to miss school for the next week to heal from the fight. 

Guess I will have to miss another week of class again.

I wondered how my parents were going to react when they heard about this, remembering how they’d reminded me that my performance here reflected on them. My mother had wanted to confront Rebecca’s dad after our last fight. My injuries had been bad enough that they broke their usual rule of staying out of my battles. It wasn’t that they didn’t care. They wanted to teach me how to handle them on my own. 

“I just thought that maybe you won't want to get another plastic surgery to fix your fake nose.” I smiled, I knew this would piss Rebecca off, but since the fight was inevitable, I’d rather say it out loud.

 The girls Rebecca kept around gasped and the crowd stopped its murmuring for a moment, but then they all went back to whispering. 

Rebecca started moving closer to me with a terrifying look in her eye. 

The blonde girl stood in the crowd. She frowned for a moment before her face returned to a cold, beautiful mask. It looked like she wanted to say something, but she stayed silent. 

 I caught sight of Arthur through the crowd. He looked pleased with how everything was turning out, like he was watching a show and it was fun.

“You bitch. You’ll regret that comment,” Rebecca said. She came to me ferociously, I dodged her attack and moved backward.

Rebecca swung out, the attack too hurried and clumsy to be effective. I effortlessly moved my head out of the way, swinging my upper body to the left. The red haired girl let out a frustrated groan as she was unable to hit me. I couldn’t help but smirk at her lack of ability. I went to hit back at Rebecca, the strike would have hit easily. 

“Stop. ” Rebecca shouted.

Her voice sounded different. Instead of its usual high-frequency quality, it was deeper. It echoed as the large design of the arena caused the sound to reverberate. Her eyes flashed red for a second as she shouted. My body obeyed the command and stopped, and there was nothing I could do to move my body. 

I wished I could resist, but it was hopeless. 

This was her special power–mind control. Rebecca was the only person in the royal family who possessed this ability. A wolf having an ability like that was rare, and she had been able to use it since high school. When she was younger, she could only control small movements but now she could control a person’s entire being. Not many people knew about Rebecca’s special ability. They never thought that it was a special ability when they were bullied, they just thought their body froze because they were too scared, but not me, I had fought with her a hundred times. I knew it was her and when I asked her, she admitted it in front of me but no one else knew except her family. The only problem for her was that it only worked for a few moments, like one or two seconds. But that was all she needed to get me hit by her fist.

Rebecca rushed over to where I stood and got back into her stance, raising her toned arms to hit me with a chilling expression. 

The crowd moved with her, and some of the more spiteful students started cheering on the affair. I growled and reached out to block her attack, my arms were in pain because of bearing heavy attack, I guess there would be a bruise on my arms tomorrow, I quickly identified a vulnerability in her stance that I could strike at next, then I punched Rebecca’s face, her head tilted because of my attack, the crowd gasped and someone even screamed, but I knew it didn’t hurt her much because she immediately turned her head to me and looked at with even more terrifying look.

I am going to kill you, I guessed that was what she was thinking.

But before she could execute the move, a large hand grabbed her arm, holding it in place easily. 

“What’s the meaning of this?” 

It was the same deep, intense voice from earlier, and it sent a pleasant tingling all over my body.

My body shuddered. It was the same deep, intense voice from earlier. My eyes followed the question and I tried to keep the look of shock from my features. Rebecca wasn’t as successful and looked behind herself, trying to pull her arm from the man’s grasp. 

It was the mystery man–the man I’d kissed. 

He had changed since our meeting this morning and was now wearing a tank top with jeans, along with combat boots–battle-ready. I tried to decide how he looked hotter, like this or in his suit. 

His black hair, which was slicked back earlier, was now messy. Without the jacket to cover them, I could now see the tight, well-defined muscles I had only got to feel earlier. 

His body had a faint sheen of sweat on it, and the musk from before finally hit me. It smelled even better now. My face flushed at the thought. 

There was something about him. I was losing control of my own mind and body. 

His striking eyes shifted from Rebecca’s arm to me, and he looked surprised himself. Their blue gaze filled with anger at first before changing to a mix of concern and a touch of amusement. 

He looked around at the crowd that had formed. All of the gossip and cheers fell to a quiet hush. 

More thunder rumbled in the distance, and I wondered when the storm would hit. 

I wondered why he was here and how he kept showing up whenever I needed help.

“Hands off, old man, and mind your business,” Rebecca spat out at my mystery man as she kept trying to pull her arm out of his grasp. 

She was obviously getting frustrated, and I feared even now that she would shift. Her green eyes snapped back to me and she bared her teeth. 

“You’re going down,” she said menacingly. 

Nobody in the crowd moved, everyone equally as transfixed with the commanding aura the man had. He released Rebecca’s arm, but before she could hit me, his voice boomed out, filling the arena. 

“Stop now,” he commanded.

Rebecca stopped short, unable to resist the command. 

Was he an Alpha?

The other students looked scared, but I was just intrigued. 

Rebecca’s gaggle of girls moved to stand next to her, and one of them started rubbing her arm. Rebecca slapped her hands off and sneered at the man. 

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” she asked.

He chuckled. “I am the professor of this class. So, this is me minding my own business.” 

He looked around at the small crowd that had gathered. Rebecca’s pale face got red and she started stammering. The girls behind her looked especially scared of the repercussions. 

Oh, my Goddess, I thought. I kissed my professor?! 

Now it made sense, why he knew his way around so well, and why he didn’t seem the same as any of the students. He wasn’t a student. He was faculty. 

My mouth fell open, and I was sure both Rebecca and I looked like idiots. It was my first day and I had already caused a scene. Not only that, but I had kissed my professor. 

What if someone found out? I shuddered at the thought. My cheeks became red as well. 

“I… uh, I–” Rebecca started, trying to explain.

He just put a hand up to stop her. “Let me lay down some ground rules for class.” He addressed the whole class as he spoke. “What I say goes. If I say jump, you say how high. Anyone who disobeys an order will be punished.” 

He looked very pointedly at Rebecca. 

“I don’t care who you are, or how important your family is. You will be punished.” 

That would be a first for Rebecca, I thought. Nobody back home ever told her no. They were too afraid of her father.

“We will be learning battle skills,” the professor continued. “But if you seriously hurt or, Goddess forbid, kill anyone in the process, you will know my wrath.” His voice was dark and menacing, but it didn’t frighten me.

He eyed me up. His gaze felt like he could read my mind. He winked at me slyly. 

Holy shit, I thought. I couldn’t believe I’d kissed my professor. That has to be against some sort of Academy rule. 

“Now, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Atlas,” he said. 

Then I felt my cheeks turn hotter, realizing that I had kissed a man without even knowing his name. All I knew was I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. 

What kind of girl does that? I asked myself silently. He had to think I was crazy. On top of that, he wasn’t even that phased by being kissed out of nowhere. What kind of guy was just used to random girls kissing them? 

Despite all the reasons against it, my body still wanted to close the distance between us. I wanted to be close to this man, but I fought the urge.

It wasn’t easy. 

I decided he looked more handsome like this. The way he was commanding the class and laying down the law was incredibly attractive. Maybe that was why he had such a command over me, I thought.

His voice made my skin tingle when he asked, “And you are?” 

That amused glint was still in his eyes.  Oh Goddess, I thought, why had I given him a fake name? I had really thought I’d never see him again. It was a big campus. What were the odds that he was my professor?

“My name is Aria,” I answered back quietly.