Chapter 45: What if I told you…
June 23 2026, 11:32am.
"I want... I don’t want her to be punished!" Elara screamed, some of her facade cracking as she stumbled towards Nyx’ara.
"As I said earlier, my sister can be very bad but she’s still young! She has her whole life ahead of her and—"
"My sister didn’t have her whole life ahead of her?" Rhys’ baritone thundered across the room.
At that, Elara’s lips clamped shut. Her body shook just enough for memories of that night to surge through her head. She could remember how terribly it rained that night. She could remember how scared the princess Leilani had been as she slowly backed towards the edge of the rooftop.
Her long silvery hair just like Nyx’ara’s was wet and bloody and her eyes were filled with fear and pain as she slowly backed away.
"Stop!" She had cried, trembling. "My brothers will kill you if anything ever happens to me. You have enough opportunity now to right this wrong. I won’t tell anyone what I saw. I won’t breathe a word of it... so just let me go."
She should have let her go right then and there... she should not have let all of it escalate into this madness.
Maybe if Leilani had not died then Nyx’ara wouldn’t be here living comfortably, looking down at her with iciness and pride in her eyes.
She hadn’t pushed the princess but she wished she had done something differently to save her. Maybe then, they would have become friends... and perhaps, she would be friends with her brothers too.
She was jolted out of these thoughts when she felt someone step impossibly close to her. The heat from their body burned through her light dress, swamping her body and soul with a kind of heat so scorching, it made her lips part instinctively.
His aura was so strong, she wanted to kneel. To submit and just as her wolf began to lower its head, she was once again pulled out of her reverie.
"You should get your story right." He said.
She blinked, stunned.
His voice made her lift her eyes to meet his and when she did, her breath caught at the sight of the golden pools she was instantly immersed in.
Alpha Rhys was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen in her entire life and she would rather die than let her sister get all of this goody bag for herself.
Putting on her usual facade, she twisted her face into a look of pure shock and worry. Her fingers trembled with feigned panic and she cried;
"I just want her to be saved. You can take me and kill me. You can transfer all of the punishment you wish to be meted upon her to me. You can beat me and lock me up... you can take me."
You can take me.
Those words echoed around the room, plunging its temperature lower until it was about 20 degrees less than what it initially was.
Nyx’ara’s head shot up to meet Elara’s tear-streaked face and in that moment, she realized what this was. She wasn’t here to help. She wasn’t here to plead for her. She was here to take her place— which was laughable really.
Something akin to amusement crossed Rhys’ face before he slowly stepped back from her. He crossed his arms over his chest and drawled coldly; "No."
"No?" Elara rasped, stunned.
"No," he repeated, his eyebrows twitching. "I refuse to agree with the swap. I refuse to let an innocent person suffer for crimes committed by another and I refuse to take you in after my brothers and I have married your sister and branded her as ours."
"You don’t get it—!" Elara began to speak, sounding desperate, but stopped when Nyx’ara finally spoke up for the first time in minutes.
"No, s-sister. Protect yourself."
Her eyes flashed with malicious intent.
"Y-you said I-I used to-to bully you, right? Y-you said I-I w-was always ba-bad to you, right?"
"Yes," Elara hissed, almost unable to hide the contempt in her voice.
"Good then. Y-you should be ha-happy, Elara. Y-you should be-be glad that I-I am finally ou-out of y-your hair a-and suffering from m-my karma. Y-you should be pr-proud that y-you are finally saved from me..." she let her voice trail off and her eyes rake longer across her sister’s face, "...unless th-there’s more to-to this th-than you’re willing to-to a-admit."
As soon as Nyx’ara said that, Elara’s face twisted. Shame and hurt slammed into her ribs. Her hand shook with annoyance and contempt. For the millionth time in her life, she felt this irresistible urge to squeeze her throat until she dropped dead.
But if she did that, then her main competition would be dead.
Draven, who watched the whole thing the entire time and was now bored out of his mind, shifted. His hand holding his staff squeezed so hard it nearly turned chalk-white. He glanced at the young girl, Elara, who was more pretentious than the serpent in the Bible itself, and sighed.
"I don’t care about you or what you think. I don’t care if you feel bad for your sister or not. All I want you to understand is the fact that as of now, she is our prisoner and will remain so for as long as we want. So you can all get out now, we have something important to discuss with our new bride."
Elara’s face flushed. Her opportunity... her chance... it was slipping right out of her fingers.
Desperation clawed its way through her veins, ripping out whatever shred of dignity she had left. Her knees hit the floor with one loud thud and she bowed once more.
"Alpha!"
"I said that’s enough!" Draven yelled, but she was too desperate... too lost to care.
In one final desperate move, she pressed her head into his knees and cried out; "What if I told you that Nyx’ara did not kill your sister?! What if I volunteer to look for the real murderer?!"
Now, Azriel could no longer hide the amused smile on his face. He shook his head at her and rolled his eyes. "Soon, you’ll say you’re the murderer!" He joked,
"Okay, what if I say I am?!" Elara screamed back, and as soon as she did that, Flynn who had been quiet and still jumped into action. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her to her feet. His voice was cold and hard as he snapped;
"What the fuck are you doing? Do you wish to die?"
Draven ignored both of them. For a moment, he couldn’t ascertain if the young woman was just utterly mad or was simply too desperate to save her sister, so he shrugged. "Even if Nyx’ara is not the murderer, she will remain here. She will continue to be our bride and whoever the murderer is will be killed."
The light left Elara’s eyes so fast you would think someone had switched it off. She quickly rose to her feet, wiped her face with the back of her hands, and nodded.
"I understand."
He didn’t look at her. He didn’t care. "I hope you do." He snarled.