Page 11 of Glamour & Gumballs

And if I had to choose a partner, I needed to play the game.

But… which of the men did I want?

My forehead creased, my brows furrowing as I tried to think about all of them once again. I didn’t know enough about any of them after the two episodes I’d seen to choose one. Molly had Cameron, and trusted him enough to just go with him—but I didn’t have that.

Which meant I needed to get to know the bastards trying to win me over.

I sighed, loudly.

The crease between my brows smoothed.

I set my hands down on the cold, rough stone on either side of my ass and leaned back a little as I considered it.

Getting to know the guys wasn’t enough to really understand whether or not I wanted to mate with them.

Anyone could pretend to be someone they weren’t for a few weeks for the sake of fooling me into keeping them alive with a mate bond. I couldn’t trust the answers they gave or the conversations we had.

My mind flicked back to my childhood.

My mother’s asshole of a boyfriend.

The way he’d hurt both of us.

The excuses she’d given.

How normal and nice he could seem, up until he snapped.

The way she’d loved him, no matter what he did to us.

My cheeks puffed with air before I let out a shaky breath.

I couldn’t put myself in that situation, game be damned. It was far too easy to be manipulated when you fell in love with someone manipulative.

But to avoid it, I needed to see the men stressed.

Angry.

Hurt.

The island’s starvation would help with that, but they were big dudes, and they had magic. Their bodies could probably sustain themselves better than mine could.

So, I would have to get them to the point of stress and anger myself.

My mind went back to what Kyle and Reid had discussed.

Chaos.

They were worried about the chaos.

What if I could make that chaos happen?

Or make the existing chaos worse?

I didn’t know how to push a fae guy. I really only knew what little I’d been able to talk out of my guards, when it came to them and their magic.

But I might be able to spread rumors myself if I could manage to make some of the men think I was actually befriending them. My lack of introduction at the beginning of the game made that more difficult, but I could get there.

Probably.

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