Page 85 of Queen of Diamonds

My fingers fumbled for the collar at my neck, the one that was no longer there. Why did I want it suddenly? As if it might offer me protection.

Last night, it had.

But now… Knight had realised the truth.

What did it mean?

“I don’t like being made to wait…” My nightmare sounded harsh, the slightest edge of ice to his tone that told me I was in danger.

His question echoed, a dare in my terrified mind.

And I was scared of so much more now. Scared of what they would do if they learned. Of what I would do if it mattered to them that I’d suffered all these years.

I could go out there and admit it all. Could take a risk…

No one had found us yet. Maybe… was it possible they never would?

Ace’s finger traced my back, through my shirt, drawing across scarred lines we both knew by heart.

“You ran from me, Omega. You didn’t listen,” Ace whispered. “You’re mine, and you will never escape me?—”

“No.” I shook my head.

“No?” He let out the faintest breath of a laugh. “No, what? You won’t tell me?”

My breath caught.

…Tell me who you belong to…

I took a breath, hot tears burning my eyes. I was ready, at last, to stop being afraid of roses.

“Myself,” I whispered. It was the only way forward. My hands shook, fists balled as I hugged myself, terrified of what my nightmare would do as I fought it at last. “Not you. Not them.” My voice shook as I found words that freed me at last. “I belong to me.”

ZED

I’d slammed the door in Knight’s face, fury from the rut leaving me unable to talk to him.

It was irrational, but I was pissed.

Glade had been settled with us, happy and curled up between us on the bed. Whatever Knight had done, it had turned her on us.

My Omega.

This possessive tantrum would pass with the rut.

Still, I tossed and turned in bed for ages, almost getting up when I heard Knight turning on the TV outside. Given that the only instinct that popped into my head with that was decking him, I decided to stay put. I was completely irrational, and the hormones needed to take their course.

It didn’t help that I was drowned in flashes from the rut. Of her beneath me, begging for me, lips parted as she shook with an orgasm, but perhaps more than that were the brief flashes of twilight between fucks. When she and I were locked together, and she drew me close. I’d spotted brief moments of anxiousness, as if she wasn’t sure she should. But then my purr would rumble to life and she would melt, letting me hold her close, unlocking a piece of me that hadn’t seen daylight in years.

Then I remembered what she’d said, the way she’d taunted us, and I found a way to dig up a little bitterness, though that need for vengeance was more fragile than ever.

I couldn’t believe the first time I’d had a fuck in all these years had been with the only Omega I’d ever dreamed of. In a goddamned rut.

Finally, I heard more movement outside of my bedroom, and poked my head out of my door to find Kyan standing at the kitchen table, picking up the collar. “What’s this doing here?”

Knight was leaning in the doorway that led out of the warehouse, tugging earphones from his ears.

It was four a.m., but maybe he was just as wound up as I was. He didn’t look tired, like he’d hadn’t slept despite the hour. Kyan glanced from the collar to me when no one answered. “I thought you guys were rutting?”

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