Lead had never felt more stupid.

Not only had he just told Brittany he wasn’t needed to protect her and then almost immediately stalked her to make sure she was okay, but he had verbally attacked Cadmium over absolutely nothing.

That was just not like him.

He decided his workout was over (and not helping anyway) and took a quick shower in his room before heading upstairs.

Chromium and Arsenic were sitting on the couch, flipping through channels, and Lead took a seat on the couch to the side of them.

“What’s wrong?” Arsenic asked. “You don’t look so good.”

It was a good thing they hadn’t seen him embarrass himself going outside to yell at Cadmium over a complete misunderstanding.

He’d still hovered for a minute to make sure she was feeling fine, much to his chagrin.

He knew Cadmium was a good dragon. An honorable man. So why did he not trust anyone but himself when it came to Brittany? Oh hell, he didn’t even trust himself.

He sort of wished he had someone to talk to that wasn’t part of this situation, but his only friends were in the house with him, and after he’d told them all to not bother Brittany, he could only imagine how they’d look at him if he said he was developing feelings.

“Want to play Wii?” Chromium asked.

The Wii was a small, odd-looking system whereby one waved odd, stick-like controllers at the TV screen to make things happen. Not Lead’s favorite thing, but he’d take any distraction at this moment.

They were playing a game he hated, where they had to perform frustrating tasks in a short timeframe, when he saw Cadmium and Brittany come in from the corner of his eye.

He tried to ignore it as Chromium handed him the controller for his turn. She was fine with Cadmium. It wasn’t his business. He’d already humiliated himself twice today. He didn’t need to do it another time.

He was shaking his hand in frustration, trying to make the controller do what he wanted, when he heard a feminine tinkle of laughter.

She was laughing. At something Cadmium said.

The dragon in him let out a roar as he felt the controller fling out of his grasp and slam into the TV, shattering it with a loud crash.

He looked guiltily at the dragons around him as Chromium quietly got up and left the room.

He sat on the couch with a huff, keenly aware of stares all around.

He was sure Brittany and Cadmium were watching, and Arsenic walked over to him and gave him an appraising glare.

Lead kept his gaze focused solely on the broken screen of the TV. He wasn’t about to look at Arsenic and let him see that his dragon was practically running wild inside him.

“Are you all right, brother?” Arsenic asked, his voice low and serious.

Lead ignored him.

Just then, Chromium emerged from the hallway, holding a large box that contained another TV.

“What’s that now, our eighth?” Cadmium interjected jovially. “First one Lead has broken, I think.”

“I guess dragons and Wii don’t go together well.” That was Brittany, sounding teasing and light.

He ached to look up and see her, but didn’t trust himself yet.

“Hey, why don’t we all play something with normal controllers?” Cadmium asked. “Might be less intense.”

“I heard you had Mortal Kombat,” Brittany said. “I played that as a kid. I bet I could give you a run for your money.”

“What money?” Chromium asked.

“Oh, it’s just a saying,” she said, and Lead finally looked over to see she was smiling.

He was just glad that no one was making a big deal of his TV-breaking incident, and as Chromium got the new TV set up, the energy in the room seemed to lighten and return to normal.

“Why don’t you sit there by Lead, Brittany?” Cadmium said, and Lead narrowed his eyes at him. “You two can be on a team.”

She looked at him hesitantly, and he nodded and patted the seat next to him.

Hopefully, he was chagrined enough that he could bear her closeness.

Wrong. When she sat down next to him, his entire body felt on fire with awareness. He wanted to scoot over, to feel her against him. To pull her in and…

“Okay, teams picked. Let’s go,” Cadmium said. “Arsenic and I are going to kick your butts.”

Brittany laughed, looking so cute with the controller in her small hands. Lead was pleased to see she looked much more relaxed despite being surrounded by dragons. “This is something I never thought I’d be doing with a bunch of dragon shifters.”

Arsenic smirked. “Well, this bunch of dragon shifters is bored. And besides, if we get our bloodlust out this way, we don’t have to leave the house.”

“Bloodlust?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” he said darkly.

“Sorry,” Lead said. “They take this a bit too seriously around here.”

She just laughed, giving him an appreciative smile. “We’ll just have to take it seriously, too. Right, teammate?” She held out a tiny fist, and he knew from human TV what she wanted him to do.

