June 14 2026, 2:49am.
"Open the door."
Once again, that was an order. A bone-chilling order. Despite her mind’s loud screams beckoning her to get the hell away from there, she pushed the door open and her breath left her lungs in one quick rush.
All the color that had once rushed into her face drained away in an instant, and if her heart was pounding against her chest before, then it surely was about to run out of her chest right now.
She gasped.
The room was monstrous in every sense of the word.
It was vast and dark— save for the purplish red bulb flickering somewhere in a corner and casting some sort of eerie shadow against the walls.
On the shelves lining the entire length of the two walls on each end were... weapons.
And she meant that in every sense of the word.
There were knives of different kinds and sizes lining one part of the wall, and arrows and spears, and catapults lining another part.
Guns of different sizes and power were displayed on a glass shelf, while daggers, whips, several bottles containing a clear liquid which she suspected was melted silver, canes, cuffs, chemicals, and ropes lined the last wall.
To add to the finishing touches, there were... ladies and gentlemen: people.
Two actual people chained to metal chairs at a far corner of the room.
As soon as the door pushed open and their eyes landed on the four men standing behind Nyx’ara, their faces lost their colors and fear... raw fear seeped into their expressions.
"Puhleasee! Help!" They moaned.
They thrashed wildly in their chairs, groaning too but they could not move because they were tied. Goddess, when they even tried to scream out in panic, the dark filthy clothes stuffed into their mouths made their voices come out only as muffled gibberish.
The panic rushing through Nyx’ara’s bones made her body go numb at the sight. She could not move. She could not speak. Hell, she could not even peel her eyes away from the monstrosity happening before her nor could she help the way her knees suddenly began to go weak.
A small cry of fear slipped past her lips when someone pushed her into the room from behind because she had been stalling by the door, and because she hadn’t expected that to happen, she stumbled forward, almost falling...
Almost.
That is until steel-like arms wrapped around her midriff keeping her in place.
Sparks flew wild and sure, surging between herself and whoever was behind her. She could feel the warm— hot— body of the person pressed behind her back. She could feel the taut muscles pressing her body, the quiet strength rippling behind the skin, the frantic heartbeat as it slammed against her back...
And she could feel the bulge.
Almost unnoticeable. Almost ignorable bulge pressing intimately at the top of her buttocks.
Her lips parted as a soft sound slipped out. It sounded like a moan and like a cry at the same time. And it made the man behind her freeze for a very split second before clumsily letting her go.
Azriel hated the way his body had reacted almost instantly to this murderer whom he should hate. He hated the way she got under his skin without even trying.
He hated the way she stumbled one more time when he let her go, almost making him want to wrap his arms around her one more time... to keep her close. To protect her.
The fact that he even thought like this about her made him madder, and with a hiss, he snapped; "Watch where you put your feet, you annoying clumsy little thing. We wouldn’t want you falling all the time. Would we?"
His voice was cold and dark. It made the hairs at the back of Nyx’ara’s neck stand on end. Her chest grew heavy but she nodded once and shuffled away from him, only for her dread to return one more time when her eyes left their handsome faces to settle once more in the room.
The torture chamber.
She had heard stories about this room, and while the quadruplets were very popular figures, this room was just as popular as they were.
Years ago, she had thought that whoever had told her the story of the torture chamber was exaggerating, but now that she could see it... now that she was living in its reality... she decided then and there that it was very much like how it had been described.
"This is where we keep the people who offended us..." Draven began to speak, his voice trailing off in a way that made Nyx’ara immediately want to dig the floor open and bury herself in it. "...it is where we punish liars, traitors, thieves, and most of all..."
"Murderers." Kieran cut in, and in that moment, her breath failed her.
In other words... her.
Her chest suddenly felt so tight it felt as though a weight was pressing down on her.
"You should be here not sleeping in a bed." That was Rhys and his voice was so cold, it decreased the temperature in the room by at least ten degrees.
"And you should be begging for your life just like that two fools, not playing house with a cat who belonged to Leilani!"
Wait... Leilani?
Leilani as in their sister?
Leilani as in the girl who she supposedly murdered?
Now, when tears streamed down Nyx’ara’s face, she wasn’t crying due to fear. She was crying in frustration, guilt, and sadness all at once. Her body trembled violently as she pressed her hand to her chest and took a step back.
The four brothers’ eyes followed her as she moved, and she did not miss the contempt in their gazes. The irritation... the annoyance. They, for the first time since the past hour, glared at her like she was filth.
The looks in their eyes vaguely reminded her of the way her family and her ex-mate, Flynn, used to look at her. This made her chest constrict so much, she feared it would shatter, and in a voice barely audible, she moaned;
"I-I am sorry."
I am sorry for being in the midst of this.
I am sorry that I do not know what to say.
I am sorry I did not kill your sister, even though I am being forced to pay the price.
"I a-am g-genuinely very s-sorry."
Those words felt like a slap to the quadruplets’ faces. For Draven and Kieran, she had insulted them by merely using the word: ’sorry’ after breaking their sister until she was nothing but a crumpled mess on the floor...
...and for Rhys and Azriel, they believed that she was simply pretending.
That she was an unrepentant liar and a killer, one who was cursed with the most beautiful face and the sexiest body to ever exist.
But most of all, they had been cursed to be her mates.
They all turned away from her in disgust, listening only to her broken sobs as she continued to cry.
No one knew how long they all remained in place, each lost in their own web, until Draven broke the stillness by moving.
He walked up to Nyx’ara with the stride of a predator and then clipping his clawed finger under her chin, he guided her face until it was merely inches away from his and hissed;
"Every Friday from next week, we will call you to meet us here and you will answer..."
Nyx’ara gulped.
"The only reason we have spared your life so far is so that you will bear our children. And because you do not deserve intimacy or gentleness, we shall fuck you... in this room. Amidst all this torture equipment... and we shall torture you if you refuse."
His words made heat rise up her face. She was not aroused. She was mortified.
Her hands gripped even more tightly into her dress, her fingers digging into the material until holes were formed.
The shame, the hatred these men felt towards her was too much. It felt... excruciating. Like it was pressing down on her, suffocating her until she could hardly breathe.
Before she responded, she took her time to study the scary objects all lined up on the shelves tauntingly as if giving her a sneak peek into the life she would be forced to live in the coming years.
She could imagine herself getting beaten. Being mistreated. Being raped.
It made a shudder run up her spine.
She coughed. "Yes, Alpha."
"Good, you learn fast."
A beat of silence passed before they walked away from her to "attend" to the traitors— the men tied up against the metal chairs.
She turned away, ready to scamper out of the room when suddenly one of them called out to her. He snapped; "Nyx’ara?"
She froze then turned around slowly. "Do you know who these men are?" Kieran asked, a wild glint in his eyes.
She shook her head quickly but upon realizing that her response was wrong, she rushed out; "T-traitors?"
"No, they are men from your pack. They were sent by your precious little Alpha, Flynn."