He shook his head, looking uncomfortable.
“Why not him?” Sydney asked.
Again, Flood ignored her. That was Bay’s business. It had nothing to do with this female.
“Apologies for the oversight, Bay. Everyone excepting Bay is eligible. Can the males in question put their hands up please?” Tide looked around the room.
Was this really necessary? Flood wasn’t interested in putting his hand up like some side of beef. It wasn’t like the female he wanted was going to pick him, at any rate, so what was the point?
“Put your hand up.” Sydney bumped against him. “Put it up,” she insisted, more animated this time. “You’re one of the top males.” She widened her eyes. “You’re single.” She knocked against him again. “You’re here, aren’t you? Put up your hand already!”
Flood stuck his hand up but only to shut her up.
"Thank you," Torrent said, and Flood pulled his hand down, crossing his arms over his chest. "A couple of house rules. You all have a week to get to know one another. To date. To try to win the female, you have in mind. It will ultimately be up to the female though. Each female can choose who she wants to spend more time with once the week is up. No fighting. If you fight, you're out. That needs to be very clear from the start."
There was more talking amongst the group. Many of the males were smiling broadly. Four females to eleven males, the odds were good. Acid burned in Flood’s gut at the thought of any of the males trying to win Paige.
Flood had attended a meeting earlier. He and Tide had been there when Torrent and Blaze had discussed this whole thing. He’d been so excited at the prospect of having a chance at being with Paige. Not just for the week. He wanted to get to know her. To find out what made her tick and now—
He’d been a fool!
“Enjoy the week ahead.” Blaze held up his glass. “The Water tribe deserves this. Flood put himself in the line of fire. He took several bullets to save these females. You have him to thank.”
The words were hollow, if nothing else they only served to make him feel worse. He nodded in gratitude. He was not the kind of male who would wallow in self-pity. Not a fuck!
“To Flood!” Bay yelled. Several more males yelled the same.
“I sincerely hope you find a mate this week,” Blaze added, his eyes on Flood. The male was grinning. He couldn’t blame him. The Fire King was oblivious.
Flood kept his arms tightly folded across his chest, trying not to scowl, since all the attention was on him.
“I pick Flood,” Sydney shouted from next to him. “I want Flood!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her.
Flood felt his jaw drop. What?
“I don’t need a week to think about it.” She put her arm around his waist and wiggled her way under his arm.
“That’s fantastic news,” Blaze beamed. “The two of you must have bonded during your time in captivity.”
Was Blaze confusing Sydney and Paige?
Paige.
Flood looked over at where she was standing ‒ at where she had been standing. He felt himself frown. Where…was…there… What?! Paige was leaving. Beck had his hand to her lower back. The doors closed behind them.
Leaving.
She really didn’t want him. She was ashamed. Angry. Flood turned his head to the ceiling and roared.
Sydney jumped away from him. Everyone took several hurried steps away. Males put themselves in front of females, even though they didn’t stand a chance against him, not that he would damn well hurt an innocent human. A female at that. It made his hackles rise even further. Pissed him the hell off, which made him roar again. Louder this time. His nails erupted from their beds. Sharp and deadly. If he looked down, he was sure he would find a few scales on his chest. His teeth felt sharp in his mouth.
“The rules clearly stated that the females could choose after a week,” Tide spoke quickly, sounding panicked. “In other words—”
“You!” Flood pointed at the male. “This is your fault.” Adrenaline hit his veins as he marched towards Tide. “You did this.”
“Now, Flood,” Tide began, putting his hands up.
“Your advice was bullshit!” Flood growled, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
“Calm down!” Tide shouted. “We can fix this. In other words,” he went on, his eyes growing wide as Flood approached, “females are not permitted to choose right now.” He spoke quickly. “They have to wait the full allotted—”
Flood didn’t want to hear any more; he punched Tide square in the jaw. The moment his fist connected, he felt bad. Every ounce of anger drained from him. Tide had only tried to help. His advice had been utter crap but it had come from a good place. Once the anger left him, only confusion and hurt remained. What had he done that was so wrong? Was he really so shameful or was there something else? He needed answers.
“My apologies.” He bowed his head to Tide. Praying the male would let it go. Tide was a prince. He could end up in real shit for this. It wasn’t the first time he’d punched a royal. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Tide clutched his jaw. His eyes were glassy. “You didn’t break it.” The male attempted a grin but ended up wincing instead. “That means you went easy on me. No harm done.” He patted Tide on the back. “I think you’d better go.” Tide nodded in the direction of the doors, urging him with his eyes to follow Paige.
“Makes me want to do the opposite.” Flood smiled. “Since you gave such shitty advice before.”
Tide laughed as Flood strode from the room.
Chapter 19
Paige couldn’t stay a moment longer. She couldn’t watch Sydney and Flood. Sure, she was mad at Flood but that didn’t mean that she could just turn the feelings she had for him off. Truth was, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling. She hardly knew Flood but she’d hoped to get to know him. It had been a mistake to think like that. To think that things would stay the same after leaving that tiny jail cell.
