7. Jade

7

Jade

After a sleepless night in which Alaric plagued my thoughts, I arrived to the beach the next morning in an already-fatigued state. Unfortunately, what I saw when I got there only tired me out further.

"What are those?" I asked my gaggle of brothers, pointing at the rows of picnic benches in the sand.

Aurum replied first. "Benches. Duh."

Thank Holy Drake he wasn't the only brother involved with the Games. As the rest of them flitted around me, Cobalt gave a real answer.

"The contestants will sit there during the challenge," he explained.

"I surmised that much," I said, clinging to my rapidly dwindling patience. "But what exactly is the challenge?"

"C'mon, man. Don't you want it to be a surprise?" Aurum asked.

"Not particularly."

"Well, tough shit. You put us all through the same thing, so deal with it," Aurum shot back.

He had a point. It was my turn to get a taste of my own medicine.

Thystle grunted as he hauled a large cardboard box in his arms. The contents must've been heavy, since he strained with effort. "Why's everyone standing around like useless lumps? Can I get some fucking help with this?" he snapped.

Crimson, one of the accused useless lumps, sighed and strode to Thystle's side. "Don't be so dramatic, Thystle. It can't be that—oh, fucking Dolce & Gabbana ."

Thystle looked smugly validated as Crimson groaned from exertion while carrying the box to the benches.

"Care to explain?" I asked Cobalt.

"They're full of books."

An icy shiver ran through me. "Not from my library, I assume?" I said in a warning tone.

"No. Don't worry," Cobalt eased.

The tension in my shoulders vanished. My fellow dragons understood our innate territorial nature over our hoards, but it never hurt to be cautious, especially with my disorganized brothers involved. Namely, Aurum and Saffron, who'd ‘borrowed' BDSM literature from my library before. I hadn't forgotten about that incident—and after their punishment, I assumed they hadn't either.

"This book was chosen specifically for the challenge," Cobalt went on. With a small smile, he added, "I hope you like it."

"I hope so, too," I admitted.

The Dragonfate Games felt all too real when Gaius joined the fray. His shirt today was a retina-searing shade of neon green. Despite the horrendous color, I commended his efforts to coordinate with the bachelors. At least his foul Hawaiian shirt made my forest green suit and hair look fabulous by comparison.

"Good morning, dragons!" he greeted, joining us with a jaunty stride. "I hear Jade's the lucky alpha this time around."

"Indeed. Just my luck," I said.

Gaius was either oblivious, or flat out ignored the hint of sarcasm in my voice. "We're going to have a blast, my friend. We'll find you a nice omega faster than you can say mate !"

As he said the word ‘mate', a particular white-haired figure popped into my mind's eye, then disappeared like a wisp of smoke.

I let it go without chasing it. As usual, I made a calculated effort not to get my hopes up.

"Let's hope that's the case," I agreed with a thin smile.

"Here they come now!" Gaius announced, grinning at the imminent throng of contestants.

My chest tightened as I scanned the group. It was easy to spot my target. There were only two white-haired omegas in the group, and one of them made my heart sing. Why did it feel so good just to see him?

As Gaius launched into his host spiel, I stood off to the side like a trophy to be won. Honestly, I didn't enjoy the spotlight. I never liked being the center of attention. Growing up, I preferred to sequester myself in my library for hours on end, content with my books and my solitude.

Now I stood in the blasting rays of the midday sun, being stared at by dozens of strangers competing for the chance to win my affections. I felt more like a cheap carnival prize than a confident bachelor.

As my inner walls went up and my apathetic gaze travelled over the rest of the omegas, I locked onto the safe feeling of comfort that I sought—a mismatched pair of blue and green eyes.

Relief washed over me. Alaric's gaze felt like home.

My throat tightened with emotion. Where did that come from? I blamed the flowery romance novels in my library.

"—and you guessed it, contestants. Your first challenge is all about reading!" Gaius called.

I tuned back into his speech in time to hear the crowd murmuring in confusion. I couldn't help but smile. This was a reality TV dating show. They must've expected action, romance, adventure, drama... and now the host had asked them to read a book. At least my brothers had a sense of humor.

I scanned the contestants' faces. Their expressions ranged from nervous to exasperated to flat-out annoyed. I couldn't blame them. They came here for a chance to find a mate, not to write a book report.

Yet Alaric wore a different expression. He, too, looked irritated, but not for the same reason everybody else did. He met my gaze fiercely, drumming his fingers on the bench. His eyes burned with impatient determination, as if wondering why he had to slog through this challenge like everyone else.

