Page 43 of Queen of Diamonds

“Okay.” Knight’s voice was deathly calm. He did what I said, and next thing I knew, he was cuffed to the bar.

I slipped from his back instantly, stepping away, trying not to think about what I’d just done.

The trick I’d set up, bottling up my hormones as best I could to convince them I was in heat, had been designed on the assumption that they’d let me out to help it pass. I was their mate, after all. It would make sense.

I’d told him to leave me in that room to seem more afraid, but he’d thought I was saying I didn’t want them. And then—at the slightest hint I didn’t—he’d left to get help. He’d thought I was going into heat—his own mate—and he’d been willing to listen to me. To find drugs to help me. He’d even offered to… to call someone.

Another sob almost broke from my chest.

I had to go, now.

But there was such a lost look on his face as he stared at me, as if he didn’t know what he was seeing. Not his mate. Not the woman he’d once loved.

I’d changed—Ace had changed me. I could never escape that, no matter how many years or miles I put between us. Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away.

I took another step back, his scent of pear grove fading, and tried to forget that it was the last time it would ever truly be with me.

I had to vanish completely—go somewhere so far away neither them, nor Ace, would ever find me.

“Glade…” For a moment, Knight was so much more than the Alpha who’d argued with Zed not to keep me. Who was just angry that I was here—angry at me. Those beautiful dark brown eyes flashed with desperation far beyond the fury I’d just seen. His chest heaved, voice low and wounded as he threw his weight against the cuffs holding him. “Don’t.”

Don’t leave…

I could almost hear those words.

Don’t leave like before…

“It’s best for you, I promise.” My voice was thick. “For all of us.” That last part. That was a lie. This had never been better for me, but I’d never had a choice.

I forced myself another step back, bracing to do it again. To leave them, and this time, forever.

But then I hit something solid and warm—someone that, should I not have been so panicked, I might have sensed was near. A hand closed over my mouth, covered with… something.

A… cloth?

I struggled briefly, inhaling something sharp and sweet, but then the world went fuzzy.

“...I’m sorry, my Sweet Oasis…” I heard Kyan’s breath in my ear, drifting away as the world went black. “After everything, I won’t let you go.”

16

ZED

Icaught up to the truck to find Glade, Kyan, and Knight all there.

Glade was unconscious.

A wave of relief slammed into me with shocking magnitude.

She hadn’t managed to escape.

I hadn’t realised, until now, how much larger than life she always seemed. It was easy to forget, beneath the blaze of her fierce chestnut eyes, that she was shorter than us by a foot. Kyan had her scooped up like a princess, and she looked oddly small, cheek against his chest, eyes shut. Her bare legs hung limply over his arm, rich bronze skin shining in the daylight above. Her thick, black waves tumbled over his arm, damp hair still dripping as Kyan carried her to the truck.

I’d rarely seen him so tender as when he set her down on the seat, adjusting her carefully in place.

“Do we need to cuff her?” I asked.

“Nah. She’ll be out for hours.” He turned back to me, looking rather proud.

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