Chapter 82: The wrong woman.

July 14 2026, 1:12am.

Seraphina walked away from the Alphas with her head hanging low and her heart feeling like it had been shredded into bits inside her tight chest. Her blood boiled with rage and pain as she walked out of the house, whilst wiping off the tears streaming down her face with the back of her hand.

The plan had been simple. Spike the Alphas’ drinks. Get them aroused and hot, and keep Nyx’ara sane enough to reject their advances... hence throwing them at her in the process. But that stupid girl, Elara, or whatever she was called had ruined that plan by spiking all five drinks...

Goddess, she was even more stupid than Seraphina thought!

Hell, she was sure that if she had given the stuttering Nyx’ara those instructions, then the night would have been a success.

So in other words: Elara was simply a fool—a pretty one with blue eyes, smooth skin and a fragile figure.

It was no wonder her sister kept winning her over and over again.

Seraphina gnashed her teeth.

Rage and self-depreciation curled deep inside of her as she made her way out, but just as she arrived outside and had the fierce wind slap against her face– as if jolting her out of her self-wallowing and back to reality– she wiped the tears from her face and snuck back into the house.

This time, however, she did not go in through the front. She went through the back... through the servant’s quarters where she knew that there were little to no security personnel hanging around, especially by this time. She also knew her way around the house enough to know the paths without working CCTV cameras, and she took them.

This time, she decided with a vengeance that she would take care of Nyx’ara herself and that she did not need stupid help from stupid people to get it done.

She would ruin her life and she would do it with ease.

—

July 14 2026, 3:27am.

Kieran could not sleep no matter how hard he tried. And even the heavens know that he TRIED. He lay in his bed, turning and tossing under his blankets while his body still thrummed with residues of the rut inducer that he’d been so ungraciously fed at the party.

His fingers bunched into the material of his bedsheets as he forced himself into a sitting position. Cold sweat beaded his forehead and his body vibrated with a nerve wrenching need as an image of Nyx’ara— hot and begging— flashed across his mind for the nth time in the past hours.

It’s been two hours since she was sent to her bed. Two hours since he’d stopped perceiving her very potent scent. But even then, he still felt torn and it was taking everything in him to not rush over to her room, kick the door down and ravage her until she was nothing but a writhing mess underneath him.

But he could not do that.

For control... for his sanity, and for the sake of his late sister, he could not.

Hell, he would even hate himself to no end if she woke up the next morning and accused him of taking advantage of her in her vulnerable state.

So deciding to get her off his mind and focus on something different, he dug his hand into his pants pocket and fished out his phone.

The cold metal pressed against his palm but for a moment, it felt unfamiliar. His eyes thinned as he pressed the power button, and to his utmost surprise, when the screen lit up, it was not his normal phone’s wallpaper that he saw.

Goddess, this was not his phone at all!

It was Nyx’ara’s!

His heart skipped a frantic beat when her face lit up the screen. In the photo, she was smiling at the camera until her eyes crinkled at the corners. She held up her hand in a peace sign, but her other hand was not visible because it was holding the phone.

In other words: it was a selfie.

Bloody Kieran with his inability to explain things properly!

Usually, this was the part where he should drop it. Any sane person at this point would let go of the phone and keep it until she’s better later in the morning, right?

Well, not him.

His fingers skimmed over the phone as he tried to guess what her password would be.

At first, he typed in: 061005– her birthday, and rolled his eyes when it came out wrong.

He tried: 106005 next, rearranging the format in such a way that the day came first before the month and the year, but still it was wrong.

He was however just about to set it down when he tried: 100605 next, and to his surprise, it unlocked with a small chiming sound.

Kieran sat frozen on his bed.

"I shouldn’t do this..." he muttered under his breath, even though his fingers were already gliding across the screen, scouring through apps and looking for only God knows what.

First off, he searched through her photos and after spending a few minutes admiring her, he exited and went straight for her email, but there was nothing worth his attention there. So he continued to jump from app to app. From WhatsApp to Instagram... to her iMessage until he noticed a name he didn’t believe he would ever see on her phone...

Flynn.

His heartbeat came to a stuttering stop as soon as he saw that annoying name... and the fact that Nyx’ara still kept in touch with him felt... preposterous.

He clicked on the chat almost instantly, hoping to see something that would implicate Nyx’ara or otherwise, something that would implicate that stupid Alpha, but as soon as he did that, his body stiffened. Cold surged through his veins like a tornado and his chest tightened with a mixture of surprise, rage, and indignation.

Flynn was actively pursuing Nyx’ara!

But that wasn’t all. That wasn’t the message that stood out to him the most and made his blood turn to ice.

The text that stood out to him the most was one he’d sent a couple of days ago... when they’d all been on a trip to Singapore.

Goddess, he’d run a few times into Flynn during their stay there but never in his wildest dreams, did he think that the person he was always so frantically texting was Nyx’ara.

Never did he think that Flynn had— or would— send a message like this.

It read: I know the truth behind Princess Leilani’s murder and I intend to help you.

The tone of the text went on to show that even Nyx’ara had no idea about the so-called ’truth’ behind his sister’s murder, and at this point, he could not help but fear that he and his brothers had the wrong person...

That the wrong woman was being punished.

Heck, she might not even be the murderer at all.

Still reeling in shock, he rose to his feet and was just about to drop the phone when another text message came into the phone, and this time, the words that popped up on the screen were so shocking that he staggered backward a little.

It read:

You have two more weeks to complete your mission at Stormborn pack. If by the end of your fourteen-day deadline and the Alphas are not dead, or rendered completely useless, I’ll have your head and your father’s.

But first, I’ll start by killing your little mate, Flynn, whom you’ve tried so hard to protect for so long. Don’t dare me.

Kieran tried to check the number that had sent the text but soon discovered that it must have come from a burner phone and that there was no way to trace it.

He slammed his fist on his desk, slammed her phone on the floor, and stepped out of his room for a smoke.

He cannot remember the last time he smoked but for her sake, today, he did. And it was for a plausible reason.