Her Professor Mate Read online

  And he was about to be hers, all hers, forever.

  He leaned close to press a kiss to her forehead and she felt the warm, hard planes of his chest against hers.

  “Are you ready, my love?” he asked.

  She nodded, unable to speak.

  He kept his eyes locked on hers as he guided himself against her.

  It felt incredible. She fought the urge to lift her hips up to him. This felt like a ceremony as much as a mating, she wanted to be respectful. At least for as long as she could bear to be.

  He pressed inside so slowly, filling her. When he was fully seated, he gazed into her eyes a moment longer.

  Love and need flowed between them, bringing tears to Parker’s eyes. This mating had been a long time coming. It had been years.

  She could see it now, the pain he’d been in, during all the time she thought she’d pined for him alone.

  “Are you sad, Parker?” he whispered.

  “No, I’m happy,” she assured him. “So happy.”

  When he began to move inside her she nearly lost control of herself. Her need was a wave, a mountain, a spinning galaxy.

  Mac groaned and his movements grew tense as Parker struggled to stay afloat in the throes of her desire.

  When he leaned down to nuzzle her neck she found herself turning her head to give him access. She was unafraid of his bite - she craved it.

  He slid his hand between them, then sank his teeth into her neck while circling her swollen clitoris with his thumb.

  Parker cried out in pleasure and saw stars as she fell apart completely under his touch the light pain and heavy pleasure too much for her to control herself.

  Mac’s grip on her tightened and she felt him swell inside her and then pulse out his own pleasure as he shouted her name.

  They lay still together for long minutes when it was done.

  Parker relished his weight on her body, pinning her firmly to the bed. Without it, she feared she might have floated away on the wings of her happiness.

  She felt different, warmed inside as if she’d spent her life in a snow storm and he’d brought her in to sit by the fire.

  She closed her eyes, picturing their future. She saw bright sunny days in the village, school picnics, rainy afternoons in Mac’s study and then the sun coming out suddenly, shimmering in the raindrops on the rose bushes outside.

  “Parker,” he murmured. “Are you doing that?”

  She opened her eyes.

  It was faint, but visible, like an afterimage or a dream.

  A shimmering rainbow arched from one of her palms to the other.

  34

  Mac

  Mac stood in his overgrown backyard and thanked his lucky stars Ainsley Connor had been drawn as the alpha of the Tarker’s Hollow pack.

  “Thank you,” he told her. “You don’t have to do this. I resigned. I knew what I was doing.”

  “Are you kidding?” Ainsley asked, raising a brow. “Cressida doesn’t like to be reminded that she’s outranked by anyone. It didn’t take her long to figure out that the beta position requires more enforced humility than any other role in the pack. Or at least that’s what she said. Although that’s not exactly how she said it.”

  Ainsley laughed and Mac nodded.

  Cressida had gotten a taste of his life, and it wasn’t for her.

  Oddly, Mac was relieved. He’d always worried that his occasional resentment meant there was something lacking in his loyalty. But Cressida had picked up on it too, the constant submission of the beta to the alpha, even as he ranked over every other wolf.

  “She’s not wrong,” Mac said mildly. “But I don’t mind it. You’re a good leader. And you do listen. Sometimes.”

  “Sometimes,” Ainsley smiled.

  “Anyway, I’m glad to be back on board,” Mac said. “What’s on the docket?”

  “I think you’re going to have your hands full for a little while,” Ainsley said, glancing at the corner of the yard where Parker was preparing for a magic lesson from Grace and Julian.

  He knew that ever since the portal had opened, a successful mate bond was likely to awaken any latent supernatural abilities in the intended mate. He’d seen it take place a few times already. It just hadn’t occurred to him that it would happen with Parker. He’d thought her magic was all gone.

  He’d been wrong.

  Parker stood, her back to the deck, palms up, coaxing a weak blue ball of energy into existence between her hands.

  “That’s right,” Grace was saying to her. “Feel it.”

  The ball grew brighter.

  “Now,” Grace said.

  Parker released her breath and pushed out her hands.

  The blue ball slowed as it flew toward its target, an old glass Coke bottle perched on a nearby stump.

  It hit the bottle, but bounced off without knocking it over, and then sparked into nothing in the tall grass.

  “Oh,” Parker said, disappointed.

  “Nice work,” Grace’s husband, Julian called down from the porch, where he was grilling hot dogs.

  “You’re doing better than Ainsley was at this stage,” Grace told her.

  “Easy,” Ainsley said. But she was only teasing.

  They were all relaxed today. They were happy. They were together.

  The grassy green scent of their happiness filled the air.

  This was home - this was his pack. Even if three of the five of them wrought magic and couldn’t shift.

  “Take a little break,” Grace told Parker, patting her on the arm. “Ainsley, want to help me get the cider out of the car?”

  “Sure,” Ainsley said.

  “Hang on, I’ll help,” Julian added.

  Suddenly they had all disappeared into the house and Mac stood alone in the rose bushes with Parker.

