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“Yes, but after Miss Wilcox’s placement, I expected you’d seek me out right away.”

Lukas shrugged.

Professor Velastra stepped around the desk, her stilettos tapping lightly against the hardwood floor. Lowering herself into the desk chair, she looked at Lukas expectantly.

“I’m confused,” he finally admitted.

She chuckled, then shook her head when Lukas didn’t elaborate further.

“You have to give me more than that, Lukas.”

He ran a hand through his long hair. “Just… this whole thing with Blaire doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Okay. That’s more information. What exactly about this ‘thing’ has you confused? Are you uncertain of your initial finding? Is she not the one?”

“No!” He sat up quickly and shook his head. “I mean, I thought it was a mistake at first… but now I’m not so sure.”

The professor hummed and sat back in her chair, crossing her legs, and resting her hands on her knee. “What changed? Why did you question it to start with?”

Lukas sighed. “I thought when we found our Korrena it was supposed to be easy. I thought things just… I dunno. Clicked into place and the pairs just knew. Mom and Dad make it look so natural.”

The professor laughed, and then cleared her throat when Lukas shot her a glare. Nothing about this was funny. His life was turned upside down and he was at a loss for what to do. He needed help.

“I apologize. It would seem the curriculum needs to change a bit if that is the general consensus as to what happens.” She gave Lukas a pitying glance. “You should speak to your parents. They have been bonded for a very long time. You don’t see them enough to get the full picture. I’m sure they could help with this as well. I suspect they’d like to know you’ve found your pair.”

Lukas grimaced. The last time he saw his parents was the Christmas before last, when they came to visit. They normally came for that holiday and rarely, on occasions, when their business brought them to the Southeast. Last Christmas, they had been caught up with dealings in Hong Kong and didn’t make it in time. They spoke briefly on the phone then, but he hadn’t bothered calling in the last year. Something about hearing their voices made the distance harder, and it wasn’t like they reached out to him, so why should he be the one to make the effort?

Shaking from his depressing thoughts, he looked at the professor.

“Blaire rejected me anyway.”

“Pardon?”

“I…” He chewed at the corner of his mouth. “I may have tried to kiss her. She stopped me.”

The professor didn’t hide her laugh this time. “I’m not surprised. Miss Wilcox just met you. Why did you think it was a good idea to kiss her?”

“I dunno… I’ve felt the urge since we met. I could have sworn she felt it, too. She looked like she wanted the same. I guess I misread the signs.”

She gave him another pitying look. “It takes more than just attraction for some people to accept an act of physical intimacy. Especially one of this nature. That isn’t a trait exclusive to humans. I certainly wouldn’t have allowed my husband—may the gods rest his soul—to kiss me within a week of discovering our bond. Not everyone is comfortable with acting on lust without emotional intimacy. This is why you need to learn about Miss Wilcox.”

Lukas shifted uncomfortably. He hadn’t been intimate in any way with anyone before. He found it hard to even connect with his friends sometimes, so opening himself enough to allow the kind of connection he’d need to have with a girlfriend had never been something he allowed.

“Establishing boundaries between the two of you would help with this. Despite the biological connection, the bond that pulls from within, you still have to work for your relationship just like any other. The bond only makes it easier to establish a connection. Feelings of intimacy are heightened, and the empathy found in a pairing can make navigating the process simpler. But you don’t magically just know the other person if you’ve never interacted before. And with Miss Wilcox, you need to approach things differently than Vasirian pairs would.”

“What do you mean?”

“Miss Wilcox doesn’t understand our world, Lukas. She isn’t going to be ready to exchange blood and speed the process along when she doesn’t understand what a Korrena is, outside of the basic textbook definition we’ve provided her. She will need to experience the natural growth of the bond between you both, feel its effects, before accepting it. We’ve watched our family and friends bond and grow throughout the years, and you’ve had classes on this since childhood, so it’s only natural we know more than what the textbook teaches.”

Lukas clasped his hands together and looked down at the floor. “Okay… so tell me about her. Give me something to go on, because I feel like I’m losing it.”

Professor Velastra’s lips turned up slightly, and she pulled a folder from the middle of a stack at the side of her desk, opened it, and scanned the pages within. “I can help you, but I can’t give you all the answers. I can give you information to get you started so you have a foundation to strengthen your approach, but you must put in the work yourself to get to know her. You need to learn her organically, not be spoon-fed information like cramming for one of your exams. Your bond will not grow this way.”

Lukas sighed. He knew he had his work cut out for him, but something about Blaire called to him. Maybe it was the bond already, but he felt drawn to her. Not only did he feel the need to protect her, but he needed to know more about her—what made her tick.

The strength he saw in her eyes, despite being thrown into this supernatural world unprepared, warmed him and made him want to try. She’d been through a lot, according to Riley. To face not only the loss of her parents, but also her stepbrother’s assault. To experience Vasirian hypnosis and still look at him not as a monster, but as someone who had the answers she needed—to trust him—made him want to step up and do right by her.

The professor looked up from her paperwork. “Do you know anything about her at all?”