Page 4 of Queen Of Clubs

I look at Everett, raising a brow. Who the hell else would just walk into the house?

“Yup,” Zane shouts back.

“Good. I need some clean clothes for work tomorrow. Jade, be a doll and do that for me.”

“I’ll do it,” Zane practically snarls back.

Zane stops in the living room entrance. I can’t see Charles, but I know he’s probably sitting in his boxers and a white T-shirt, watching the football game.

“Fine, whatever,” Charles answers, turning the TV down. “As long as someone does it. Hey, Jade, I need you to—”

“Sorry, we got homework,” Everett cuts in, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the stairs.

“What do you need, Charles?” Griffin asks.

“Thank you,” I sigh as we reach the top of the steps. “You guys really don’t have to keep on doing this, you know?”

“Yes, we do. Because it’s fucking messed up how they treat you, how they treat all of us.”

I give him a small smile and head to my room. I toss my bag on my plain bed with a used, worn blanket and head into the guys’ room.

We’re the only kids Karen & Charles have taken into their home in a long time, and I’m glad. All three guys share a room next to mine. It’s so damn cramped in there. Zane and Everett share a queen-size bed on one side of the room, while Griffin sleeps on a twin on the other.

I find Everett lying on his back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling when I get in there. I smile, joining him.

“I can’t wait until we’re all out of here,” Everett says, turning his head to look at me. I lie down next to him, doing the same. “It kills us knowing we have to leave you here for two years.” He looks utterly gutted.

The guys will age out of the system a good while before me. We’ve talked about it, and the guys say they’re going to work hard, make good money, and when it’s time for me to age out, we will all leave Las Vegas and head to Los Angeles.

There are high hopes that they’ll get signed to a record label. And from the way they sound, I honestly don’t think it will be all that hard.

The fact that the guys want me to go with them, to be a part of their future, means the world to me. But it also terrifies me.

Because someday they’re going to want an omega. They’re going to want something more with someone who isn’t me.

Sure, I could be the beta of their pack, maybe even fall for the omega they choose because I swing both ways. Actually, we all do. But the fact that I’d have to see them be with an omega, see that omega living the life I’ve been dreaming about... it would be too much.

Seeing them love someone else who isn’t me would destroy me.

So, do I take what I can get and learn to live with it?

As I look deep into Everett’s eyes, I know the answer to that question.

No matter what, I know deep in my heart I’d follow these guys to the ends of the earth because even if they can’t love me the way I love them, they’re still my family, my people. And I don’t see a way of living my life without them in it.

Chapter 2

One year later

Jade

MY EYES ARE SWOLLEN and puffy from crying. I tried to hold it together, I tried to be strong, but how could I possibly be able to do that when my whole world is crashing down around me?

“Jelly Bean, please don’t cry. You're killing me here.” Griffin pulls me into his arms, and I wrap mine around him, burying my face in his chest. Everything hurts. I feel like someone has reached into my chest and is holding my heart in the tight grasp of their hand, and the moment these three walk away, my heart will be ripped from my body.

Today is the day, all three of them are leaving me.

Zane’s eighteenth birthday was two months ago. There was no time for the good morning cupcake we get each other every year because as soon as morning came, Charles burst into the guys’ room and practically dragged him out of the house.

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