Chapter 16 Caulder
My dragon was content for the first time since I’d scented Bechora.
For weeks, I’d been restless, my dragon relentlessly pacing beneath my skin.
The insistent pull toward her was a constant reminder of what I’d nearly lost when I chose not to tell her what she was to me.
A reminder that we had to be careful for both our sakes, because if we were found out, one of us would be forced to leave.
The Academy rules were clear, staff couldn’t claim a student as their mate.
Not without relinquishing their post, or the student choosing to leave the Academy with their magic bound.
I didn’t know what had changed, but something clearly had.
My gaze lingered on her sleeping face longer than it should have, my breath syncing with the soft rise and fall of her chest. I had the urge to run my thumb across her cheek where her lashes fanned out, to press a kiss on the faint crease between her brows, that betrayed the pressure she was under even in her dreams. I forced myself to look away as I pressed her closer to my chest, unable to resist the pull.
Her body fit against me with an ease that made it seem like we’d done this thousands of times.
I leaned my head back against the chair, exhaling slowly as the tension I’d carried all day bled from my muscles.
This wasn’t how I’d imagined the session going.
I’d planned to work with her on using the abilities she’d gained from Zypher and Gabriel.
Expected to fight against every single instinct in order to maintain a professional distance and respect her boundaries.
I’d been completely taken aback when she’d stepped into my space, exhaustion etched into every movement, and without hesitation, she’d curled into me.
Moonlight crept through my office window when a knock sounded at my office door, causing her to stir slightly.
A low growl built in my throat before I could stop it, irritation flaring hot and immediate.
I carefully rose to my feet and placed her in the now-empty seat before moving to the door.
I caught the scent of wolf shifter as I sniffed the air.
I opened the door, unsurprised to find Archer Vale on the other side.
He was the latest male claiming to belong to my mate.
Something I thought would have had my possessive instincts raging.
The fact they weren’t led me to believe he truly did belong to her.
“Have you seen Bechora?” he asked, his brows creased with worry.
I stepped back, pulling the door open further and tilting my head toward where she slept. His expression softened when his eyes landed on her.
“Oh. Good. That’s good,” he mumbled to himself.
“What did you need?” I asked, ushering him inside and shutting the door behind him,
“I was supposed to meet her after she was done with her session with you.” He ran a hand through his hair, already moving further into the room, like he belonged there.
As if there weren’t any boundaries here he needed to respect.
“She wanted my help with something, and I was planning on pampering her a little. What, with the other two slacking on their mately duties.” He spoke like he had no control over the words that spilled from his mouth.
I wasn’t sure if that was just his personality or if it was because he recognized me as part of his pack through Bechora.
“She wasn’t in her dorm like she said, and I got worried. Looks like you wore her out good.”
“There was no ‘wearing her out’ ,” I replied. “She arrived exhausted and needed rest.”
“I know, hence the pampering. Duh,” he said, shooting me a look that seemed to say he thought I was a bit dense.
“The other two have been letting her run herself into the ground, instead of making sure she’s taken care of properly and resting.
I always knew non-shifters had different ideas about what it means to take care of their mate, but I didn’t think they’d be that bad.
” He looked at me and nodded to himself as if confirming some inner thought. “You’re a shifter, you get it.”
“Does this spiel of yours have a point?” I asked, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose. The male was as bad as an excited puppy.
“Jeez, I guess not,” he huffed. “She’s here, so aside from not being sure what she wanted my help with, I’m good. Might want to find somewhere else for her to sleep, though, so she doesn’t wake up with a stiff neck.”
A soft, irritated growl rumbled in my throat before I cut it off. As annoying as the wolf was, he wasn’t wrong. She needed a bed, not my chair, and I wasn’t exactly in a position to carry her to her room without worrying about being seen.
“I’ll wake her, and you can escort her back to her dorm.”
“Nah,” Archer shook his head. “I mean, yes, I’ll take her, but let her sleep.”
A pang of disappointment shot through me as he moved to lift her into his arms. Afraid that I’d snatch her from him, I kept my mouth shut and stepped back as he moved toward the door, staying just close enough to open it for him.
“See to it that you don’t disturb her rest,” I managed as he stepped out of my office, our mate cradled against him.
“Obviously,” he replied, rolling his eyes before he made his way down the hall.
I stood there until he vanished from my line of sight, my dragon pressing against my skin, desperate to be the one to care for her.
Taking several breaths to gather my control, I forced myself to shut the door and move back to my desk.
My attention snagged on a stack of student files Mrs. Fiodh had delivered to me earlier in the day.
I’d promised Zephyr I'd look into it, even though I hadn’t shared his concern that something was amiss.
After giving the male my word, I’d asked Mrs. Fiodh to pull the records for every demon invited to attend the Academy for the current year.
Several hours and a tension headache later, I’d made my way through the bulk of the files.
Not a single one of them was for a student named Vexis.
I needed sleep! There were only a few hours left before I needed to be up and preparing to teach a class of unruly shifters, but something was nagging me about not having encountered the missing student’s name.
I’d been certain that I’d find he’d decided to leave the Academy during or immediately after orientation.
Demons were one of the very few species that didn’t have their magic bound if they chose not to continue their education.
Instead, it was starting to seem the student never existed in the first place.
Or he had, and someone had tampered with the records to remove all trace of him.
There was only one being in the Academy who could have done something like that.
The Dean. Femirea was the only being who could influence the magic that ruled the Academy that way.
While its sentience was mostly treated as a rumor among the students, it did exist. It simply chose who it answered to and which requests it found worthy of attention.
Except when it came to the Dean. I’d never found an answer as to why that was the case, only that it was.
Leaning my elbows on my desk, I rubbed my temples with a groan. Whatever the reason for Vexis seeming to have never existed at the Academy, I wasn’t going to find it tonight.