  “You’re amazing, you know that, right?” he asked her, striding toward her.

  “I don’t know about amazing,” she said, smiling her mysterious smile, her eyes dancing. “But I’m having fun.”

  “You’re always having fun, Parker,” Mac told her. “You’re the most fun thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Thanks,” she said, arching a brow. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  “And you’re also the most serious thing that ever happened to me,” he told her, his voice growing rough. “I love you and I always will.”

  “I love you too, Mac,” she said, looking concerned.

  “Our bond is stronger than anything in this world,” he told her. “Purer than gold, tougher than diamonds.”

  He slid his hand into his pocket and slid out the ring he had chosen.

  “I want you to have this as a symbol,” he told her, kneeling at her feet. “We’ve claimed each other with our bond. But I want to claim you in the human way too. I want you in every way, Parker, I…”

  The words failed him as he gazed up into the eyes of the woman who knew him best of all. The woman who didn’t need him to finish his sentence.

  “Yes,” Parker said, sinking into the grass with him and offering him her hand.

  He slid the ring onto her perfect finger.

  They both looked down at it.

  “It’s so sparkly,” Parker said, sounding surprised.

  “It reminds me of your eyes,” Mac said dreamily.

  “Mr. MacGregor, you are very romantic, did you know that?” Parker asked.

  He grinned at her wolfishly and then went in for a kiss.

  “We leave for one minute and you guys are all over each other,” Ainsley’s voice scolded from the back door.

  “You know you can come inside to do that, right?” Julian teased.

  Parker pulled back from their kiss, rolled her eyes for Mac’s benefit, and then held up her left hand without even turning around.

  “Oh my goooooooooooosh,” Grace squealed, clattering down the porch steps to get a better look.

  “No privacy for us,” Mac whispered to Parker, clasping her hand in his.

  “We’
ll have privacy tonight,” Parker told him. “Right now it’s time to make some memories with our pack.”

  “I couldn’t have said that better myself.” Mac smiled down at her.

  Whatever their differences, Parker Everly got him.

  And lucky for Mac, now he had her too.

  * * *

  Thanks for reading Her Professor Mate!

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  1

  Chapter 1

  Ainsley was having the dream again.

  She had worried that coming home to Tarker’s Hollow would bring it back. Her hands twisted the sheets as she tossed in her old childhood bed. At the same time, she smelled the pine needles crunching underfoot as her dream-self ran through the college woods.

  In the dream she was always a teenager again.

  Brian Swinton, the new boy at school, ran a few steps behind her, laughing.

  Brian had just a few freckles on his cheeks that made you look at his eyes, his big, dreamy, hazel eyes. Once you were done with his eyes, which could be quite a while, you couldn’t help but see how his t-shirt hugged his wide shoulders and his Levi’s hung from his narrow hips. And even though he was a new kid and quiet, he made Ainsley’s heart beat loud, loud, loud.

  After school he would walk her home, and sometimes, Brian would try to pull her toward the woods. And Ainsley, who had always been a good girl, would sometimes let him.

  There, they would kiss under the pine trees until Ainsley was dizzy and heated and pushed him away to run as fast as she could back home. He would call after her, both of them laughing.

  But the dream wasn’t about one of those times. The dream was always about their last visit to the woods.

  In the quiet night of her parents’ empty house, a more grown up Ainsley thrashed in the sheets and tried desperately to wake up. But her traitorous feet carried her deeper into the woods, deeper into the dream.

  As she ran, her own laughter mingled with Brian’s, close behind. At last, she stopped, whirled around, and wrapped her arms around his neck, ready for a sweet, slow kiss.

  Instead, he spun them both around and pressed her back against a tree.

  He’d never done that before.

  Before she could react, he slid his hands gently down her ribcage and let his thumbs brush her nipples.

  Ainsley gasped as she took in the brand new sensations.

  Brian pressed his mouth to hers again and angled his whole lean body against her soft one. She felt his heart pounding in his chest, and the hardened length of him throbbing against her hip.

  Her insides clenched in pleasure and she deliberately pressed her breasts against his chest.

  He inhaled sharply and stilled for a moment, then devoured her mouth again, fists clenched in her hair now, his hips rocking that mysterious stiff bulge against her.

  In that moment Ainsley felt a surge of awareness. Suddenly she could hear every twig snap and every squirrel scamper in the woods. She could smell the wood shavings at the hardware store in the village, and hear the train on the tracks in the city half an hour away, thundering toward Tarker’s Hollow.

  What was happening to her?

  The sensory assault washed over Ainsley in a tidal wave until she felt that her heart could not keep beating.

  Even poor Brian Swinton, excited as he was, must have felt the change in her. He pulled away, panting.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m sorry, I…” Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Listen, we don’t have to make out, Ainsley. I know you have a lot of school work and you’re a nice girl…”

  From her bed, Ainsley wanted nothing more than to agree with him and walk away. But she knew that was useless. The dream would run its course.

  It always did.

