Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 157

Lily's pov

When Rhea and Chelsea had tried to explain to me that Callista had looked exactly like me even though they hadn't ever wondered if she was me thanks to her more eccentric and self confident nature, I had wondered what it would be like to stand face to face with her, not that I ever wanted to see her after hearing what she had done to Zac.

But as I stood in front of Bia's house, hearing how my friend banged hard on the door for someone to let her out and knowing that I had rushed here for a solution only to be met with greater problems like my mate's ex and sire coming back from the grave, I started to put two and two together. If my calculations were correct, then the person who had turned Bia was Callista

That explained it because there was no reason Bia would have let her get so close to her, an absolute stranger or let her into the house if she had not pretended to be me.

And she did an absolutely fantastic job of trying to look like me even.

I didn't know who had given her a picture of me because her hair was straightened to mirror mine, her eyes large and doe eyed and she even had a birthmark on her chin to match mine.

But what was starkly different about us was our smiles. Hers was filled with wicked delight like she revelled in evil.

Well, we were not outnumbered, I thought as I tried to scan the area and came up with no other scents that could spark my paranoia. Zac and I just needed to knock her out and quickly leave with Bia before she woke up.

My plan was solid, except that I hadn't anticipated Zac standing still as Callista walked towards him and my heart turned to lead and dropped into my stomach when he let her touch him, not even acknowledging that I had come outside.

As if Callista wanted me to understand what was going on, she put her arms around Zac's neck and leaned up on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his and my heart felt like it was about to fall out of my chest in rage and agony as he held her and kissed her back. I stumbled back, clutching at my aching chest, completely blindsided.

Why? Why was he even doing this?

How could Zac do something like this? And with the woman who had forcefully turned him?

Peering at me, Callista laughed and flipped her hair, her eyes narrowing in contempt.

"You look like you're about to raze the world. Why? Are you surprised that he kissed me? Well that's what you get for thinking you're special. I can't believe that you actually thought that Zac pursuing you was real. I can't even believe he fell for a cheap knock-off of myself. A downgrade if you'll ask me."

I had no idea where it came from or if I was because in that moment, I was enraged to the point where I could feel something like a locked door open in my mind, but I stretched out my hand and like the way I had seen Aiden fashion out his hounds from nothing but shadows, I made a spear and pointed it at Callista, my eyes narrowed to slits.

"You died. Zac killed you. So how is it possible that you are here? What do you want from us?"

I had to believe that Zac was under some kind of spell because it was easier than having to accept that he had allowed that kiss.

I loved Zac, I trusted him with my entire heart. He'd never do anything to intentionally hurt me.

Callista shrugged, throwing her head back in a laugh that was filled with confidence and sultry in a way that I could never be, holding Zac's arm and running her fingers down his torso.

"Oh, darling, you? I have absolutely nothing that I could possibly want from you. I have no use for you. But Zac?" She gazed up at Zac, running her hand down his chest, her blood red lips parting into a vicious grin. "Oh, I can replace plenty use for him." And just as quickly as she spoke, she pulled him down and sank her fangs into his neck.

Zac fell to the ground in pain and held his hands to his neck, his eyes rolled back as he screamed and my eyes widened in horror.

"Zac!" I screamed and reached for him but Callista raised her hand, fingers sharpened into claws and aimed at Zac's throat.

She forced him to his knees and grabbed his neck, grinning at me.

"How do you like this?"

Blinded by rage, I swiped my spear in a wide arc at her, narrowly missing Zac, thank the goddess, and catching her in her abdomen. She stepped back, letting go of Zac and sneering at me, not expecting my attack and I thanked the goddess once more that she had underestimated me.

The spear in my hand faded, my control slipping for a split second as I stepped in front of Zac, shielding him from his sire's cruel gaze. I had zero experience in actually fighting a vampire. But Dahlia would! Of course she would.

Fisting my hands, I tried to summon Dahlia's powers and snuff out Callista's life but all I was met with was nothing with a brick wall, only that this time instead of stark silence, her voice was clear as day in my head.

