Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 156

Zac's pov

We shouldn't have come. We shouldn't have come. We really shouldn't have come.

Azrael's voice was a broken record in my head and for once, I agreed with him whole heartedly.

The back of my neck prickled with dread as I parked in front of Bia's house.

This was not the assignment that Aiden and Ren had given me. Both him and Ren would probably think that we were still back at the beach house, safe and out of sight, laying low like the two of them had instructed especially with the fact that Victor would probably be looking for Lily now, his vindictive a*s one that we would do well to fear.

But when Lily had thrown down the gauntlet and said that she was not going to sit back in the beach house and let me be the one to come out here and check on Bia who she was sure was in trouble, I knew that I had no choice. She loved her friend, she would do anything fir her friend, even charge headfirst into unknown danger, into a situation we were both sure was a trap. And god I loved that about her.

But now as we both sat in the car, looking out at the porch of Bia's home, the silence on the street was almost deafening as if it was trying to warn us. That we were missing something very important. That something was coming. That something was here. Maybe I was being paranoid, but my fears were very valid, especially with the recent turn out of events.

"Thank you for bringing me here. I knew that you didn't want us to come in the first place." Lily answered and this time when she looked at me, she looked a lot less likely frustrated with me like she had earlier today. Immediately, I mentally convinced myself that I was indeed overreacting.

If Aiden or Ren were in trouble, I would do the same.

"You're welcome," I answered, sharpening my senses to see if I could replace anything remotely suspicious in scent or sound. I could not sense any heat or scent in that house but Bia's very faint scent and maybe that should have relieved my anxiety but all it did was make me even more concerned, my attempt to rationalize why we were here a waste.

"I'll be in and out with Bia. We won't take long." Lily said, quickly kissing my cheek and before I could even tell her to be careful or allow me to be the one to go, she was out of the car with an agility that was not human, sprinting towards the front door. I found myself smiling at how cute she looked, rushing into danger and quick to throw caution to the wind for someone she cared about, not even caring that this was a trap or not. Well, if this was a trap for Lily, whoever orchestrated it would have to answer to me.

Getting down from the car, I walked briskly towards the house and I had just reached the door when I felt a chilling presence behind me.

Immediately, I turned, taking a defensive stance but the blood drained from my face to see Lily behind me, a melancholic expression on her face.

"You just went inside," I said, unable to hide my confusion. Was there a back door here somewhere that made her come out on the other side?

"It's too late. Bia isn't in there. I checked everywhere but I couldn't replace her." Her voice broke and my heart dropped. "We came here for nothing. Let's head back home."

I wanted to walk up to give her a hug, it was instinct at this point, but there were two serious oddities with her answer.

First, Lily was never the type to just give up on searching for her best friend if she didn't replace her inside.

Secondly, home? We had just come back from the beach house, which Lily absolutely hated because she didn't like hiding so why would she be in a hurry to go back now?

Except... I took in her facial features, the arch of her brow was slightly higher than Lily's, there was a glimmer of seductive mischief in her eyes that Lily did not possess and she lacked the alround sweetness, kindness and fierce loyalty Lily carried on her persona. I took a step back, my heart squeezing in my chest as the realization slammed into me.

No.

I didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to be right. More than anything, I didn't want to believe that the person standing in front of me was not Lily but the more I looked at her, the more I had to admit to myself that I was looking at the person that I was sure I had killed with my bare hands.

No.

I didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to be right. More than anything, I didn't want to believe that the person standing in front of me was not Lily but the more I looked at her, the more I had to admit to myself that I was looking at the person that I was sure I had killed with my bare hands.

Callista.

"You're not Lily, are you?" I asked and even as I did, I already knew the answer.

Her smile was slow and eerily similar but also different from Lily and my body froze to ice as she finally spoke, that hint of Italian accent that she had tried to hide now in full view.

"Hello, Zachary." She tilted her head to the side, a cruel frigid smile on her lips, "Did you miss me?"

Lily's pov

I hoped I was not too late.

Rushing into Bia's house, I paused to take in the disorganized state of the living room. It looked like a war zone. The entire place was turned upside down like there had been a brawl but I couldn't pick up any other scent besides Bia's in the house. How was that possible? There wasn't anything in particular besides the signs of a struggle that unnerved me; there was no scent of blood or stench of death.

Well, I didn't need to wait to replace out. I needed to replace Bia first. She would be able to tell us what happened.

I didn't know what it said about me. I was happy that Zac hadn't forced himself to go in after Bia himself, while I waited in the car like a kid. He trusts me... in a way that makes me feel more confident in myself and in my new found abilities. In a way that makes me feel like maybe I'm not just a big sack of nothing compared to my more powerful mates. Like I could stand by their sides without feeling like a burden, a joke.

I was still upset that I wasn't where Aiden and Ren were but I was no longer angry with Zac for pulling me away, because he was right. The others would have done the same and I needed to choose my battles and choose them wisely.

