Chapter 41: His acting skills.

June 20 2026, 9:12pm.

"What the fuck am I even doing?" Nyx’ara thought to herself as she stroked her silvery hair between her fingers.

Her hands paused midway and as she stared into the vanity in front of her, she couldn’t help but notice the blush on her face.

Her hair was a mess. Her lips were swollen and pink. Her neck was covered in red angry marks... and most of all, even several hours after the entire debacle, her heart still hadn’t stopped pounding against her chest.

After Alpha Azriel had asked her for that bizarre request, she had done as told, and even until now, she could still remember the way people had stared at her as she walked out of the bathroom with her fingers still laced between Azriel’s.

She could still remember the look on Draven’s face and most especially, Flynn’s and Elara’s as they watched them approach hand-in-hand.

Rhys who had joined in to make the whole thing appear ’more real’ wouldn’t stop casting her a brooding glance, and it wasn’t until she had stolen a look at herself in a mirror that she noticed how ’obvious’ she looked.

She looked like she had been run through. Like a beast had just decided to toy with her. She could remember the kiss they shared in the bathroom because it had been ingrained into her memory.

The kiss had been hard and punishing. It was nothing like the stolen kisses she had heard the maids whisper about during pack cleaning back at her pack.

There was no hint of the gentleness they had described. No love either. Just as searing hotness that made her want to rip her dress into shreds and a hardness that made her cry out when he bit down on her lower lip.

Azriel’s hands had not been gentle either. They had gripped her breasts from the front of her dress like he wanted to mold them into a different shape.

His hands had trembled as he spun her around, peppered kisses down the back of her neck and drawn down her zipper, just enough to expose her entire back.

She had thought that he simply wanted to kiss her back but to her utmost surprise, he’d spun her back around, pulled down the neckline of her wedding dress with a force, and held his hand over her hot breasts with a flourish.

And hell, Nyx’ara wanted to die from embarrassment.

But beyond the embarrassment was a tightness that had settled at the base of her stomach. It twisted at her guts, seeking relief and now that she had the opportunity to think about it, she could not help but decide that she never got that relief.

"I-I thought we-e were supposed to-to b-be pretending?" She had moaned at him, hoping to snap him out of whatever feverish desire was burning him up from the inside. But to her utmost shock, he didn’t respond right away.

Do you know what he did instead?

He leaned down and took one of her hardened nipples into his mouth and began to suckle.

"Arghhh!" She had cried, fisting her fingers into his hair. Her body vibrated with pleasure as his tongue lapped over her sensitive bud.

Her eyes squeezed shut when Rhys stepped in just then to lift her left leg. He slowly took off her garter, trailed his calloused fingers over her aching skin, and went up and up until his fingers were toying with her wet center.

He didn’t try to go in. He never did. Instead, he teased her through the surface of her panties, drawing circles and whatever shapes he felt like over her sensitive clit until she could not help it. She cried out.

Nyx’ara’s body shot up just as a weird vibration coursed through her veins. She inhaled a sharp breath, pulled Azriel— who was the closest— head down to the crook of her neck, and arched one more time for him to have full access to her breasts.

He took it.

He let his tongue slowly lap over the skin, biting softly at intervals with just enough force to make shivers run down her spine.

Her pussy vibrated. Her body clenched against the invisible fingers embedded deep into her cunt. Tears swam in her eyes but refusing to let them fall, she settled for moaning instead;

"A-alpha... al-alpha please."

Something about those words snapped Azriel and his brother out of their reveries. They pulled back just in time to create enough distance between them.

At the time, Nyx’ara couldn’t understand what she had done wrong, so she was forced to stand before them like it was a humiliation ritual. Her eyes were misty and her body still shook from all the remaining tingles shooting up her spine.

Azriel then cast a long look at her. He let his hungry gaze trail over her broken body and smiled inwardly.

Guess he has now found one of the many ways to break her.

His lips twitched into a smile and his eyes were cold— so cold they could pass as glaciers— as he spat; "Fix yourself."

Nyx’ara was stunned and could barely move. She could barely breathe. She felt... betrayed.

"We’re done here." He continued emotionlessly, then watching her as if inspecting faulty equipment, he added; "...trust me, anyone who sees us now would have no doubt left in their minds about us. They wouldn’t care if you are a trophy wife or a fake wife. All they would see are people in love... people who cannot get enough of each other."

The way he talked so casually made her stomach churn because she could not accept it.

This was only the beginning of her woes, but she could not accept being the pawn in their games like this. She could not accept humiliating herself just to prove how useful she was to these godforsaken quadruplets.

Her eyes glazed but wiping off the tears in her eyes, she nodded once, pulled up the straps of her dress, re-zipped it without their help, and hung her head.

"I-I w-will ask for-for something in return." She hissed, not meeting their gazes, because truth be told, even though she wanted to feel confident, she was quite wrecked.

Rhys cocked his eyebrows. "Do you think you are in the right position to ask for help right now?" He asked, but at this point, Nyx’ara cared less about his icy tone and more about her dignity.

"N-no," she spat, "b-but I th-think I a-am in the right position to-to take my life."

As soon as she said that, Azriel’s breath caught. He turned to stare at her and upon seeing the resolve in her eyes, he nodded. "Okay then... you can ask for anything. Anything at all minus your release."

Like she could ever dare to ask for that.

He then pulled her out of the toilet stall like she was back to being nothing but a criminal. However, before they would walk into the reception hall, he let out a sigh, arranged his shoulders, smiled brightly at her, and laced his fingers with hers.

He was an actor— or at least that was what he wanted to be until he was forced to take up his—their— fathers’ businesses, and now, his skills were coming in handy.