Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Bonus Chapter 1

Aiden's POV

(Timeline; During the first wave of the rebellion)

When I was a little boy, I remembered the first time I gave in to a fit of rage. The horror on my mother's face when the servant brought me back from school and told her what! had done to the boy who had provoked me was forever etched in my memory. "Two broken legs, a cracked skull, internal bleeding, rupture of his kidney and spleen." She had screeched, something like fear, flickering in her eyes, "go back to where you came because you are not my son!"

A demon, people whispered in the hallways of the Vanderbilt mansion and when my family was massacred, it was assumed that I had survived because I was actually a demon.

Now more than ever I wanted to unleash that demon on Victor. I wanted to snuff the life out of him and watch him beg until he took his last breath. I wanted to burn his body until there was nothing but ashes for trying to assassinate my mate. Mate.

I paused as I was about to rip off one of the Rebellion sympathizer's head from his body, that one word causing me to freeze as I realized what it meant.

A feeling even higher than euphoria washed over me. Lily was actually my mate now. I existed for her, only her. My hope, my salvation. I couldn't quite grasp the idea that not only was I mated to her but that she had accepted me.

That I hadn't forced her to be with me. That she had seen something in me that was worthy enough of her love. That she chose me... loved...me.

A sudden chill spread throughout my body as I realized that Victor had probably gotten wind of this, that he was going to replace a way to take her from me too the way he did my family.

I don't think the world is ready for the demon I will become if Lily ever leaves this earth with me still in it.

No one would take her away from me and I didn't care if I had to share her with my friends, my brothers in all ways but blood. She was mine and no one would take her life away from her. I would burn the world down before I let that happen.

Ripping off the man's head, I realized that I was enjoying the bloodshed a lot more than I should and I took a step back and inhaled. The last thing Lily needed was a war mongering bloodthirsty mate who would put her in danger and lose sight of her thanks to lust

for retribution. I didn't want to be like my father. I wanted to be able to protect my mate and our bonded family better than my father did with his own. I wanted to know what it felt like to grow with Lily and since eternity wasn't a foreign concept for us purebloods, I would do anything within my power to make sure that she remained by my side forever. I would cut off my own arm it it meant I got to keep her.

"If you wax any more poetic than this with your thoughts, I might have to reevaluate everything I know about you, Aiden," Ren sighed, tilting his head and dropping his hand from stopping another heartbeat.

I scowled at him, his neat, white clothes, down to his white boots, there was not a speck of dust or blood anywhere. I hated him simply because he was clearly Lily's favourite.

"You can't be sure about that, just because she chose me first."

I should kill him.

"That defeats the entire purpose of getting on Lily's good side."

"Get the f**k out of my head, Hawthorne."

"I'm not even trying," he drawled. "You're screaming it right at me. You think I want to hear all this?"

An animalistic growl rumbled deep in my throat and Zac guffawed, his eyes watching Ren and I in amusement and even though I was sure that I looked ready to hit Ren, he was the epitome of composure as always, his face calm and almost angelic. His easy, lazy arrogance was aggravating.

I could never be that way; that noble or pure or kind and a part of me loathed Ren because he had it the easiest and had captured Lily's heart without even being anything other than himself. Even his powers proved how much of a good person he was. When she looked at him, I was sure she saw light and perfection in a way that I would never be.

Ren's lips moved up in a smirk and it was obvious that he had read my thoughts and seen what I was thinking.

Just as I was about to rip his head right off his neck and deal with the consequences later, one of the extremists crawled to grab my feet, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes wide with horror at the dead bodies surrounding her. Bodies of her comrades who were in support of the Rebellion, in support of Victor murdering my mate.

"Please spare me. I won't do anything. I will stop and go as far away as possible. I won't help the Rebellion anymore."

If I had a heart, I might have believed her. But that heart was now with Lily and this woman had been involved in the plans to take my heart away from me. To ruin me forever. Squatting, I let her see the monster deep in my eyes "You want to help me?"

"Yes, anything." She answered and I grinned.

"You'll be of more help to me dead" and then I ripped her heart out, her body dropping to the ground with a thud. As I rose to my feet and dumped her heart on the ground, I felt eyes poking into the back of my neck, an acute awareness of a presence that now felt like it was an extension of me thanks to our bond.

I turned and saw Lily watching from a window and I looked away almost immediately, terrified of looking into her eyes and seeing terror or reclusion at the joy that I had gotten from taking the woman's life.

