He’d brushed her off.

One minute she’d been standing there, trying not to pass out in the face of all the sexy glory that was a shirtless Lead, and the next she was hearing him say he didn’t intend to protect her any longer and hinting for her to go and leave him alone.

What had changed?

She’d always seen him as calm and caring, and she hadn’t minded when he’d overreacted for her. In a way, she’d liked it. She’d never had a man act protective like that. Her boyfriends in the past had been more into debating politics or doing crosswords than defending her chastity.

So even if it was no longer needed, she felt oddly sad that he no longer wanted to do it.

And apparently, if she didn’t need him like that, he didn’t want her around.

Should she really be surprised? The other dragons had called him a workaholic, the captain of the guard, obsessed with battle. His body showed the marks of someone who’d fought for a lifetime, but it only made him sexier.

She wondered if the others had marks as well.

As she walked up the stairs, she wondered who she should see next. When she reached the main floor, she saw Chromium and Arsenic on the couches in the living room and passed them quietly, not sure she was ready for the kind of intensity both of them offered.

As she passed by the back of the house, she looked through a pair of glass doors that led to the back deck and the yard beyond it.

There was enough grass to make a football field, and she could see Cadmium out there running across it.

He was wearing jeans and a tee shirt, and his blond hair was back in a masculine ponytail. Then again, these guys had enough muscles to make anything look masculine.

She squinted, trying to see what he was doing, and grinned when she realized he was throwing a football and then running across the grass faster than any human could in order to catch it and throw it back to himself.

She opened the door quietly, hoping no one would notice, and walked onto the back deck. It was sturdy, made of solid varnished wood, and covered in comfy beige-cushioned deck furniture.

She took a seat on one of the chairs and waited for him to notice her.

It didn’t take long. The minute he turned to throw in her direction, he stopped and gave her a smile, dropping the ball and running over.

A shiver of excitement went through her as he came close. She liked Cadmium. It was hard not to. He was pleasant, smiley, and (she suspected) flirtatious.

“Well, hello, beautiful,” he said, stopping in front of her, hands in pockets as he gave her a long, toe-to-head appraisal.

She laughed, embarrassed. Definitely flirtatious. “Hello to you, too.”

He sat in a chair next to her. “What are you doing out here? Getting some fresh air? Do you like feet ball?”

“Football?” she asked.

“Uh, sure,” he said. “I mean, the name doesn’t make sense anyway, since you don’t use your feet.”

“That’s a good point,” she said. “I hadn’t thought of that before. Have you been watching it?”

“Not really,” he said. “Chromium has, though, and he was teaching us about it. Lead likes sports, too.”

“That makes sense,” she said, trying to ignore a pang that came at hearing his name.

“Ah, he wasn’t rude to you, was he?” Cadmium asked, scooting a little closer to get a look at her eyes.

She pulled back. “No. Of course not.”

“Good,” Cadmium said. “Because that guy can be a little rough around the edges. He isn’t smooth like me.” He gave her a wink.

“I see.”

“So, feet ball?”

“I just told you it was football,” she said with a laugh, standing up to follow him onto the grass.

He put his hands behind his head. “But I mean, why does it make sense to only use one foot? Why not feet?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. As for playing it, I mean, not a lot, but I used to throw the pigskin with my brothers.”

He wrinkled his perfect nose. “Pigskin?”

“Ah, what footballs used to be made of,” she said.

“Gotcha,” he said, but she didn’t get the feeling he was really listening. She could tell Cadmium was a doer, someone who liked to have fun and do things with people, rather than sit around and talk with them.

Though, talking with him was fun.

He ran to the ball, picked it up, and gestured as if to throw it to her. She put up both hands, letting him know she was ready.

The next thing she knew, she was flat on the ground on her back.

She blinked blearily, trying to figure out what was going on, when she heard someone running over to her. The next second, Cadmium was leaning over her, a hand on either side of her head.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I threw it too hard.”

She rubbed her head, where she could feel a dull ache. She’d been hit there and knocked back, hadn’t she? But it had happened so fast.

How had he put so much force into a ball that was foam?

“I’m so, so sorry,” he said, looking at her pupils. “Are you hurting? I hope I didn’t do any damage. Humans are more fragile than I thought.”

Luckily, the ground was soft, and she didn’t feel too dizzy or anything. She’d just been knocked over onto fortuitously plush grass, too fast for her to even realize it.

“I’m fine,” she said, making as if to get up. He gently put both hands on her shoulders, pressing her back.

“Stay down for a second,” he said. “Let’s just be careful and—”

“You piece of shit,” a voice interrupted from the direction of the house, followed by the thundering vibrations of someone striding toward them. “I knew you were a cad, but I didn’t think you were—”

“Oh my hell, Lead,” Cadmium said, sitting back with hands up. “I was just checking to make sure she was all right. She fell.”

She snorted slightly, knowing “fell” was kind of a misnomer, but wished she could look over her shoulder and see Lead’s face right now.

He’d come for her, so apparently, he wasn’t done protecting her after all.

