Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 158

Lily's

pov

"Zac, rip her apart."

The command hung heavily in the air like lead.

His eyes shone with a predatory gleam as he stalked towards me.

Now, it was my heart that turned to lead and dropped to my feet.

I struggled hard to remember Aiden's instructions while he trained me; never give your attacker your back, never retreat unless you have an offensive plan, never turn your back on your enemies, you might as well give them the go ahead to kill you. It's going to make them seem like predator and you like prey. Do you understand me, Lily. Stand your ground and fight back.

I wondered if he'd be so keen on me fighting back if he knew that it was Zac I was up against.

I couldn't fight Zac and I hoped to all the high heavens that he was feeling the having sentiment.

"Zac," I called out, swallowing the dread in the pit of my stomach. I raised my hands in surrender. "It's me. It's me, Lily."

The shine in his eyes dimmed. He took another step towards me and suddenly stopped. His eyes hardened and he gritted his teeth as he forced himself to stay rooted in place.

He was trying to fight the compulsion!

A glimmer of hope surged through me and my eyes brightened.

"Lily?" He rasped with great difficulty.

The tortured look in his eyes tore me to pieces. He held his head and roared and when he looked at me again, he was panting hard and his eyes were going back and forth between normal and enraged glowing red.

"Fight it. Fight it, Zac." I begged and it seemed my words finally got through to him because he froze and his eyes cleared and as he looked at me, I could see that he was tortured by this entire situation but just as quickly as his eyes cleared, they started to change again and he growled, fisting his hands and holding his head, the moment of clarity only lasting for mere seconds.

"Run, Lily. Run as fast as you can. And if it comes down to it, kill me."

I shook my head, tears breaking out, "I can't. I c-"

He let out an earth shaking roar again, his feet rushing forward but he stilled, pulling himself back, his entire body taut with tension. "Lily- Lily," he rasped, "I love you. I really do."

I cried harder, my lungs tightening around my heart as he dropped to the ground and I watched in horror as his bones started to crack, fur covering his smooth skin as his clothes melted into his form. I didn't need to be told twice that if I continued to wait here, he would tear me apart and so as he completed his turning into lycan form, I sprinted in the direction of the woods, running as fast as my legs could carry me.

My eyes brimmed with tears as I heard him catch up to me, his growls filled with nothing but pure malicious intent and even though my legs were starting to tire out, I couldn't stop. Callista had turned my own mate to a predator and made me prey. If I survived this, I would replace a way to make sure she stayed dead.

As fast as I was though, Zac in his lycan form was faster and just as I took a sharp left in the woods in an attempt to confuse him, he crashed into me, his paws knocking into me and I screamed in agony as his claws slashed into my stomach, tumbling on the floor until my back hit the root of a tree.

The pain from his claws to my stomach was almost dizzying but I couldn't let myself dwell on the pain and I quickly tried to get up on my feet, fashioning a shadow shield that would help me keep him at bay so that he couldn't reach me.

"Please, Zac. You need to fight her compulsion. Come back to me. Please, please, please!"

My control shifted and the response I got to my pleas was to be knocked into the ground.

Growling, he grabbed me by the throat and pushed me hard against a tree. All the breath in my lungs wheezed out as my back connected with the tree and he kept squeezing and squeezing my throat.

"I'm sorry," I whispered and, fisting my hands, I hit him hard on his arm, again and again and he slammed me even harder against the tree.

Grabbing his neck, I placed my feet on his chest and pushed hard against him, doing an effortless but effective maneuver that Ren had taught me, I wrapped my legs around his neck and twisted both of us so that he tumbled to the ground and instead of taking me with him, I kicked him away as soon as his hold on me loosened.

I pushed away from him and tasted escape for a few short seconds before he grabbed me and flinged me against another tree.

My entire body was throbbing with pain and when he picked me up again, I dodged his first two blows but the third caught me against the side of my head, sending me sprawling.

I winced in agony, pain flaring from colliding with the ground on my bleeding side.

Zac picked me up again and threw me against the tree, over and over again until I realized in horror that he was toying with me exactly like a predator does to their much weaker prey and was enjoying it.

