Page 112 of Queen of Diamonds

The pack leader she should have had. The scent match who had let her take the fall… Shame washed over me, wave after wave, and my panic must have come through, because dark lashes fluttered open, and dazed eyes found me.

Her grip tightened as we stared at each other.

She blinked again, glancing around, frowning.

“What…?” Her voice was a low rasp as her eyes darted to the room around her. “Where am I?”

“Safe,” I whispered.

I… thought so; their scents were in here. They had found safety while I was falling apart, and I needed her to believe in it. I knew safety wasn’t something she’d ever been able to believe in before.

Her fists closed around my shirt as she drew closer, forehead resting on my chest as she shook.

She was crying, I realised, and I gently rested my hands on her waist.

“I promise.”

“Your brother.” She looked up, and my heart tripped at her look of desperation. At her fear. “Is he…?” She trailed off, expression cracking.

I struggled to find my voice. “Glade?—”

“Is he alive?”

There was something caught in my throat as I tried to swallow. Finally, I nodded. “Yes.”

I hadn’t killed him. So far from it—I was alive on his whim.

The low whimper she let out shattered me again, and she curled up against me, shaking violently.

“It was…” She trailed off, voice so weak, but she didn’t say any more.

“It’s going to be okay.” I ran my hand along her hair, needing her to know that. She shook her head, and when she looked back up at me, tears clouded her eyes.

“It was… another nightmare?” she whispered. “I can’t…” Her hand drifted to her throat as though she couldn’t breathe. “Please…” She sounded so brittle as she squeezed her eyes shut. With the next words, I felt her tremor, her nails digging into my chest. “I’ll do… anything,” she whispered. “Anything you want.”

I paused, stumbling over those words.

“I will be anything you want,” she said again, this time forcing herself to look up at me. “Just let them live.”

My blood turned to ice as I stared at her, realising what her dazed eyes saw.

Not me at all.

Ace…

I shoved away from her, fear lighting my system as I staggered from the bed, and she tried to follow, stumbling the moment she got to her feet, but I was backing up. The moment I let her go, a piercing whine ripped from her chest and she collapsed, knees crashing to the carpet.

The sound was like a dagger to my heart, and my instincts went haywire.

She needed me…

I was torn between running, and reaching for her. Her scent rose in the air, dangerous, and she closed her hand around her throat, breaths short and sharp.

Brilliant chestnut eyes still glittered with tears, not fully here, I realised as she reached back out for me.

“P-Please,” she begged. “I can’t… I can’t do it again.”

Suddenly, Knight was there, dropping a tray of food on the bed and crashing to his knees before her.

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