“Stalking you, more like,” Cadmium muttered. “Sorry, I read your mind. Won’t happen again.”

She shrugged and pushed to a sitting position, only a dull ache in her head. “I’m fine. Really.”

He moved back. “Phew, good.”

She looked over to see Lead standing ten feet away, huge hands clenched into fists, shirtless again, shiny with sweat.

Damn, he was glorious with all that tan skin and dark, wicked hair.

Combine that with a good guy with a hero complex and he was basically her ideal male.

She hoped Cadmium was back to not reading her mind again. If he was, he at least wasn’t saying anything.

“See? She’s fine,” Cadmium called out to Lead, who abruptly turned on his heel with an embarrassed expression and stormed back to the house.

She could see his neck was reddened as he went back inside.

Cadmium’s eyes were a warm, intense brown and they twinkled as he studied her. “So. Lead, then?”

She flushed. “Lead what?” She started to get up but felt slightly dizzy, and Cadmium picked her up easily in his arms. “Wait!” She still wasn’t used to just being hauled around by these guys, even if it was kind of nice to be in their arms.

He carried her to the deck and set her in a chair. “Do you want me to go get you something? A drink of water?”

“No,” she said. “I’m fine.” She relaxed back in the chair, enjoying the warm sunshine as it broke through the clouds. Slowly, the dizziness dissipated, as did any sense of pain.

That was weird.

“Are you feeling any better? My healing powers are mild compared to some dragons, but I still thought they should help.”

“Amazing,” she said. “I didn’t know you could have powers.”

“Oh, we all have powers,” he said, looking incredibly handsome as he lay back on one of the loungers, making it look small compared to his big body. “You don’t even know the start of it.”

“What are they?”

He eyed her sideways. “Well, we don’t really talk about that with anyone but our mates.”

“I see,” she said, slightly disappointed.

“Trust me. It’s not even interesting unless it’s your mate telling you.”

“I don’t even know if I’m going to have a mate. Maybe I’ll just go back to the human world.”

Cadmium raised an eyebrow doubtfully, but didn’t push the subject. Instead, he grinned crookedly. “So… that thing with Lead was hilarious. Did you see that? Half naked, all, ‘I’m gonna kill you, Cadmium, blah, blah, blah.’” He snorted. “As if. Then his face when he realized he was wrong. Amazing. I’ll be laughing about that for days.”

She sighed. “He’s so confusing.”

Cadmium turned onto his side. “How so?”

She didn’t really feel like talking to anyone about her Lead problem right now. “Never mind. Tell me more about you.”

He turned onto his back, staring up at the sky. She could have put a ruler along his nose it was so straight. His brown eyes were thoughtful. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything?”

“I guess… have you talked to Zinc yet?”

“No,” she said. “But I didn’t see him around.”

“You should talk to him,” Cadmium said. “He’s a good man. Better than me.”

“Uh, I see,” she said. “I could tell you really care about him.”

“That’s my job,” he said. “Back on Drakkaris. But yeah, we’ve been friends since we were young. Which, in our years, is a long time.”

“I see,” she said. She wanted to ask more about that, but didn’t want to distract from hearing more about Cadmium himself.

“As for me, I’m just enjoying myself and learning about Earth. I’m a pretty simple guy.”

She got the feeling that was probably true.

“So what about you?” he asked. “You have any family back home? Anyone you have to take care of?”

“Uh. No,” she said.

“That isn’t very common for humans,” he said.

“Well, I was raised by my mom. She died of cancer when I was in my teens, and I lived in group homes after that. I’m used to being alone.”

“That’s too bad,” he said. “Well, you aren’t alone anymore. You have six dragon friends. The best kind.”

She laughed. “I’m not sure some of them want to be my friends.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Well, if you need any help with them, tell me. Peacemaking is my middle name.”

“You all sound really normal, you know?”

“Well, for weeks, we’ve been trapped inside, studying humans, so that makes sense.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Okay. I guess I’ll let you know if I need help.” She sat up and stretched. “Do you want to try catch again?”

His eyes brightened. “Really? You would?”

“Yes, but you have to throw gently. Gently.”

He laughed, running over to the ball and bringing it over to her. “Here, you throw it first, and I’ll try to copy you.”

She took it in her hands, feeling the raised foam where the laces would be. Then she pulled back and threw a perfect spiral, the way she had sometimes with the boys at the group home.

Cadmium easily caught it and gave her a smile. “Okay, I’m going to throw it now.” He held it by his thumb and forefinger and gave it the gentlest of flicks, and it came sailing toward her.

She ran up to catch it in both arms, laughing as she did. It felt good to be out here.

“Nice one!” he yelled. “I do love feet ball.”

She decided not to correct him, because it was kind of endearing, and threw the football back to him. This was exactly what she needed to clear her mind.

Looking at Cadmium, she knew she’d actually made a real friend, and that was progress for sure.

After this, she’d go take a nap, then eat dinner, and then see what the rest of the evening had in store for her in this house full of dragons.