My Teacher, My Mate

10. In the Closet

While I walked to the bathroom during my 3rd period class I caught a scent that made all the hairs on my back stand up.

'Mate is near! Go to mate!' Lana broke through my block.

'No! I have to pee.' I rolled my eyes and quickened my steps until I shut the door behind me without looking back no matter how much Lana begged me to.

I was in a no win situation: either I see him or I stay in here long enough for him to leave and everyone in class to think I am getting sick or have my period. So I waited and listened for him to leave.

Period meant cramps. Cramps meant pain. Pain meant nurse. And that could be my out for today.

I'm a genius! Plus humans can't smell blood the same way werewolves can so I only have convince the nurse. Breathing a sigh of relief, I walked out of the girls bathroom with my plan.

It took less than 2 seconds for it to fall apart.

I felt a large warm hand on my shoulder. He must have walked just enough away to trick me; knowing his scent would linger, he just had to sound like he walked around the corner.

"Are you feeling okay?" f**k. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I didn't plan for Mr. Knight to go full on 'mate mode' at school. Mates are protective, possessive, and usually loyal. Luke is an outlier in that sense.

"Yep." Popping the P extra loud. "Just dandy." It's not like we can talk like mates, we were in the hallway of a public high school. Does he even want to keep his job?

'He can't read your thoughts until we've completed the mating process.'

'Shut it, Lana.' Although she had a point, it would be easier if he could read my thoughts.

He stared at me like I was a hurt pup. Slinking back onto the white wall, sighing loudly, he raised his concern. "Obviously somethings bothering you or you are sick and I can't go teach while I worry about the well-being of my mate." He accentuated the 't' in mate and showed his pearly whites. He had great teeth. Teeth that could nibble on me during -

No. Stop thinking like that. I shook my head.

"No! I don't care if you have pretty teeth. I'm not mating with my teacher." I seethed, and turned to go back class before the bell rang.

'You just complimented our mate' Lana snickered.'

'Urgh get your ish under control girl!'

All of the sudden my body lit up with sparks radiating from the hand that grabbed my upper arm and tugged me into a storage closet. My first thought was that this was something Luke and I used to do. Now I'm in here with my teacher.

"You must be trying to lose your job. I swear!" I whisper-yelled at him in the dark.

He released my arm which gave me a sense of comfort and loss. This mate-bond was going to drive me insane. He was so close that his scent was calming me too much to stay mad. Which made me more angry.

"Are you sick? Hurt? Upset stomach?" I felt his eyes inspecting me. "Come on, Tessa, you have to know how agonizing this is. I want to, no scratch that, I need to know you are alright."

"I'm fine. I took awhile because I..." this was going to hurt his feelings. "Because I was trying to avoid you." I sighed and looked down. I felt waves of sadness coming off of him. His wolf and him felt like I was going to reject them which made Lana upset. I felt a pain in my heart and I knew I couldn't reject him.

He wouldn't even look at me. Lana whimpered. Mr. Knight lowered his head and pulled his hands through his hair which I noticed he did often. I really wanted to touch his hair. Run my hands through it. But I couldn't. It's a stupid human law, but a law nonetheless: teachers cannot fraternize with their students.

"I didn't mean to upset you or make you hide from me. I'm sorry." He broke the silence. I should be the one apologizing.

He reached out to touch me but must have thought better of it because he stuffed his hands into his pockets quickly. "I just feel this need to make sure you're alright." He slumped into himself. I wanted to see his eyes; he was looking anywhere but at me.

"Yeah I'm starting to get that. Kind of annoying this whole mate-bond thing, right?" I saw him nod ever so slightly. "My wolf, Lana, thinks we are playing 7 minutes in heaven. Damn wolves, they are worse than hormonal teenagers. I should know, I am one."

My attempt to lighten the mood was failing. I switched gears and decided to say something that might calm his wolf. "I didn't mean to upset you, Lucian." I tilted my head to meet his eyes, keeping my hands behind my back just so I wouldn't slip up and touch him. I really focused on him, showing his wolf that I cared and respected him.

