1.
“Professor Desmond?”
There was silence; only the scribbling of the pen as the professor continued grading papers in his office, pointedly tuning out the distraction buzzing around the door of his office.
“Kane!”
“What do you want, Max? I’m busy!” Kane exclaimed, his voice a low growl. If he was going to get home in time to make dinner for his daughter, who would be home soon after her last math course of the day, he would have to finish soon. Time was of the essence.
“Took you long enough to acknowledge me!”
It took all Kane had to keep his wolf at bay as Max stepped into his office. He had never liked the man. Max was the kind of guy who reeked of corruption and greed, and had the face of a man who had no regard for anyone but himself.
“Tell me what you need and leave,” Kane said darkly. “I’ve got plans tonight and I need to get this done.”
“Sounds like you’re pressed for time,” Max said with a smug grin on his face. “You know, I’m teaching a seminar on time management. It’s geared toward the first-year students but you should really attend. It’s quite insightful.”
Kane’s hackles rose. What kind of an egotistical jerk was he?
“Get to the point, Max,” Kane growled.
“I just came to inform you that there’s an emergency board meeting being called tomorrow at 5 pm sharp. Be there, you won’t want to miss it.”
Something about the look in Max’s eye sent a chill down Kane’s spine. He was up to something. That much was certain. And he had come to all but gloat about it.
“All right, Max. Thanks for the update,” Kane said with a heavy sigh. He would have to attend now, and see what this was all about. But right now, he had other matters to attend to. Matters like dinner.
“Of course,” Max said. “My goal is to keep others informed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be a professor, now, would I?”
Kane glowered down at the papers he was grading on his desk. If Max actually wanted to be a good professor, maybe he should spend more time on teaching his students instead of trying to brag and put down other people.
“Well, thanks for dropping by,” Kane said, looking meaningfully at his door. Finally, Max seemed to get the message. That or he had just been waiting for Kane to find a reason to thank him, because a shit-eating grin spread across his face.
“Just doing my duty for the council,” Max said, his eyes glittering with malice. Kane watched Max leave, suddenly suspicious. Something was going on, and it wasn’t going to be good.
***
“About time, dad!” Courtney exclaimed, bounding to the doorway and flashing a bright smile up at Kane. “Where have you been?”
Kane smiled sheepishly and pulled the pizza box from behind his back. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
“All right!” Courtney cried, grabbing the pizza and running into the kitchen. “Oh, by the way, Lia’s here today. We have to study tonight for the math lab.”
Kane tensed up. Lia was Courtney’s best friend. They had met in his class on shifter history and hit it off immediately. That would have been great, except for two things. First, Lia was a human, and it was often difficult for humans and shifters to maintain amicable relationships, friendship or otherwise.
The other problem was that Kane had already had Lia in a previous class the year before, and had noticed how much she stood out from the rest of the humans who had attended university in Stonybrooke. She was bright, intelligent, and, most of all, absolutely stunning. But she didn’t seem to realize it at all, and he had found himself looking forward to reading her papers and seeing her walk into class…to the point where he found it somewhat unnerving. She was just a kid, but his attraction to her was anything but childish.
Still, he had managed to call the wolf off and instead, act as a responsible adult and mentor. But the more Courtney brought her around, the guiltier he felt about his brief struggle with resisting his attraction to Lia. The girl was his daughter’s age, for fuck’s sake. He couldn’t just act like that wasn’t creepy of him. Besides that, he knew that if his wife Ava were still alive, she would be sorely hurt by his interest in the girl. And so he had shoved those feelings deep into a box and locked them away, burying the key.
“Mr. Desmond, hi!”
Lia’s gentle voice brought a pang to his heart. He hadn’t wanted to let himself feel anything for anyone since Ava had died in the shifter wars, but especially not for some little girl in one of his classes. She saw him as a teacher, as an authority. It wasn’t right.
“Good evening, Lia,” Kane said as genially as he could muster, which wasn’t very. It was strange seeing students outside of class in general, let alone in his home. But Lia’s face had been popping up more and more, challenging him to face his own demons right in her presence. It was unnerving, he had to admit, and he’d just as soon stay at the school as opposed to coming home to a surprise like this.
It was especially difficult because, at the university, he had to keep an air of professionalism at all times. It wasn’t proper for him to let his personality slip too much. Sure, all of his students knew he was the kind of guy who didn’t let any shit fly past him. He was no-nonsense, a strict grader, and an all-around hard ass, but it wasn’t like at home where he could just tear off his button-up shirt and lounge around in jeans for the rest of the night, swearing whenever he felt like it and taking calls from the many women around town who were hopelessly in love with him.
He had been hounded by their advances for ages now, ever since the year after he’d lost his wife and the town seemed to all come to the conclusion that it was time for Kane to move on. It was a conclusion he hadn’t been included in, but the women came looking for him anyway, leaving him feeling both bombarded and flattered.
“Dad, I know you just got off work, but do you think that, after dinner, you could help us study for this thing? Lia is really struggling.”
“Is that right?” Kane asked, turning a sharp eye onto Lia. She looked down at the counter without meeting his eyes, a deep blush creeping across her soft, porcelain cheeks.
“I have a hard time with numbers,” she admitted quietly, studying the paper in front of her.
Did he intimidate her or something?
“All right,” he said begrudgingly. “We’ll go over it once I’ve had a chance to unwind a bit. Sound good?”
“Thanks dad,” Courtney said cheerfully, grabbing a slice of pizza and sitting down at the kitchen island beside Lia. “We appreciate it.”
Kane said nothing, taking a slice himself and grabbing a beer from the fridge. He would help them, sure, but for now, he would like to just sit in peace in his living room for a few moments. He was late to catch the news, thanks to Max and his wait on the pizza, but it would give him some space to collect himself before facing his daughter and her beautiful friend.