  Teenaged Ainsley touched a cautious finger to Brian’s lips, then cupped both hands around his familiar face, letting her thumbs brush over the freckles on the tops of his cheeks, and staring into his hazel eyes. The smell of anxiety wafted off the light sweat on his brow.

  She ran her hands through his sandy hair and he closed his eyes. Her fingers traced the gentle swell of his biceps, and her nails raked slowly down his chest. He leaned into her hands, but she brought them back up to his face.

  “Being with you, like this, it might just be my favorite thing,” Ainsley breathed.

  Before he could respond, she grabbed his lower lip in her teeth and sucked on it gently.

  Something was building inside Ainsley, struggling to break free.

  Brian moaned softly. His hand cupped her breast, then worked its way down. He fumbled with the button of her jeans while they kissed.

  The sounds of the surrounding woods disappeared - Ainsley could hear nothing over the pounding of her own pulse. At last, the button gave way and Brian slipped his fingers into the waistband of her cotton panties.

  There was a blur of movement, and a harsh growl, then everything went black as the air filled with shrill, unnatural shrieks.

  Ainsley Connor finally opened her eyes in the safety of her old bedroom, her throat raw from screaming in her sleep.

  The dream was over, but the feeling of it still draped her like a thick fog.

  Any hope of rest was gone for the night.

  2

  Chapter 2

  Ainsley jumped out of bed, silk pajamas clinging to the cold sweat that covered her. A shiver ran through her at the late summer breeze drifting through the open bedroom window. The familiar trappings of Ainsley’s youth surrounded her.

  Her parents had never taken down her boy band posters, or packed away the shelves of trophies. Just sitting there made her feel like she was in high school again, her parents asleep at the end of the hall. Like she could run to their room, snuggle herself between the two of them and everything would be all right.

  Of course that wasn’t the case.

  Her parents were dead. That’s why she was here, reliving old nightmares in her childhood bedroom.

  Ainsley was a very practical person, but this particular dream, one she’d been having for the last ten years, always left her feeling scared and lonely. And now she really was alone – in Tarker’s Hollow, and anywhere, if she was being honest.

  She decided to head down to the kitchen for tea to soothe her throat. She slipped on a bathrobe and walked down the narrow hall of the creaky old Victorian.

  Her hand instinctively reached for a cell phone in her robe pocket, but came up empty. In New York, she would have found an email from a client or another agent to keep her busy – no matter the hour. But her phone was plugged in downstairs, where she had sworn not to touch it, and she had handed her client list over to a young upstart agent in her firm for the duration of this trip.

  Ainsley knew she needed to focus every waking moment on emptying this house so she could get back to New York. Back to her real life. Back to her clients.

  And out of Tarker’s Hollow before the full moon.

  Boiling water hit the peppermint teabag in her mug with a hiss. Ainsley brought the steaming brew to her face and inhaled.

  It took her back to after school tea parties with her best friend, Grace Kwan-Cortez, in this very kitchen. Ainsley set her mug on the round oak table, where it rested on a ring stain put there by so many previous cups.

  When Ainsley’s parents died in the accident, Grace’s parents had sent her a card. It read as though no time had passed since the day Ainsley left Tarker’s Hollow at age seventeen without looking back.

  In the card, Mrs. Cortez told Ainsley that she loved her and that they would always think of her as their daughter and hoped she would think of them like her parents now. Mrs. Cortez also explained that they had set aside a bedroom for her
. She could come home anytime to stay for as long as she wanted.

  Come home.

  The honesty had shattered Ainsley’s frozen heart and she’d immediately stuffed it in the bottom of her underwear drawer, unable to bring herself to throw it away.

  The Cortez family home and her own had been the settings of so many happy girlhood memories. She could lose herself wallowing in the past if she wasn’t careful.

  That’s why she was practically hiding out in the house.

  If she didn’t bump into any of her old teachers or schoolmates, if she didn’t call Mrs. Cortez, then she couldn’t get sucked in. She could get in and get out – just like she planned.

  That was sort of the name of Ainsley’s game. Since middle school she had been what people might describe as a Type A personality. She liked to ask questions and get things right on the first try. She and Grace had been two peas in a pod.

  Until that night with Brian had ruined her life, and ended his.

  3

  Chapter 3

  She had spent days in her room after Brian’s death. When she was finally able to leave her bed and take a shower without breaking down, her parents had told her it was time to have a talk about growing up.

  She had thought it ludicrous under the circumstances, and pushed them off again and again, until they cornered her in her room two weeks later, as she packed for college. She’d gotten accepted early, and, like it or not, the summer session was about to start.

  It turned out that Ainsley’s family had a very different version of “the talk.”

  “Mom, Dad, you missed the boat. We already talked about the birds and the bees in health class.” Ainsley neatly rolled a skirt in plastic and placed it in the blue suitcase they’d bought for her.

  “I was thinking more about the wolves,” her dad said.

  Ainsley froze, thinking of the growl she’d heard in the woods with Brian right before...