Page 79 of Balance

At my comment, Miles turned pink and his eyes shifted from mine. On top of that, the others, too, were now looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry,” I reassured them as they fiddled nervously. “I’m not holding my breath.” After all, there were no signs that mine was coming any time soon, which was probably a good thing. The last thing I wanted to deal with was paralyzing pain in the middle of the wilderness.

Boys. So silly over a simple biological function.

The lapse in the conversation grew too profound to ignore, and I glanced up, finding that the men were looking at me in the most disturbing manner.

“Y-yes?” I asked, suddenly uncertain.

“Bianca.” Julian got to his feet and, with an expression as if he’d been the one chosen to carry this heavy burden, knelt before me. He took my food, placing it to the side, and grasped my hands. “When do you get your period?”

My throat closed and it was a good thing he’d taken my food, because I would have choked. It was one thing to discreetly bring up such topics, but I never expected him to askoutright.

Besides, a lady never told—

“It’s been a little over a month since we met,” Julian unashamedly continued. “There was nothing about it in your records at the hospital, and Titus couldn’t smell—”

“Stop.” I slapped my hand over his mouth, unable to meet his eyes. I looked at Titus. “You cansmellthese things?” Why hadn’t I thought of that?

This was possibly one of the top ten worst moments of my life.

Titus shrugged. ‘It’s just a normal part of nature,’ his posture seemed to say, and once, I’d thought so too; thirty seconds in the past, longbeforethis development.

“Wait, are you tracking myperiods?” How incredibly intrusive!

“You mentioned it to Titus before,” Julian interrupted, pulling my attention back to him. “We were curious. But you said you’d lied during your physicals.”

“Why are we talking about menstruation?” I buried my face in my hands—this was all my fault. “Forget it, you can keep your ginger.” I would suffer in agony a thousand years before—

“Are they really that bad?” Julian sounded genuinely curious. “I always wondered.”

Why did I believe him?

“This is so weird,” Miles was saying. “I never thought about it before now, but with Bianca being a girl, we can have an entirely new perspective on female development.”

“It took you that long to realize?” Damen asked.

Oh my God.

“Why do you care?” I lowered my hands to my mouth. “Do guys actually talk about stuff like this? What else do you talk about?”

Why could I picture it so clearly? Five equally regal men—all of whom happened to look exactly like Mu in their elegance—sitting around in a sauna coming up with idiotic theories about women.

The boys were silent for a moment, no one meeting my eyes once again… except for Damen, who was looking directly at my chest.

I squealed, crossing my arms over my boobs, and glared at him. “Don’t you dare ask!” I warned, fighting back the growing heat in my face—it could have been from the fire, which seemed much warmer than the second before, but I doubted it. “For the record, crampshurt,okay? Sometimes it’s so bad it’s hard to walk. Can we drop this please?”

“Wait.” Julian’s emotions had soothed over to wary professionalism. “I don’t think they should be that bad.”

I glared at him—how was he supposed to know?

“For real this time,” Julian continued. “When do you get it?”

Why…

“Just humor me.” Our bond made it impossible for him to mask his concern, and it was that which broke through my embarrassment.

Fine.