Page 156 of Queen of Diamonds

She had passed the most intense stage of heat, and we didn’t know how long this was going to last, so maybe it was best if he went and passed out.

Ace was awake and I could almost feel his agony in the air, the furious growls slipping from him with every breath.

It seemed to do nothing but spur Glade on.

She was trapped between me and Zed. Her hands and cheek pressed to his chest, dark waves sticking to the sheen of sweat on her cheeks, bright eyes fixed on Ace as I drove into her.

He was losing it, pupils constricted, snarls tearing from his chest as he watched. The rut wouldn’t allow pride to hide the claim he so desperately wanted. Ace’s mask was cracking, and beneath was nothing but weakness and obsession.

I tilted her hips so I could drive deeper, and I felt Zed speed up his circling of her clit.

She moaned, shuddering with an orgasm, which sent Ace into a frenzy, and—in response—drew her climax out longer.

“You’re so fucking perfect,” I breathed in her ear as she melted against us.

Zed seemed to have maxed out his desire to be around his brother because he dipped out, saying something about ordering food.

Good.

I wanted some private time with my Omega.

I could fuck her in front of this piece of trash all day—and I thought she’d let me. It wasn’t just thrilling for her; it was cathartic, as if the insanity of it all was healing pieces of her soul that had broken over equal and opposite insanity.

I understood that.

So I worshipped her until the room was a lightning storm with no roses, until her eyes were dazed and her lips curled up in a smile, her fingers tangling in my hair as I made her climax so many times even her heat-hazed body was done.

And then I pinned her to the mats and knotted her to his snarls and insanity as he suffered just a fraction of the pain he’d made her feel.

Finally, when I’d held her against me and let her recover, and our bodies were no longer connected, I drew her up to her knees to face him, pressing my chest to her back so she knew she wasn’t alone. She was shivering with exhaustion, but my hand closed around her neck as I held her still.

Her breathing hitched as my knuckle brushed her back, and she shivered as static danced between us. I felt her rush of anticipation as I trailed my lips down her neck, below her shoulder blade.

Through the bond, I felt a fissure down something that had been entombing her for too long.

I lowered my free hand, running it down her arm and then her wrist, taking her hand in mine, my thumb grazing the scars she had there, too.

There was another fissure, and this time cracks webbed outward as my lips drew down to the mangled marks upon her back. Ridges that marked pain as much as they marked a choice she’d made so that one day this tomb could break and inside there might still be life.

Goosebumps rippled along her skin as my lips traced the marks.

Zed.

Knight.

And finally, my name.

As I sank my teeth into that mark, I felt the tomb shatter at last.

ZED

Glade didn’t know I’d woken when she slipped from my arms in the middle of the night.

Of course I’d woken. I would never allow her to be stolen from me again—especially not with his scent lingering.

She’d never asked us to get rid of it, no matter how deep into her heat she was.

Right now she wore the sheer gown we’d stolen from the High Roller. It shifted over her body like liquid gold, barely hiding anything beneath, but she didn’t seem to mind as she vanished into the cell.

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