Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 168

Aiden's pov

My head felt like it was being smashed over and over again with brick and it throbbed as I opened my eyes slowly, wondering where I was. As I tried to sit up, I groaned hard, feeling like there was a heavy weight on top of me. I couldn't move my body; my arms, my legs... I craned my neck, looked around and saw that I was in somewhere that looked like a lab. There were no windows, all the walls were painted white and the lights were nausea inducing. Or perhaps it was whatever I must have ingested that was causing that reaction. I tried to move and realized that I was shackled to the large metal bed I was lying on, both hands and feet bound to the bed.

Where was I? What the hell was going on?

My throat felt parched and raw and I felt so dehydrated, it was making me feel dizzy. It was a struggle to even lift myself up on my shoulders, my body and mind feeling weird and sluggish like I had been drugged. When I tried to suck in a breath, it felt like my lungs were ablaze and I coughed, gasping for breath.

As if things could not get any worse, I finally focused on my surroundings and saw that there were beds on either side of me

There were beds beside those bed and the beds lined the hall, werewolves like me.. and other creatures (there was a little boy with giant dragon wings, another with elf like ears and fairy wings, a girl with bird wings and horns on her head, a vampire, wasting away under the fluorescent light) shackled to beds, caged and unconscious. Our beds were separated by what I now realized were cages made from silver and I saw that they were wearing the same hospital dress that I was wearing.

Test subjects, I realized. Lab rats. We were lab rats for some kind of experiment. Cade had not been lying about Victor and Cynthia secretly having a lab where they brought werewolves that they had kidnapped to use them as rats in their experiment. Except, there weren't just werewolves here...

I wondered just how long they had been running this operation and if the others were even alive. The room looked like millions had gone into funding this place and I shook my head in terror as I thought about how many families had lost their children to this evil.Posted by Narugi.com

There was only one way to replace out. I needed to get out of here. Straining against the shackles, I tried to rip myself out of the binds but the silver burned my skin and I bit down on my lip, swallowing my scream of agony because the last thing I wanted was to alert anyone that I was awake or even trying to escape.

No matter how hard I tried, the binds only seemed to tighten but I was not deterred. I could not afford to give up and wait for someone to catch me trying to leave. My attempts, however, had to quickly come to an end when ! heard a large door open and people walking in.

I heard my uncle's voice before I saw him and my hands fisted in rage. I knew his hatred for me knew no bounds and even though I didn't know why, what was his reason for abducting other teenagers for this?

He was talking to someone and when they walked into my line of vision, tinally realized who the other person was.

He was a popular congressman that used to do business with my parents. Gregory Rivers. Well, it seemed he never stopped doing business with Victor even after my parents died

"You sent my men on a suicide mission to Gold Crest,

- Victor. Surely you don't expect me to trust you again after this."

Victor smiled good naturedly, his good looks belying his hideous personality and shook his head.

"You know that I would not have even mentioned an attack on that pack if I thought it would lead to suicide. With Cynthia dead, I was certain that they could be easily defeated. Their new Alpha is no older than my nephew. I didn't anticipate that the girl would show up for them. It seems I greatly underestimated the power of the goddess that resides in her." My ears perked up at that. I stopped struggling as soon as I heard about Lily.

"I did not think that she would be physically and mentally capable of giving the goddess full reign over her body. You are human, so you may not understand but what she did is a great feal that requires large amounts of physical and mental energy 1 can also assure you that even with such power, I doubt the goddess will remain in control for long since it will have senous repercussions on the girf's body if she does, She wor't see the second wave of attacks coming. None of them will."

"You must take me for a fool if you think that I will send my men on another suicide mission."

"But who said anything about your men?" His voice grated on my nerves, the ominous edge to it, sending shivers down my spine.

The thought that my uncle had not only partnered with the hunters but allowed them entry to attack Gold crest made

-my blood boil and even though I was worried about the second wave of attack that he was clearly asking Gregory to prepare for, I was relieved to hear that my mate was alive and kicking a*s.

"Come, let us check on my nephew." Victor said and as he came to stand in front of my cell, his accomplice visibly uncomfortable beside him, I saw his eyes widen with surprise.

"You're awake." Victor said gently, his voice filled with faux relief. "I thought I had lost you, dearest nephew."

"Go to hell, Victor" I spat and he merely grinned.

"He's your nephew?" Gregory asked and Victor merely shrugged.

"More importantly, he is our test subject for the 'demon rose. The name could use some work. It's the new drug similar to what you humans call cocaine that we are planning to release on the streets. A lot more effective, if you ask me. Our pockets will be full in no time." "I thought we stopped pursuing that after most of the volunteers died after ingesting them."

"In the right amounts, yes." Victor nodded. "I've been testing the drug on him in small doses and gauging his reaction to the drug. He is the best of the lot here, his stamina is quite commendable which is why it took a lot of doses to keep him compliant." Victor's voice didn't even miss a beat and you would not even know that he was talking about something so horrendous from the calm smile on his face.

His words confirmed what I had already suspected since I

-opened my eyes; that I was drugged which was what made me feel so sluggish.

