Page 54 of Queen of Diamonds

I tried to wriggle away, but his purr shifted to a growl and his arms clamped around me like a vice.

Okay.

We were getting aggressive with the cuddles.

I needed to stop moving. It was like when the seat belt stops unrolling, so you have to feed it back to make it shift again, but instead you trap yourself against the seat tighter and tighter.

Zed, I reminded myself, was a very possessive, very primal Alpha. Definitely the faultiest seatbelt in the history of seatbelts, and I was his scent match.

For a second, another little whine rose, but I shoved it down.

His snow santal scent was like a fog, smothering my last brain cells to death. For a moment I shut my eyes, and I was stepping through a winter forest where the warm lights of santal cabins glowed ahead. Warm and comforting, a fire crackled in a deep winter night…

I’d slept half the day, but it hadn’t been restful. I was… tired, my eyelids heavy. Zed’s arms were warm around me, a blanket of protection, threatening to seal shut wounds I never thought would heal.

He was asleep, though. He wouldn’t know I’d given into this, that I sank against his chest, vanishing into a dream I knew I could never truly have.

And if he didn’t even know, Ace certainly never would… That… That was how it worked, right?

“Do you want to get out of here?”

My eyes flew open from a deep slumber at the sound of Kyan’s voice, a faint breath in my ear.

I froze, blinking up at him, trying to make out his shape in the shadows. He waited for my reply, knuckle lingering on my chin, and it was like static leaped between us. It took me a long time to orient myself, but then I nodded.

That was right, I thought. I wanted to get out of here.

But was Kyan a good alternative? I thought Zed might be right to worry about what Kyan could handle, but—Oh, my God. I was still in his arms. I definitely couldn’t face him waking like this—knowing he’d hate what he’d done.

“Is he… cuddling you?” Kyan asked, a frown in his whisper.

I nodded again.

“That complicates things,” he said.

He vanished for a moment; he could move in silence far too well.

Then he was back, pressing a pillow to my face. “Scent mark it,” he breathed.

I did as he asked, drawing my chin along the pillow.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh,” Kyan breathed as he slipped it past my back—to Zed, I assume. His grip was much weaker than it had been before I’d gone to sleep, and he was no longer purring. It took a little while, but Kyan managed to get me free of Zed’s aggressive cuddles.

How would he undo the cuffs?

Only then, I saw what he’d brought.

Bolt cutters?

Right. Obviously.

I opened my mouth when I saw him lining up the bolt cutters with the wire that Zed had attached to his bed instead of my cuffs, but then I knew Kyan hadn’t come here in order to free me.

I’d still take it over this non-nightmare-nightmare that was whining pathetically as the mate who despised me cuddled me while he slept.

The cut was clean and silent, and the next thing I knew, Kyan had his arm around my waist as he tugged me to my feet. In the darkness, his smile flashed, then he swept me up in his arms, rushing me from the room.

He froze through the doorway and I twisted my head to see Knight on the couch, bowl of popcorn in his arm as he watched what looked to be a cop show on TV.

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