7. Aurum

Seven

My heart'sdesire was to stay up late playing video games. Unfortunately, the only games I played were the Dragonfate kind.

I woke up at 8 AM, courtesy of Jade's gifted alarm clock. He didn't trust either me or Saffron to get up on time so he'd forced us to put them in our bedrooms. But I couldn't begrudge him too much. There was a precedent of alpha dragons showing up late to our own Drake-damned TV show after sleeping with their omegas...

Not that I had that problem. I was mateless and proud of it. No dating show crap would change that.

I stumbled into the shared living space with a yawn. Saffron's door was closed, which was weird. We usually kept our bedroom doors open for each other.

At least, we used to. Now we acted like inmates in two adjacent cells.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at the closed door. When curiosity got the best of me, I didn't even feel guilty. I sneaked closer and carefully pried the door open.

Saffron was sound asleep. The big yellow dragon plushie Taylor sewed for him sat on top of his pillows like a squishy guardian. Everything looked typical—except his phone was clutched in his hand.

That was weird. Neither of us were addicted to our phones, and I'd never seen him fall asleep with it in his hand.

Then my blood ran cold when I remembered that mystery online man. Had Saffron stayed up late talking to him?

Silently fuming, I stalked closer to his bed. Then I noticed something odd. My alarm clock went off without a hitch. Why was his still silent?

I squinted, looking at the clock closer. The battery covering was removed—with the batteries gone, too.

What the hell?

I couldn't wrap my head around it. Why did Saffron kill his alarm clock? Sure, it was fucking annoying, but it was necessary to be on time for the Games. Didn't he want this?

Mixed emotions swirled inside me. It was true I didn't want Saffron to find his mate on the show. Or at all. But those were my feelings. He thought differently. He was all about love and romance and shit. Why was he deliberately sabotaging himself? That was my job, dammit.

I glared at the phone gripped in his hand. I knew his passcode—we had the same one. It would be easy to unlock his phone and snoop around.

I leaned in carefully and woke up his phone. Low battery, but still alive.

Heart racing, I entered the code: 69420. Yeah, we both thought it was hilarious.

But it didn't work.

My heart plummeted to the cold depths of my guts.

Saffron changed his passcode? What the fuck was going on?

My head swam. It felt like the ground was melting under my feet.

Then a loud knock came at the front door to our unit.

Swearing under my breath, I bolted out of Saffron's room before he woke up and caught me in the act. I threw the door open to reveal Taylor, Crimson's mate.

"What?" I asked.

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Good morning."

He said it in the same way a parent would correct a rude child. I flushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry. Had a nightmare. Morning," I said.

Taylor frowned. "A nightmare? Do you want to talk about it?"

Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything.

"Not really. Thanks, though. Anyway, what's up?"

"Is Aurum with you? There's something I want to ask," Taylor said, peering into the room.

I was confused as fuck for a second. Taylor knew us. We hung out all the time. Then I remembered my hair, and the lack-of-dye situation. I had no reason to lie to Taylor, so I didn't bother.

"I'm Aurum," I told him. "Saffron's asleep."

Taylor's eyes widened. He took a second, deliberate look at me. "Wow, you do look the same when your hair's the same color."

If it wasn't for the passcode scare I had earlier, I might've felt a burst of pride, but the adrenaline still pumping through my system dampened it.

"Yeah, we do," I said.

Taylor nodded. "I guess that answers my question."

Before I could ask, Saffron yawned as he walked up beside me. "What question?" he asked sleepily.

As subtly as possible, I sneaked a glance at his hand. The phone was still there. What the fuck? I had the urge to ‘accidentally' smack it with shifted dragon claws and ‘accidentally' destroy it.

"I met with Poppy this morning to chat," Taylor said. "He wanted to double check something."

"About us?" Saffron asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Yeah. He remembered you two looking different before—which you did." He glanced at my head curiously.

It wasn't a secret, but I figured nobody ever told Taylor I dyed my hair. He'd assumed that we naturally had different hair colors—until one day we didn't.

In the end, I didn't have to explain anything. The tiger shifter was smart as a whip. "So, I guess one of you stopped dying your hair?"

"Yup. I did," I confirmed.

That woke Saffron up like a cold bucket of water to the face. When he squinted at me, I practically heard the gears turning suspiciously in his mind.

But I shrugged it off. It was my body and I could do whatever I wanted with it. The choice to dye my hair was mine alone. Not even my twin could force me to do it.

"He sure did," Saffron remarked, still staring at me.

I met his gaze evenly. If he was gonna stare at me, I'd stare right back. See how he liked it.

"As I've said a thousand times, I lost my dye," I said. "And you know what? Even if I found it, I wouldn't use it."

Saffron's brows shot up. "What?"

"Why's it my responsibility to dye my hair? Like, why have I been doing it all my life? Just to differentiate myself from you? It's not my fault other people can't tell us apart."

Saffron had no comeback for that because I was right.

To my surprise, Taylor agreed with me. "You're right, Aurum. That's on us. And the omegas vying for your affections."

I held my expression steady when Taylor brought up omegas. Did he harbor suspicions about my evil scheme? Or was he just being blunt and realistic?

Taylor turned to leave. "Thanks for the info, guys. And good luck on the first challenge today."

Shit. I'd forgotten about that. As if I wasn't dealing with enough crap, we had to face whatever nonsense Jade cooked up, too. He hadn't told us in advance what the challenges focused on, so they'd be as much of a surprise to us as they were to the contestants.

But I hadn't forgotten about Saffron's unusual phone habits, or his mystery man. That lit a spiteful fire under my ass.

Time to ruin the challenge—and all of Saffron's love prospects.