Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 54

Lily's POV

"Are you going to stand there all night, Lily?" Bia said with a s**t eating grin that made me want to reach over and pinch her cheeks. That little fiend always had tricks up her sleeve. I was about to answer when Chelsea gave Rhea a knowing look before she turned back to look at me, her face giddy with mischief.

"The movie is about to start, Lily, so please help us get the light and settle down." Her tone was less obvious but the smirk on her lips told me that she was indeed a part of the plot. "You don't want to make us wait, do you?" Rhea grinned wider than a cheshire cat.

At this point, they weren't even trying to hide their true intentions.

"Y-you don't want anything?" I looked at Angelo.

He looked up from pressing a lingering kiss to Bia's neck, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Stop wasting everyone's time. I'm just trying to watch the movie and hope I don't get clawed open in my sleep," his expression told me but his mouth said a different thing. "No." Curt. Annoyed. And short.

Looking at Ren who was completely oblivious but smiling at me regardless, I grumbled under my breath, hating how my face started heating up from just imagining how it would feel to sit beside him. And when I turned off the switch and we were plunged into darkness, save for the light from the television, I made my way back to the couch where Ren was seated and dropped to the ground instead, resting my back against the couch.

As much as I wanted to do nothing but be close to Ren, to bask in his scent and to allow him to hold me, I needed to remember that for all I knew, he could just be caring for me as a friend and nothing more. Besides, he even had a mate that would tear me apart if she found out that I had feelings for Ren.

Mauve may be an omega but she had power and influence at school and a prestigious position in high society. Ren or I pursuing each other would spell my doom. I'd rather be an outcast for a crime I didn't commit than be known as the other woman that tore a beloved relationship apart.

"You know we can share the couch," Ren leaned to whisper in my ear and I nearly jumped from the floor at the way his lips had felt as they brushed the outer shell of my ear, convinced that my heart would jump out of my chest at the contact.

"I know. But the couch is tiny. I'm fine here on the ground." I managed to answer without stuttering, torn between wanting his face to remain close to mine and running away.

I wasn't fine on the ground. It was hard. Cold and uncomfortable but I'd take that over sharing the couch and encouraging this farce.

Nodding, he relaxed back into his seat and I heaved a sigh of relief, happy that I could think straight again. However, that happiness quickly turned sour because it was not long before I started to shiver from the cold and the only other blanket was with Ren. Be strong, Lily. Don't give in.

But at some point, I was no longer focusing on the movie, instead I was trying to keep myself from not shivering and causing people to replace out that I was cold.

Determined to remain seated alone without a blanket and brave through all of this, my mouth fell open in shock when Ren slid down to the floor beside me and covered my legs with the blanket, his scent of oud enveloping my nostrils, his thighs rubbing against mine.

I opened my mouth to protest but froze when he placed a finger against my lips and leaned in to whisper

"You said the couch was too small. The ground isn't. I can feel you shivering from the cold and I have a large blanket that we can share, so no buts, sweetheart. Okay?"

He was wrecking me with that calm and articulate voice of his.

Knowing that he was not going to budge, I nodded and when he smiled, the light from the screen illuminating his face, I felt my heart skip a beat.

Turning his attention back to the screen, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me flush against his side, his warm hand going under my shirt to rest on my belly. I was about to protest until I really that he was heating me up almost immediately and causing the cold to subside.

I didn't even realize that I had needed his healing hands so badly and was thankful because this had to be his powers at work and he was using them on me even without me asking for it.

My tense body slowly relaxing, I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head on his chest.

Now more than ever, I was grateful that the lights were out because nobody would see how I was grinning like a fool right now.

I wondered what would happen if Mauve could see us right now. She would probably develop an aneurysm and hurt me.

My tense body stiffened again when I remembered and I was about to pull away from Ren but he kept me from moving away and when I looked up at him, I saw that he was watching me with those deep attentive eyes of it. The words that were in my mouth died in my throat immediately.

"Is it that bad?' he whispered and I raised my head up to look at him again, our bodies rubbing up against each other in a way that made my heart skip another beat and wonder what was going on. "What do you mean?" I whispered.

"Is it really that bad to sit with me? Do you really not want to be seen with me?" His face looked really relaxed but the steel beneath that question made me pause and look away from the screen. Ren sounded uncertain and worse, I wondered if he was sad. "No, its not that." I assured him because it made sense that he would ask given that he was not blind to how reluctant I had been about sharing a couch with him and sharing the blanket with him. "Can't you tell? I thought you can read emotions." He lowered his gaze, a forlorn expression crossing over his face. "I try not to unless it's really important. And I'm learning not to rely on my mind reading too much. I make assumptions sometimes and I'm not always right... An assumption as big as this, it would wreck me completely, Lily."

I swallowed. His eyes looked absolutely devastated. I guess it was a welcome relief that he wasn't prying through my mind at this point. The fact he tried to respect my privacy as best as he could only made me appreciate him more.

Why couldn't I be your mate? Why did it have to be Mauve? I'd be happy for the rest of my life loving you.

"I like you, Ren," I said finally. "That part is true. It's an honour to be seen with you. Please don't misunderstand me."

I refrained from saying more than that, dying inside of curiosity trying to wonder why he was asking that but I had to remind myself that Ren had a girlfriend and the last thing I was supposed to be doing was entertaining thoughts about someone who was very much happily mated to another.

A voice reminded me that Rhea had said that they were not happy but it didn't matter. I was not interested in getting my hopes up for anything uncertain.

His next words however made all of the thoughts that I had pondered on scatter like the wind.

"I want you to be mine." He whispered, his voice stopping my heart for all of one second.

Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, goosebumps sprouting on my skin, nervous shivers skipping down my spine. I looked up at him in shock, speechless at the request, unsure if I heard well.

His arms only tightened around me, long, gentle fingers taking my chin and tilting it up to look into his intent brown eyes. "I want to be yours."

My heart was pounding so hard, so hard that I couldn't hear my next words through the blood rushing through my arteries in an exhilarating rush.

"What's stopping you from being mine?" I whispered to him.

That's it. I'm f****d. I'm a goner. I just sealed my fate.

His answer was low and quiet. "Mauve."

That one word made everything that I considered impossible appear right in front of me again but I knew that even though I wanted Ren, it would be selfish to ask him to leave Mauve.

I didn't want to do it. Didn't want to say the words that burned painfully in my throat. I refuse to be the one to tell him to reject her.

He can't. Especially because she's an omega. It's one thing for alphas and werewolves in high ranks to reject each other, it's another to reject an omega.

A rejection like that, an alpha to an omega, could potentially kill the omega and cause the alpha to lose his wolf from the sheer pain.

Surely he wouldn't humour me... would he?

These thoughts should be taking center stage in my heart. But all I could think about as I snuggled deeper into him was my own selfish desires. How Rhea might be right. If Ren was truly unhappy where he was, then this changed things. Perhaps I could be selfish and act on my desires.

He caressed my cheeks, his thumb stroking my cheekbones. "Tomorrow" He whispered, leaning in to kiss my forehead and I could feel anticipation cause my entire body to tremble.

Excitement bubbled in my stomach as he pulled me into his arms and settled his cheek on my head, sighing contently. Tonight is for blurring lines and make-believes. Maybe tonight, I could allow myself to believe that anything was possible, I thought to myself as I pressed my cheek against his chest, listening to the steady beating of his racing heart.

I had no idea how things would turn out but for tonight I was going to pretend that we were together. We were just boyfriend and girlfriend embracing each other and having a movie night with close friends... just for tonight.