Bloodbound To My Four Archenemies.

June 23 2026, 7:32am.

"I hate her... I hate her! I fucking hate her!" Keiran reminded himself for the one millionth time as he paced from one end of the room to the other.

He had been stuck in his study with pack duties when Rhys barged in, cradling a profusely bleeding Nyx’ara like she was porcelain that was about to break.

At first, he’d been mad for getting so unreasonably interrupted, that was until he saw her state. His head immediately snapped up and his eyes darkened so fast one would think the light bulbs had gone off.

He pressed his lips together as he rose to his feet, stared pointedly at the claw marks lining her shoulder, and growled; "Who did this?"

Rhys hesitated and that made Kieran suspicious. He glanced up, his eyes meeting his brother’s in a deadly glare, and snapped; "You hurt her like this?!"

"Are we not supposed to?" Rhys snapped back, feeling quite unwilling to mention Seraphina’s name, "...didn’t we say that we married her to break her, so why the fuck are you getting so worked up because of a minor scratch?!"

A scratch?! Kieran almost bellowed at his brother as his eyes traced the deep gash on Nyx’ara’s shoulder. It was so deep and so ragged that he could swear that he saw her bones underneath.

The sight made his chest tighten for reasons unknown to him and sharp breath forced its way through his pressed lips. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, and snapped; "You have been reckless, brother. Is this why you were nowhere to be found this morning?"

Rhys, seeing as he was now cornered, lowered his eyes. He had tried to stop Nyx’ara’s bleeding by tying his clothes around her injury so that in itself was already a telltale sign that he wasn’t behind this.

He glanced down at the girl whose face and skin were now pale and for a moment, he contemplated leaving her to bleed to death.

He contemplated ending her like she had ended his sister.

He gulped. "I didn’t do this. Seraphina did. I found them fighting."

The way Kieran’s face darkened as soon as he heard that was a novelty. He shook his head, quickly turned away to hide the storm brewing in his eyes, and hissed; "Go get a doctor!"

"Kieran, don’t do anything cra—"

"Make sure it is Jemima!" He clapped back, interrupting him and leaving no room for argument.

Rhys turned away to go do as told. His bloody hands were trembling as he brought his phone up to his ear and dialed Jemima’s phone.

It rang but she didn’t pick it up.

He tried two more times and when she still wouldn’t pick up, he called Rowan, their beta, and hissed coldly into the phone:

"Rowan, get your sister here in ten minutes max, and make sure she comes with all her tools. It is urgent."

Rowan who was back in Moonshine pack for ’personal reasons’ let the phone drop from his ear. He cast a glance at the beautiful vixen, Berlin, in front of him and turned away without another word.

"I am leaving," he said,

Her deep cerulean eyes bore sad holes into his flesh as soon as he said those words, but he couldn’t turn to look at her. He couldn’t even bring himself to wrap his arms around her body and pepper kisses along her skin like he wanted to.

This was urgent.

While lost in thought, her fingers laced through his calloused ones but he quickly pulled back, smiled forlornly at her, and hissed; "Don’t be so clingy, you are not a dog."

And with that, he turned and walked away from her, ignoring her sharp hurtful gasp and the bright-as-day tears glistening in her eyes.

Deep down, he knew that he would return to her later. Hell, he might even allow himself to devour her then; but for now, duty called.

And he had to answer.

—

June 23 2026, 10:41am.

Nyx’ara had slept for so long that Kieran was beginning to get very frightened.

Every now and then, he would find himself rushing to her side and sticking his fingers under her breath as if checking for her pulse. His heart raced as he did it this time just as he did the other times, but no matter how many times he did that, one thing was certain:

She was alive... barely.

Seraphina will pay for this.

His hands balled into fists and his teeth gnashed against one another as he stared at her pale face. From

The corner of his eye, he noticed Draven watching him closely but his brother had not moved an inch away from the door since he stepped in.

His eyebrows were drawn together and his lips were pressed into a thin line as he watched Kieran cater for Nyx’ara.

For a moment, he contemplated turning around and leaving but just the thought of leaving her— even though he wasn’t leaving her alone— filled him with apprehension and self-depreciation.

He sighed. "Do you have any idea what led to this?" He asked and as soon as he did, Kieran’s eyes snapped up. He shook his head quickly, avoiding his brother’s gaze as he answered;

"No. All I know is that Seraphina did that to her."

"Why?"

"Isn’t it obvious?" Kieran almost shouted at his brother. "She has been acting up ever since we got married. Her father has refused to grant us our usual supplies even though we have paid more than what we agreed upon... and now, this."

"She disobeyed direct orders," Draven hissed, his voice cold. Once again, he let his eyes drop to Nyx’ara’s sleeping form and immediately, it felt as though his chest tightened. His nerves all strung together and his body vibrated with just enough force to let him know that he was beyond mad.

"Then I’ll ask Azriel to take care of her." He hissed through gritted teeth. "He is closer to her than the rest of us."

As soon as Draven said that, he turned to leave but stopped when Kieran’s voice suddenly rang out, tearing through the still air.

"Azriel has been avoiding Seraphina."

Draven froze and then spun around. "He what?!"

"He has completely stopped seeing her and from what I gathered, he did so because he is now a ’married man’."

Draven pondered over these words for a few minutes, not quite believing that Azriel, the notorious flirt, was capable of ever making a statement like that.

His brows furrowed one more time as he turned to glare at the unconscious girl— the unconscious girl who had brought about so many strange changes since her arrival— and nodded once.

"I’ll talk to him."

"You better do that. You have to remind him that he is the one keeping our agreement with Seraphina and her father intact."

"Will do."