Rejected by My Alpha Mate; Nyra's Awakening

Caius’ truck pulls into the Blackwood mansion just before the sun sets.

Dorian barely waits for it to stop before pushing the door open. His shirt is stained, and the deep claw marks running from his neck toward his chest are very visible, even though they are already healing.

He is furious with his father. Not just for treating him like that, but for killing that innocent boy. He just can’t forget how the light went out from his fearful eyes.

Caius comes out behind him, hands in his pockets as though nothing happened. He throws the keys to one of the staff, following behind Dorian into the living room.

Darius is talking to Miss Roseline in the living room when he notices Dorian coming in angrily. Then he sees the wounds on his neck, followed by Caius behind him.

"What the hell happened to him?" he booms angrily. How can he do something like this to his own son, for crying out loud!

Caius is completely unfazed by the Alpha’s anger, and he doesn’t stop walking. "Mind your business, brother."

"Do you even hear yourself!?" His eyes grow dark with anger. "How can you act so nonchalant about hurting your own child like this!?"

Dorian looks away. He just wants to go rest in his room. But Darius isn’t letting it go.

"He’s nineteen, Caius! You can’t keep doing this to him! How would Aurelia feel if she see what you’re-"

At the mention of his late mate’s name, Caius punches his brother’s chest. "Don’t you dare call her name with your filthy mouth!"

The tension in the room is very heavy. The staff don’t know what to do, seeing both brothers fight again like they used to do even from childhood.

Darius doesn’t hit him back. Instead, he releases his Alpha aura into the air, forcing Caius to let go of his shirt.

"You will listen to me, and you will follow me to my office." Darius commands in a low, dark voice.

Caius clenches his jaw. He doesn’t want to talk to him, but he can’t withstand the Alpha’s command.

After a few tense minutes of standing there, Caius reluctantly lets go completely and follows him inside.

"Do you need help with your wounds?" Miss Roseline asks quietly.

"No." He shrugs her off when she tries to touch him. "Don’t touch me without my permission next time." Then he storms up the stairs.

The wounds are already beginning to close due to him being an Alpha, but the deepest one in his chest still hurts him whenever he moves too fast.

Because of the shirt he is wearing, the wound is pretty obvious, making all the servants turn and watch him as he passes. They are looking at him with pity in their eyes, and Dorian completely despises such looks.

He doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him.

He is in a sour mood, but the moment he finds her in the hallway, he finds himself relaxing a little.

Nyra.

She has a way of making everyone around her calm and happy without even knowing it.

"Hey, Dorian. How are-" Her mouth falls open when she sees the wounds on his neck.

Dorian doesn’t want her to worry too much, so he immediately steps back and pulls the shirt higher to hide the injuries.

"It’s nothing," he mumbles, without her asking.

Nyra just stares at him. Those big, beautiful eyes filled with worry. "Tell me what happened, Dorian. Those wounds look really bad."

"I said it’s nothing."

"Nothing, huh?" She frowns, refusing to let him go so easily. Nyra grabs his hand." Come closer, let me see it."

Reluctantly, Dorian lowers the shirt, giving her a full view of his injuries. "Would you tell me what happened?" She asks with pleading eyes.

Dorian looks at her. She doesn’t pity him, she just... cares. It feels good to know that someone cares for him, even though he is jealous knowing she cares for Adrian more.

"I don’t want to talk about it," he insists, forcing a smile. "Seriously. Don’t worry about me."

Dorian tries to pull walk again, but Nyra holds him tighter. He looks down at their joined hands, feeling his heartbeat quicken.

"Fine, if you don’t want to tell me. Can we at least get it cleaned?"

It’s the same offer the other staff had made a few minutes ago. But hearing it from Nyra sounds tempting.

Unfortunately, he promised his father he would keep his distance from her. So he decides to change the topic instead.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be throwing a party in your condo tonight."

"Oh." Nyra’s ears turn pink. "We canceled it."

"Why? What happened? Are you okay?"

"Because..." Nyra blushes, letting go of his hand for a minute. She remembers exactly what happened after she accidentally told Adrian about the time Anna’s men almost raped her.

