Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 155

Zac's

pov

The silence was taut and filled with many unspoken words as I drove after our tryst in the car and if anything, the s e x had not fixed anything at all between us, only managed to somehow make it worse if the angered look on Lily's face was any indication. Well, I was frustrated at her as well because I was trying to make sure that she was safe and yet all she wanted to do was throw herself in harm's way and put her life in jeopardy.

Heaving a sigh of relief as I turned to the road that led to my family beach house, I stole a glance at her and saw that she was still looking outside the window, her body stiff as if she was trying not to explode in fury again and I my chest tightened in frustration as I parked in front of the duplex.

"Where the hell are we?" She asked, finally looking at me and ten fingers clenched into two hard fists as I fought the urge to grab and shake her out of that attitude, choosing instead to answer her question.

"Private beach. It's been in the family for years and it's one of the many private properties that the council has no knowledge about. Nobody knows about this place except my parents so we'll be safe here and free from the council for a while. At least until Aiden gives us the signal that we can go back."

At the mention of Aiden, her body seemed to shut down and I could see he guilt in her eyes before it disappeared and got covered up by rage again.

Unbuckling my seatbelt, I got down from the car and rushed to the other side just as she was opening the car to stretch out my hand and she merely looked at it before jumping down by herself and walking ahead to the door, her mouth in a pout.

I chuckled because if I wasn't so frustrated by her stubbornness, I would have told her that she was being so adorable right now and instantly, I remembered how starkly different she was from the Lily who had stood over Victor who looked like he was seeing the most horrific thing in his life as she stared down at him. She had looked so sexy, standing there cold and ready to take his life and all I had wanted in that moment was to drop to my knees and show her just how turned on I was by her.

I wasn't joking when I said this side of her did things to me. It made me want to take her against the wall and f**k her brains out until she's screaming my name and melting the rigidness in her spine.

Opening the door, I left a healthy amount of distance between us, careful to not cause her to explode with what I was sure now was restrained anger directed at me as I showed her around the house and she paused, her eyes taking in the exquisite interior. "Sometimes, I forget how rich you are. How rich you all are." She mused, more to herself than to me.

"If it makes you feel any better, none of this is mine. It's my parents."

She forced out a laugh, some light returning to her eyes. "Sure. That makes me feel so much better."

If she knew just how much a smile from her, a glance from her, makes my entire day, she'd probably be terrified of me.

She was currently peering at a picture gallery on the wall.

My mother was responsible for that. When she wasn't playing with knives and guns, she was redecorating all of our houses and I smiled, happy that my mother had approved of Lily. Not that I would have left her if she hadn't but it was nice to know that she approved of our pairing especially because I wasn't Lily's only mate.

Opening the door to the guest room, I moved away for her to enter and paused at the door.

"Stay here while I make a call to Ren and see what is happening over there."

She parted her lips in a smile that dripped with menace.

"Of course, my prince. I'll stay here like you ask. You wouldn't want your hostage to listen in on your precious phone call, would you?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm and I was about to tell her that she didn't need to take it this way but she slammed the door in my face before I could even get another word out.

Ren would probably fare better here than me,I thought with an exasperated sigh as I walked back into the living room, walked past it and into the kitchen to whip up a meal for my mate and I.

Just as I brought out my phone to make the phone call, I heard Ren's voice in my head, so clear it was as if he was standing in the room beside me.

'Zac, where are you now? Is Lily safe?'

Knowing that he would pick up my thoughts since he was the one that opened this mind link, I answered that we were fine and safe, still reeling from the fact that Ren could reach me at his distance.

"She is. Very pissed, but she'll live. And I'm fine too, by the way. Thanks for asking." He could probably feel my eye roll through the bond.

"Don't be like that."

"Nah, it's cool. I'll do the same too. Tell me what is going on over there.' I said, raising a bottle of water to my lips.

Ren groaned and his mounting frustration and dread filtered through the telepathic bond. "We have a plan; Aiden and I. It's a long shot but it's the only chance we're going to get to expose Victor once and for all."

I leaned against the counter, "I'm listening."

"Victor still has a grip on the Council, i bet he lined some of their pockets to sway the others. We have no idea how Mauve comes in with all this and with our powers not working on him, we need to-" What?!

"Woah woah WOAH! Back the fuck up! What do you mean your powers don't work?"

"I mean I tried to search his mind throughout the meeting but it was like trying to replace cracks in a solid wall. I couldn't get through. I think he's using some high level dark magic, but Aiden thinks it's rhodium. He detected it when Victor attacked him." My chest tightened painfully. "Lily's powers worked on him just fine."

"It's either Lily's powers operate on a higher frequency than ours, or Victor set us up, either way, both our offensives couldn't work on him. When I tried to heal him before the soldiers arrived, I detected an unhealthy amount of rhodium in his blood. And rhodium is illegal in Shadow Cove."

"You think that'll be enough to sway the council?"

"No. There's something deeper and darker going on. Something I can't quite put my finger on."

"And Aiden acting as bait is going to reveal that?" I deadpanned.

"Hopefully. I checked in with Cade when I had my worries about our powers not working, if he knows anything about it. What he told me was very disturbing."

"Tell me." I fisted my hands

"Cynthia and Victor have been preparing for a clash with Dahlia for years. They couldn't get a hold of any one of us, so guess who their test subject and labrat was for their many experiments." Cade..."

"Correct. When they found out that he was vulnerable to rhodium, they tried to see if there was a way they could permanently make rhodium a part of their body. They couldn't test on themselves directly, so they kidnapped unsuspecting werewolves and subjected them to a series of tests and experiments until they were compatible."

