Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 52

Ren's POV

The only sound in the living room right now was the sound of the ceiling fan whirring above me and the sound of the old grandfather clock in the corner tick tocking to eternity.

Neither Angelo nor I had said anything to each other since the girls went upstairs and I doubted that I was going to say anything to him till tomorrow, not that I would not want to, but his gaze warned me to keep away which I absolutely had no problem with. He was agitated. Checking around the house, probably for booby traps and casting me suspicious glares.

I wish he'd just chill, to be honest. He was acting like I was a brainless animal that would pounce on him and tear him to pieces any moment now.

He finally gave up his fruitless, frantic search and sat down on the couch across from me.

He whipped out his phone, saying something in rapid fire Italian as he pinged away on his phone and even though I was a bit fluent in the language, I did not care to decode it. Right now he was being very careful to not look at me and I did not know if it was because he was a hunter like Lily said, but his thoughts were all over the place like he was worried about being monitored.

Our eyes met again for the thousandth time, since we were sitting opposite each other and even though he glared at me and I sensed hostility from him, it was not the kind of hostility that made all the hairs on my neck stand in worry and apprehension. I realized that the hostility was not born from malice but rather something else. Perhaps a painful memory or experience.

I guessed that he was part of the second generation of hunters that were not obsessed with killing us for sport, unlike the first that killed us to mount our heads as trophies on their walls. I would not still be sitting here if he was a first generation hunter. He would have tried to slice my throat at least ten times in the last ten minutes and instead he had done nothing besides looking at me from time to time and then at his phone.

Looking at his aura once again, I deduced that he did not have any form of malice besides the one that he clearly felt he had to display towards me. And if Bia, Lily's best friend, trusted him, then I was going to try to give him a chance as well.

After all, I was not brought up to attack someone who had not yet tried to attack me.

"Ever the peacemaker," Aira drawled, coming to life in my subconscious. "You're one to talk," I smiled back.

Growing up, everyone thought I was born with a weak wolf that slept all the time and wouldn't manifest himself until I was in a life or death situation. But I knew Aira. My first friend. My loyal confidant. His entire aura was light, quiet, and peaceful. His quiet strength was soothing to the ruckus all around me. He was so strong that half the time, he'd purposely put himself to sleep to stop himself from overpowering me. He taught me to be calm and patient and focus on seeing the best in others. If I was a peacemaker, he was the art of peacemaking itself.

My insouciant wolf snickered in my head almost immediately. "Well, I'll be damned, my prince. You're trusting a hunter."

"I'm giving him a chance. Just like you taught me."

"And this has nothing to do about the girl we both have affection for?" The smugness in his voice was humbling.

I flushed. Deeply. Terribly. Violently. The memory of the near kiss we shared burned my lips.

Aira had fallen for Mauve. He had loved her inside and out and would have died to protect her, once upon a time. But the more she changed, the more she hurts me, physically, emotionally, psychologically, the more he withdraws. He kept withdrawing until it became a habit for him to disappear completely from my consciousness whenever Mauve was near. He had nothing for her anymore, the same way I felt nothing for her anymore.

Lily had crept up on me. On the both of us. I didn't know when things changed from wanting to protect her and be her friend, to wanting to become her everything.

Affection was putting it lightly. I wanted Lily. I craved her. I wanted her writhing under me, or riding on top of me, plundering me for her own pleasure. I wanted her clothes off, her hair down, her soul bare. I wanted to dive into her and bury myself under her skin. So yes. I did have affection for her.

The dark, dirty kind that would make her run from me if she hears the obscene thoughts I have of her. I couldn't let her into my head. Not when I knew what she just went through with Aiden and Zac. Not when I knew I wasn't much different from them.

My intentions for her were not pure or honourable. I didn't want to be her friend. I wanted her to own me. Consume me. See me for who I really am the way I see her for who she really is. I want her to love every broken part of me. I was desperately in love with Lily Beauregard. So much that I'd settle for the scraps she tosses my way under the pretence of being her friend. So much that I don't know what I'd do with myself if I lose her again.

