Page 72 of Queen of Diamonds

I was losing it. The panic was a faint echo, but I managed to try to take a step away. His grip tightened, holding me in place, and a faint whine rose in my chest.

Was I panting?

When had his hand found my waist?

My gaze dropped to where his lips were drawn in a snarl. It was all I could do not to tilt my neck to him like I had Knight, but fighting that took everything out of me.

Bite…

He was my Alpha—pack lead. His bite would claim me more than this collar. His pupils blew, grip at my waist punishing as he dragged me closer.

He would.

He had to.

There was nothing more right in the world.

Then his hand was gone, and I was in freefall, heart dropping like a stone as his touch faded.

He took one step away, then another.

Ice speared my veins, panic creeping in.

Don’t cry.

His expression was hard. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” The quiet words were more empty than cruel. If anything, there was an agony in his eyes that matched mine.

He took a final step backward before turning and leaving me to hold back tears.

It took a while before I had the courage to walk back into the living room. I quickly made for Zed’s shower—he’d told me I could use his since the cell didn’t have warm water.

The shock collar was waterproof, at the least, but when I was finished, I wasn’t sure what to do.

I settled on the couch beside Kyan, a part of me wanting to flee back to the cell so I didn’t have to see any of them tonight. Zed was seated cross-legged with his laptop on the armchair not far off. I didn’t dare meet his eyes.

“So.” Knight dropped onto the coach beside me, either missing it entirely, or reading the tension in the room and not caring. “Why Ace?”

An horrible tension hit the room, which, by Knight’s expression, was entirely his intent.

“Knight…” Zed looked sour.

“Nah. If she’s gonna come back in here and start playing Desperate fucking Housewife all of a sudden, we aren’t so conveniently skipping the big questions.”

They were staring at me, every one of them on edge for what I might say. I bit my lip, not meeting any of their eyes.

“Ace is…” I paused, trailing off for a moment, then shrugged. “He’s not like any Alpha I’ve ever met.”

Not a lie.

Zed’s expression became stiff as he stared at me.

“Let’s get it all straight, though,” Knight went on. “You chose Ace over your own mates and then cheated on him two years later. Doesn’t make much sense except for one thing.”

I watched him curiously. That, I knew, was what people believed—that Ace had shown me mercy when he’d kicked me from the Brotherhood for cheating on him. “And what is that?” I asked. They’d had years to mull it over and probably a million ideas of why I was the scent match from hell. I’d done the same at the start, kept up at night wondering what they must believe.

“He found his scent match, and it was a bit of karma for you. Did you think he was going to reject his match, like you had for him?”

I stared at Knight, working through that.

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