Page 35 of Queen of Diamonds

I’d lied through my teeth about screwing other Omegas. It wasn’t just Omegas. I hadn’t banged anyone in my life except Glade. Which meant my only goddamned source material was shivering in the locked room behind me. I wrinkled my nose, grabbing the bag, a towel, and a proper blanket from the cupboard and tossed them into the room.

I tried not to look, but it was so fucking hard.

Furious chestnut eyes met mine from where she was curled on the mattress.

Her scent was intoxicating. Dark cream cardamom. Dangerous, cool, earthy, with an edge that suited Glade perfectly. A flawless scent for the most beautiful woman in the world. I’d had to learn the hard way that beauty couldn’t be trusted.

Neither could scent matches.

“Please check on Lucy?” Her voice was harrowingly fragile, and for a moment, through the drops of water still running from her hair, I wasn’t sure if she’d been crying.

I considered ignoring her.

I mean, Lucy was fine. I’d even looked it up on my phone in the car ride here if that gas was damaging. Not because of her, but since Kyan had done it and I was pack lead, it was sort of my responsibility.

And I might be a cat person.

The drug wouldn’t hurt her cat—who was actually stupid cute. Lucy was already poking around the kitchen rather drunkenly and had found her litter box.

“She’s okay,” I said.

Glade nodded, shivering, clutching her bag as she remained curled up.

I forced myself to shut the door, reminding myself that she deserved everything that she was getting. When she’d rejected us that day, she’d torn us from our family. Taken everything that had ever mattered.

She deserved this.

Less than this even, because by bringing her here I was offering my pack’s protection from the Brotherhood, and no matter how much I hated her, that was something I took seriously.

I returned to the couch, watching as Lucy sniffed at the TV stand, then stumbled a little on her way over to the couch.

Knight appeared from his room as I leaned down to scratch her, and found myself rather irritated that I didn’t get the purr Kyan had.

Was he actually onto something with the scent marking?

“This,” Knight said, sitting down on the couch beside me with a beer. “Is the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.”

I couldn’t argue like I had earlier—before we’d decided to visit the High Roller.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” I’d asked. I needed this. I would tell her to her face that we were over her. I was a prideful, arrogant idiot, and I’d eaten my fucking words.

Getting in Ace’s crossfire was not a direction I’d thought the night might take.

My silence was damning enough.

Knight snorted. “She’s going to leave us for dead first chance she gets—just like last time,” he went on. “Just asking to get kicked in the nuts again.”

I took a sip of my beer but it was tasteless.

Had she been crying? I wondered. Was she, right now? How could I hate her this much and still care? If she was crying, it was probably because of me for fuck’s sake.

“We meet her again and what’s the first thing she does?” Knight went on. “She fucking lies. And now we’re caught in a Brotherhood feud.”

She had lied. I knew that. But there was more to it.

She’d been angry when I mentioned Ace. She tried to control it but there was a cut on my face in testament to that fury. Fury and… something else I’d seen in her eyes when I’d brought my brother up.

“I think she’s scared,” I said. I realised how true it was the moment it came out of my mouth. Glade and fear weren’t words I’d easily throw together in a sentence. “Way more than she’s letting on. If she lied about the Brotherhood, it’s because she didn’t think we’d save her if we knew.”

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