One Night With My Alpha Professor

Audrey

The moon shone through the curtains, pale blue shafts of light pooling across the sheets. Edwin and I lay in a tangled heap, breathless and warm against one another’s bare skin.

With one last sigh, I finally splintered and cracked on my mate. We reached our peak together, the sound of my name on his tongue sending me over the edge one last time.

“Audrey…” he breathed into my ear, his voice low and husky. He shuddered and collapsed on top of me, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he peppered kisses across my collar bone.

But as our breathing slowly returned to normal, I felt a strange… tingling sensation wash over me.’Not an aftershock of my pleasure, but something else.

It was unlike anything I had experienced before-a surge of power that seemed to emanate from my core, spreading through my body like warm honey.

Edwin’s eyes widened as he reached up to touch my hair, his fingers trembling slightly. I gasped, jolting back at the sensation. The odd tremble that went through me indicated that what he was touching wasn’t my hair at all, but something… else.

“What. What is…” I sat up, reaching up to touch where he had, and instantly yanked my hand away when I met something covered in… fur.

“Audrey..” Edwin’s voice was full of awe, reverence, and maybe even a hint of amusement as he pointed at my head. “Your wolf ears are showing.”

“What?!” I exclaimed, quickly extricating myself from him and leaping out of bed. The cool night air hit my bare skin, raising goosebumps as I rushed to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat.

Sure enough, a pair of silver wolf ears were poking out of my hair, twitching slightly as I stared at them in disbelief. They were beautiful-sleek and pointed, with a soft sheen that caught the dim light of the bedroom.

“Is this… is this really happening?” I breathed, reaching up to touch one of the ears. It felt soft and warm and undeniably real beneath my fingertips, and very much like touching my normal ear but with a fine layer of fur and ten times the sensation.

But as quickly as they had appeared, the ears began to fade. Within seconds, they were gone, leaving me staring at my normal reflection once again.

“They’re… gone,” I said, slowly turning to face Edwin again. He was sitting up in bed now, the sheets pooling around his waist and the moonlight almost seeming to glisten across his chiseled musculature. “What does this mean? Am I finally going to shift soon?”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“It’s… possible,” Edwin said thoughtfully, although there was that flicker of something unreadable in his gaze again-the same look I had seen earlier when we talked about it. “Do you feel any different?”

I closed my eyes, reaching out to my wolf in my mind. But to my surprise, I didn’t notice anything significantly different. The familiar presence of my wolf was there, but she seemed just as puzzled as I was.

“Did you feel anything?” I asked her silently.

No,” my wolf replied, sounding just as perplexed as I felt. “I didn’t even realize it was happening. How strange…”

I relayed this information to Edwin, who frowned thoughtfully and stroked his chin. “I guess you still have a ways to go,” he

said, gesturing for me to come back to the bed. I padded over to him, shivering against the cool night air, and let him gather

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me into his arms.

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“But this is definitely progress, Audrey,” he said as he tucked me up against him. “Your powers are growing, even if we don’t fully understand how or why yet.”

I couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh of relief at that.

Maybe this meant that I wouldn’t have to keep up the lie for long. I’d finally be the shifted Silver Star-and Coldclaw, hopefully, would stay away for good.

We settled back into bed after that, Edwin pulling the soft goose down blanket up over us. For a while, we just lay there in comfortable silence, my head resting on his chest as I listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

Finally, Edwin spoke, his voice rumbling in his chest beneath my ear. “So, now that you’ve graduated, what’s next for you?” he asked, the heel of his palm tracing lazy patterns on my bare shoulder. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do now?”

I bit my lip, suddenly feg nervous. This was a conversation I’d been both anticipating and dreading, because I knew where it was headed. “Actually,” I began slowly, making abstract patterns on his chest with my finger, “I have been thinking about it a lot lately.”

Edwin propped himself up on one elbow. “You know, you could always come work at Brooks Designs with me. Be my partner. We could make some amazing collections together.”

I felt a pang of guilt twist in my stomach at his words, especially when I saw the spark of hope in his eyes. Because the truth was, that wasn’t what I really wanted at all-not right now, at least. The idea of working at Brooks Designs was tempting, especially knowing that my mate being the CEO would secure me a position for life, but…

Maybe that was precisely why I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to make my own way, not lean on Edwin to get by in life. Even from the beginning, that was all I ever wanted.

“Edwin,” I said slowly, sitting up in bed and clutching the sheets to my bare chest, “I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do.”

My mate c***ed his head at me. “You must have some idea, then,” he said.

I took another deep breath, then let the words tumble out in a rush. “I think I might want to start my own clothing boutique, Something small, something that I can build from the ground up. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and… it just feels right.”

I held my breath, watching Edwin’s face carefully for any sign of disappointment or anger. But to my relief, his expression softened into a smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners in that way I loved so much.

“Audrey,” he said, taking my hand in his and bringing it to his lips for a soft kiss on each knuckle, “that sounds amazing. I think you would be brilliant at running your own boutique.”

I blinked, caught off guard by his enthusiasm. “You… you’re not offended that I don’t want to work with you?”

Edwin chuckled, shaking his head. “Of course not. Why would I be offended?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, feg a bit foolish. “I guess I was worried you would think I was rejecting you or something. That I didn’t appreciate your help or that I didn’t want to spend the extra time with you.”

“Never,” Edwin said firmly, gripping my chin in one hand and forcing me to look at him. “Audrey, I want you to be happy and fulfilled in your career. If starting your own boutique is what you want to do, then I support you one hundred percent.”

I felt a wave of relief wash over me, so powerful it almost brought tears to my eyes. “Really?” I asked, my voice hardly more than a whisper.

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“Really.” He leaned in, and my lips parted instinctively to taste him, to feel the tip of his tongue against mine. When we pulled back, his eyes were flashing golden, and the faintest smile was touching his lips.

“Besides,” he murmured, “a star lights its own way, after all.”

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