Chapter 87: Clarity.

July 14 2026, 3:18pm.

Rhys could only wait five minutes after Nyx’ara was dragged off by the bodyguards before he began to feel antsy. His body trembled with a desperate need to see her and his mind would not stop conjuring images that were too gruesome to think of.

He turned to Draven, his body stiff and his mind roaring profanities at him. He hissed; "Do you not think it is time to check on what they’re doing? It’s been silent for a while now..."

"It has only been five minutes, Alpha." Seraphina seethed, successfully infuriating Rhys even more by speaking.

Hell, even the fact that she was alive infuriated him too.

He slowly turned around to see her perched on her chair. She was still nursing her stinging cheeks. Her eyes glazed when she saw him watching and then she lowered her head in feigned embarrassment as she continued;

"They must still be searching through her things... that’s what I mean... hence why it’s so quiet now."

Her reason sounded plausible but Rhys could not— did not— buy it. Something in his chest felt inexplicably tight. It felt as though he was making a mistake... and he hated to feel that way.

"Let’s just watch them while they search the room," he added, sounding unconvinced. "I think it would be more fun to catch her in the act ourselves."

Draven was out of his seat even before Rhys finished talking, and with no other choice, Azriel and Kieran joined in too. Seraphina, who didn’t want to be left behind, also rose to her feet and begrudgingly followed them out of the room, leaving only Damien behind, who had been quiet the entire time.

Damien was uninterested in whatever was happening. He was very much interested in the girl, Nyx’ara, yes... but he was far more concerned about the feud between his cousins and his father.

He was also torn between fully taking his father’s side or the quadruplets... so at the time, he couldn’t care less about a pretty-faced girl who was also a thief and a murderer. So he buried his face into the book he was pretending to be reading and secretly turned off the recorder in his suit’s pocket.

At the same time, Draven and his brothers marched up to Nyx’ara’s room. Deep down, they had expected the place to be a mess— and it was.

They had expected that she would be caught with something of value— and she was.

However, what they never expected was the fact that she was being beaten like a thief. They had never given that order. In fact, they never would.

Draven’s body stiffened as he saw the bodyguard raise his leg to kick Nyx’ara, but before the kick could land, his eyes shifted and met his.

Horror shone brightly in the bodyguard’s eyes before he slowly dropped to his knees, lowered his head, and cried:

"A-Alpha!" He stuttered, "I was only teaching her a lesson! We discovered so many things of great worth that she had stolen, and thought that it was only right that we let her bear the consequences of her actions."

The consequences of her actions.

Draven could not quite believe his ears. His eyes raked from the expensive things on the floor to the unconscious girl on the ground and he felt his chest tighten so much he could barely breathe.

He should kill her, he knew. He should demand her head for all she had done... but at the time, those were the least of his concerns. He didn’t care that she had stolen from him or that all his suspicions about her had been proven to be true. He didn’t care that she was a murderer and a thief.

He cared that she was hurt.

Rage coiled deep inside his chest, and with it surging through his veins, he marched forward, dug his fingers into the bodyguard’s collar, and punched him square in the face.

A loud cracking sound filled the air, followed by a loud agonizing howl, but for some reason, he still didn’t feel satisfied by the sounds. He still couldn’t shake off the image he’d walked in on... he could not shake off the fact that Nyx’ara was sprawled on the floor and bleeding... and even unconscious.

And she’d been hit by this motherfucker!

He raised his fist one more time and let it barrel into the guard’s face, and this time, blood sprayed out, staining his face and shirt.

The guard fell to the floor with a thud, clutching at his face as he writhed in pain. He pointed a shaky hand at Nyx’ara and cried; "She’s faking it! She’s not unconscious! She pretended to faint when we took out everything from her hidden compartment—"

"But none of these gives you the right to lay your hand on her." Draven cut in, surprisingly calm, his voice surprisingly gentle. "Does it?"

To everyone, he sounded way more scary when he was calm, compared to when he was screaming. So when he spoke, his voice echoing through the air with a softness that didn’t match the storm on his face, the bodyguard trembled.

"Did I ask you to hit her?" He continued and the guard shook his head.

"Were my instructions not clear? Search her room and come to me with whatever you find?"

"Y-yes."

"So why did you touch her?" He growled, sounding so soft, it was bizarre to think of how he could sound so calm in the midst of chaos. "Why did you hit her until she became like this?"

At this point, Azriel had bent down to pick up an unconscious Nyx’ara. She was sprawled in his arms, her head lolling to the side while blood dripped from her nose.

"I am so-sorry!" The guard cried, sounding remorseful. "I really didn’t mean it! I only wanted to teach her a lesson."

The more the guard spoke, the angrier Draven became. He could not imagine that his subordinate... that this man had the effrontery to lay his hands on Nyx’ara. He could not believe that he had the guts to talk about ’teaching her a lesson’ right in his face.

And goddess, he wanted to kill him.

However, upon deciding that he did not wish to taint his hands with his guard’s filthy blood... he turned away from the begging bodyguard to the rest, then he seethed; "Take him away! Behead him."

A gasp tore through the room and Seraphina’s knees bucked.

She had expected that the person who would be beheaded today would be Nyx’ara. She had hoped that this would be the end of her miserable life.

She was however surprised to see that even until now, with the series of evidence piled up against Nyx’ara, the Alphas were still protecting her.

She rushed forward. "Alpha! Alpha! That does not sound right!"

Draven turned to her briefly. He let his eyes drag from her face to the toes on her feet. His eyes thinned with rage and irritation. He snarled; "Are you questioning my authority?"

"No!" Seraphina blushed, waving her hand dismissively. "Of course not! All I am saying is that he did not commit a heinous crime, all he did was try to punish Nyx’ara for stealing. The real culprit here is Nyx’ara not him—"

"If you say one more word, you’ll be beheaded with him." Draven finished, interrupting her.

At the sound of his voice, she clamped her lips shut and lowered her head. Her heart was racing. Her body was shaking. She had not expected the day to wind down like this. She had not expected to kill someone— someone that was not Nyx’ara— in the process of reclaiming what was hers.

She turned away in shame and was just about to step out of the room when the bodyguard suddenly spoke. He cried out; "Alpha, I did not mean to hit Luna Nyx’ara! Lady Seraphina made me do it!"

The ground beneath her shifted as soon as he spoke and she found herself staggering only to be caught by Draven who was glaring down at her, his eyes stone cold.

"Explain," he barked.

And all of a sudden, Seraphina realized with a jarring clarity that she had lost her ability to speak.