I wasn't in control of myself when I had kissed her. Wasn't even thinking straight. But if Bia hadn't knocked at that moment, I wouldn't have stopped at just a kiss. I would have cracked her open, spread her out and spent all the borrowed time we had acquainting myself with her body.

f**k.

I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it out of my face.

"She trusts Bia and Bia trusts him. That's all the reassurance I need."

"Your blind loyalty to the girl will probably get you killed one day."

I nodded, chuckling to myself and when Angelo raised his brows, I was sure that he thought I was crazy.

"Then it is a good thing that I have you to protect me always, is it not?"

I could almost hear his smile in his voice. "Of course, my prince," he purred, before leaving my subconscious entirely to wherever he retreats into most of the time.

I was about to say something else, enjoying the banter that I had with my wolf but a picture caught my attention, hanging on the wall.

I rose from where I was seated and walked over to it.

It was a picture of Lily and her parents. She could not have been more than two years of age and her smile was so pretty and bright. She was sitting on her father's lap and grinning so wide, her cheeks flushed, her eyes shiny. She looked so adorable, I awwed a little in my head. The pictures that followed beside the first also looked the same but as she grew older and her father disappeared from the pictures, I noticed that while she continued to smile, the light in her eyes were no more.

She still tried to smile brightly but something was missing. That something had not been missing when she smiled at me this evening and I would do anything to get her to smile like that for as long as possible. I wanted to be the one to remove anything that was responsible for making her sad.

Immediately I thought about that, my mind went back to Aiden. To the sick things that he had done to Lily and how he had showed no guilt or remorse whatsoever for what he had done

I didn't regret going after him. I had no regrets telling him exactly how I felt about what he had done and calling him out on his cruelty. It was just a shame, a big one that instead of begging for mercy, that instead of pleading for forgiveness and seeing the error of his ways, he had chosen to remain obstinate.

I had no choice but to cut ties with him.

"Your girlfriend," Angelo said from behind me. "Does she know that you're here?"

I turned to look at him and he came to stand beside me in front of the picture that I was currently looking at, his eyes not moving from the picture even though I knew that he had me in his line of sight.

"Lily's not my girlfriend." Yet. I said, raising my eyebrows.

He glanced at me, also raising his brows.

"Not Lily," he corrected. "Your mate. Does she know what you're up to?"

My eyes narrowed at him. "How do you know about her?"

We were perfect strangers. I have never met him in my life. How did he know about Mauve? What had he heard? And what exactly did he know?

I must have done a poor job of hiding my surprise because Angelo grinned proudly and shrugged.

"I make it my business to know everything about my enemies and that includes everything that happens in Shadow cove, especially the four royal families. I know everything that there is to know about you and the other princes, especially those extraordinary powers of yours."

This time, I could not hide my shock and I turned to face him.

"How do you know any of this?" I asked, my hands turning into fists as I tried to figure out how someone like him, an outsider could know so much about us.

He laughed and folded his arms as he turned to face me too.

Dark brown hair curled heavily over his forehead, stern black eyes held my curious gaze.

"Your council has become lax, Ren. Letting humans into the borders and admitting human students into the academy was the dumbest thing they could do and it may just cost you and your people your entire race."

"I'd watch my tongue if I were you." I answered coldly, the hairs on the back of my neck standing at the premonitory shiver down my spine.

He shrugged even as I tried to think about what he just said. To the best of my knowledge, only children of a few highly respected families were allowed to enroll into the academy and this was solely for political purposes because the royal families did business with the elites in the human world.

It was a way to foster peace and unity between both races and it made me worry that it was the best idea now that Angelo had brought it to my attention. He was right. It would be too easy to plant a spy amongst us to feed those outside with information. Information that would cost us our lives and worse, the entire Shadow cove community.

"Well, I am just speaking the truth, Prince. If you don't like it, you can just say so."

"What exactly are you?"

Angelo shook his head and turned back to face the pictures on the wall.

"I'm a soldier. A protector. My duty is to protect my people against creatures like you and Lily. As long as you do not pose a threat to me and my family, I'm not a threat to you either.

That should have made me feel relaxed but instead it only made me worry. Because for how long would this kind of truce last?