Chapter 68: The occasion…

July 11 2026, 8:32am.

Over the next few days, Nyx’ara received a thousand more text messages from that same unknown number, but she never once opened them, let alone responded.

She went about her days as peacefully as she could, attending classes at school, coming home to quiet, lonely dinners, and avoiding Derek, the beta wolf as much as she could. By the fourth day, she had completely settled into her usual quiet routine...

Or so she thought,

Because the first thing she noticed as soon as she got off her Uber and stepped into the house was the crowd.

And hell, there were people everywhere!

Maidservants and guards were parading and scurrying about the house, but not in that particular order. Screams came from the kitchen and snarls from the training grounds as younglings sparred.

Nyx’ara stepped into the house, half worried and half confused because she was curious to know what exactly was happening. However, she had just rounded a corner of the house and was about to retreat into her room when she ran into Eloise.

A shocked scream tore out from her throat at the surprise and as she pressed her hand to her chest and staggered backward, she couldn’t help but hiss at the older lady; "Y-you scared me!"

Eloise watched the frightened girl in front of her for a moment, the corners of her lips lifting into an amused smile. She dragged her eyes along Nyx’ara’s frame, taking in the simple clothes she was wearing, and shook her head slightly in distaste.

"Why do you always dress like this to school?"

For a moment, Nyx’ara stared at her, stunned. She lowered her head to look at ’her clothes’ and when she did not see anything wrong with her black leather pants and sky blue tank top, she lifted her head slowly and hissed under her breath;

"W-what is wrong with my clothes?"

Eloise snickered— or maybe chortled. A small smile formed on the corners of her lips when she saw the confused look on Nyx’ara’s face. For a moment, she felt an inexplicable kind of warmth towards the girl—the girl who is said to be a murderer— and sighed.

"They’re a little... too mundane."

It was impossible not to like her.

"I-I am more com-comfortable with mundane," Nyx’ara bit back softly, her fingers playing at the hem of her blouse as she chewed on her bottom lip. "I-I do not understand why I have to-to wear the fancy clothes y-you all keep putting in m-my room and in the closet. Whenever I-I ask for new clothes or any clothes at all, y-you bring..."

"Designers." Eloise finished without missing a beat, her smile widening. "And that’s because those are the brands the Alphas specifically demanded that you wear."

A long string of expletives nearly slipped out of Nyx’ara’s mouth at the news but holding back, she clamped her lips together and frowned, her lips turning downward as she hissed;

"A-am I to wear designers to class and for runs?"

"Yes, because you’re not just a student. You’re a Luna."

The crisp sounding-like-they-were-rehearsed-answers made Nyx’ara want to roll her eyes at the older woman. However, she was just about to come up with a sharper retort when Eloise suddenly beat her to it. She snapped;

"Also, I think that your current attire is a little unfit for the occasion, so you’ll need to go to your room, clean up and change into something... better... then return to the dining area for your dinner."

"M-my dinner? Nyx’ara hissed, her eyebrows cocking in askance. "Why do I have to play dress-up for my dinner?"

Eloise, who at the time was getting tired of explaining the ways of royalty to this young girl, shook her head quickly. From the corner of her eye, she could see an imposing shadow emerging from the distance and she immediately knew not to talk too much.

"Because the Alphas are returning from their trip today."

As soon as Nyx’ara heard that, her face fell. The smile playing at the corner of her lips disappeared and for some reason, she felt her heart do a flip in her chest, causing her intestines to tangle and twist. Goddess, even breathing became a tough sport.

They were coming!

She didn’t know how to respond to that, and she definitely did not know if she was ready to meet with them after what had happened between them the last time they met.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when she felt Eloise move beside her. She blinked. "Well, since they’re coming today... which also means that they would inadvertently disrupt my everyday peaceful dinner, then I have no other choice but to have dinner in my room. If they ask, say that I am a little under the weather and that I’ll join them tomorrow"

She noticed a flicker of something akin to amusement fleet across Eloise’s face but she paid no attention to it. Instead, she continued; "I’d love to have a little of whatever the kitchen staff would be preparing and some fruits. That’s all. I do not wish to disturb you."

But at this point, Eloise was no longer looking at her. She was looking at something— someone— above her head.

Her eyes narrowed at the smile tugging at Eloise’s lips but before she could comment on that, a snicker from behind her snapped her out of her reverie, and she turned just in time to see a familiar pair of beautiful golden eyes.

A sharp scream caught in her throat when large arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush against a wall of muscle and her face flushed, burning bright when she felt the rumble come from deep within the person’s throat.

"Little murderer..."

Nyx’ara’s first thought had been to fight. To hurt the person who had dared to lay a finger on her but as soon as that rumble vibrated over her body, chilling her down to her bones, her fight disappeared, leaving in its place a frustration that she could barely understand.

Rhys placed his chin atop her head and wrapped his arms around her. He loved the feel of her warm body pressed against his... and loved that she was squirming in frustration with nowhere to run underneath his arms.

Seeing her this restless yet hopeless filled him with a twisted kind of satisfaction and deciding to bruise her ego more than it already was, he added;

"Did I just hear you say that my brothers and I will only disrupt your dinner?"

Nyx’ara gulped, unable to answer.

A smile touched the corners of his lips and he turned his head briefly in Eloise’s direction before continuing; "I also heard you telling my staff to lie that you are feeling quite unwell... just so that you wouldn’t be forced to eat with us."

And goddess, this time, Nyx’ara could not help the way her face and the tips of her ears burned with embarrassment. She could not control the heat that seared through her veins... and for the first time in a very long time, she was short of words.

Her eyes lifted and as soon as they met his smoky golden orbs, her breath hitched. She drawled;

"N-no, I think you heard wrongly, Alpha."

"Oh, I am damn sure that I heard you correctly," he hissed back, his voice playful in a way that sent chills down her spine. "I do not think you missed me at all."

Something about those words made her squirm on her feet. It made a blush— an unsolicited one— bloom on her face and on the tips of her ears. She frowned deeply at him and tried to shove him off, but pushing him away was the equivalent of falling the Great Wall of China all by herself.

So she seethed instead; "Was I sup-supposed to miss y-you?"

"Yes, you were..." Rhys drawled, trailing his eyes down her face until it stopped right on her very plump lips. "...because I did... a lot."

"I-I do not care."

"All through my stay in Singapore, I would sometimes worry about what you might be doing. I often caught myself missing your fiery blue eyes and the way your..." his voice trailed away as his fingers skimmed over her pulse, "...your breath catches whenever I do that to you."

Nyx’ara frowned.

"And I could not wait for another day to do that to you."

For a moment, Nyx’ara could not ascertain if it was anger she felt towards him or helplessness. Her eyes narrowed at him in annoyance and her body shook with a mixture of need and rage.

She bit down on her lip and shoved him hard once again, noticing from the corner of her eye that Eloise a.k.a the betrayer had snuck away sometime during her argument with Rhys.

When she turned back to him, she found him staring at her, and goddess, the look in his eyes was... urgh breathtaking.

She fought against the rise of butterflies in her stomach and hissed at him. Her voice was as cold as ice as she seethed; "You can stop pretending now."

The dazzling smile that immediately appeared on Rhys’ face made her stomach dip. He bent down to lick the corner of her neck between her neck and her shoulder blade and hissed;

"It’s funny how you think I was joking. I specifically ran home to you today because it is Friday... and you know what Fridays stipulate in our contract."

Nyx’ara gulped and her face drained of its colour.

"Fridays are for mating, little murderer. It is the occasion everyone keeps talking about."