"I cannot take her soul, child, because she doesn't have one. My powers only work on the living and as she is undead, there is nothing for me to take."

"I cannot take her soul, child, because she doesn't have one. My powers only work on the living and as she is undead, there is nothing for me to take."

Unable to stop the bitter laugh that escaped my mouth because of course! The very first time I wanted someone dead, something like this happened.

Taking a deep breath, I called on Taryn and in her large black panther form, still annoyed at getting called back in too early, she lunged at Callista, causing her to stumble and fight back.

Sweat broke out on my forehead from the energy I was exacting on keeping Taryn alive and Callista occupied and rushing forward, I dragged Zac a few distance away, huffing and puffing from pulling all 200 pound weight of him and knelt in front of him, trying to shake him awake from what looked like a trance.

"Wake up, Zac," Tears accumulated in my eyes as i shaked him over and over. "Snap out of whatever hold she has on you. Please!" I cried and begged but even though he looked at me, it felt like he wasn't seeing me at all.

"I didn't think a day would come when I would have to explain this to a mutt of all things but it seems you've been living under a rock so allow me to educate you on vampire lore." Callista said with a laugh pinning my creature to the ground.

"I sired Zac. My venom was what made Zac into one of the very few surviving hybrids and thanks to that, if I will it, Zac will do my bidding. To Zac, I am god, darling."

No.

Shaking Zac hard again, I cupped his face and tried to shake him awake.

"Please, come back to me." I was hyperventilating, my hands trembling on his face. "Come back to me, Zac!"

"It seems your mutt brain refuses to understand that Zac is mine," Callista sighed in mocking pity, "a demonstration should set things straight. Zac, honey," she called out, "teach her a lesson." Before I could even move, Zac grabbed me by the throat and rose to his feet, lifting me up in the air and I choked, hitting his hand to let me go.

"Please don't do this. It's me, Lily." I begged and kept hitting him. I was still trying to unclasp his grip on my neck when a bright light made me turn my head to see a convoy of cars approaching. I wanted to believe that they were not coming here but when they stopped right in front of us and Cynthia stepped down, I was certain that this was only going to go from bad to worse. There she was, prim and poised, with her honey brown hair tied up in a bun at the base of her elegant neck and a white pants suit cut seamlessly to fit her lean and lithe frame.

Almost a dozen soldiers dressed in black suits walked behind her as she approached us and stopped only some feet away.

Her eyes moved from my form to Callista and she clicked her tongue.

"Don't play with my prize like that. I told you to get her for me, not dangle her up like a slab of meat. Put her down now." "Oh you're no fun." Callista answered but she turned and faced us again.

"Put her down, Zachary. But don't let her out of your sight."

Like a log of wood, Zac dropped me to the ground and I could only look at all of them in confusion, my body shaking with rage.

Pulling me up, Zac continued to hold me hostage and all I felt when I looked at Cynthia was pure, unadulterated hatred.

As wolves, we all knew who the enemy was. Is Cynthia so desperate to get what she wants by liaising with the enemy?

"Why would you even partner with a vampire to hurt your own kind? Why sell weapons to the humans, Cynthia? Why are you even doing all of this? Are you so blinded by greed that you have no room for sound judgement anymore? Is it really that important that you are ready to sacrifice everyone in your pursuit for greed and power?"

Cynthia looked like I had slapped her with my words, but she smiled, adjusting her suit jacket.

"Why, Lily," she sighed. "It's because of one thing. Being good has only gotten me pain and disgrace. Being good only got me squashed like an insect. I have no problem with you. In Fact, I might have looked away and let my son have you as his w***e if you weren't the vessel to so much untapped power. It's a real shame that you have to die for me to get what I want."

I knew what she planned for me already but the words seemed to hurt me all over again and it was obvious that I couldn't reason with her.

"I'm so sorry, Zac," I whispered, not interested in dying tonight. I took my knife out and slashed his arm, causing him to drop me. I sommersaulted back a few steps, landing by the front door of Bia's house.