I would break into a million pieces if I looked at her and saw the same fear and disgust on her face as when she first found out we were mates but my eyes widened in surprise because when I did finally look up at her, the only emotion on her face was that of vengeance. I felt her sick satisfaction flow through our bond as well as her approval and my heart threatened to burst with love for her.

Immediately we were done rounding up the rebel sympathisers, I rushed back upstairs to the bedroom to make sure that Lily was alright and that no one else had tried anything but I froze when I arrived at the room and saw that she wasn't there. No. Nobody could have managed to sneak in and take her, right?

Then where was she? I knew that I had started panicking, my breaths becoming more laboured as I wondered if the alternative was that I had actually scared her away with what happened in the courtyard. That maybe she had finally realized that I was not going to be like her prince charming Ren or Zac with a sense of humour and had decided to leave me.

Just as I sat on the floor, my head hammering as I tried to think of where she could be, Ren and Zac walked in and the two of them shared a worried look before Zac spoke.

"Why are you sitting on the ground looking like someone died?"

It was Ren that responded and this time I was more than grateful for him reading my mind. However the words that followed caused me to feel like a nerve exploded in my head

"He thought something happened to Lily." He answered

Zac before looking back at me. "She's with Cade in his cell or shall I say guest room?"

Not waiting for them, I stormed out of the bedroom, my veins filled with blinding rage. Since Cade appeared in our lives, all he had tried to do was insert himself in Lily's and the last thing I would allow him to do was succeed. I loved Lily to bits but she wasn't exactly the best judge of character considering the fact that she accepted me and while I would never hurt her again, I couldn't say the same about Cade. I didn't trust his scheming a*s one bit. I'd prefer it if he just hopped right off the earth.

I kicked down the doors to his room, my growl deep and froze when I saw Lily sleeping in his arms, her face gentle and peaceful. It made me hesitate until I smelled c*m in the room and my eyes glowed with red hot rage. Cade was going to cut his dick off for touching what was mine.

I had just taken a step forward to make good on my promise when Ren grabbed my arm and stopped me, his voice filling my head telepathically.

"You need to calm the f**k down or you're going to wake Lily up and frighten her. He didn't do anything to her. Trust me on this."

I was still reeling from Ren's warning when he proceeded to gently scoop Lily into his arms and as he walked out of the room, his eyes warned me to remain calm, Zac following after him.

Well, if I couldn't touch Cade, then I could at least speak my mind

"I don't know what your plan is, Corrigan but stay the hell away from Lily. She's the sweetest person and might have forgiven you but if you think that because of that, you can take advantage of her then I'll advise you to think again because I'll be damned if I let you try it. Forgiving you doesn't mean s**t in my book. Know your place, Cade. It's not with her and it's not with us. There will never be a place for you in our family so you better remember that the next time you try to touch my mate."

I turned around to leave and froze because the last thing I expected to hear was laughter.

When I turned, Cade was grinning as if he was surprised by what I had said and I raised my eyebrows impatiently forcing my hands to remain by my side instead of connecting with his jaw

"Something funny?" I asked, my breathing laboured, lungs tight.

'Look at you," he was grinning, but there was nothing but frigid coldness and untapped rage in his eyes. "Throwing your weight around. Do I intimidate you, Aiden?" "Watch your words carefully, Corrigan," my voice was a low growl, "Before I show you what my attitude is really like."

"To be honest, I can't stand you, Vanderbilt.I heard about all the things you did to Lily. So it's shocking that you're here like the hypocrite you are, trying to tell me what to do. For someone who has hurt her repeatedly, you have some nerve acting like a bloody saint. It's you who should know your place. You don't own Lily and you should allow her to make her own choices. If you're here doing this already behind her back, then maybe you have not changed after all like Lily believes and the next time I see her, I'll have to warn her about you instead."

It happened really fast but not fast enough thanks to Zac interrupting because one minute,

I was by the door and the

next, I was holding Cade by the collar, slamming him against the wall and about to smash his face in, knowing I would enjoy every minute of his agony but Zac, probably knowing what would happen had come back and was now grabbing my hand "Put him down, Aiden."

"No."

"Like it or not, he was her mate first. He has as much claim over her as the rest of us do. And if he's telling the truth about what really happened, he is a better man than all of us put together for coming back for her while risking the wrath of the council and dealing with his own sh!t.

Zac's words felt like lashes against my back and I dropped Cade to the ground, clenching and unclenching my fists to stop myself from doing something incredibly stupid

Zac clasped a hand on my back. "You don't have a right to make her choices for her Aiden and you know that. Unless you want to break the fragile bond you've started to share with her, you'll need to suck it up and get used to respecting her choices."