Nyx glanced at him. Her tight smile, if possible, tightened even further.
Realising that tension was about to become almost palpable in the room, Inez clapped her hands and turned to look at Nyx with a smile on her lips. "Do you want some coffee? I freshly brewed some."
"No, I didn’t come here to stay. I just wanted to see that you were doing alright. And of course, I did have some plans to stay with you, but I see that you already have that covered," she responded, her eyes cutting to Killian, and the way they hardened made Inez wonder if there was something that she didn’t know about.
However, as she turned her attention to Killian, the lycan was perfectly at ease while drinking his coffee. He didn’t show the slightest bit of anger while listening to Nyx. In fact, Inez had a sick suspicion that the lycan was not even paying attention to Nyx.
Okay, that wasn’t true. She noticed the smallest twitch in his brows and knew that even though the man appeared to be paying her no attention, he was fully aware of every move that Nyx made and every word she was saying.
Nyx then turned to look at Inez. Her brows were creased in concern as she said to her, "I am really sorry that such a thing happened to you. I cannot believe that the security of the pack has become so lax that our pack members are no longer safe in our own territory. I should have done a better job—"
"You don’t need to apologise for that."
"It’s not like I am not used to getting attacked. It happened all the time when I was at the Venus pack."
"You shouldn’t be getting used to such things." Killian rumbled; his eyes were still on the screen of his phone as he continued, "This could all have been avoided if Morrineth had just accepted cancelling her birthday party instead of making it a huge fanfare. I believe she is at the age where she can understand something so simple."
Nyx winced slightly. She looked apologetic, but at the same time, a bit annoyed. She scowled at him and said, "It’s not that we didn’t ask her to stop. Fenric and I did our best because we do understand that this is not the time to be partying around, but what are we supposed to do? She is still trying to reel in from the shock that you have ... that you are no longer going to grief Lyla. The news hit her hard, Kill. And that’s the only reason why she is so riled up." She sighed.
Turning to look at Inez, she relayed, "She is really worried about you after what happened last night, I mean it."
Not worried enough to shove her anger aside and come to see her, thought Inez. But whatever. "You can tell her that I am doing just fine."
A sort of uncomfortable silence fell over them. Because what else was there to say at this point? Though Nyx hadn’t pointed it out, it didn’t change the fact that the reason Killian had stopped grieving Lyla was because of her, and so the reason for Morrineth to be so riled up was her.
"Well, I will leave you alone to relax," said Nyx. Her smile had shrunk as her gaze landed on Killian once again. "Killian, I will be taking my leave then."
Not even bothering to look up from his phone, Killian simply grunted. Once again.
As Nyx turned around on her feet and walked out, Inez turned and looked at the man. She returned to the kitchen and barked, "You were so rude."
"And you still did it?"
"I can’t simply be bothered to play nice with her."
"Why is there so much tension between the two of you anyway?" Inez asked, as she had sensed the weird air between the two of them.
Killian let his metaphorical hackles down now that Nyx had left. He turned and looked at Inez and couldn’t bring herself to tell her about the necklace. One that Lyla had given to him. Obviously, he had thrown it quite far away, but this morning, when he returned to his lodge for a shower, he had found it sitting on the windowsill of his bedroom. There was no lingering scent, but it was quite certain that someone had indeed snuck inside his room, and he didn’t like it.
It could have been Morrineth or Nyx. Fenric would never dare to do such a thing. Nyx, on the other hand, would do anything to get Morrineth’s affections. His beast loathed the two women on principle for trying to force him to live his life like a widower, on their fucking terms.
"There is no reason. Some people just don’t see eye to eye," he told her.
When Inez narrowed her eyes at him, he shrugged and sat down on the stool next to the kitchen island. "She is simply upset that I won’t let her become the next Luna of the pack after her sister died. She believed that I would take her in as my mate, but I didn’t, so I guess she is a little sour on that."
Inez blinked, as she had not expected this. "Are you serious?"
"I am deadly serious," Killian replied. He was not surprised that Inez had not sensed it; Nyx was quite an actress when she wanted to be.
"But...you are the predestined mate of his sister. Shouldn’t she find it a bit, you know...weird?"
"She should, but she doesn’t."
"Morrineth would be quite upset if she were to find out the truth," Inez remarked with a frown on her face as she picked up an apple and started peeling it.
Killian nodded as he drained the last bit of coffee in his mug. "She would definitely see it as Nyx trespassing on her sister’s territory. I am certain that Fenric wouldn’t like it either. But I am not sure that it’s going to stop Nyx from craving the position of Luna."
"She has always been like that, wanting to take everything that Lyla had to prove to her mother that she, too, could become someone like Lyla."