Surveying the people I was planning to flee from, I realized that I was fiercely outnumbered.

Well, Dahlia said her powers only worked on the living, right?

I stretched out a hand and hoped Dahlia would sense what I wanted her to do, but this time it also didn't work. Not on Cynthia or the men that were pointing guns at me.

From the way Cynthia looked unbothered, I was certain that this time it wasn't Dahlia who was ignoring me because I was sure she wanted to survive as well.

I needed a distraction while I tried again, I realized.

"If you really want me to go with you, you should fight me one on one and stop making people do your dirty work for you. Or are you scared of me, Cynthia?"

I drawled, taking on a fighting stance.

"Darling, I am many decades ahead of you and trust that there was a time when senseless taunts used to hurt me in the past. Now? Not anymore, I'm afraid "

While she spoke, I tried to reach for my powers again, narrowing my eyes and hoping that it would replace a way to work.

Cynthia's eyes widened at my outstretched hand and shook her head.

"Would you like to know why your powers aren't working on me and my men? Well, you are going to die soon anyways so I might as well just tell you why. Rhodium, Lily. Rhodium." Rhodium? How?

"I knew all about my son's powers from when he was very young which was very peculiar even for royals as not all of us had abilities, and especially not as powerful or intense as his. Of course, being the scientist that I am, I had to replace out why." She gleamed, clasping her hands. "Why was my son so powerful? More powerful than any lycan before him?"

I swallowed and looked at Zac who was bleeding out of his neck, a vacant look in his eyes, the perfect robot, the perfect soldier.

Cynthia continued. "After a series of tests-"

"You mean torture," I corrected.

"Call it want you want, Lily. The only thing that affected him was rhodium. I deduced that if small amounts of rhodium could render his powers useless, with the right dose, it would do the same for you and the rest of the boys. That was what piqued my interest in the element and made me mine rhodium in such a large amounts. As I speak to you now, I made sure to inject myself as well as my men with a dose of rhodium before coming here because I need them too much to let your wolf snug out their lives. Of course this is just an experiment and I have no idea how long the effects will last for. I didn't even think it would work which is why I needed someone close to you to get you for me."

Zac, I thought with horror and she nodded before she even continued.

"Zac was the only one that wasn't present at the meeting with you, I heard and there was no way he would have agreed to hand you over to us in his right mind, so I tracked down his sire and with the right incentives, she agreed."

"Incentives?" I growled, "what did she promise you? Land? Territory? Money? An eternal supply of victims?"

Callista shrugged, looking at her nails, "a little bit of all."

"And why did you have to turn my best friend? She has nothing to do with any of this!"

"No reason. I was just bored."

This was a lot to take in and the more I tried to process the information, the more terrified I was about how much planning Cynthia had done about this, however, one question still lingered in my mind.

How was Callista still alive? Zac had told me that he ripped her heart out and I must have been staring at her with so much hatred because she laughed.

"Oh, since it's confession time, I guess you want me to explain how I'm alive to you, don't you?"

I gritted my teeth and looked around, trying to come up with an escape plan but it's not like I could leave without Zac and Bia. I just need to hold up for a little while, at least until the effects of the rhodium were off.

"Well it's really simple. Zac ripped out my heart and dismembering a vampire's body is ineffective because we can just put ourselves together again. It was so fun, really. I made it more dramatic than it should have. It's a little party trick that every vampire is familiar with every now and then. The only true way to kill a vampire is to rip us apart and burn our parts to ashes so that we can never come together. Of course, this is a closely guarded secret and it means that even moreso, I'll have to kill you for knowing this." She said with a careless smile that made me feel like ants were crawling on my arm.

"There's no hard feelings, doppelganger, although, I must admit, I'm a little jealous that Zac would move on so quickly. I have to remedy that as soon as I can."

"Zac," she looked at Zac, stretching out her hand to him and his gaze snapped to hers, alert and eager to obey her command.

She pointed a blood red finger at me, "rip her apart."