A flicker of excitement coursed through me. Did Alaric know I wanted him to win?

Peeking at the identical hardcovers in front of the contestants, I suddenly realized I didn't recognize the book. It was one I'd never seen before, which was shocking considering my almost encyclopedic knowledge of books. But there wasn't even a title or author listed on the front cover.

My stomach flipped. If I didn't know the contents of the book, how would I know if Alaric could win the challenge?

Gaius's loud announcer voice cut into my thoughts. "You'll have one hour to read as much of the book as you can, then summarize the themes. Whoever does so in the most succinct manner wins!"

The hardcover book was as dense as a brick. There was no possible way anybody—not even me—could read the entire thing in an hour. Apparently, the contestants shared my doubts. They began to complain, no longer bothering to be quiet.

I winced inwardly as the contestants frowned in my direction. Did they think I was involved with this?

Please know I had nothing to do with this ridiculous affair, I thought miserably.

As Gaius began the timer, the beach fell into awkward silence, broken only by frustrated sighs and the aggressive turning of pages. I wanted to shrink away from embarrassment—and to rebuke whoever was responsible.

"Who's foolish idea was this?" I whispered to Gaius, who stood beside me with a beaming grin.

"No idea, boss," he chirped.

I turned my head like an owl to glare at Crimson, Thystle, Cobalt and Aurum. Silently seething, I stalked over to them, putting distance between myself and the contestants so they wouldn't hear me chewing out my brothers.

"What is the meaning of this?" I hissed.

Thystle looked confused at my displeasure. "It's a reading challenge. We thought you'd like it."

"You're all about reading books. It literally pertains to your greatest interest," Crimson chimed in.

I was so frustrated I could've breathed fire on his well-coiffed hair. Instead I took a deep breath and pushed up my glasses. "First of all, do you think a live book report makes good television? Don't answer that. Of course it doesn't. Second, how do you think this challenge makes the contestants feel about me?"

"Uhh," Aurum said.

I didn't wait for an answer because there wouldn't be a good one. "They're resentful of this arduous busy-work, and therefore resentful of me . I wouldn't be surprised if half of them dropped out after this challenge."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Thystle asked. "Then you know the people who are left are really interested in you."

I didn't bring up the fact that I wasn't interested in 99% of them. "What does reading and commenting on a dense, boring book have to do with me? Do you think that's all I enjoy doing?" I grumbled.

"Hey, how do you know it's boring?" Aurum asked, as if genuinely offended.

"Yeah, we worked hard on that book," Thystle added with a pout.

Oh.

For the love of Holy Drake, that explained why the book was unfamiliar.

" You wrote it?" I asked incredulously.

Cobalt nodded proudly. "It was a group effort."

Now I almost felt bad for scolding them. Almost.

I exhaled a long breath while pinching the bridge of my nose. "Look, I appreciate the fact that you took time and energy to write something, but—"

My brothers' eyes widened simultaneously. At the same time, a shiver ran down my spine like a premonition.

I spun around to come face to face with Alaric. My heartbeat stuttered.

"I'm finished reading the book," he stated, holding the hefty tome in one hand.

Before I could respond, Aurum and Thystle rushed forward.

"Did you like it?" Aurum demanded. "It was awesome, right?"

Thystle butted in. "Oh, what about the part with the lyrics in between the prose? And the part with the—"

Alaric dumped the book on the ground. My brothers gawked in stunned silence.

"No, I didn't like it," Alaric said. "I got five pages in before realizing it was a hot mess. Frankly, I'm insulted that you forced me to read it."

"My book!" Aurum cried. He grabbed it, cradling the sand-dusted tome like a fallen comrade. "How dare you insult our work?"

The hairs rose on the back of my neck. I disliked Aurum's tone towards Alaric. I fixed my glare on my brother, ready to verbally silence him, but I was beaten to the punch before I could even open my mouth.

"If you think this book is worth reading, you need a reality check," Alaric declared without missing a beat. "It's a jumbled disaster of the English language."

Aurum narrowed his eyes. "Listen, cat—"

"Enough, Aurum," I snapped, stepping towards my brother before he angered me further. "Let me see that book."

I snatched the hardcover from him and flipped to the first page. I went into it wanting to give my brothers the benefit of the doubt. After all, they'd put energy into creating it, and that was commendable.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before I understood Alaric's point of view.

