Chapter 77: We are not family.
July 13 2026, 10:43pm.
"Let us all welcome the man responsible for such a grand event forward to give his speech!" The host, a middle-aged woman with high cheekbones, tightly bound blonde hair, and lips so red, she looked like she had just finished a feast of blood, announced from the front.
Her smile looked almost forced as she ushered a young man forward to the front of the hall. The guest was a man of impeccable features ranging from his broad string shoulders, to his sharp eyes and high cheekbones. His hair was a deep black with graying hairs at the top of his ears and his aura was so strong, Nyx’ara noticed herself doing a double-take.
He walked forward with the sure strides of a predator circling around its prey, his movements slow yet daunting as he climbed up the podium, snatched the microphone from the woman, and smiled a dazzling smile that had the crowd swooning.
"Hello everyone, it is a pleasure to grace this wonderful event. My name is Mister Vincent Lau Jin-Hao, the CEO of Vance Corporation, and I am standing here to welcome, as well as thank you all for taking your sweet time to attend this gathering despite how rushed it may have come off in the first place."
Nyx’ara zoned out from there because first off, this was not her kind of gathering... and secondly, she was only here because she’d been forced to.
Her mind wandered away as she thought of how Draven had fought for her some minutes ago, and just the thought of that moment sent a swarm of butterflies taking flight at the base of her stomach.
As Vincent continued to speak at the front, she found herself leaning into Kieran’s side. Her fingers were still laced through his while Rhys’ hand still rested at the small of her back. Beside them, Azriel and Draven stood like mini-bodyguards. Azriel sipped wine from a glass while Draven stood rooted in place, his veins straining against the skin of his arm as his hands balled into tight fists.
She let herself soak in their warmth. Let herself float in the bliss of feeling protected... and let their auras wrap around her— for the first time— peacefully.
However, she was jolted out of her thoughts when a figure walked towards them. Her eyes widened slowly as she saw Elara, without Flynn, approach her.
When Elara stopped in front of Nyx’ara and the quads who stared straight through her like she was nothing but the filth beneath their shoes, she stopped and then bowed her head elegantly. Her voice was unreasonably high and squeaky as she drawled;
"Greetings Alpha... Greetings sister."
Nyx’ara let her eyes drop from the podium to her sister clad in a dress so beautiful, it made her skin gleam under the lights. Her usually long hair was cropped and trimmed in a way that it stopped right on top of her slender shoulders and her eyes were so bright, it rivalled the chandelier up above.
"Greetings sis-sister."
"I noticed your arrival from the back of the hall and decided that it is only right that I come to say hello, seeing as you’re so busy."
Her tone held a tone of mockery but deciding not to push into it, Nyx’ara smiled tightly and turned to her husbands. "Thank you."
And ladies and gentlemen, that should be the end of such an awkwardly awful conversation, right?
That should’ve given Elara the hint to walk away and never return, right?
But she didn’t.
And do you know what she did instead?
She turned to Azriel who was still sipping from his champagne flute— he’d switched his drinks— and batted her long lashes up at him.
Her voice was soft— softer than Nyx’ara had ever heard it as she asked; "The first dance would soon start. Is it okay for me to steal you for a while?"
The hope in her tone would’ve made Nyx’ara laugh. Almost. If she didn’t feel a sudden tightness settle at the base of her stomach. If her eyes hadn’t thinned so much they nearly fell right out of their sockets.
Her eyes trailed from Elara’s hopeful expression to the stoic ones on her mates’ faces. Then she looked at Azriel who at the moment, seemed as though he hadn’t been spoken to at all.
It took a moment for the thought to finally take root in Nyx’ara’s mind, but in that moment, she noticed something that she hadn’t noticed before, and that was the fact that Elara wouldn’t stop looking at the Alphas.
Then she became acutely aware of her stepsister’s growing affection for her husbands.
It was just like before with Flynn. It was just like the first few months before she had succeeded in winning Flynn over.
Pain and betrayal twisted so tightly inside of her that she had a hard time differentiating which from which. Her hands began to ball into a fist before she slowly realized that her fingers were still laced through Kieran’s.
She sighed.
"Alpha—"
That was Elara calling on Azriel’s attention. She batted her long lashes one more time and moved in such a way that her almost spilling bosoms jiggled from the top of her corset.
"Would you have this dance with me?"
Right now, the slow music has begun to play in the background. Men and women were already waltzing into the middle of the hall, lacing their fingers together and swaying slowly as the room began to come alive.
Azriel, at that moment, set his champagne flute down. He lifted his eyes to meet Elara’s, bowed stiffly to her but refused to take her outstretched hand and drawled;
"I am a married man."
Her face bloomed with color.
Not Nyx’ara’s... Elara’s.
Shame surged through her veins, filling her body with a heat so intense, it made her eyes water.
She moved her weight from one foot to the next then smiled softly— one that didn’t quite reach her eyes— before she continued; "Oh, no! I know that! You’re married to my sister and I only thought it was alright, seeing as we’re family."
’We are not family!’ Nyx’ara wanted to say, but before she could muster the courage to, Draven beat her to it. He growled;
"We are not family."
And goddess that made the entire color drain from Elara’s face. She stepped back like she had been struck, her movements slow but frantic.
Her hands shook as she tried to grip at the base of her corset and a flicker of horror shot into her face as she turned from Azriel to Kieran.
Kieran seized that opportunity to lift his hand— the one intertwined with Nyx’ara’s— and drawled under his breath; "I only intend to dance with my wife tonight and I do not wish to dance with anyone else in the name of family."
His response, soft yet powerful, made something lurch at the base of Nyx’ara’s stomach and in that moment, she could not help but feel... protected.
It was no news that these men hated her. It was no secret that they wanted her head. However, if there was something she had come to realize about them then it was the fact that they were fiercely protective of her.
They could kill anyone that hurt her— but themselves.
And strangely, that made her feel warm.
She opened her mouth to respond to Elara but was suddenly beaten to it when Draven stepped forward protectively, his voice so low, it could barely be heard as he snarled;
"Henceforth, I need you to understand that you do not have anything to do with Nyx’ara. She stopped being family the day you sent her to our pack. She stopped being your toy when she became our wife... and I do not know what games you’re playing— I don’t care about flimsy games like yours— but the next time you come close to her, I’ll have your head. Trust me."
Elara gasped, her eyes widening.
She stepped back once more, pretending to be shaken as tears slipped down her face.
Rage and hatred twisted tightly in her chest. But at the moment, she could not show it. Nyx’ara was winning and she’ll let her keep winning.
She slowly bowed her head, her body shaking. And then she began to rasp; "I am sorry... I am really sorry. I did not mean to offend any of you and I thought that we were indeed family so there was no need to—"
She was disrespectfully interrupted when the host called on the quads, and without another look at her, they walked forward, dragging Nyx’ara with them like she was their trophy while they left Elara standing with her head still bowed and her pride shoved six feet under.