Chapter 106: Take me.

July 17 2026, 3:14pm.

For a couple of minutes, all Nyx’ara could do was stand and watch. Her heart felt like it was being ripped into pieces and her knees felt too wobbly to keep holding up her weight.

When she looked at Berlin, she did not see a woman who wanted to ruin her. She saw a woman too scared to speak. A woman who had been broken until she was just this... weak, pathetic... and desperately clinging to survival.

The lower part of her eyes was puffy and red. Her fingers looked like she had scrubbed her way through hell. Her hair was like a bird’s nest and nothing like the silky strands she used to possess.

And her eyes... goddess, her eyes were... lifeless.

This was nothing like the full-of-life-bubbly Berlin that Nyx’ara had grown up with, and hell, she could not help but fear that she may have helped her a little too late.

That she may have let her suffer for a little too long before coming to her rescue.

Berlin, who had half expected Nyx’ara to scream at her the moment she stepped in, was shocked when all the latter did was stare with her eyes brimming with tears. Her silence hurt Berlin more than her crash-out would have and she lowered her head, unable to look at her in the face for another second. Unable to bring herself to speak, knowing that whatever words would leave her mouth now would hurt her friend. Unable to—

"Where are y-your parents?" Nyx’ara asked.

Upon hearing that, Berlin flinched as though she’d been struck. That was the last thing she’d expected Nyx’ara to say first!

Her head whipped up so quickly, she almost had a whiplash. And her eyes widened for a brief second... only before she muttered;

"My mother is outside."

"And y-your father?"

"He’s dead."

The words echoed between them until every other person present in the room became non-existent. The news hit Nyx’ara harder than she had expected and she pressed her hand to her chest while a drop of tears slipped down her face.

She did not spare Berlin another glance. She was too ashamed to look at the face of the person she had betrayed and hurt the most in this life. The guilt ate deep into her, but pushing it away momentarily, she turned to Alpha Rhys and bowed her head.

"My fr-friend is tired. Th-the journey must have been a long one. Pl-please let her rest and stop asking her questions... I can answer any question y-you have to ask. Leave her out of it."

She deserves a moment of peace.

Her response made Rhys stunned and for a moment, he simply let his eyes drag from Nyx’ara’s face to the girl kneeling on the floor. Something seemed to crackle between them... like an energy. He wasn’t sure.

For some weird reason, he noticed that they held no contempt for each other, and if he was being true to himself, then he could almost swear that what they shared was a love so pure, it was very special.

He frowned.

Something did not add up.

"I will let her go..." he drawled, his voice carrying enough weight to make Nyx’ara weak in the knees, "... but she has to speak for herself first."

Something about those words made Berlin flinch. Get had whipped up and her lips parted. However, before the words she wanted to say would spill, Nyx’ara stepped up and beat her to it.

She said; "L-like I said earlier, Alpha, ask me whatever you want to ask. I am ready. As for Berlin, she looks like she needs some rest. She doesn’t deserve to be questioned like a criminal. I am the criminal here, so treat me as one."

While she spoke, she ignored the way Berlin’s eyes drilled into the side of her face like lasers. She ignored the almost inaudible gasps that slipped past her lips. She ignored the way her friend inched closer as if wanting to touch her.

Heck, she wanted to pull her into a tight hug but she could not.

"I think she should be g-given a couple of days to rest since she seems tired a-and has just lost her father. Her mother is also outside and it’ll be in-insane to have them go through this now. So please, let her go. I beg you."

"And what will you do for us... for me, if I let her go?" Rhys asked. Truth be told, he did not care about what she could offer. Hell, he wanted nothing from her but had asked to know what she would say.

Nyx’ara’s face burned bright at his question. She lowered her head, pressed her lips together, and drawled; "I w-will leave n-now and wait for you at the torture chamber. I will take whatever punishment you decide to give me. I will let you do whatever y-you wish to do to me. Do you want me to be y-your breeder? Or your punching bag? I’ll gladly do it. Just let her be!"

