Chapter 83: Since when…
July 14 2026, 1:23pm.
It was well into the day before Nyx’ara finally woke up from her deep sleep, and by the time she rolled out of her bed—
"W-wait how the hell did I get to m-my bed?" She hissed under her breath, her eyes widening as she took in her overall look in the mirror close to her bed.
Her hair and makeup were a mess, and while fortunately, she was still clad in the clothes she’d worn the previous night, unfortunately, the dress now looked askew. The edges looked frayed and shabby and the neckline... goddess, the neckline looked like it had seen better days.
She instinctively palmed her body down as if searching for answers, but when she came up with more questions instead of answers, her eyebrows shot into her hairline.
"What t-the hell happened t-to me last ni-night?" She muttered once more. "I-I remember going to the p-party. I remember the blood w-wine and the pretty half-naked whores. I remember the maidservant w-who had almost fainted on me... so what the h-hell am I mi-missing?"
Realizing that the answers would not come until she actively sought them out, she went into the bathroom, had a quick shower, and then walked out minutes later with dripping wet hair and a towel wrapped around her middle.
She was halfway into dressing up and had only worn her short shorts and bra when a knock suddenly sounded at her door. Her head shot up instantly and she screamed;
"W-who’s there?!"
But nobody answered. She could feel the heavy presence of someone standing right behind the door but they had refused to say a word.
For a split second, she thought about rushing off to answer the door but upon remembering that she was not fully dressed, she stopped, wore her overalls, and wrapped her hair into a bun before skipping over to the door.
"I-I was asking who’s there—" she began to say gingerly, but soon stopped when she saw the unsmiling bodyguard standing by the door with his arms crossed over his chest.
The guy was a large man, standing above 6ft with broad shoulders, a broader chest straining against his gray colored suit, and had a jarring tattoo covering the whole of the left side of his face.
His eyes locked on her face as soon as she pushed the door open, and with the intensity of a predator circling its prey, he circled her and hissed so lowly, it sent shivers up her spine and goosebumps scattering across her skin.
"Alpha Draven sends for you."
She stilled.
She could not remember the last time they had called for her in this manner. Recently, they had resorted to sending her texts or asking Eloise to call her over... but not this.
Speaking of texts... where’s my phone?
Her eyes shot up to meet the cold black ones of this bodyguard, but deciding that she would not let him intimidate her, she drawled;
"G-give me a moment, I-I need to get my phone."
"That won’t be necessary." He cut in, sounding crisp. Stony.
Again, something about that sent shivers wracking her spine. Her body drew taut with a panic and fear that she had come to know all her life. Her hand instinctively wrapped around her body and she slowly pushed her door shut as she nodded once at him.
"Let’s go."
The man did not respond to her but began to walk. He didn’t even turn to acknowledge her as he made his way through the beautiful vast corridors. Nyx’ara followed him quietly until they stopped at the throne room, and when she found the Alphas all sitting on their thrones, waiting for her with stoic expressions etched deep into their faces, she instantly knew that something was wrong.
Seraphina sat to the right with a smug smile on her face while a young man, the Alphas’ cousin from the wedding party— whose name she could not recall—sat to the left.
She frowned.
"I-is there a problem?"
For the first time in forever, the Alphas did not look at her. They did not acknowledge her or even cut in when Seraphina rushed to her feet and shoved Nyx’ara so hard, she nearly fell to the floor.
And it wasn’t until she had staggered back and almost hit her body against a table that she noticed that besides the Alphas and the other two, there were also three maidservants she had never seen before standing in the back.
Her eyebrows shot up.
The scene felt familiar.
Bile rose at the base of her throat. "Ca-can somebody explain to me what’s ha-happening?" She stuttered, hating the way her words came out strained and confused.
She hated the looks on the Alphas’ faces. Hated that while she was standing here having flashes of the moments she’d been in their arms, kissing them... touching them and being rode to ecstasy by them... they were simply ignoring her.
Hurt seared across her chest but shoving it off, she walked forward slowly, making sure she met at least their eyeballs before asking; "W-was there something I d-did last night?"
She may have been drunk— that would explain her memory loss, and she may have done or said something she didn’t mean in the process.
She was jolted out of her thoughts when Kieran tossed a metal object to the front of her shoes. He wasn’t even decent about it and it would have struck her if it hadn’t lost its momentum in the very last second.
Her eyes widened as she looked down at the metal scrap and realized that it was her phone.
Her throat dried up. "What is this?"
"Do you not recognize your phone or are you genuinely dumb?" Azriel snapped, hating himself for saying such words to her.
But at the time, she gave him no choice.
She bent down to pick up her phone and her face went from confused to pissed when she noticed that it was broken.
"I-it is broken!" She hissed, and this time, Kieran didn’t just snarl, he spoke.
"I broke it," he said without remorse. Without hesitation, "...and I think I have the right to break it, seeing as I got it for you in the first place.
His snarky response made her blood boil and her chest tighten. Hell, she could not remember the last time they were this bitchy towards her and she hated every bit of it.
For some reason, that made her anger boil over the top and she stepped forward, walking into their space as she hissed;
"W-what? What is it, th-this time? Why are you behaving like bitches when you’re not one?!"
At first, Draven was taken aback by her brazenness but he soon snapped out of it a couple of seconds later. He folded his arms across his chest, leaned into his chair, and snarled;
"Since when did you start to have stable communication with your ex, Flynn? Since when did you start to steal from us?... and since when have you been hiding the secret behind our sister’s death, as well as the filthy reason you allowed yourself to be paraded as a criminal and sent here to die... even though you’re not the murderer to begin with?"
Nyx’ara gulped. "I-I don’t understand...?"
"Of course, you wouldn’t," Rhys hissed, his voice barely above a whisper, "...of course you’ll feign ignorance."
"Alpha—" she began to say but stopped when he waved her off.
"Shut up and sign this!" He snapped, ignoring her. "It’s a divorce agreement, as well as a bond dissolution certificate. Be quick about it."