Bloodbound To My Four Archenemies.

July 14 2026, 2:03pm.

The moment Seraphina saw Rhys coming for her, she ducked her head and covered her face. Her body shook like a leaf in the wind. Her chest heaved like she had just run a marathon and had been refused some water.

Rhys’ hand shot up, flexing with rage and contempt. His hand had only just begun its slow descent when a small figure ran into his chest, wrapping its arms around his torso like an octopus that had caught its prey.

The moment the body slammed into him, his pulse quickened. His body stiffened, and his wolf.. his wolf let out the most ear-shattering howl it had ever howled in a very long time.

He didn’t look down to know who had held him. Hell, there was only one person his body ever reacted to like this.

Nyx’ara.

Nyx’ara held onto him as if for dear life, shielding the shit-talking Seraphina with her body and using all she had to hold Rhys off from smacking the living daylights out of her face.

She buried her head into his rock-hard chest, pressing her face into his muscles and sniffled as she cried; "Please don’t! Please don’t hit her! She’s a stupid shit-talker and this is probably my fault so don’t hit her again."

Her words and actions made his body go so stiff, he could barely breathe. And then slowly, as if controlled by some invisible force, he dropped his hand, slowly pried Nyx’ara’s fingers off his body, and took a step back as if to create enough distance between them.

He needed her far away from him now, not close. He didn’t trust her.

"Do not get me wrong, little murderer. I did not hit her because I was trying to protect you. I did it because it felt as though she was questioning my authority. She was talking over me and she was disturbing an already peaceful-enough interrogation."

"Oh..."

"In my eyes, you are still a murderer and a thief. You are still the girl who tried to kill my brothers and me. You are the one who is married to us and is probably cheating with her ex—"

"Flynn is not my ex!" Nyx’ara seethed, interrupting Rhys at the top of her voice. "He was m-my fated mate but he chose to be w-with my sister. H-he loved— loves— my sister, so there’s no w-way I’d ever be with a man like him."

"Touchè," Rhys snarled back, unfazed by her extremely emotional outburst.

He dragged his eyes over her body, rolled his eyes when he saw nothing that indicated that she was lying, and met her eyes one more time.

"No one cares about your relationship with him..."

That’s a lie, he felt almost relieved to know that the only thing she felt for Flynn was a deep-seated hatred.

"No one cares if he cheated on you or if he was too blind to see that you’re the prettier, smarter sister..."

’Did I just compliment her?’ He thought to himself but quickly shook his head. "No!"

"What we care about however, is why Flynn Ravenscroft is blowing up your phone as if you owe him something. We want to understand how he has your number even though you only just got this phone, and we want to know what he meant when he said: ’I know the truth behind Princess Leilani’s murder and I intend to help you.’" He drawled, dropping his tone until it was high-pitched and mocking enough.

The way he said those words like they were rehearsed... cold and devoid of any emotion... made a tremor run up Nyx’ara’s spine. She lowered her head and bit into her lips, her limbs shaking as she tried as hard as she could not to meet his steely gaze.

Usually, this is the part where she wouldn’t be able to respond due to the roaring sounds in her ears and the pain lancing through her chest.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, she raised her eyes and said; "H-he’s been texting me di-different unreasonable text messages that I have refused to respond to. I-I do not know how he got m-my number and never bothered to ask. I-I never spoke to him at all."

Now, Kieran nodded to that. He never saw any part where she’d responded to any of his texts and had figured she was calling him instead.

Now, he knew better... slightly.

"So what do you think he meant when he talked about knowing the truth behind my sister’s murder? What truth does he possibly know that could save you?" Rhys continued, and this time... goddess, this time, Nyx’ara wanted to tell the truth.

She felt it burning at the top of her tongue. She felt it bubble up at the base of her stomach. Her stomach lurched with the desperate need to get the words out, but before she could, she felt a pang somewhere in her chest. A voice— small and cold— whispering;

Berlin.

But what if Berlin is already safe? What if Berlin had left that godforsaken pack already?

She was the first person to tell Nyx’ara to run as fast as she could. The first person to care enough to let her go.

Guilt and resentment built up in her chest and she lowered her head, tears dripping down her face as she murmured; "H-he believes that I killed your sister drunkenly. T-that I was probably not in my right senses when... when it happened. He once told me th-that I could plead with that and that I would be let go with a condition..." her voice trailed off as the words began to taste bitter on her lips.

Her face scrunched up as a bile rose in her throat, but she didn’t dare to look at the quadruplets. Not the one in front of her nor the ones sitting at the back.

She felt destroyed.

Ruined. Utterly helpless.

Rhys stood still for a moment, his eyes never leaving her face. Deep down, he didn’t believe a word of what she’d just said but his and his brothers’ powers were fading... their curse was taking root, spreading until it corrupted every part of their body, so for that reason, he could not easily decipher if she was telling the truth or not.

He decided to believe her.

However, her words had hardened something in his chest. They had made him feel so wronged... so hurt that he could no longer bring himself to look at her.

He clapped once and a few bodyguards materialized from the shadows then he turned to Draven and said;

"I have done all I want to do and asked all I want to ask, you can continue from there."

Draven, who had been silent the entire time, finally lifted his head. He stole one glance at Nyx’ara then shook his head, waving his hand as he spat; "Now, the last thing we want to know is if you have really been stealing from us..."

He let his eyes rake across Nyx’ara’s body, then he continued; "These guards will accompany you to your room. They will tear down the place and they will return to us with their findings... Are we clear?"

She knew it was not a question, but Nyx’ara could not stop herself from saying: "Y-yes,"

And with that, the large guy from earlier looped his arm around her elbow and began to drag her out of the room.