My heart dropped. "What?" This was sick. Sicker than I thought these two were capable of. "They must really want dahlia, huh?"

"Cade says there's a huge lab somewhere in Night Shade where Victor keeps his test subjects. Like every Night Shade werewolf, he has an affinity for magic and has been testing extracting wolves from their hosts for almost a decade, in preparation for when they have Lily." "Holy shit!"

"It's a long stretch, but with the knowledge we now have, if we can get Aiden in Victor's possession, I can link my mind through his and see what he sees, know where he keeps his victims and expose him once and for all. Even if he gets killed by Aiden in the process, there won't be any repercussions because we're ridding Shadow Cove of a traitor."

"That's a very long stretch," I sighed, blowing out a breath and raking my hands through my hair. "Lily's not going to like this."

"Lily doesn't have to know."

"The hell she does!"

"We don't want her to worry herself over this."

"Give her some credit. She can handle it. She's dying with guilt over here because Aiden is taking the fall for her. She has to know that there's a plan behind all of this. That he's not just doing this mindlessly. Leaving her in the dark won't help us earn her trust." Pensive silence for a few seconds. "You're right."

"I'm never wrong."

"Work on that ego."

"It's perfectly fine the way it is. Now, back to the issue at hand, how did you convince the council that it was Aiden who maimed and almost killed his uncle?"

"We didn't. Victor did."

"The fvck?"

"Victor did not reveal to the council that it was Lily that had hurt him. Instead, he concurred that Aiden was responsible and because of how Aiden acted when Victor first entered the room, the council easily believed it. He managed to convince the council to hand Aiden over to be punished by him."

Chills ran down my spine.

"And you're still sure this is a good idea?" I asked, just to be sure that we were on the same page.

"It's the best we have. It's not like we can turn Lily in."

"FUCK no."

"Then we have to play his twisted little game and pray the goddess will be with us."

"Fvck" I cursed out loud before realizing that there was infact nobody in the kitchen with me.

Whatever punishment Victor would give to Aiden would be worse than the council will ever give but. It would be even more terrible and humiliating than facing the council at this point but a part of me was glad that it was Aiden and not Lily that had gotten into his clutches. Ren's voice was clear like a song in my head as he answered that he shared the same sentiment because at least Victor would not be able to dogde the plan that was now in place for his sake.

"What's most disturbing to me is the rhodium. I should not make any conclusions without proof but I'm sure that Victor has trained himself to develop an immunity towards it because such large amounts present in his blood would have killed any other werewolf and would still be enough to rid a small pack of werewolves.

'If that is true then, Victor is practically a living weapon at this very moment. I fired back, feeling very fucking unsettled by the news.

Wolfsbane was bad enough but rhodium, even in tiny amounts, could kill even the most powerful lycans.

"I Still don't think this is a good idea."

It's the best option we have at clearing Cade's name and getting rid of Victor in a way that the council will not disapprove of, Zac'

Fvck the council, I thought and for a moment I wondered how easier our lives would be if we just fuck it and take matters into our own hands. Victor needs to die yesterday.

When I entered back into the guest room, I paused to take a look at Lily where she was standing in front of the open window, staring out at the sea while wearing one of my shirts.

Filled with fear and so much love, I hugged her from behind and she froze, her stiff posture becoming relaxed after a few minutes.

"I'm so sorry for today, Lily. Please believe me. I did everything I could and dragged you out here because I love you and want you to be safe."

She sighed and nodded, looking up at me before turning around in my embrace.

"Aiden is in the mess that he is in right now because of me. I know there's nothing I can do to change that, staying here is the wisest thing to do, but it's eating me up, Zac." She trembled and buried her face in my shirt. "I can't help it. Victor is horrible. What he did to Aiden... what he does to Aiden..."

"I know," I hugged her fiercely, kissing her forehead. "I know, sweetheart."

She looked up at me with so much trust in those glassy green eyes and I felt on top of the world.

"It's not your fault. Aiden was probably going to kill Victor himself the second he had the chance. Nobody even likes him."

"Yeah but I won't survive if something ever happened to him."

My heart throbbed. Ren's disclosure weighed heavy on my tongue and I suddenly understood his reluctance at wanting to tell her the situation Aiden put himself in.

"There's a plan, but you have to promise not to freak."

She narrowed her eyes at me, dread filling up those jade green orbs. "Tell me."

By the end of the plan Lily still looked very skeptical but she believed that it was the best shot that we had. Just as I was about to head back out to the kitchen so I could make dinner for us both, Lily received a phone call and the way her eyes changed as Bia's voice came out sounding rushed and terrified.

"Bia, tell me Exactly what happened." Lily said and I heard Bia talking hysterically.

"Someone... There's someone in my house, Lily."

"What, like your dad?"

"No," Bia's voice trembled. "It's one of those nights where I have to stay alone, except I'm not alone, there's someone in here with me, I can feel it. I'm so scared, Lily," her voice shattered as she broke into helpless tears.

We looked at each other in dread and I swear, I heard her heart sink to her feet.

"Go up to your room, lock your doors and windows."

When the call ended, I knew that Lily was about to march out of here.

"I'm not letting you go anywhere, Lily, not when Victor and Cynthia are still out there and for we all know, Bia's cry for help could be a trap." I stated and Lily glared at me.

"It's definitely a trap," she reasoned, "that's all the more reason we should go to her. She has nobody, Zac. And we can't exactly call the police on her because we're not supposed to expose ourselves to the humans. If it's a trap, so be it but I will not abandon my best friend. Will you help me out or will I have to do this alone? Because with or without your help, I'm going to my best friend."

She folded her arms and quirked an eyebrow at me and I sighed, rolling my eyes because I already knew my answer.