Draven was taken aback by that. His eyes narrowed and his lips pressed into a thin line.

For a very split second, something akin to jealousy settled in his bones.

Yes, it was jealousy.

He was jealous that she seemed to love her friend, Berlin, more than anything else he’s ever seen.

Hell, she may not even like him half— even quarter— as much as she likes this girl. And that realization in itself made his hands ball into fists.

"Okay."

"Thank you, Al-Alphas."

Before anyone else could speak, Nyx’ara bowed low and walked out of the room without sparing anyone else a second glance. Her strides were prideful, making everyone question her sanity. Even Rowan who at first thought that Nyx’ara was the bad one could not help but feel his heart grow slightly softer towards her.

He sighed. "She’s not so bad after all."

Berlin watched her leave, her heart pounding in her chest. Her chest felt tight and suffocating, like she couldn’t breathe. Tears filled her eyes as a million and one thoughts flickered through her mind, but she could not bring herself to speak of any one of them.

She pressed her hand over her chest and staggered to her feet, bowing her head as she cried; "I am sorry! I really am sorry!"

But Nyx’ara had gone too far to hear her. Draven waved his hand dismissively like he could not suffer through another moment of having her standing before him.

He seethed; "You can leave now. Rowan, show her and her mother to their rooms."

Rowan snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his name. He nodded quickly and looped his arm around Berlin’s. As he began to drag Berlin away, he noticed the way her body shook violently. The way she swayed as if on the verge of fainting.

They walked slowly to the door and just as they were about to walk out, she suddenly pulled her arm free from his. She turned to the Alphas, lowered her head to hide her tears, and rushed out;

"Nyx’ara did not kill Princess Leilani! I do not know who killed the princess but it wasn’t my friend. She was still in jail as at the time it happened, and she was only let out a day later to be forced to take the fall!"

Her words made Azriel suddenly rise to his feet but he could hardly hide the smile on his face.

All along, he knew that Nyx’ara was innocent. Goddess, he almost thought he was a fool for being so sure.

"Are you sure?" He rasped, but his voice did not come off as cold and aloof as he had wanted. It came out too eager.

"Y-yes!" Berlin cried. "She is innocent! She was innocent of the crime that sent her to jail three years ago too and knowing her, she would take the fall again if it meant protecting me! Don’t let her do that to herself. Please!"

With that, she turned and rushed out of the room with her shoulders so shrunken, she looked like a crumpled paper ball.

Her legs wobbled as she went, forcing Rowan to pick her up...

But at the time, she cared less about herself and more about whatever crazy thing her friend intended to do next... and she, of all people, knew how crazy Nyx’ara could be sometimes.

—

Nyx’ara was found sitting cross-legged with her back pressed into the metal chair by the time the quadruplets walked into the torture chamber moments later.

Their eyes widened in unison when they noticed that she held a whip made from animal skin in her hands, and goddess, her grip on it was so tight that it made her knuckles turn white.

Upon seeing them, she sat up but her fingers did not for once stop trailing lines along the whip even as she stood up. Then slowly, she walked over to Rhys, held the whip towards him, and said in a voice low enough to send his mind straight to the abyss;

"Here, take."

His eyebrows furrowed at her then at the whip and his heart jumped. "Why?"

"You need an a-avenue to channel your rage, don’t you? Y-you need to punish someone for the death of your sister, don’t you?"

"I do." He answered with a tight lip.

She nodded. "Then punish me. U-use me. You said y-you wanted to break me... do it. Do whatever you want with me!"

Her desperate cries made Rhys mad. In annoyance, he snatched the whip from her hands, raised it high into the air and—

*Swish!*

It sliced through the air and made Nyx’ara squeeze her eyes shut while she waited for the painful sting.

But for some reason, it never came.

What came instead was the loud crack that echoed through the room as the whip hit the wall behind her, then Rhys threw the whip away, closed his hands around her neck, and slammed his lips down on hers, taking her.