Well, the current battle now was locating my friend and when I called for her several times and didn't get a response, I decided to follow her surprisingly faint scent, growing increasingly worried with each step up the stairs.

Just to be on the safe side, I shut my eyes and inhaled slowly, conjuring up my darkness and giving shape and life to it and when I opened my eyes, a tiny little tabby cat made of nothing but shadows stood in front of me, her head tilted as she peered at me with curious black eyes.

I learnt very quickly into my training with Aiden that wielding these creatures took more power and control than I had initially thought when one of my creatures lunged at me and tried to bite a chunk out of my arm. Since then, I decided to take it one step at a time and work towards creating my own cat army one kitten at a time.

"Hi, Taryn," I greeted, stretching a palm out at my little feline and giving her a snack I kept with me at all times to slowly buy my way into her good graces.

She took the cookie in her mouth and curled her tail, letting me scratch behind her ear as she purred in satisfaction.

"You'll protect me, won't you?" I asked, laughing when she climbed up my leg and settled on my shoulder.

I made my way into Bia's room where her scent was strongest and paused, surveying the entire room.

Bia never locked her room windows, even in the middle of a storm but this time the windows were shut like I had told her to do, but not just that, the blinds were down and the entire room was shrouded in darkness. Taryn suddenly hissed, jumping from my shoulder and hissing like a possessed kitty at a corner of the room, her fur raised.

"Bia?" I whispered, rounding the bed and found her huddled into a ball, moving back and forth like she was trying to rock herself to sleep.

Something was awfully wrong here, but she looked unharmed so I heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever had happened here, we would get to the bottom of it. At least she was safe.

Rushing to kneel in front of her, I pulled her in for a hug, shocked by how cold her body felt to the touch and when I pulled back and looked at her, she was sobbing quietly and Taryn was still hissing like crazy.

Bia's body felt like she had been in a morgue. Well, that explained the shivering.

"Hey, B. It's me, I'm here with Zac and we'll take you somewhere safe. We'll talk about everything on the..."

Before I could finish my statement, Bia pounced on me like a leopard did to its prey, pinning me down with a strength that I knew Bia never had. Even before I found out about Dahlia, when I thought I was an omega, I was stronger than my delicate human best friend.

There was nothing human about the way Bia was looking at me right now, her entire body shaking as I tried to hold her away from hurting me and when she finally spoke, her voice was hoarse and sounded almost monstrous.

"I'm so sorry, Lily. I didn't want to have to do this. I don't even want to hurt you but my body is not listening to me right now and I'm so hungry, Lily. I'm starving. My teeth are aching. Please, just a taste. Let me have a taste." She whispered, her entire body trembling as tears streamed down her face and dropped onto mine and that was when I finally paid attention to her eyes.

I thought they were red from crying but this red was nothing close to that. Bia wasn't human anymore, I realized with horror and tears trickled down my cheeks as I tried to imagine how she must have tried to fight against being turned into a vampire against her will. Not a hybrid like Zac but a strigoi. More ruthless, less control, eternally thirsty.

No no no!

My momentary distraction caused Bia to almost bite into my neck and I kicked her off, crying as I slapped her hard when she tried to jump on me again. I was suddenly grateful for all those times I spent training with the boys and getting beat up by Chelsea in the name of sparring.

Taryn growled ferociously and I turned to see my little kitty was now a giant black cat as big as a small horse and I called her back to me before she pounces on my best friend and tears her to pieces.

Unable to stop herself, Bia tried to grab me again and I maneuvered out of her clutches and slid behind her, grabbing a hold of her.

"I'm so sorry, my love." I whispered, hitting her head hard against the wall and dragging her towards the bathroom while she clawed at the floorboards, kicking and screaming. Throwing her in, I locked the door, my legs giving out on me as the weight of what had been done to my friend dawned on me.

This was my fault. Befriending Bia had put her in the line of fire.

I knew immediately who was to blame for this.

I never thought Victor and Cynthia would play dirty like this, that they'd do what they could to hurt me and break me, including hurting my liaising with vampires, our mortal enemies.

"Please forgive me, Lily. Just let me out. I swear I'll behave. I'm just so thirsty and my entire body feels like it's on fire. Please, Lily. I didn't mean to hurt you." Bia cried as she banged on the door and I rose to my feet, wiping my eyes.

Zac! He would know what to do about this, especially because he was turned against his will. Thank God he was here.

"I'll come back to help you soon, B, I promise. Please hold on." I whispered against the door and rushed back downstairs to get him.

However, the moment I stepped out of the front door, my heart stopped beating in my chest and my lungs closed in on me as I took in the scene before me.

Zac was staring like he had seen a ghost and I suppose he had, because standing beside him was someone that looked exactly like me.

She was the reason Zac had been so cruel to me when he met me for the first time.

My wicked doppelganger.

Callista.

Very much alive.