FIVE HOURS AGO.

Nyra lets out a bitter laugh. "Liar. You couldn’t hold back before. You used to touch me like you couldn’t get enough of me. Hands under my clothes, mouth everywhere, no patience at all." She wipes her eyes. "And now what? Suddenly you have all this self-control? Right after I was almost raped?"

Every muscle in Adrian’s body locks, and his eyes go completely dark.

"You say what now?"

Adrian stares at her, completely stunned. He feels like a terrible mate because he didn’t even know something like that had happened.

He tried to give her space because he didn’t want to pressure Nyra into telling him everything at once.

Nyra finally breaks and tells him everything. From the hospital, then how Mia blocked the bond by giving her strange herbs.

Down to the warehouse, the way Anna sent those men to rape her just to humiliate her and how they tore her clothes and touched her skin. How it made her feel dirty.

She doesn’t mean to lie, but she deliberately doesn’t tell him about the strange burst of power that helped her fight the men. She remembers her wolf telling her not to say anything about that yet.

"And then Anna beat me in frustration. She kept stomping on my stomach." She sniffles, wiping uselessly at the tears. "And that’s how I lost the baby."

The Enigma wolf inside Adrian is so angry hearing this. It wants Adrian to shift and run back into those woods to find Anna himself and kill her with his own claws.

But the sight of Nyra breaking in front of him makes him force the wolf’s demands down.

Adrian pulls her into his chest, not caring about her tears soaking his shirt. "I felt like I disappointed you. Like you were not touching me because those men touched me. I feel dirty now, Adrian. What if you don’t want me anymore?"

"Shhhh. Never say that." He pats her head, feeling her pain in his chest. He can’t believe she’s been living with these feelings for so many days now.

"I can never be disgusted by you. Not even for a second. The disgusting ones are those men who thought they could put their hands on you."

Nyra looks up at him, her eyes are red and swollen. "Then why won’t you refuse to touch me? What’s the reason?"

Adrian sighs. It’s time to tell her the real truth. "The thing is, an Enigma’s first mating can be very rough." He grabs her chin so she can face him. "I’m scared I won’t be able to stop the wolf and it will hurt you if we have sex now."

Nyra stares at him with wide eyes. Now she just feels silly. "So it’s not because you don’t want me anymore?"

"Never!" Adrian groans. "You have no idea how hard it is for me to control myself and not just take you right now."

He presses a gentle kiss to her forehead, then to her lips, kissing her softly. "When I’m certain I can control this beast inside me, I’ll make sure you never have to doubt how much I want you again."

Nyra gives a tiny laugh through her tears. "How long will that take!?"

"I don’t know," Adrian says honestly. The last time they kissed, his claws came out without him knowing, and his Enigma almost took over. "But until then, I’m going to take care of you in other ways."

He kisses her again, slow and tender, then pulls back. "And Nyra, stop blaming yourself for the baby. You didn’t fail anyone. Sometimes the Goddess makes choices we don’t understand."

"I know. But it still hurts."

"Don’t worry," Adrian says, pulling her closer. "We are always together. We can always make more children if you’d like."

That makes her laugh, and she hits his stomach lightly with her left hand. "Stop playing around like that."

"I’m not playing around." Adrian grunts, grabbing her left hand with one hand while he uses the other to pick up his phone.

"Right now, I’m cancelling the party. My priority is to make sure my mate knows I’m still obsessed with every inch of her."

"But you said-"

"I said sex," Adrian interrupts, smiling mischievously. "But there are so many more things we can do, baby."

---

Nyra blushes hard at the memory of everything Adrian did to her in that condo before they came back to the mansion an hour ago.

He had worshiped her body in ways she didn’t know were possible, making her cry out in pleasure as she hit orgasm again and again.

As they stand there facing each other, Adrian comes out of the room. From his eyes, it looks like Dorian is making Nyra blush and smile.

Before he can stop himself, the Enigma takes over and forces him to storm over there without thinking twice.

He grabs Nyra’s hand tight, and she lets out a loud cry in pain as his claws dig into her wrists.

"Just what the fuck were you doing with my cousin!?"