Chapter 61: I’ll say this once…

July 2 2026, 9:27am.

Kieran was busy in his office reading through the business proposal from Frostfang Enterprises when his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket.

With a grunt, he fished the device out of his pocket, frowned at the strange number whose notification beeped on his home screen, and frowned further when he opened the message only to see that it was a photograph.

A photograph of Nyx’ara and some boy whose arms were wrapped intimately around her waist.

In the next picture, he was dragging her off with his fingers looped between hers, and goddess, as soon as Kieran saw this, a storm of rage bubbled up at the base of his stomach.

She was not supposed to be this close to other men!

She wasn’t even supposed to breathe in the same air as other men.

His face darkened so quickly one would think a light had been turned off and he slammed the phone face down against his desk with so much force that the furniture rattled precariously.

Rage twisted at his guts until it grew into something darker. Something twisted. He rose from his chair in one swift motion, picked up his phone and car keys, and dashed out of the room like the devil was hot on his tail.

Thankfully, since NYU was only a few minutes’ drive from the main pack house—which was also one of the reasons that they had chosen the school for Nyx’ara— he arrived there in record time.

His eyes scanned the parking lot in front of her department looking for signs of her or of Rowan who had been sent to carpool her to and from school. But he found none of them.

As he strolled through the premises, he noticed the ogling stares of young girls— humans and werewolves alike as they literally undressed him with their eyes. He also noticed the strange looks that young boys shot at him from the corner of their eyes as he strode past.

However, to him, none of that mattered. He was only after Nyx’ara.

A couple of minutes into his walk, he noticed a familiar head of silver walking not so far off from the spot where he was standing, and by her side was an auburn-haired boy whose entire body frame screamed: Lean athletic Jork. He was the same boy from the photo, and now, seeing him loop his arm around Nyx’ara’s shoulder, leading her down the corridor with a stride that was as natural as the sun setting after a long day, his mood plummeted.

A deep growl rumbled through his chest, making a few people close by scurry away from him in fear.

In two strides, he had eaten up the distance between himself and Nyx’ara, and just as the boy, Derek, was about to lead her into a classroom, rough hands clamped around her wrist, spinning her until she fell into a hard hot mass of bulky chest.

Her body stiffened as soon as her skin made contact with that familiar body and true to her fears, she lifted her chin upwards... slowly... only to have her breath rush out of her chest when she came face to face with hard stormy blue eyes.

Kieran looked down at her with eyes so cold it could freeze hell if he tried. His body wrapped around hers in such a way that was so intimate, it resembled the closeness of a glove around its owner’s hand.

His breath hitched when her perky breasts pressed against his chest and heat rushed to his groin when her warm breath fanned his skin through the unbuttoned top part of his shirt.

Not here. Not now.

However, that heat soon turned to ice when his eyes traveled away from her smooth face to land on the young boy’s now flushed cheeks.

He snarled; "Who the fuck are you?"

At the sound of his deep voice, Derek took a small step back. Usually, he was a powerful wolf, seeing as he was the beta of his pack.

However, compared to Kieran, he was nothing but a crushable pup, and everyone— werewolves, Lycans, and vampires alike all knew about the indestructible four brothers.

He gulped. "D-Derek. I am Derek, Nyx’ara’s friend, and I was just showing her around school."

Kieran’s eyes traveled once again to Nyx’ara’s face and this time, he could not help the sudden small lifts at the sides of his lips when he noticed how flushed she seemed.

He let his fingers tauntingly trail down the back of her neck... to her spine. He noticed the way she shuddered at the contact and saw the way goosebumps spread across her skin...

He enjoyed watching her squirm under his touch like a leaf under the wind and he was sure that she didn’t— wouldn’t— react this way to Drek or Shrek or whatever he was called touching her like this.

That’s if he even dared to touch her like this.

With a meaningful look cast in Derek’s direction, he let his lips drop to the tip of her reddened ear. His other free hand settled firmly on the small of her back and he heard the way her breath caught when his dick stirred, pressing into her back.

"Nyx’ara dear, did you tell this new friend of yours that you’re married?" He asked, his voice sickly sweet, but Nyx’ara could feel the hostility in his actions. She could hear the rage buried underneath all that honey.

She gulped once again and Derek’s eyes widened as the entire image began to make sense to him.

When she wouldn’t respond immediately, Kieran’s grip on her waist tightened. He took the tip of her ear into his mouth and bit down softly, enjoying the way her body trembled violently beneath his.

Goddess, he wanted to take her right here and now.

He wanted to fuck her while the whole of the school watched.

"Drek, did she tell you that she’s married?" He asked again, softly, and at the sound of his voice, Derek shook his head.

However, as soon as he did, Kieran’s face fell and a look of utter hurt bruised his face as he dramatically pressed his hand to his chest. "She didn’t tell you that she’s married to me?! Damn, I am hurt!"

The switch in his attitude happened so fast that Nyx’ara did not have enough time to process it. And next thing she knew, he was backing Derek into a corner, his eyes thinned into slits as he snarled low but enough to send terror shooting down Derek’s spine:

"I’ll say this once and I’ll hope for your sake that you’ll listen... stay away from her."

His warning was clear as day. It sent jolts down Derek’s spine and made his body thrum with terror so raw, he felt a sudden wetness at the tip of his dick.

He was about to wet himself.

Kieran, who smelled his piss, took a step back, his eyes flashing before he turned away from Derek to the girl standing at a far distance, a twisted emotion on her face.

As soon as she saw him watching, she tried to duck but it was too late.

Kieran had caught her, and he had instinctively known that Elara had been watching the entire time...

She was not the saint she tried to portray herself as and he would take his time shedding off all her layers one after the other.