Page 30 of Zodiac Hybrids

Maybe it was never about who was first or my purity or other’s expectations, and I just couldn’t handle being rejected by the first person who ever made me feel wanted.

Immature.

“It’s not too late, Lila.” His tone lost some of its bite, and something resembling compassion slipped through. “We can fix this all, here and now. You can transfer to another class, and I’ll stay as far from you as possible. You don’t have to get tangled up with me any further.” He drew a slow line beneath my eye with his thumb. He’d done something similar that night in the cafeteria, and it immediately took me back. I blinked back the first burn of tears until his face came back into focus.

Did I want that?

Why didn’t that sound appealing?

When he was warning me so loud and clear, why would I want to knowingly put myself in danger?

I bit my lip and tried again to turn away, but he forced my chin back in line with his. He shook his head in silent scolding. “Look at me, Lila. I need you to look into my eyes and understand that this isn’t what you want. You deserve a future that you’ll never have if you put yourself in this position, and I don’t want to be the one to take that from you.”

The tears were back, and I blinked again and again until I could see his turquois eyes with clarity. He wasn’t a bad person, even when he tried to be.

Even if he was, I wouldn’t let him ruin everything I’d ever strived for. He thought he would destroy my future if I stayed, but what he didn’t understand was that I would be the one destroying it if I left.

“You won’t.” I said at last. “This program is my dream and always has been. The sciences are the one and only thing I’ve ever been good at, and if I can’t even have that, then what else is there to look forward to? You’re a good teacher. I can tell just by the way you glow when you write equations on the board, and even despite everything, I’ve learned more from you in the last week than I did for the four years I juggled a job and getting my associates. This is all I’ve ever wanted, and I won’t let fear and a weird hookup be the reason I never made it.”

His eyes widened and his grip eased, but… he was listening. So I continued rambling, when I probably should have shut up. “If the risk I’m taking is only one night a month, then I’m not afraid.”

“Really? You think you can’t be killed in only one night?” He raised a brow, but his whole demeanor had softened.

“Even monsters have rules, don’t they?” The corners of my lips lifted, and his brow knitted in response.

“By the devil, you really are going to be a problem.” Adrian drew in a deep breath, then he exhaled out his nose. “I don’t know what else I expected. You’re young, ignorant, and stubborn. I probably would have made a mistake like this too at your age.”

“A mistake like—”

Before I could finish my question, his lips were on mine. Surprise took me aback, but he gripped me with his other hand, stopping my retreat by firmly holding me by the back of my head. His kiss was suffocating, and I yipped into his mouth when he forced my lips apart with his tongue.

I couldn’t figure out how to breathe as he bruised my mouth with dominance. He pulled back only enough to drag his teeth along my sensitive skin, then he filled our kiss with the flavor of my own blood as his sharp incisors penetrated my bottom lip.

I struggled more, pushing back on his shoulders, and trying to free my head from his grip, but he had me completely overpowered. Heat radiated downward through my body, while my muffled cries were lost to our connection.

He bit in harder, and he sucked on the blood coating both our mouths.

Then he pulled back suddenly. His eyes roamed over my face, and I covered my mouth in surprise, soothing the pain in my lip.

“W-what did you do?” I peeked down at my palm to see how much blood was on it. But… there wasn’t any?

“I marked you.” He spoke casually, like it was no big deal at all.

“You… what?”

He smirked, and something about that expression felt far more cruel and devious than I’d even seen from Marcus. “It means you’re going to have to prove you’re as tough as you pretend to be. You belong to me now, Lila, and every full moon, I’ll make sure you regret that decision until you find the sense to reject my mate scar. Until then, I suggest you invest in a good dildo and some comfortable running shoes. I can’t promise I’ll always be as sweet as I was during my birth month.”

“A… a dildo?” I repeated in disbelief. The bite still burned, though it wasn’t bleeding.

“A big one.” He chuckled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He walked out the door, leaving me alone on the desk, still reeling from whatever the fuck just happened. I touched my fingers to the bite on my lip, and I lingered there for several moments.

In a daze, I approached the window, where I could see my reflection in the glass. I stared at the design that looked something like a lowercase ‘n’ with a twisty tail on the end. I recognized it immediately, as it was still drawn on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

The symbol of the Capricorn.

A mate mark.