Page 54 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire

“I can’t.” She gasped the words out. “If I stop, I’m going to cry and...” She laughed and laughed. “The moment I cry, it’s over, Professor. It’scompletely over.”

His blood chilled. “Don’t say that,” he said in a low, harsh whisper.

“But it’s the truth.” She blinked and blinked, keeping the tears away even as she found herself struggling just to continue breathing and not hyperventilating. “I’m your flavor of the month, someone you’ll eventually lose interest—-”

“You aremorethan that—-”

“Then prove it.” Her lips twisted. “But you can’t, can you? Because it’s not...” She stopped speaking when Alessandro suddenly released her, leaving Kassia dazed and confused.

He took another step back. “You’re saying...you need proof that I think of you as a permanent part of my life?”

She had never heard him speak such words, never even thought he would have a reason to say it, and she found herself nodding. “Y-yes.”

“And if I give you this proof, you will stay with me?”

Unease stirred. “Professor, I don’t—-”

His voice turned hard. “Answer me.”

When she nodded, the professor’s face turned grim.

“Then so be it.”

Confusion deepened. “Then so be...what?”

The professor took several steps away from her.

“Professor—-”

A second later, the professor was gone, and Kassia found herself staring at a wolf.

Part IV

Chapter One

Not all Lyccans were born honorable or courageous.

All his life, Rocco had known he was different from the other members of his race. In instances where Lyccans would rise to fight for what they believed in, Rocco would be the first to surrender and even kiss the feet of his enemies. While most Lyccans embraced the opportunity to avenge victims of injustice, Rocco only felt secret relief that he was alive.

Rocco might have a Lyccan’s strength and power, making him inherently capable of killing a dozen men before they could even see him coming, but it was power he wouldn’t ever be using.

He was weak where it counted, and this had never been more evident when he saw his own mother being murdered before his very eyes...and he had done nothing.

Remembering the way she had cried for his help made Rocco shudder even to this day, but he knew that if he had the chance to turn back time, nothing would have changed. He hated what those monsters had done to her, but he hated the thought of suffering a violent death even more.

When Rocco realized it was his turn to die, panic had led him to do the one thing that would guarantee his execution from the Lyccan Council.

He had shifted form in the presence of humans not bound to an oath of loyalty by blood.

They all fired their guns at him as soon as he shifted, and as the shots rang out and bullets pierced his body, Rocco had fainted, not from loss of blood but out of sheer fear of what the Lyccan Council would do once they found out about his foolishness.

When Rocco had woken up, he was on the floor, his wrists and legs manacled. But he hadn’t been alone. A well-dressed couple stood in front of him, and they almost reminded him of vampires, with their murderously cold eyes.

They had offered him a choice then.

Be one of them or die.

Rocco had chosen to live.