Chapter 39: Sore thumb.
June 20 2026, 10:04am.
For a moment, Nyx’ara could only stand there blushing fiercely while a gazillion butterflies took flight in her stomach. Her heart jumped into her throat when he dragged his lips intimately over the back of her palm, creating a tingling sensation up her arm while at the same time, ignoring the slight roughness.
"Yo-your what?" She asked, unsure if she had heard him correctly.
"My Luna," he said again, his voice sure and steady.
For the first time since this whole fiasco began, Nyx’ara felt a hint of peace settle somewhere deep inside her guts. She felt her body instinctively inch toward his like a moth to flame.
She almost moved... gravitating toward him unconsciously... until she felt an iron-like grip on her upper arm, holding her in place, and in surprise, she looked up to find Azriel glaring down at her in rage and... was that jealousy?
Annoyance?
Well, when was he ever not annoyed with her?
Discarding that thought, she lowered her head and retreated, settling back between Azriel and Kieran. Goddess, she had almost forgotten that the handsome daredevil was still holding onto her hand until Rhys slapped his grip off and hissed;
"That’s enough now, Damian, isn’t it?"
His action made the young man chuckle lightly. He pressed his hand to his chest in mock embarrassment, beamed a smile— that was mainly directed at Nyx’ara and drawled; "Ignore my grumpy-ass cousins, my name is Damian Stormborn."
Cousins...
Stormborn.
Nyx’ara blushed. "Nice to meet you, Lord Damian, I-I am..."
"Nyx’ara!" He cut in, interrupting her, his eyes warm and piercing. "I have known your name from the moment you stepped into this house and I have also been taken by you ever since."
As a blush crept up Nyx’ara’s face, she wondered if he also knew about her crime... if he knew that she was a prisoner and a fake bride?
She looked up at him and found none of the disgust... the coldness and the anger being directed at her by every other person present. She smiled genuinely for the first time today.
"Thank you."
Rhys did not like that their cousin, Damian, was being so ’touchy’ with Nyx’ara, but what he hated most was the genuine smile she beamed in his direction.
She had never smiled at him like that before.
Her eyes were drawn to him like a metal to a magnet, following his every move, shining when he did anything she found remotely fascinating... and making the rage in his chest burn hotter.
At the moment, all he cared about was Nyx’ara and for that reason, didn’t even pay attention to Elodie and the way she pressed close to him. He didn’t even care that she was trailing her claw-like nails over his arm in a way that grated against his nerves. He didn’t care that she was stunning and alluring in a way that hardly any women were.
To him, his bride was beautiful too.
He lowered his head until his lips were merely inches away from Nyx’ara’s ear and hissed; "Do you realize that you are married now?"
She frowned, lifted her head to meet his gaze, and cocked her eyebrows in askance.
"What I mean is that you should not be ogling after men anymore, especially since you are married to four!"
Nyx’ara froze. Something about that screamed jealousy. Something about the way his cold eyes darted between her and Damian felt too intense.
She peeled her eyes away from Damian just then to see Elodie glaring at her but before she could make sense of what was happening, Elodie stormed off, looked for a chair somewhere in the corner of the hall, and plopped into it.
Luck was never on her side though because as soon as she sat down, she realised to her horror that she was seated right in front of the quad’s fangirls who were all salty that the Alphas had decided to marry an ordinary girl like Nyx’ara.
One with strange pink hair hissed; "Look at her acting all mighty because she now bears their mark!"
"I would act that way too if I was the one carrying the crescent mark like she is doing right now." Another one with cropped salt-and-pepper blonde hair hissed back, "...all I am mad about is the fact that they married that scum instead of Lady Seraphina! She is the only right fit for them and the only woman this pack would ever recognize!"
Those words made Elodie freeze. She used to be best friends with the said Seraphina.
When she noticed that Seraphina herself was sandwiched between the girls, listening to the way they tore down the weak scum, Nyx’ara, and praised her, her blood boiled.
She turned around slowly, shrugged, and hissed; "Well, it is a shame isn’t it?"
At the sound of her voice, the girls stopped talking. Seraphina froze infinitesimally upon seeing that it was Elodie, but contrary to the girl who used to be so meek as Elodie’s best friend, she was now cocky.
She rolled her eyes. "What is a shame?"
"The fact that you are gathered here with your minions, tearing down a girl you feel isn’t as good as you..."
"But she is not as good as Lady Seraphina, is she?" The cropped-haired girl snapped, making Elodie roll her eyes.
"Maybe, maybe not... but who is on the altar now with them?" She asked, making the group fall silent. She then turned to Seraphina, flashed her a smile, and continued;
"I heard you were in charge of everything. That you planned this glamorous wedding from scratch. You chose the bouquet, the decorations, and even picked the food on the menu... I guess that’s all you’ll ever be to them then. The face who does all the work but never wears the ring. The ’worthy’ almost Luna who bears the brunt of action but never bears their mark."
As more words tumbled out of Elodie’s mouth, Seraphina’s face turned ashen.
"Elodie..."
"By the time she bears children for them, you’ll also plan their coming-of-age ceremony, am I right?" She continued, and at this point, Seraphina was visibly puffing... and visibly sweating under the air conditioning.
From the corner of her eyes, Elodie noticed the arrival of an aunt she had always favoured, and with a smile, she rose to her feet, bowed so deeply at Seraphina that her head nearly touched the ground, and hissed sarcastically;
"I’d like to take my leave now, your almost majesty. Or should I say Lun Seraphina, with a silent ’a’ seeing as you were unable to fully become Luna after doting on the Alphas for several years and even betraying your best friends for them?"
Seraphina gulped. Her face burned with embarrassment and rage, but before she could think of something to say, Elodie spun around and left with a flourish, leaving her feeling even worse than she felt since this morning.
Nyx’ara, on the other hand, was still sandwiched between the Alphas, greeting guests with a dazzling smile plastered across her face. To people who do not know the full truth, they looked like they were in love... or at least, like they tolerated each other. But everyone else living in the pack knew the truth.
This was far from a love marriage.
Sometime into their endless greeting of guests, her hands froze on Kieran’s and Azriel’s arms, causing both men to turn to her then to the spot where she kept staring at. Her face was flushed, losing all colour in an instant. Her eyes widened too and her heart began to pound so loudly, they could hear it.
Once again, Kieran glanced at her then at the door where Alpha Flynn stood out like a sore thumb with a beautiful young woman perched on his arm. He frowned;
"Why are you glaring at your former Alpha like that?"