Under The Crescent Veil

27. Reports

He had seen her.

Silas saw how exhausted Nyx stood there in the middle of the square.

It was the shock of the surprise of seeing her that brought him to the inside of the school instead of making his way to her, his mate. He was swept away by his pack members, asking him a thousand questions about the horrendous incident. Rightfully so, he thought. But not the right timing. He had no time to react and therefore froze.

He was shocked by how much weight Nyx had lost, how big the dark bags under her eyes had gotten, and the disheveled look of her appearance. The regret of his decision – that was already lingering for a couple of weeks – burned on his skin in shame. He shouldn't have listened to his family. He should have brought her home weeks ago.

Silas hoped Nyx wouldn't be at the academy as he knew her working schedule, but she was – how he did not know – but he felt guilty that she was a part of this as well. Something he could have prevented if he listened to his own instinct instead of that of his family members.

He should have known better.

The guilt of his neglect and ignorance toward her, especially that day, only grew when a report was brought to him in the packhouse in his office.

***

Sweat dripped down Nyx's forehead as she was sweeping the floors the next day. After the investigations were done Thursday, Nyx was ordered to clean the whole school by Helen's command. Too tired to even suggest the job was too big for her or even insensitive, seeing as she saved many children, Nyx accepted it and limped her way into the school that Friday morning.

Her leg was bothering her. She tried her best to clean it and bandage it, but as she was halfway through cleaning all the blood on the floor, she noticed a red spot on her jeans.

Nyx opted to go to the same clinic she went to with Nora, only to get disgusted stares glared at her and when Dr. Susan was not available she left.

She wiped off the sweat and tried to dissociate herself from the scene around her, a bloodied classroom, being reminded of the dead bodies and fearful screams over and over again.

Nyx tried to keep thinking about the peaceful meadow, she visited weeks ago.

***

"What is this?" Silas asked in a low, but threatening voice.

The three men in front of him stood with their backs straight, hands behind them, but their faces wavering. "It's the report of the incident at the school, Alpha," The middle man spoke up.

"I know what it is. What I want to know is what the meaning of its contents is. How is it that for the last three days the media and the men I have spoken to do not even mention Nyx helping the children and that I only know now the situation was quite different than I have been told?"

The three men stood there silent, not knowing what to say. All gulping in fear of the Alpha's wrath that was about to come.

"Who lied to me?!" Silas roared.

***

Sunday had arrived and Nyx's leg didn't feel any better. It started to ooze. She knew it was bad. She knew she had to find and seek help, but she didn't. Nyx couldn't be bothered with it.

Nobody bothered with her, so why should she? She had noticed that no people wrote or spoke about her in any positive way when it came to the incident. It seemed that nobody knew what she had actually done, how she prevented hundreds of deaths.

The only thing going around about her was the suspicions Nyx was somehow connected to the men sent by HPS. Pack members thought she helped them, that she killed children. It pained her in ways she couldn't even vocalize.