Page 129 of Queen of Diamonds

But Kyan had gone stiff at my words.

Knight, I realised, hadn’t moved from where he was clutching a huge duvet in his arms, half turned from the two of us. Not since I’d spoken. There was something charged in the bond, a tension that hadn’t been there before.

I glanced back to Kyan to see he was staring in Knight’s direction.

I shrank. Unsure. He… did, though? This was what Kyan’s love looked like—prickly and full of energy, like a cut live wire that was left to spark. Chaos in every direction, even if they looked like the wrong directions from the outside.

Kyan cleared his throat. “I… love everyone in my pack,” he said at last.

For a second, as the words came from his mouth, I felt him shrink in the bond like he’d been burned. I felt a moment of sheer panic, complete insecurity, as if he was in freefall.

Very slowly, Knight draped the duvet over us, then sat down on my other side.

“But uh…” Kyan’s voice was rough.

Fuck.

I’d definitely said something wrong. Knight had the faintest smile on his face as he settled in.

“Shut it, Street Rat, before you make it weird,” he growled, tugging both me and Kyan into a huge bear hug, and I felt Kyan relax, a faint smile tugging on his lips, his anxiety dissipating.

44

ZED

Red and blue blinking lights flashed behind me.

Fuck…

Ah.

How fast had I been driving?

I found the closest place to pull over, my heart racing as I drew my car to a halt.

Without making any clear moves, I slipped the balaclava into the gap beside my seat and reached over, popping open the glove box to grab what I needed. I glanced at the bag on the passenger seat.

Nothing inside was visible.

I wore a toque, and my face had been washed. I shifted, catching a view of myself in the rearview mirror as I rolled the window down.

No blood.

Still, this could quickly turn into a complete fucking disaster, just when I was about to return to her with a gift.

We’d found a safe house, but we hadn’t got a complete identity renewal. If my name got into the system… I couldn’t afford any paper trail to where I was heading. Especially not less than twenty minutes from where Glade was.

The flashlight strobed across the back seat before blinding me.

“Licence and registration.” The cop peered down at me, but I was already handing it to him.

“Do you know how fast you were going?” he asked, glancing over my paperwork.

I winced. “Too fast.”

He looked from the paper to me, shifting the flashlight back to blinding. “What’s the rush?”

“My… Omega. We almost broke up. I got her a gift. I wanted to get home and wasn’t paying enough attention.”

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