I didn't even mean to ask Callum Lee about lycans and werewolves. The words just seemed to tumble out of my mouth. But now that I had said them out loud, I so desperately wanted his answer, because some things weren't adding up.

Professor Lee stared down at me with wide brown eyes. Instead of telling me that all the fantasies in my head were true, he let out a small chuckle, the deep sound making me warm in all the right places. "Where did you hear that?"

"I... I've just been reading," I whispered.

"Did you finish the Legend of Lycaon?"

"Yes."

"Did you like it?"

"Yes."

"Did you—"

"Why aren't you answering my question?" I asked.

Again, Professor Lee widened his eyes and ran a hand through his scruff. If there was anything I learned in that book, it was that some wolves—especially male wolves, the alpha-type—didn't like to be confronted and didn't like disobedience.

Lee liked neither.

Still, I could barely believe werewolves existed myself. The thought was so outlandish that it was laughable. If werewolves existed, surely the government would've discovered them by now. I didn't think any government would be okay with having supernatural creatures roaming around.

"In Greek mythology, I think people believed in—"

"No," I said, somehow and somewhere finding the courage to talk back to him. "I want to know what you think about them here and now. Not in Greek mythology, in today's time period and in today's world. Do you think they exist?"

Callum stared at me for a few moments, jaw twitching and a sudden flash of gold in his eyes. After stepping away from me, he glanced at his desk. "Why would I believe in something like that, Bria?"

"So, you don't think they're real?" I asked, moving closer.

Part of me wanted him to break. After finishing that mythology book about wolves, I researched online and found a whole slew of dirty, smutty romance books about werewolves, especially alpha wolves, and I might've... touched myself while reading a couple.

A couple silently tense moments passed between us. The heat grew between my legs as I thought back to those books, the violent and vicious nature of a man who grew claws and canines during a full moon, the possessive claiming and marking on another, the pure aggression that every wolf had.

Fuck.

They were all made-up stories, but I couldn't stop thinking about them. Truth was that I kinda wished that Professor Lee would snap and show me his canines, sink them into my neck and take me. That'd be the damn highlight of my entire life.

"No," Professor Lee finally said, but he was lying.

He couldn't look me in the eye anymore.

"So, you don't believe in people who can lengthen their stubby nails into sharp claws?"

"No."

"What about people who can extend their teeth into viciously long canines?"

"No."

"And their eyes?" I said, my voice lower. "It might be easy for someone to hide claws in balled fists or canines behind their lips, but eyes that change to gold..." The more I said, the harder my heart pounded. "Nobody can hide their eyes changing colors."

"Eyes don't change colors, Ms. Benton." Callum placed his hands on the desk, every muscle in his back flexing so hard that I wanted to run my hands all over his taut body. "It's impossible."

But it wasn't.

Professor Lee wasn't the only man whose eyes flashed gold that I'd seen.

Adan had eyes like that, too.

"You should get back to your dorm, Bria," Professor Lee said, grabbing a shirt from his closet and holding open the door for me. After he tugged the shirt over his head, he followed me out of the room and down the hallway. "We have a quiz tomorrow morning. I hope that you studied."

He thought he was good at changing the conversation.

"Yeah," I said, playing along with him. "I did."

"You have to make up your quiz from today too."

"Can I do that in office hours?" I asked, moving closer to him when we stepped out into the chilly fall night. Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm.

Professor Lee chuckled lowly. "I don't have office hours tomorrow."

"You wouldn't open them up for me?"

Hell, I didn't know where all this confidence was coming from, but I liked it. And I couldn't stop flirting with him. Every day that passed, I felt the need to be closer to him, for him to take me, for him to crave me.

Maybe I was just... lonely from all the years I spent by myself back at home.

This was the first real thing I had.

When we approached my dorm building, Professor Lee stared at me with those beautiful brown eyes that seemed to twinkle under the moonlight. "I don't make special requests, Ms. Benton. Not usually."

"But for me?"

He smiled and turned away. "I'll set aside an evening for you, Bria. Anytime."

~~~

When I made it up to the dorm room, I heard two voices inside, so I stopped and pressed my ear to the door.

"Lee is going to kill us," Jasmine whisper-yelled behind our door. "What are we going to do? Where can she have gone off to? She barely leaves the dorm room to go anywhere! Why would she just—"

Suddenly Jasmine stopped, and I backed away from the door.

Fuck.

Had she caught me?

A moment later, the door swung open.

"Bria!" Jasmine scolded when I walked back into my dorm room. When I left, she had been sleeping soundly, but now Levi sat on her bed as she ran over to me, worried. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I was..." I shifted from foot to foot. "... out?"

"You can't go out at two in the morning!" Jasmine said, teeth grinding together. "Something could've happened to you. If you're going to go out, tell me before you leave. I'd come with you."

"I didn't want to wake you."

"Well, don't do that again, please."

Levi hopped off Jasmine's bed and walked over to me, brows drawn together. He took a couple strands of my hair in his hand and sniffed me—freaking sniffed me like a dog would. "You've been out with Professor Lee."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

Levi glanced over his shoulder at Jasmine, and for the second time tonight, they shared a silent look that I couldn't decipher. I pulled my hair away from him and marched over to my bed, kicked off my shoes and wiggled out of my jeans. I was too tired to get scolded by my friends.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!" Levi covered his eyes with his hands. "You can't just strip in front of me. He'll kill me if I—"

Jasmine elbowed him hard in the ribs and jumped onto her bed, looking way more relaxed than she had a couple moments ago. "Were you out with Professor Lee?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I pulled on some sweatpants. "Maybe."

"Girl, details! Now!" Jasmine said, even though it was two in the morning, and we had class bright and early tomorrow in Professor Lee's classics class. I both wanted to spill everything and tell her nothing.

Professor Lee was mine, and I didn't want to share any details about him to anyone else.

Once I dressed in my pajamas, Levi finally pulled his hands away from his face, said something about not wanting to lose his eyes, and jumped on Jasmine's bed with her. "You know what they were probably doing." He winked, causing Jasmine to scrunch her nose.

"Can you not?"

"What?" Levi said.

"Don't be weird."

"How am I being weird?"

"We haven't had sex," I said sharply.

But, damn, did I want to.

Levi's mouth dropped open. "You haven't?"

"No."

He threw his head back and chuckled. "Oh, my goddess. What is he waiting for? If he keeps holding back, he's going to lose control during the Full Moon party." Levi smacked his hands together as if he was happy or excited about something.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "Ugh, why do I keep you around?"

Levi wiggled his brows. "Because you love me, babe."

She shoved him off her bed. "Don't call me that."

"Has, uhm..." I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and laid back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. My chest tightened. "Do you think that he had lost control with other students before? I can't be the only one, right?"

Jasmine and Levi stayed quiet for a couple moments. When I looked over at them, Levi shook his head. "I'm only a second-year student, but... when I took his class last year, he barely spoke to anyone. Nobody really enjoys his class because it's classics. And, I mean, who likes classics?"

"I do."

"Well, of course, you do. You're his—" He paused and glanced over at an angry Jasmine. "... his favorite student."

Jasmine hopped off the bed, placed her hands on Levi's back, and pushed him toward the dorm room door. "Levi has to go now." She marched right out of the door with him and slammed it behind her, as they started bickering back and forth like an old couple outside.

I pulled the blankets over my head, turned onto my side, and pulled out my phone, staring down at the steamy werewolf stories that I had been reading earlier. Callum would lose control during the Full Moon party, huh?

My lips curled into a smile.

Good, because I'd do everything in my power to make that happen.

I wanted to see who the real Callum Lee was.