The One Night Stand Turns Out To Be My Professor

96

96

Ian’s POV

I woke up to the sharp sting of unease prickling at the edges of my mind. The sun had barely risen, casting a faint glow across the room, but something felt wrong. Very wrong.

Without thinking, I threw off the covers and moved swiftly through the halls, my instincts guiding me. My mind raced, replaying the events of last night. Sophia had insisted on sleeping in her own room. She wanted some space to process everything that had happened recently. I’d respected her wishes, giving her the distance she needed, but now… something was pulling me toward her.

“Trust me, if she was dead, you’d know,” Lyanna had once said one night when I was worrying about Sophia. Was it because of the bond I had formed when I marked her? Was it that bond that made me feel like something was wrong?

As I approached her room, the metallic scent of blood hit me like a freight train. My stomach lurched, and I froze, the scent triggering every alarm in my body. My feet moved faster, panic rising in my chest.

“Sophia…” I whispered, pushing open the door. The sight that greeted me stole the breath from my lungs.

Blood. Everywhere.

The room was a mess—furniture overturned, the bed sheets shredded. And in the center of it all was a body, or what was left of one. The vampire’s limbs were twisted at grotesque angles, his neck snapped, his face a frozen mask of terror. His blood pooled around him, thick and dark, staining the floor.

I stood frozen for a moment, taking in the scene, my eyes scanning the scene. Whoever this vampire had been, he wasn’t just here by chance. He had come for Sophia. And she had killed him.

I swallowed hard, my throat tightening with rage. She had defended herself. She had fought for her life. But that meant someone had sent him to take it. Someone had sent him to hurt what was mine. To hurt her. To kill her.

My chest heaved with fury, my vision narrowing. The council. They had been against her from the start. They had never accepted her, and now… now they had gone too far.

I knelt down beside the body, my fingers grazing the cool skin. He was older, not by much, but experienced. Skilled enough to evade detection in my own realm, in my own home. My fists clenched so tightly my knuckles turned white.

Sophia had survived this, but it could have gone differently. This could have been her blood on the floor.

I stood, my muscles coiled with tension, barely keeping my rage contained. My thoughts were a mess, each one darker and scarier than the last. Someone had ordered this. Someone had thought they could take what was mine.

I turned and stormed out of the room, my jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth might crack. This wasn’t just an attack on Sophia. This was a direct challenge to me, to my authority. They had crossed the line.

The council. It had to be them. No one else could confidently plan this.

My vision tunneled as I reached for my phone, punching in the number for the council with trembling fingers. The line rang only once before it was picked up, the familiar voice of Viktor, on the other end.

“Ian,” Viktor greeted, his voice cool and composed. It made my blood boil even more. “What can we do for our king today?”

“Call a meeting. Now,” I growled, barely containing the venom in my voice. “I want every single one of you in the council chamber within the hour. And if anyone’s late, they’ll regret it.”

There was a brief pause, and I could almost hear the amusement in his silence. “Of course, your majesty. Is there a particular issue at hand?”

I didn’t bother answering. I hung up the phone, my heart pounding in my chest. Viktor and the rest of the council had been pushing me, testing me since I returned to the realm. But this… this was a death sentence.