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“There she goes. She gets it now,” Seth said with a smirk.

Mera frowned. “To her credit, she has been malnourished. She likely has brain fog.”

Blaire jerked her gaze over to find Lukas staring at her intensely, draining his blood packet. She swallowed hard as he finished, slowly licking the blood from his lips as her heart kicked into overdrive, her breath hitching. There was that feeling again. That deep desire to have him consume her entirely.

“Oh boy…” Riley muttered, looking down. “He’s not the only one hungry.”

Mera chuckled at Riley and shook her head. “Oh, come on, I think it’s a beautiful thing to watch a pair begin to truly connect.”

“If this is what having a Korrena is like, then I’m not sure if I want one after all. They’re giving me major heartburn from the stress.” Riley laughed.

Seth muttered, “This is what I’ve been saying all along. Not having control over yourself all because of some biological pull is like being a damn slave. It’s not real.”

Lukas glanced over as Seth motioned toward him and Blaire.

“They are a prime example of a situation where only the biological connection is at play. They wouldn’t even be friends if Blaire wasn’t his Korrena.”

Blaire quietly ate her noodles as she listened to Seth pick apart whatever was happening between them. She didn’t know what to say, because she didn’t understand it either. Yes, she had been attracted to Lukas from the start, but his personality bothered her then. She wouldn’t have given him a chance in hell. They wouldn’t have been friends. But it was different now. It had been for a while. Was it only the bond’s pull that made her want him and receptive to the things growing between them, or was it because he had changed, and she was learning more about him? Seth’s assessment made her more confused than ever.

“Blaire wouldn’t even be at the school, so we would never know, so it’s basically a moot point,” Kai said, giving his little brother a look.

“No, if they didn’t have that weird connection, then they wouldn’t even want to be with each other. It’s disgusting that our kind is forced into being with someone, especially if we don’t want them.”

“I don’t think that’s true at all.” Aiden sighed as he looked over at Blaire. “You haven’t been around enough to know everything that’s been going on with them, and I’m convinced there’s more to it than just the biological aspect they were born with.”

Lukas glared at Seth, and Blaire stiffened in her seat, dropping her fork as she stared at the table. Lukas swung his gaze back to her in concern.

“Blaire?” Mera spoke softly. “Are you alright?”

Blaire glanced over at Lukas with a pained expression, then back down to her plate. Seth was wrong. Hearing Seth say she didn’t want Lukas burrowed deep inside her and made her sick. She wanted Lukas. She had never desired anything more. She did nothing but think of him, but she was only confused now about the true motivation behind it. Was it this mystical bond, or were her feelings real? Could the bond make her want to be with him against her will? She needed to know for sure what she felt was real and not hormones.

Blaire looked at Mera. “Can the bond force me to want to be with Lukas?”

“The bond doesn’t hypnotize or compel you,” Kai answered instead, after swallowing a bite of chicken. “The bond stirs a pull toward your pair to get your attention, but everything you feel beyond that is organic. The bond allows you to feel these things stronger than you normally would, but that is all. At least from my experience.”

Seth threw his hands up in obvious frustration and exasperation. “Then why the hell have they been acting like they hate each other and want to get away from one another all the time?”

“I believe there is a lot of confusion surrounding this pairing because Blaire’s human.” Mera addressed Seth calmly, meeting his chaos with her mellow energy. “I believe Lukas was resistant at first because of how it’s unfamiliar and not well understood, thinking perhaps it might have been a mistake.”

Lukas clenched his jaw but said nothing, which was as much of a confirmation as anything.

Kai sighed and motioned toward Lukas. “It’s clear he doesn’t think that now.” He looked at Lukas with a single arched brow in question.

“No, no I don’t,” Lukas said quietly before glancing over at Blaire.

Her breath caught. She continued to stare at him as his green eyes bored into hers with so much conviction her heart raced in response.

“Well fuck,” Seth said as he stared at them.

Riley punched him in the arm. “If you were around more, you’d see the way they look at each other more often. There’s no way you can miss how much they want one another.”

Blaire quickly looked down at her tray, her face heating as she avoided Lukas’s eyes.

Lukas sat up and reached toward her. “Do you really want—”

Feedback over the PA interrupted him before a woman’s voice summoning Blaire to the student affairs office echoed in the cafeteria.

He dropped back into his seat and ran a hand through his hair, a look of disappointment crossing his face.