He raised his own fist and gave her a tiny bump, trying to ignore the frisson of pleasure that went through him in even such a small touch. “Right.”

As he watched Cadmium and Arsenic face off with Cobalt and Chromium, he mentally prepared for his match. No matter what, he wasn’t going to let them lay a hand on her character.

At least in game, he could be as overprotective as he wanted.

He would have to be satisfied with just that.

* * *

As Brittany headed up to bed at the end of the night, she decided she was done trying to figure out Lead’s mixed messages.

Sometimes he could be so thoughtful and protective, like when they’d played video games and he’d insisted on taking every hit for her character, dramatically dying over and over when she could have at least helped.

They still won because he was good enough at tactics to come back and killed more than he died, but it was still a funny thing to watch from a man who kept claiming she didn’t need him.

Just like he kept showing up when she was with other dragons or interjecting.

Then there were moments like dinner, where he’d sat in silence, letting the others direct the conversation and avoiding her gaze. Yet whenever she wasn’t looking, it felt as though she could sense his eyes on her, watching carefully. But maybe she was just imagining things.

Maybe she should just stop trying to push something that wasn’t there.

Except it was so hard to forget how affected she was by his huge, muscular body as he sat by her on the couch while they played or the sight of him shirtless in the gym, sweaty and huge and powerful, with that stubborn look on his handsome face.

Calm down, Brittany. Calm down.

Brittany pulled off her tunic and leggings, swapping them for comfortable pajamas that were warm and cozy. Then she brushed her teeth and pulled her hair up into a bun, wanting to prevent the humidity from making everything frizzier than it already was.

Tonight, she hadn’t asked him to be in her room. She was pretty sure she knew what his answer would be anyway.

But now, in her room without him, everything felt a little emptier, a little more foreign and scary.

She’d thought she was adjusting to the mansion, but now that she was alone in her room, it felt a little too much like her cell.

She thought about going and finding Lead but realized with his hot-and-cold behavior, it was probably better to leave him be. More time with him would only make it harder to not get her hopes up.

Besides, she should be recovering from being kidnapped, not crushing on a sexy man who didn’t seem to want anything to do with her.

She plopped in bed, pulling out an e-reader that she’d found stashed in the nightstand earlier, and turned it on, hoping to read a bit before sleeping. But before she could even browse the books already downloaded onto it, she heard an odd crackling from somewhere inside the room. Like the sound from one of those electricity machines found in science labs.

She perked her head toward the direction it was coming from. Maybe it was just a circuit shorting somewhere?

But as she turned to the wall on her left, she saw something that defied explanation. The wall began to gradually disappear. And in its place, a shimmery, clear substance materialized in front of it in the shape of a giant doorway, the edges of it gleaming in a dark, opaque purple.

She sat up a little higher in her bed, shaking her head and wondering if maybe Cadmium’s throw had hit her a little harder than expected, when something peeked its head through.

The sight of it instantly sent frozen chills down Brittany’s spine. It was lizard like, with glowing red eyes and long, sharp fangs protruding from its head, which was attached to a long neck. It walked into the room, and she saw it had two legs and wings for arms, huge and leathery, in a grayish-brown.

Then the thing’s face jerked to the side, locking eyes with her, and Brittany’s entire body clenched, fear locking her in place, unable to scream of call for help.

This is just a bad dream. This is just a bad dream. Wake up, Brittany. Wake up! she desperately told herself, hoping to snap out of it.

The creature hissed, and as it came close, she saw just how large it was, at least six or seven feet high, as it towered over her at the side of her bed.

And then another came in through the doorway where the wall had once been, and then another, filling the room, surrounding her entirely.

Finally, Brittany’s lungs kicked in, and she shrieked loudly, covering herself with the blankets and hiding.

She heard another hiss, even more distinct this time, and then felt giant claws wrapping around her. Before she could even move, she was pulled off the bed, blanket and all, and dragged onto the ground.

When she looked up, there were three pairs of glowing red eyes, all locked on her, and she tried to scramble for the bathroom. But the creature grabbed her by one of her legs, yanking her backward in the direction of the purple, glowing doorway.

Whatever was going on, these creatures were trying to take her back to wherever it was they’d come from.

Not even a second later, she heard a thunderous crash, and Brittany looked over her shoulder to see Lead standing in the doorway, huge metallic sword in his hand, his bright-yellow eyes burning with rage.