Page 9 of Queen of Diamonds

It took me minutes to tear through the boxes and find what I was looking for.

The gun was just small enough to fit in the thigh holster already home to a small blade. There was no way I’d be able to sneak in a weapon like this daily. Once was all I’d needed, because a part of me had always known this day was coming.

I reached the door to Bluff, one of the upstairs rooms, plush carpet of the quieter third floor muffling my footsteps.

If the Alphas within were Brotherhood members, I was ready. If they weren’t, then I needed them to get me out of the building. Then I could run. Well, figure out how to get Lucy—then run.

I took a breath and turned the door handle, praying that if they weren’t enemies, then whatever had made them ask for me was enough to convince them of what I needed.

I had to swallow my insecurities, channel my inner Omega, and use the skills my tutors had taught me. Mafia princess and seductress.

I pushed open the door, slipping in quietly, gun in hand but tucked behind my back.

Their scents found me first.

Impossible. And yet… pear grove, snow santal, and a fresh lightning storm weren’t something I would ever mistake.

My heart tripped, soaring for the briefest moment before the crash. Instinct igniting first and filling my heart with more hope than I’d had in years.

That was before I saw them and reality caught up, a shadow swallowing that flash of joy whole. They were on the couches, each looking up at me in surprise.

I realised I’d lifted the gun, shock getting the better of me even if the Alphas I was looking at were my mates.

Kyan, Knight, and Zed. The pack who’d got on their knees to ask for a bond.

The pack I had left rejected.

And the only three Alphas in the world I could never ask to save me from Ace.

4

GLADE

Istared at the three Alphas in the room, trying desperately to pick my jaw off the floor. What were my mates doing here?

There were people after me—men sent by Ace. So how was his brother lounging on the couch in Bluff, head cocked like he didn’t have a worry in the world—despite the gun I was levelling at him?

Zed Maverick was everything I remembered: lean, with shaggy silver hair and an obscene amount of tattoos across his body. He was pack lead, and as stubborn as I was, with a vengeful streak, and petty as fuck when pushed. Kyan perched on the couch arm, while Knight had frozen on Zed’s other side, a drink halfway to his lips.

I stared between them, pulse erratic as I tried to understand what was going on.

“You… brought them here?” I asked.

I realised how stupid the question was the moment it came out of my mouth.

“Brought who here?” Knight asked.

My gaze slid to him. His brow was cocked, head tilted as he watched me.

How were they more beautiful than I remembered?

Knight was a bear of a man, over a foot taller than me and made of solid muscle. He wore the same locs I’d always loved, and they reached just above his waist now. He had rich, dark skin, a strong nose, and a devastating jawline. His intense midnight eyes still had a way of making me feel like we were the only ones left in the universe when they were fixed on me.

Used to.

Now they were cold, as if I was the last person he wanted to be looking at.

“I…” I shook myself.

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