“I’m sorry.” Beck put his hand to her back as the door closed behind them, drowning out the noise. “Do you have feelings for Flood?”
She shook her head. “No.” The lie tasted sour but she ignored it. She couldn’t have real feelings after such a short time. It wasn’t a lie!
“Okay then.” Beck looked skeptical. “Can I walk you back to your chamber?”
“Sure.”
He kept his hand on her lower back, which was uncomfortable. They rounded the corner and Beck stiffened. He stopped walking.
“Everything okay?” He looked like he was listening to something, his head cocked to the side.
“All good.” He smiled but it was tight. They kept on walking. “You sure Flood isn’t interested in…”
“Very sure!” He and Sydney had looked really cozy back there. She knew it was wrong but she hadn’t been able to stick around and watch. Why couldn’t he have picked someone other than Sydney? Why did it have to be her?
Enough.
It didn’t matter anymore. “Here we are,” she announced.
“Can I come in?” Beck gave her a practiced half-smile. She was sure it had worked really well for him in the past.
Was he flirting with her? “Um…I’m really tired. I think it would be best if I…”
“No problem.” He grinned, looking really cute. “I completely understand. How about breakfast or lunch? What about dinner? I’m game for all three.” He winked.
“That’s sweet but I think I might be going home. As in, back to my own home.”
Beck frowned. “No…you can’t leave. You heard the announcement. My best friend recently settled down and I’m beginning to think I’d like to do the same.”
“You and I aren’t going to happen.” She decided to take the direct route.
“It’s Flood, isn’t—?”
“No!” she half-yelled. “No.” Calmer this time. “That’s not it.” She pushed out a breath. “Okay, maybe it is it but not in the way you think. It’s everything that happe
ned. I’m not feeling relationshipy at the moment.”
“Relationshipy?” Beck laughed. “Is that even a word?”
She smiled despite herself. “Probably not.”
“Well, how about you use me to get over Grumpy?” Beck put his hand up on the door jamb above her. He towered over her.
Paige shook her head and was about to say ‘no’ when someone growled. It sounded like a lion had escaped, and that said lion was coming down the hallway towards them.
Beck turned around. “Flood. This isn’t what it looks like.” He put up both his hands. “Please don’t hit me. I won’t fight back. I want a chance at the humans.”
“I see that,” Flood growled the words rather than said them. His muscles bulged. His eyes were freaky dark. Were those scales on his chest?
“Nothing happened!” Beck began backpedaling down the hall, walking away from her and not taking his eyes off of Flood. “She’s not interested.”
“Fuck off!” Flood snarled.
Beck turned and ran. If it weren’t for the situation it would have been comical. Especially since Beck ran fast.
“Don’t come back!” Flood yelled at his retreating back.
There was a part of her that was ridiculously happy Flood was there. That he had left Sydney. That he had scared off Beck. Why had he left Sydney? It didn’t matter! She was still mad at him.
“You can go as well.” She opened her door and walked in, intent on closing it in his face.
Flood put a hand out and held the door open. “Not so fast.” His voice was still a rough rasp. “We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t!”
“Something is wrong and you are telling me what it is.” Flood’s eyes narrowed into hers.
“Nothing is wrong. There is nothing to talk about.”
“Bullshit! Talk to me, Paige.” His demeanor softened. His shoulders slumped a little.
“Now you want to talk. Where have you been since we got back? Not one word. Nothing!" She narrowed her own eyes at him. "All of a sudden you want to have a chit-chat. I'm tired now, I'm going to bed."
“I wanted to come and see you but I was not permitted to do so.”
“Not permitted?” She shook her head. “That’s nonsense. You are a grown up. You get to make your own decisions.”
“In most things, yes, I get to make my own decisions. In this, I had no choice. I was told that you were safe. You had your things and were being taken care of.” He pushed out a breath. “I was in quite bad shape by the time we made it back. He shrugged his massive shoulders. “I was…I am still healing.”
“You look fine to me.” It came out sounding husky. Not accusatory as she’d intended.
“I’m much better, but…I don’t want to discuss my health. Can I come in…please?” he added, a pleading look in his eyes. “I want to tell you about the debriefing. Explain a few things.”
“You told your superiors. Even Beck knew about it.” Shame flooded her.
“That little fucker!” Flood snarled. “I’m going to—”
She touched his arm and she watched as the rage drained out of him. His eyes softened. “Let me explain. Please.”
“Fine!” She pushed out the word. “You have two minutes to explain and then you’re out of here.” She moved to the side so that he could come in. “I’m not offering you anything to drink because this isn’t a social call.”
“They already knew,” Flood said as he turned to face her.
“Knew what?”
“That we had rutted.”
“What? How?” Oh shit! Their superior senses. It had to be.
Flood nodded. “They could scent it on us.” This was even worse. She put a hand over her face. “Is it so bad?” Flood blurted. He seemed to catch himself. “I’m sorry but everyone knows. No-one is judging you…us. No-one has said anything about it. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Maybe not to him. Sex was a big deal to her. Hearing him say that hurt. “Okay.” She folded her arms. “You said your bit, now you can go. I’m sure Sydney is waiting for you.”
