Chapter 53: Theirs.
June 26 2026, 9:32am.
Nyx’ara did not wake up until three days later, and the first thing she saw when she groggily peeled her eyes open was purple.
A deep electric purple.
Azriel stared down at her like he wanted to see right into her soul, his brows drawn together in intense concentration.
When he noticed her heavy eyes suddenly staring back at him, he flinched as though he’d been struck and backed away slowly, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips as he muttered;
"See who finally decided to join us."
For a moment, Nyx’ara was so stunned she could barely breathe. Her mind was groggy and hazy, making her unable to understand what was going on.
It took her a moment to find her voice and when she finally did, she muttered; "Where am I-I?" Because truthfully, she didn’t know where she was and that seemed like the best question to ask.
Slowly, she blinked up at the pool of purplish-blue in front of her but no response would come—
And then the pain came.
It tore through her ribs, travelled up her spine, and settled behind her eyes with a vicious throb. Her breath caught as she tried to move, but before she could even do that, a hand immediately closed around her wrist, stopping her.
"Don’t."
The voice was low. Familiar. It made Nyx’ara turn her head, and slowly, the swirling purple color began to make sense. It slowly morphed into a pair of eyes... then a face.
Azriel.
Her breath hitched. Azriel sat in the chair beside her bed, dressed in all black. His usually immaculate appearance was ruined by what looked like three days without sleep, in the form of his overgrown beard and the dark circles around his eyes.
His eyes met hers, and in that moment something dangerously carnal flickered there.
Relief. Desire.
She didn’t know.
All she knew was that it vanished so quickly she almost began to convince herself that she had imagined it.
"How l-long?" She tried again. Her voice came out hoarse like her throat was being scraped over sandpaper. "H-how long was I o-out? And w-why does everything hurt?"
Azriel did not respond to her right away. Instead, he reached for the glass of water on the bedside table and brought it up to her lips.
His voice was firm and his eyes ignored her like she had the plague as he drawled; "Three days."
Three days?!
That had Nyx’ara’s eyes widening. She stared at him in disbelief, her heart racing with fear and confusion. For a heated second, her gaze dropped to his hand still wrapped around her wrist, holding her gently yet firmly. He noticed her watching him and released her immediately, lowering his head to hide the desire burning through him like molten magma.
"W-why are y-you he-helping me?" She asked, and this time, he responded by tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers burned where they touched her, making heat rise on her face like a million fireworks.
His voice was gruff, bordering on ferality as he leaned close to her and said; "I was making sure you didn’t die." But even he knew that that was not entirely the case here. "I wanted to be sure that you are fine... that Seraphina didn’t completely ruin you."
She almost laughed at him, but the movement sent a sharp stab through her ribs. Instead, she winced.
Azriel’s jaw tightened. "You should still be asleep."
"I’ve ap-apparently been doing that for three days now." She snapped back, noting to her surprise that her stutter wasn’t too prominent.
She watched him lean back into his chair, but for some reason, his eyes never left her face even once.
"You were injured badly..." he drawled,
"By Seraphina." She answered.
His expression hardened and his hands balled into fists. "Yes."
Nyx’ara studied him for a moment, noting how different something about him was. His aura had shifted so much and it felt so intense that she could hardly breathe.
Her eyes darted around the luxurious large room, taking in the dark furniture and the darker curtains. It was nothing like her room and nothing like a hospital room, but instead of asking about that, she settled for something different.
She asked; "Where is s-she?"
"Who?" Azriel hissed, his brows furrowing.
"Seraphina."
"Being punished."
The answer came too quickly. It was devoid of any emotion; and that made Nyx’ara’s brows pull together.
"By you?"
"By all four of us."
For a moment, silence settled between them. She remembered the fight. Seraphina’s hatred. She shuddered when she remembered the viciousness in her eyes.
And then the pain.
It was a lot.
Nyx’ara swallowed. "S-she wanted me dead." But as soon as she muttered those words, she remembered the torture chamber. She remembered the kind of ’punishment’ the quads were capable of meting out on anyone and her face instantly drained of color.
As if noticing her thoughts, Azriel’s eyes darkened. "I know." He answered,
"She doesn’t like me..." she continued in that hoarse voice. But the more she spoke, the less her stutter occurred, "...you all don’t like me but none of you have tried to kill me—"
The words trailed off, dying on the tip of her tongue and something about it brought about a shift across his face.
He stood up, putting as much distance as he could between them and drawled; "She is mad because you took what she believed belonged to her."
Nyx’ara almost smiled bitterly. "I didn’t take anything."
"No," he said quietly. "You didn’t."
His words made her look at him sharply and Azriel looked away. For the first time since she’d arrived in their pack, he didn’t look at her like she was a murderer. He looked at her like he was trying to understand her.
And somehow, that frightened her more than the hatred she was already used to getting from him.
She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. But no matter how hard she tried, sleep would not come. So she tried again; "Why are you here?" she asked.
His gaze returned to hers and a long silence settled between them..
Then—
"I told you." He muttered. His voice was cold again. "I was only making sure you didn’t die."
Nyx’ara stared at him, not quite believing him. She knew that there was something he wasn’t telling her.
Hell, she could feel it.
She didn’t know why she kept prying despite being so scared of him. But she found herself asking; "You stayed here for three days?"
His jaw clenched. "Yes."
"Why?"
Azriel didn’t answer. Instead, he stood up stiffly, his hands balled into fists by his sides. "Rest."
Then he turned toward the door.
"A-Alpha Azriel." She called out, the word escaping her lips before she could stop it.
He stopped and for a moment, her breath hitched when he turned to look at her. She hesitated.
Then, quietly, she asked the question that had been sitting at the back of her mind for so long. She muttered; "Did you pu-punish Seraphina be-because she hurt me?"
His back remained turned to her and for several seconds, he said nothing.
A beat of silence passed between them and when it finally broke, his head tilted slightly to the side and he spat; "No.
The temperature in the room shifted, dipping until it was so cold that goosebumps spread across her skin. She stared at him for a long moment until he finally looked over his shoulder, grinned at her, and continued; "We punished her because she forgot something important..."
"W-what?" She couldn’t help but ask, feeling her heartbeat accelerate behind her ribs.
God, she hated that she was stuttering, but what she hated the most was how he made her feel.
And how her body responded to him...
Then his eyes met hers. "She forgot that you are ours to break." He drawled coolly. A shiver travelled down Nyx’ara’s spine. Then he added— almost too quietly; "Not hers to destroy."
And then he walked out, not sparing her another glance.
Nyx’ara remained frozen beneath the blankets, her body shaking with a gazillion emotions she could not put a name to. Her fingers gripped at the edge of the cold material until her knuckles turned white.
For the first time, she wasn’t sure which was more dangerous:
The fact that there was a girl desperate for her blood or four men who would do anything to destroy anyone who came close to her.
Including themselves.
She sighed as she watched him walk out of the room and as he pulled the door open, her breath hitched when she noticed that the other three brothers were standing there, probably listening in on their conversation.
A blush crept up her cheek as soon as that thought struck her... but her embarrassment soon morphed into mortification when she noticed that they were not alone.
There was a girl standing with them with her head bowed and her fingers clasped together.
Seraphina.