He flung me on my back on the ground and seeing an opening, I grabbed his neck and kneed his skull with all my strength. I crawled away as soon as he let me go. Standing up and planting my feet on the ground, I widened my stance and brought my fists up. This time, I made it to three blows and managed to get one in before he punched me in my stomach. He grabbed my arm and pulled hard when I doubled over in agony. I cried at the flare of pain in my shoulder joint as he practically ripped my arm from its socket. Holding my arm, he kneed me twice in my abdomen, grabbed my air and flung me on the forest ground.

I ate dust for the umpteenth time today.

Not giving me a chance to gather my wits from where he scattered it all over the floor, he kicked me away, sending me flying and slamming my back against a tree. Pushing myself up, because I certainly wasn't going to lay down and die and make this easy for him, I rose to my feet and, gathering momentum, I ran towards him, prepared to spear him in the midsection and tackle him into the ground.

My plan failed almost immediately because he only picked me up like I weighed nothing and slammed me on the ground again.

My entire body was screaming at me, pain flaring to life in every muscle in my body. Finding myself at my wit's end, I crawled back, my body trembling in pain as he kept approaching me.

He pounced on me and drew his hand back, ready to go for the killing blow and I whimpered, closing my eyes as I prepared for what I was sure was my final breath.

I took many more final breaths before I realized that Zac was stalling on taking my life.

Opening my eyes again, I saw that his fur had receded and his face was back to normal, even as his clawed hands were still raised to s***h at my face.

He's struggling, I realized, his entire body trembling on top of mine.

I grabbed his face, my thumbs stroking his cheekbones and tears sliding down my cheeks. "It's okay, Zac. It's okay. I love you, I love you, it's me, Lily. I'm Lily."

I repeated the words over and over again until the feral look in his eyes cleared.

Hiis hand was mid air and he was trying his best to keep it from coming down on me. His eyes were fluctuating between lycan glow and human and he was shaking, tears dropping down his cheeks as he forced his hands behind his back, the movement looking like it physically hurt him to have to go against Callista's orders.

"Lily?" he gasped between sobs, refusing to look at me and I cupped his cheek, forcing his face to mine so that I could look into his eyes.

"It's alright, Zac. It's fine, see? I'm alright. We're alright. Just come back to me. Come back to me, please."

We were both crying and trembling and begging.

"I can't. You need to get out of here because I don't know how much longer I can hold off for."

"You won't kill me. I know it."

Just as I was about to touch him again, certain that he could win the fight in his mind, there was a flash of brown that knocked into him and sent him flying several feet from me, his back hitting a tree and before I could go to him, Cade knelt in front of me, his face lighting up with a relieved smile as he pulled me in a hug.

The Calvary is here.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I stopped to pick the others on the way." He whispered as he helped me to my feet and that was when I finally noticed Angelo in the woods with us and a team of people that were armed to the teeth like he was. Hunters.

Nodding, I heaved a sigh of relief, glad they could make it. It had been a last minute idea to contact Cade and Angelo on our way to see Bia just in case we were walking into a trap and needed back up. An idea I was glad I acted on. "Thank you for coming. I was worried you wouldn't get my message."

"I'll always come for you, sunflower." He said, his gaze softening. "Looks like you held up pretty nicely," he commended.

I was definitely beaten up pretty badly and I'm sure my face was more battered and bruised than he let on, but I attempted a smile, wincing and realizing that I was bleeding from where Zac had slashed me. Turning to look at him, I saw that he was back in his full human form.

He was holding his head, his eyes filled with disbelief at what had just happened, his entire body trembling and as I moved to meet him, Cade grabbed my arm and held me back.

"From what I just saw, he tried to kill you. Look at you bleeding out onto the ground and still wanting to go to him. How can you be sure that he is even in his right mind?"

Zac flinched like Cade's words had physically hit him and he recoiled, his face filled with guilt as his eyes met my belly, to where he had clawed me, a gash that was still bleeding profusely.

