Page 69 of Queen of Diamonds

“Are you giving her our scents?”

“She likes them.” I glanced down at her, then did a double take. She more than liked them, she’d almost vanished, the sweetest little hum of contentment sounding from the pile. I scrambled in behind her. She was burrowing without me?

Absolutely not.

I heard Zed’s footsteps approaching.

“You’re getting too close.”

“Uh… no. I’m not close enough.” That was obvious. Glade really liked it when our skin touched—I’d cottoned onto that when she was sleeping up in my bunk with me. Before I’d been tasered, she had snuggled close, breath hitching if contact between us ended for even a second.

To prove my point, I slipped beneath the first blanket.

Glade’s dainty hand surfaced from her burrow, finding my face, then my neck, and drawing me closer.

I smiled smugly.

Of course I was right.

“I’m coming, Oasis,” I told her, slipping beneath the blankets further and letting out a breath of relief as I felt her palms drop to my chest. I drew her into my arms, feeling her breathing slow as she curled up into my embrace.

“Her heat can’t be far,” I murmured, popping my head up and over the blankets to check Zed’s expression. He looked appropriately stunned as he watched us, and through the bond, I could feel his frustration keep cresting pitifully before it drowned to the much more potent envy that was eating him alive.

“She’s ours,” I said.

“She left us.”

“And now, she can’t.” What was hard about this?

We were Alphas, she was our Omega. We’d claimed her. Like I’d said, the collar was genius. They could stop being butthurt about the whole rejection thing.

Bump in the road, really.

“We can’t keep her collared forever.”

“Why not?” I asked. “It stops you and Knight from panicking every time she glances at the door—and she wants it.”

“Wants it?” Zed spluttered, loud enough that Glade visibly stirred, eyes blinking for a moment as she tilted her head toward the gap in the blankets around us. We both froze, keeping silent until she settled, relaxing back against me. Zed lowered his voice. “She does not.”

“Are you blind?”

Earlier I’d noticed she’d been unable to stop looking at my silver bracelet decorated with little leaves. There was such intensity in her gaze, pupils expanding, scent shifting to something possessive.

I tested my theory as we sat on the couch, flicking through channels, and tucked my hand in my pocket. The little growl she let out was swiftly covered with a cough, and Lucy, who was curled up on her lap, startled awake.

So, next I went to the bathroom and scent-marked in private. To my delight, she snuggled next to me on the couch when I’d returned.

She didn’t think I noticed as she slowly eased it off my wrist and stuffed it into her bra.

Bless.

After, she’d darted back to the cell under the guise of using the bathroom, and was almost glowing when she returned to burrow under my arm.

That was definitely nesting…

“Kyan.” Zed dragged me out of the pleasant memory. “She doesn’t want us.”

“She fucking well does,” I snorted.

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