Finally I felt something akin to a weighted blanket lift. "You used my name. My first name." Lucian beamed. His whole demeanor changing in seconds.

"You are way too giddy about this." I tried to hold back my smile and roll my eyes. "It's not that big of a deal." But it was. I knew that. It was a sign of me submitting to my mate.

"Mm-Hmm. Sure. Not a big deal, huh..." His wicked grin was doing things to me that I couldn't explain. I had already had s*x but I'd never felt this fire of wanting pull in my core making my muscles tighten and urging for release. Those eyes looking into mine felt like I was under a spell; and without thinking I was reaching out to touch his face.

He flinched before my fingers could reach his face, breaking the spell and snapping me back to reality.

"Umm. I'm sorry?" I couldn't keep my eyes off of his lips. But I wasn't. I really wish he hadn't flinched.

"No you aren't." Cocky looked good on him.

"No, I'm not." I laughed. That smirk of his was going to get me into trouble. I had to get out of here or I knew I'd give into the mate bond. "You probably should go teach your next class. Plus you don't want to be found in here with a student."

"You're right." He cleared his throat and I felt like a sense of loss come over me. "I wouldn't want to be caught in here with a student." He paused, "you are the exception to that rule." He winked

"What?! You are crazy. Do you even want your job?" My heart was leaping out of my chest for two reasons. One, my mate wanted to be seen with me. Two, my mate wasn't taking care of himself by saying he was willing to risk his job.

"I just want to show off my mate. She has no idea how happy I am that the Moon Goddess blessed me with her." He tugged his hair back and straightened himself up.

That was cute.

'That was sexy! Our mate wants to be seen with us!'

'Calm down Lana. Please.'

I couldn't block her, she was breaking through. My eyes lit up the darkness.

"Your wolf needs to calm down." His tone made Lana whimper. "And I need to get out of here."

He pulled open the door and shut it behind him without room for me to follow.

'He didn't like me.'

'That's not true Lana, you know it's complicated.'

'His wolf didn't show when I did. Our mates wolf doesn't love me.'

'Lana, come on. Don't be like this.'

Lana went quiet and I truly felt alone.

***

By the time art class came around I was miserable.

Walking in and sitting at my desk next to Mark was interrupted by Mr. Knight stating I had a new seat. Right in front of him. I had to trade my working art desk next to my friend for a broken one with a guy who was using an exact-o knife to carve dirty words into it.

"He is not a fan of us is he?" Mark noted as I picked up my stuff.

"Nope." I turned away from Mark and plopped my stuff down loudly at my new assigned seat.

While everyone started on the assignment, I walked up to Lucian's desk and spoke so quietly I knew only he could hear me.

"Why did you do that? Mark's my friend."

He didn't even glance up but I heard a low growl before he spoke. "He can't have you."

"He doesn't want me. He's my friend and not that it's any of your business, but he's in love with our friend Steph." I crossed my arms and looked around making sure no one was paying attention. "And for your information, only one guy has had me. And it's not Mark. And it's certainly not you."

Lucian's eyes started glowing and his canines were distending. He got up, without looking at me, and left the room.

"He needed to go to the bathroom." I said since most of the class was looking at me wondering why the teacher just stormed out of here. Thankfully no one seemed to notice his wolf showing, although I didn't wasn't thrilled to hear whispers about me flirting with Mr. Knight. Rumors were starting about us which was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

The bell rang and Mr. Knight was nowhere to be found. I actually had to go to math class. Between my least favorite school subject being my last class of the day and Lana's plea to go find our mate, I wanted to cry.

"Oh my, maybe you should go to the nurse. Tessa?" I could hear my teacher speaking but wasn't comprehending anything being said. "Tessa, you're crying. I really think you should go to the nurse or the guidance counselor."

I was handed a slip to leave math class and go to the nurse. Instead I went to my locker before walking home. As soon as I could shift, I would. I didn't bring any homework or books home, just my extra pair of gym clothes so I could shift and not worry about wrecking my clothes.

There were a lot of black trucks in the parking lot but none of them belonged to Mr. Knight which meant I had to go to the sad and smelly unmated apartments to talk to him.

Here goes nothing.