"I'm sorry, Lily," he gasped and staggered to his feet, walking towards me but Cade blocked his path and it was obvious that he was skeptical of whether Zac was still in her mind control.

Zac hung his head low and was about to take steps back but I touched Cade's arm and when he looked at me, I nodded. "No, It's alright, he won't hurt me. He's okay now. He came back. He fought his hardest against Callista's command and came back to me." Cade didn't budge, merely looking down at where I was still bleeding and I cringed at how it looked but I was sure that he was himself right now and I will heal in no time.

"I trust him, Cade," I said and just as Cade gave a grunt of approval, there was a scream that sounded a lot like Bia.

Angelo took to his heels immediately at the sound of his girlfriend and some of the hunters went with him.

"We need to head back," I said and Cade nodded.

Immediately, we all headed out of the woods and into the clearing where I paused as I witnessed Cade's soldiers and Angelo's hunters fending off Cynthia's men and Callista's vampires while we rushed into the house, Angelo long ahead of us. The three of us froze when we entered to see him pointing a gun at Callista, his eyes filled with devastated terror as he looked at Bia who was held against her sire, with Callista's hands to her throat.

"What have you done to her?!" He roared, shaking. "What have you done to my girlfriend?!"

Bia shook her head, sobbing her eyes glowing red as she tried and failed to not twitch.

"Please don't shoot. Put the gun down, Angelo. She's going to kill me. She's going to kill me if you don't." she begged and Callista laughed.

"I would listen to her if I were you!"

Just as I was about to signal Cade that we needed to make a plan, we felt another presence enter the house and turned to see Cynthia, her carefully styled blonde hair still in place and her fingers and clothes clean, not a speck or a wrinkle on her. Of course she had been too unbothered to join in the brawl. It looked like she had even gone back to the car to wait for her minions to deliver me to her hands.

Her frown deepened when she sighted Cade.

"Last I heard you were exiled from Shadow cove and yet here you are again, actively trying to destroy my plans that I have laid out for years."

Cade flinched and stumbled back as his mother approached us, her heels clicking against the floor.

"All your life, you have been nothing but a colossal disappointment and it makes me wonder what mistake I made to birth someone that always brings shame to my family name."

"You're wrong" I snapped, growling at her and stepping in front of Cade to shield him from her chilling, condescending gaze. "Cade is the best son you could have ever wished for. It is you who is a mistake of a mother for ever subjecting Cade to as much pain as you did. He's your son but all you ever saw was an experiment and a means to an end. Cade shouldn't be ashamed of himself, it is you that should be ashamed of what you have done to him and for dragging your family name through the mud. I'm sure the previous alpha and Luna must be rolling in their graves at what you've become." I completed, seething in anger.

Cynthia merely looked at me like she was bored of my reply and shook her head. "I wouldn't know. Perhaps you can check in with them after I send you to your grave."

"Nice offer, but I'll pass," I said, giving her a saccharine sweet smile that dripped with poison and absinthe.

"You will never understand, Lily," she tsked. "I don't even expect a simpleton like you to understand what I am trying to achieve. You are weak, have always been weak and Cade has followed in your footsteps, forgetting that this world is a dog eat dog world. The strong will always oppress the weak and those who cannot keep up have to pass away quietly for those that are stronger to reign. You, my dear, must die for me to be strong and I used to feel pity for you about it but now I will enjoy tearing you apart."

"Well, I'll like to see you try," I growled, taking a step forward but two of Cynthia's men suddenly entered the house and flanked her side, in their wolf form, baring their teeth at me while Cynthia grinned. I hated that my powers still couldn't work against them thanks to their ingestion of Rhodium but I guess brute strength would have to do for now.

I was about to attack when Cade placed his hand on my arm and when I turned to look at him, he shook his head with a smile and stepped in front of me as we watched his mother step out of the house leaving her wolves to attack us. "Stand aside, Lily. This fight is between me and my mother and it's time to do what I should have done years ago."

Immediately, he lunged for the wolves and transformed mid air into a large golden brown wolf, charging headfirst into the men that had blocked the road and tearing them to pieces, clearing the road towards his target; his mother.