“Stop using Sydney as a reason not to talk to me.”
“I’m using Sydney?” She touched a hand to her chest. “I don’t think so.”
“You are! Let’s be clear, I don’t want to talk to Sydney.”
She snorted. “Could’ve fooled me. I hope you guys will be very happy together.”
Flood frowned. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You’re confusing me.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it! You’re ashamed we had sex. Upset that others know about it, and yet you seem jealous of Sydney.”
“I’m not jealous of her!” It came out sounding completely jealous because she was jealous. “Look, it’s fine. I understand things better now. You can go and do whatever with whomever.”
“You don’t sound fine. You sound upset. I don’t know why. I don’t understand.” He shook his head. “I get why you’re ashamed of me. I understand why you were angry. I want us to be friends again and I don’t know how to fix this.”
“Why did you ignore me in there tonight?” She gave an exasperated sigh. “I have no right to even ask you that. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so mad at you. In truth, I’m not sure why I am. I guess after everything we went through, I thought you would…” She let the sentence hang. “I don’t know what I thought exactly, but that wasn’t it.”
“I wasn’t ignoring you tonight.”
“Looked like it to me.”
“I was given some bad advice. I should never have listened to it in the first place.” He shook his head.
Paige frowned. “What kind of advice?”
“It doesn’t matter. You said you want to put…it behind you. You said you wanted to move on and that’s fine. I didn’t want to lose you…as a friend. I wanted you to understand. That’s all. I’ll leave you now.” He began to turn.
“Wait!”
Flood’s frown deepened.
“Tell me what the advice was,” she blurted before she could change her mind.
“You don’t want to know, it would be better—”
“Tell me,” she urged. “Please.”
Flood swallowed thickly. She watched as his throat worked. “I wanted to go straight over to you as soon as you walked in. I wanted to see how you were. Wanted to talk to you. I wanted very much to tell you…to…” He exhaled sharply. “It doesn’t matter. You said you wanted to put things behind you. It’s over now.”
“I only said that because I was upset. I’m embarrassed about what happened. It was a horrible situation. I didn’t want people to think—”
“Screw what people think.” Flood took a step towards her.
“You’re right.” She nodded. “I’m not ashamed of you. Of us. It’s not like that.” Her cheeks heated at the real reason. She couldn’t tell him.
“You’re not?” He shook his head.
"No, I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean it like it sounded. I was angry, upset too because I thought we were friends and you couldn't even come over and say a simple ‘hi'. You went to Sydney and got all touchy-feely."
“You’re sounding jealous again.” His jaw tightened.
Paige didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like she was about to admit to being jealous of Sydney.
"I didn't get touchy-feely with Sydney. It was the other way around."
“And you hated every second,” she mumbled, sounding more jealous by the second.
“Actually,” his mouth quirked up, hinting at those dimples, “I did hate every minute. I couldn’t get rid of her. I had to eventually excuse myself. Had to be firm about it too. I’ve never met a bossier female.”
Paige choked out a laugh. She put a hand in front of her mouth. “I assumed you liked her.”
“You assumed wrong. I like you, Paige. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I wanted to rush over and tell you immediately. I wanted to ask you if we could start over. Maybe ask you out on a date. Stupid, I guess. Tide was probably right when he told me to
play it cool. When he told me not to bombard you. He was wrong, though, when he said I shouldn’t go straight over to you. I wanted to. I should have and I’m sorry. Now, I know you don’t feel that way about me but I hope we can still be friends.”
She shook her head.
“No? Why not?”
“When I said I was ashamed before, I was ashamed of myself and not you.”
“Why would you be ashamed of yourself? That doesn’t make sense.” He frowned.
“Because…” Her cheeks must be red because they felt hot. She’d always been one to blush in awkward situations. This time was no different. “I liked having sex with you,” she mumbled. Paige pulled in a deep breath and forced herself to look him in the eyes. “I liked it a lot. I felt bad because of why we were doing it and where we were. I should not have enjoyed it so much. That’s what made me feel ashamed.”
“You liked having sex with me?” He sounded shocked. “I didn’t think you were attracted to me.”
“I thought you were attractive right from the start. Scary ‒ I won’t lie ‒ but attractive. The more I got to know you, the more attractive you became. After that first time,” she shook her head, “I felt bad about enjoying the sex so much given the circumstances. I started to notice how sexy you were.”
“So, do you want to start over then?” Flood smiled.
“No, I don’t.”
She had to stop herself from laughing at him when she saw how disappointed he looked. “I don’t want to start over.” She took his hand. “I definitely want a date but forget starting over.”
“Why?” His eyes brightened. “I’m glad you’re agreeing to the date.”
“Starting over would imply pretending we were only meeting for the first time, and it’s too late for that.”
“I had heard that human females like to take it slow. We were forced into—” He sniffed the air. “You’re aroused.” He sniffed again, sounding like he enjoyed the smell.
Captured Dragon (Water Dragons Book 2) Page 14