"How effective is it?" Gregory had the nerve to ask, even though he looked like he would prefer to turn the other way and run for his life.

"Very effective, Gregory Victor answered with a bright smile, his eyes zeroing on me as he opened the door to my cell.

"Demon rose is going to be a hit among our kind, especially among stupid teenagers like our test subject because it has addictive tendencies to werewolves and vampires alike and offers a high, an escape from all their teenage drama.

Since supernaturals can't feel any euphoria from cocaine like humans do, I guarantee that this drug will fetch us a lot of money as soon as we start producing it in large quantities. With its addictive tendencies, they will quickly get hooked on it and do whatever they can to get their next

hit They will be completely under our control" He said as easily as one discussing the weather.

"You're out of your damn mind, Victor. Stop this at once!" I roared and watched as Gregory fixed up a syringe, right before he followed after Victor who walked into my cell.

"Why stop now? You were so gracious to deliver yourself into my arms, making my work easy for me and I have gladly accepted your sacrifice as a gift. It means I will be able to make use of you until I have no more need for you."

"You will pay for this!" I yelled, trying and failing to move away as Gregory injected me, the needle driving like an

-arrow into my arm and I could feel my senses go numb as the drug filled my system almost immediately. My vision blurred and I blinked back tears, trying to stay awake.

"Why are you so hell bent on working with the hunters against us, Victor? Why would you sell out your own people like they are animals?" I whispered, my words dragging thanks to the numbing effect of the drug. "What is the reason?"

"What if I don't have a reason? What then? What if I'm just bored and I enjoy all of this c*****e and destruction a little too much? The thrill of getting under people's skin. The thrill of being the predator and not the victim. The mastermind and not the foot soldier. What then,

Aiden?"

He was gleaming at the expression on my face.

"Th- that's not true."

"As the less powerful brother, I spent my entire life being overlooked and disregarded. There was never anything to do Nothing was ever expected of me." The smile on his face vanished and I saw the monster beneath the handsome mask that he had used to deceive everyone for years.

"Your father was a genius, a prodigy. He was the favourite son. The first son. The leader. Everything he touched turned to gold; the alpha position, the family business and even your mother. He had it all. And what did I have?" His voice took a darker, poisonous edge as he gripped the edge of my steel bed, gazing into oblivion, stuck down memory lane.

"I had nothing but shadows. I was the loser, doomed to

"always be in his shadow. I was not even good enough to be his beta, never even found my mate, perhaps the b***h had found out it was me and decided I wasn't good enough too."

He wasn't even talking to me anymore.

"It was not fair that your father got everything that I wanted while I was forgotten and abandoned. The shadows were all I had but I knew that was not enough. Not when your father was getting everything so easy. I wanted to knock him off his high horse so yes I had him killed. And imagine my surprise when the m******e | orchestrated worked and no one could trace it back to me.

"So I decided to try again. And the more I won, the more I wanted to win. I wanted to see how much I could get away with before the consequences caught up with me. And now? Now, thanks to you, the powers you and your silly little bond group possess, I will become invincible. I already have the council eating out of the palm of my hands, the teenagers and youths will be the next to go as soon as my drugs hit the streets.

I can almost taste the unimaginable

power I am about to have."

His laughter echoed in the large room and I could only look, my mouth open with shock and horror that all this while when I had tried to excuse my uncle's wrongdoings, he was just a literal psychopath.

1 had thought he had a ground breaking reason for everything that he was doing. That there was a redeemable reason why he had killed our entire family, a reason I could sympathize with, but hearing that he had just done all of this for the fun of it snapped something in me that would

"never be repaired, sending me into a blind rage.

"You BASTARD!" I roared, pulling at the shackles as I tried to reach for him.

Blind rage made me see nothing but red.

"I WILL RIP YOU APART, VICTOR. I WILL KILL YOU, YOU DEGENERATE."

"Save your strength, nephew, He replied, pushing me back into the bed with unimaginable strength that surprised me and he must have seen the surprise on my face because his smile returned.

"Surprised by my power? Don't worry, there will be time for you to face me and I cannot wait. In the meantime, be very careful not to hurt yourself if you don't want your precious mate getting hurt."

At the mention of Lily, it felt like my heart stopped and I shook my head almost immediately.

"You're lying," I accused. "This is one of your lies!"

He quirked an amused eyebrow at me."Oh, you really think so? Surely you didn't think that I would not make contingency plans?'

He searched the expression on my face and realized that I did think he wouldn't have any contingency plans.

His face fell with actual hurt.

"You wound me by how little

you know me, nephew. I knew that it would be almost impossible to get my hands on your little mate, so I had to replace a way to make sure that I could hurt her without having to put a finger on her, in case I needed leverage against that goddess inside of her that kills first before asking questions. The moment she mated with Cade, her bond cycle was completed and now, my spell can finally be put into full effect."

"No..."

He had to be lying. He had to be trying to scare me.

"Allow me to demonstrate, since it seems you don't believe me, my dearest nephew." He responded to my disbelieving gaze and as he stood beside my bed, he brought out a knife, slicing a straight thin line down my abdomen towards my pelvis that made my scream fill the entire room.