It was a calamity of the written word. It was unspeakably bad. Typos littered every page. Obvious grammar mistakes burned like neon signs. Random lyrics interspersed the paragraphs. The prose itself made no sense. I couldn't tell if it was fiction, nonfiction, or some kind of bizarre memoir. Despite my best intentions, I truly didn't understand any of it.

"What... is going on?" I asked, dumbfounded.

Alaric huffed. "See? I told you."

Thystle looked dejected. "Is it really that bad?"

"I'm sorry, but yes," Alaric replied.

Crimson sighed. He didn't look as upset as the younger two. "Well, we did write it in a caffeine-induced frenzy the night before the challenge."

I arched an eyebrow. For volunteers who'd taken up the mantle of running a popular game show, they didn't sound organized or prepared.

"Did you think about the challenges in advance at all, or are you flying by the seat of your collective pants?" I asked.

Alaric chuckled, putting his hands on his hips. "I suppose this is what happens when you're not in charge, Jade."

I shuddered at the way he said my name. I couldn't tell if he was flirting with me, or just pointing out a fact. Either way, I liked it—especially with that cute little collar still wrapped around his neck.

"I appreciate that, Alaric," I said, smiling at him.

He blushed.

Aurum snatched the book back from me while I wasn't paying attention. Thankfully, his sour mood was over quickly. "Hey, do you think our book is so bad that it's good? We could cultivate a cult following and make a fortune!"

"No," Alaric said with finality.

"I wasn't talking to you, hoity-toity," Aurum grumbled, clutching the book to his chest.

Alaric sniffed. "I won't apologize for having good taste."

"And you shouldn't have to," I agreed.

Aurum rolled his eyes. "Whatever, you two nerds aren't my target market anyway. I'm gonna go show this to Saffron!"

"Nerd?" Alaric gasped, putting an offended hand to his chest.

As my brother took off, I turned to Alaric. "Ignore him. No offense to the authors, but you made the right call."

His chest puffed out. "I'm aware."

Crimson sighed dramatically, but there was a sly look on his face as he looked back and forth between us. "Woe is us and our apparently awful book. But at least you've chosen a winner, Jade."

Before I could pry into his devious tone, Gaius waltzed over to our chatty group. His shirt's supernova brightness distracted me from Crimson's comment.

"Hey, what's going on over here?" Gaius asked, then turned to Alaric. "Shouldn't you be at a bench reading like everyone else?"

"You couldn't pay me to read another word of that drivel," Alaric said.

Gaius chuckled. "That bad, huh? I've never been a big fan of books. Too many words and not enough pictures. I'm more of a comics guy, myself." He scratched his head. "So, are you bowing out of the challenge, or...?"

"Not at all. I've completed the brief in that I read as much of the book as I could," Alaric drawled. "If you want me to summarize the themes, the word chaos comes to mind. It's a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen working under a time crunch, with a dash of free-for-all confusion."

Gaius nodded intently. He clearly hadn't read the book, so he took Alaric's word for it. "Wow, you really soaked it in! And you managed to do it before anybody else."

It was subtle, but Alaric beamed under the praise. I made a note that he liked being complimented.

"I think we've got our winner," I said, smiling at Alaric.

Gaius clapped. "Excellent! I'll go announce it so everybody can stop reading already."

As he went to deliver the news, Crimson cleared his throat and slowly backed away. "What a beautiful conclusion to our authorial saga. Now, Cobalt and Thystle, I need your help with something back at home."

Cobalt blinked. "Sure."

Thystle raised an eyebrow. "Why are you walking backwards like that? Oh , I get it. Yeah, Crimson, I'd love to help you with... whatever you're doing."

The three scurried off, leaving me alone with Alaric. Sunlight glinted off the collar's locket, mirroring the flecks of light in his eyes.

"I'm guessing you had nothing to do with that literary abomination," Alaric said.

I smirked. "I assure you, I did not. But I'm glad you pushed through and won the challenge."

Alaric raised his chin proudly. "Have I won a prize?"

"I would assume so. Though as you've probably gathered by now, my lack of involvement with the Games means things are a bit... disorganized," I admitted.

Alaric crossed his arms. "Hmph." He paused, then added in a gentler voice, "As long as the prize involves spending time with you."

My heart skipped against my ribs like a stone across water. I could tell Alaric didn't say that lightly.

My deepest insecurities flared up. Alaric had seen my inner sanctum. He'd witnessed me at my most vulnerable, my most indulgent—and he still wanted to spend time with me? I couldn't make sense of it. Anyone sane would've cut and run after seeing that.

Or, was Alaric more on my wavelength than I gave him credit for?