Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 142

Lily's pov

Cade's entire tale sounded so bleak, so horrifying, but his last words made Ren and Zac, heck! Even Cade goes pale. And as I looked deeper into his kind blue eyes, I couldn't begin to imagine what would happen to me if his mother succeeded in her plan to get her hands on my wolf, what would happen to the world as we knew it if she succeeded in getting the power she was after.

"Thank you for telling me, telling us everything. You could be beside your mother right now helping her but you're here in chains because you wanted to do the right thing. Thank you, Cade."

He lit up like a freaking fireball, his smile catching me off guard for the first time in two years. "Don't thank me, Lily. I'm not noble," Cade admitted, his smile falling but his eyes on me didn't waver. He hadn't looked away from me since we started this discussion, almost like he wanted to drink me in as much as he could, as if he knows he's not going to see me for a while and wanted to get his fill.

"Everything I'm doing right now is for one reason and that alone. It's for you. It's all for you. I can't undo what happened to you years ago, this is the only way I can be of help and still matter in your life, even if it's for a little while. Because I'm too selfish to let you go." He answered, his eyes flaming and I wanted to believe him, because his eyes were the same as when he used to say the same thing those years ago..

I didn't want to be that naive girl anymore. I had too many scars and way too many reasons to not believe him.

But I did... and just like I fell all those years ago, I found myself still falling for those kind blue eyes and honest, heavy weight on his shoulders.

"We will do our best to make sure that you don't pay for the crimes of your mother." I added and when he nodded, we walked out of the holding cell. "After what I just heard, I need a drink. You guys coming?" Zac said.

"Can I get a non-alcoholic drink?"

Right before my eyes, Zac blushed. The high prince of blood and venom bit his lip into a grin and wrapped his arms around me, his cheek, resting in my hair. "You can have all the non-alcoholic drinks you want, duchess."

I was blushing to my roots, wondering what I had said that triggered that response and when I nodded, he led me and Ren to the bar.

"He wasn't lying when he said that he was doing this for you." Ren whispered as he took the stool beside me in front of the bar while Zac poured us some drinks. "Cade's in love with you. He never stopped."

I nodded, lost in thought because of the story that still turned and churned in my mind. I wanted so badly to believe that the tale of the four kings was not related to me and the princes but it looked like it was. Did that mean that soon, they would no longer be friends and resort to war like the kings in the story did? Would I lose control to the goddess?

And then, I remembered something that made me jerk in my seat. Aiden!

"You guys go on without me, I'll be back in a bit." I told Ren and Zac, rising up from the stool and heading in the direction of his scent. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I recognized him as my mate on my birthday but his scent felt stronger, easy to locate even though I had not mated with him like Zac and Ren.

I could not even imagine how he was doing right now. Finding out that everything he believed was a lie must have floored him, as if he didn't feel guilty enough towards me already. It had to be eating him alive from within.

Sighting a maid who bowed when she saw me even though I was already shaking my head and waving my hand for her not to, I stopped her.

"Do you have any idea where Aiden might be?" I asked her and she pointed straight down.

"Last I saw the young master, he was heading to the gym. Go straight down, the gym is the first door by your left."

Pleased that my nose was leading me in the right direction already, I nodded and thanked her, trying to think of what I could say to him that would lessen his guilt and pain.

However, as I got closer to the gym, I started hearing screams and grunts that made my heart drop to the pit of my stomach.

I quickened my steps, fear bubbling in my throat, telling me that we were under another attack again and an intruder had somehow gotten in.

I walked into the gym, and my eyes immediately locked onto the intense scene before me. There, amidst the flurry of action, was Aiden, his muscles glistening with sweat under the harsh gym lights. His face was a lethal mask of rage as he exchanged blows with a guy twice his size. Oh wait. Correct that. They weren't exchanging blows. Aiden was pummelling the poor guy half to death.

With every punch he landed, his brows furrowed in anger, a fire burning in his eyes and sweat dripping down his forehead. He was panting like the wild animal he had inside of him. His jaw was tight in a furious set.

