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Just wandering around this underground castle for half an hour or so, she’d already seen scores of men. And not the pampered-looking types that she’d grown accustomed to seeing in Steccat. Sure, they didn’t exactly look like movie stars, but there was a certain... something to them that she had rarely ever seen before, something she was having trouble articulating to herself.

A realness, perhaps? A heaviness in their presence. A sense of importance in the way that they carried themselves. Not self-importance, no. Not smugness. She’d seen that plenty of times before. This was like... an importance of intent.

Men at work.

Yeah. That’s what it was. These were men with missions in mind, with tasks that needed doing.

And, damn, was that hot. She could feel herself getting flustered just being here.

She needed to calm herself down. Madison Reach had never been in this type of environment before, and it was a bit overwhelming to say the least, but it certainly wouldn’t be good for her if her potential beau saw her like this, drooling over every eligible bachelor in sight. While she wouldn’t necessarily mind a jealous man in the right context, this was not that context--not before a relationship had even begun.

She’d come here with Gina in order to see Roman, but knowing what she now did of Gina’s feelings for him, Madison decided not to intrude on their bonding time. Hopefully, Gina would be able to take advantage of the circumstances, but Madison wasn’t getting her hopes up. The poor girl seemed a bit repressed when it came to these things.

Warrenhold was a strange place, though. She’d of course been preemptively informed of the “uneasiness” that the castle could cause, but it was still taking some getting used to. But then, maybe she’d be able to find herself a dashing gentleman to help her feel safe again.

She’d taken notice of several candidates already and had been attempting to stealthily learn their names. Eager though she was, she didn’t want to overplay her hand. She was still alone in a crowd of strangers, after all.

To that end, however, things were unfortunately not going so well. When she went to the banquet hall in the big dark tower where everyone was conglomerating, not a single one of the hunky guys there bothered to approach. She could see them looking her way, but none of them made any moves.

So what the hell?!

This always worked back in Steccat. She could just go to a night club, sit at the bar, and wait to be approached. Granted, it had led to meeting a lot sleazeballs, but there’d been some nice ones in there, too.

What were they waiting for? Were they intimidated? They didn’t look intimidated. If anything, they were kind of glaring at her. Like they were suspicious of her or something. But that couldn’t be the case, right? What sense would that make?

What the hell was wrong with these Rainlords?! Argh!