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“Aiden?”

He flinched, snapping his gaze to hers.

“Aiden, what’s wrong?”

“I’ve had too much to drink,” he muttered, his voice a rasp. “I’m sorry. I’m…” He looked all around the room, avoiding her eyes. “Can I go shower? It might help.”

“Yeah,” she said, feeling awkward. “Sure. You know where the bathroom is. I’ll get you a blanket and pillow so you can rest after.”

“Cool. Yeah.”

He didn’t sound like himself. That wasn’t the way he spoke. But he didn’t give her the chance to ask questions. He turned away and stormed out of the room, slamming the bathroom door behind him.

22

RECOGNITION

Aiden’s hands trembled as he squirted shampoo into his palm. He felt out of control. The question of whether he should stay with Charlotte, even though her stalker had come to town, lingered in his mind. Maybe he should call Riley after all.

When they returned to Rosebrook Valley, he distanced himself from Charlotte to get his emotions in check. After they slept together, they needed physical distance. He couldn’t have her; couldn’t keep her. Distance was the only way he knew to prevent devastation in the long run.

His nails scrubbed at his scalp; soapy water ran down his spine.

The problem came when not touching wasn’t enough. Being in her presence, laughing… breathing the same air… it was too much.

It took everything in him not to take her every single night after the first time. An entire week of sheer torture.

He’d acted like an outright jerk the day he dropped her off at home, but he needed to get away. Needed distance before he did something stupid.

The problem came when putting greater distance between them did nothing to quell his need to be with her. In fact, he felt off-balance and out of sorts. Sleep eluded him, and the drive all over with no actual destination didn’t ease the ache. The farther he drove away from Rosebrook Valley, the worse the pain in his chest became.

Now that Charlotte’s stalker made his presence known again, he needed to protect her, but at what cost?

Rinsing the shampoo from his hair, he closed his eyes.

He shouldn’t have kissed her again.

Alcohol wasn’t the problem. With his preternatural healing, his body metabolized alcohol faster than a human’s. Short of shotgunning beers, it took a lot to become inebriated. No, alcohol wasn’t the problem. The problem was his growing need for her.

Why did he feel like this?

He understood his attraction to her. Their emotional bond sparked his interest, and paired with her beauty, it made sense his feelings grew into desire. But to feel like his world was crumbling and that cutting off a limb was preferable to being away from her? That wasn’t normal.

He’d expect this kind of behavior if they were Korrena pairs, but that wasn’t possible. For one, she was human. The Oracle explained the only reason Blaire could be Lukas’s Korrena, while human, was her bloodline. She was the only one of her kind like that. Then there was the fact he’d had sex with Charlotte and tasted her blood. Sure, she hadn’t consumed his blood, but was it necessary?

The textbooks stated that sealing a bond required sharing blood and sexual intercourse. But had anyone tested it? If only one half of a Korrena pairing consumed blood, would it stick?

He shook his head. She’s still human, so it’s impossible.

It had to be the reduced blood intake. It was the only other plausible reason he felt so out of control. The beginning stages of sanguis manie riding him hard, making him want to feed on a live source and act on primal instincts.

When he returned to the academy, he’d planned to return to a normal feeding schedule, but he was so depressed the day he came back, he only took what was essential to function. Then during the entire drive—for sixteen hours—he didn’t consume blood. He didn’t know how many hours had passed since he met up with Charlotte, but he still hadn’t fed.

Now he stood in her shower shaking like a fiend withdrawing from a drug. His throat burned with hunger, and his cock jutted out, aching with the need to follow her smell that permeated the bathroom, made potent by the hot steam.

He thought he knew his limits. Thought he understood how long he could deny his body’s needs. Thought if he surpassed those limits, he could control the hunger, control the monster inside him.

How wrong he was.