There was the sickening sound of flesh meeting flesh echoing throughout the room, Aiden's lips were pressed together in a firm line, showcasing his unwavering commitment to the fight. He was panting like a beast, straddling the man and pounding his fist into his face.

I watched, my heart dropping into the pit of my stomach, my eyes filled with horror as he kept hitting the man over and over.

They're just sparring, I told myself. There's nothing too out of the ordinary here. He's not doing anything wrong...

Except, Aiden looked like he was actively trying to kill the man. Something was wrong with his eyes, the familiarity of this side of Aiden made me freeze in fear, giving me cold feet.

He growled, rising from the man and stepping on his back, taking his arms and pulling hard on it, as if he was trying to pull his arms of his sockets.

His sparring partner was screaming at him to stop, yielding to Aiden but Aiden was not having it.

Right before my eyes, memories I had thought I was finally over and done with, memories I thought that I had forgotten with my forgiveness came back with full force. Aiden pushing me against the wall and wrapping his fingers around my throat, choking the life out of me. Aiden swearing to make my life miserable, forcing me on my knees and looking down at me with those eyes like malicious ruthlessness. Why isn't he stopping? And why am I frozen in place? Why are these memories suddenly coming back?

Some of the men rushed towards him and tried to pull him away and he roared, his shadows flinging them back, forking hounds that blocked them from getting to him and he turned back to his victim and pulled hard on his arm, popping his arm from its sockets while his partner victim screamed uncontrollably.

The door flew open as Ren and Zac rushed in, running past me and pulling Aiden off the man and he kept struggling against them, trying to break free. His eyes were dark and I saw that shadows were already forming in his hands. If we didn't stop him, someone was actually going to get hurt. Or... more hurt.

Shoving Ren and Zac, he was about to return to where the man laid, barely breathing when I snapped out of my reverie, shoving my fears and memories back and screamed at him. "AIDEN!"

He froze immediately, panting hard as his eyes found mine and he c****d his head to the side, his chest rising and falling uncontrollably and as the rage and confusion cleared from his eyes, his look of rage was slowly replaced with guilt and self revulsion. His eyebrows unknotted, the darkness cleared from his eyes, his muscles relaxed and his shoulders and eyes dropped in shame.

Like he was a new person, a stranger to the situation, he took in the scene before him, the man that he had beaten to a pulp laying on the ground, within an inch of his life...

And stormed out of the gym.

Ren rushed to kneel by the carcass' side and his hands and eyes gave off a faint glow as he started healing him and the more I took in the scene, the blood splattered on the floor and walls, the man barely breathing with a broken arm and bashed in face and the other men with bruises on their faces and bodies, the more my anger increased, my mind unable to fathom why he would do something like this and in rage, I turned and stormed after him.

Entering the hallway, I caught up to him, stopping when I was close enough that he could hear me.

"Aiden!" I called out to him, but he only kept walking away.

"Don't run like a f*****g coward! Stop right there, Aiden." I screamed and he stopped, refusing to turn around and look at me.

Of course. Typical of him to just walk away after making a mess.

"So you're just going to walk away after nearly killing a man? Well what was I expecting from someone who never learns? You don't know how to control your emotions and because of that innocent people always get hurt."

His back stiffened but I wasn't done. Far from it, infact.

"You think people are toys that you can break for fun or when you're angry and throwing a tantrum but these are real people with real feelings. Have you ever even stopped to think about how your actions affect everyone else? Have you ever stopped to think that you're not the only one hurting?!"

"You don't care about anyone but yourself but it was my mistake to think you could ever change. That I could change you. You're too self absorbed and I will never stand for what you just did. Violence without provocation and if you think this is right, then you're no better than your uncle."

I saw his hands fist and darkness swirl around them.

He didn't lash out, he walked away.

I turned around and headed back to the gym, breathing hard and realizing that I had failed woefully in trying to comfort Aiden. I had only somehow managed to make the entire situation worse but my pride kept me going instead of running after him.

As much as I didn't want to hurt him with my words, Aiden was wrong in harming that man and we couldn't keep coddling him like a child. He needed to understand that his actions had consequences and that he couldn't go around hurting people just because he was stronger than them.