Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 62

Lily's

POV

"You know that you do not have to do this, right? You can leave if you want." Rhea whispered as I washed my hands in the bathroom sink and just as I was about to reply, two girls came into the bathroom and gave me odd looks, their eyes going to Rhea nervously in a way that said that if she was not there, they would have told me a piece of their minds.

Not that I cared anymore anyways. Everyone had seen that video and there was no hiding. If I was going to stay in the academy, then I needed to develop a backbone.

"Yes I do." I answered, watching as the blood from my hands disappeared down the drain. Aiden's blood. That boy was a psychopath.

That was the only explanation for what he had done after I stabbed him and I could not forget the almost crazed look in his eyes, the darkness that swirled in it as he smirked at me like he had liked it.

Stepping out of the bathroom, Chelsea was leaning against the wall while Ren was on a call. He didn't even skip a beat, slipping his arm around my waist like it was a natural thing between us and slipped into an easy stride with me.

As we all started heading towards the cafeteria, I could not help but note that people were staring at us. No, not at us, at me.

Specifically at Ren's arm around me.

I froze, recalling the half-assed request I had made to him when I had been drunk on desire and dizzy with infatuation.

I had insinuated that he breaks up with his girlfriend.

Guilt squeezed my lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

"Hey," Ren squeezed my waist. On a normal day, that would have sent butterflies fluttering like crazy in my stomach, but right now, I fought the urge to throw up. Disgusted at myself.

He can't afford to be seen with me, not when Mauve walks these halls. Not when she had a spotless reputation and mine has been dragged through filth. It's obvious who Ren should be with at this point, who the goddess has set aside for him. With any luck, he hadn't done it yet and I can still make this right.

"About what we talked about last night," I started, trying to make things right before this whole s**t blows over.

Something like dread flashed in his golden brown eyes, "later," he said, "you've had enough to deal with today." "No, I don't-"

He squeezed his eyes shut, stopping in his tracks, "Don't call this off when we haven't even started, Lily." His hands were squeezing my shoulders, a desperate eagerness in his eyes, begging me to understand. "You have enough on your plate already. I'll fix this. I promise."

"What if I don't want you to fix it? What if I want out? My reputation is already in tatters. It's only going to get worse if people replace out you rejected your own mate to be with me."

He dropped his head. "Lily-"

"You two!" Chelsea hollered, stopping our moment. "After all this drama, I REALLY do not want to give up what's left of my lunch break. C'mon!"

Just then, Ren's phone started ringing again and he sighed.

"I have to take this. We'll talk. Later," Ren said, taking my hand in his and squeezing. "Okay?"

I worried my lip. "Okay."

I caught up with Rhea and Chelsea who were talking in hush tones.

"I know that Rhea has probably said it, but let me say it this time. You don't have to continue to stay here if this place is too much for you to handle. Did I just say if? This place is a lot of bad vibes and cruelty." Chelsea said as we entered the cafeteria and I shook my head.

"No, I'm not going anywhere." I was done running and besides, it would be disastrous to try transferring to another school right now especially when my academics were already lagging behind. I could not handle skipping any more classes so I would just have to suck it up and wait until the whole thing blew over and a new rumour came along to entertain the entire school.

As we entered the cafeteria, I noticed that the three of them were heading towards the main space where the ordinary students sat and I could not help but feel bad that it was because of me that they were no longer going to eat at the popular table. Rhea and Chelsea still looked very livid about the whole situation as we picked a space to sit. Ren joined us later after taking the phone call. He was very quiet, his eyes studying me curiously as he sat across from me.

Besides the whole Mauve situation, he seemed to be more curious about how I was taking this whole thing.

It made me wonder if he was using his ability on me and if I was doing a good job of hiding how hurt and scared I was despite my attempt to remain strong.

For all of my bravado, I was terrified of what Aiden would do to me after stabbing and threatening him. I was terrified that if this was just the beginning, then I might not be able to survive his worst. However, the last thing I was going to do was take their nonsense lying down and moping. I was going to make sure that I faced them head on.

"I can't believe that they would do this. I grew up with them." Rhea said and her face was turned down in a frown as she shook her head.

"It's not your fault, Ri." Chelsea beat me to it before I could say the exact same thing but she just shook her head again.

"Why are they doing such horrible things to you? When did they change into this? Have they always been this horrible or have I just been very blind?"

"It's fine, Rhea. You don't have to feel responsible for their actions." I answered letting her take my hand and happy that she was at least on my side.

"Let's get back at them. We can, can't we?"Chelsea suggested and Rhea gave her a skeptical look.

"What could we possibly do that will hurt the two of the most powerful princes of Shadow cove?"

The two of us looked at Chelsea expectantly, waiting for an answer and then she opened her eyes brightly like she had just gotten an idea.

"Oh, how about we shatter their kneecaps when they are sleeping? Or you know, we could s***h their tyres?"

The smile on her face dimmed when she saw the looks on my face and Rhea's and she nodded.

"Okay, point taken. Those are lame and they'll just heal or have the tyres replaced, won't they?"

I was about to respond when I noticed that Rhea seemed uncomfortable with the crowd, especially when someone hit our chair unintentionally as they tried to pass to the table besides ours.

She wasn't used to this. She was here. They were all here because of me.

"I'm sorry for making you guys leave your spaces to come and join me here."

Rhea shook her head immediately, her lips moving up in a pretty delicate smile.

"Nonsense, sweetheart, we have always wanted a reason to leave that suffocating table and now we have one."

I nodded, noticing that Ren had been typing away on his phone for a while and when he looked up as if he could feel eyes on him, I fought the urge to look away in embarrassment and guilt at being caught staring. However his smile was gentle and closely resembled his sister's.

"Chase is working on taking down the videos and pictures from everyone's phones. He'll be coming soon. I asked him to join us for lunch."

My eyes widened in shock and when I looked at Chelsea, she shrugged. "Why didn't I think of that. He has always been good with tech stuff." She grumbled under her breath, "it's not enough that he's goodlooking and athletic, he had to be Einstein too." Rhea merely nodded too, though her face had gone stiff at the mention of Chase's name.

Speaking of the devil, I saw Ren give a casual wave to someone and when I turned around, I saw that it was Chase, heading towards our table and holding up a laptop.

His hair was damp and he was wearing the black and silver sleeveless school jersey and track pants, sans the jacket.

He probably just finished practice and came straight from the locker room.

Taking a seat beside me which placed me between him and Rhea, he greeted everyone on the table before looking at me.

"I'm sorry about the guys. Ren has filled me in and trust that I'm going to help you get everything down."

"Thank you." I said, blinking back tears and we all watched in awe as he made a couple of clicks and then asked us to check our phones.

Everything was gone. How it was possible, I had no idea, but the first tear finally dropped from my eye as I hugged him.

"Thank you so much." I whispered before pulling back.

He grinned and ruffled my hair, a reminder of how large he was to my small size.

"It's nothing really. I'm always glad to help any friend of my kid sister."

"Oh come on, it's five minutes between us, a*****e." Chelsea groaned

"Which makes you my little sister, does it not?"

I watched as Chase's eyes landed on Rhea and she suddenly sat straighter, her entire body becoming stiff as she locked eyes with him.

"How are you?" He asked her and she stood up immediately, refusing to look at him.

"Fine. What do you guys want to to eat, I'm going to get my food now."

Watching how Chase's face dim at her curt response, I stood and decided to go with her as she took our orders because I knew she would need help bringing the things back. "I'll go with you guys too." Chelsea said and stood up.

"You guys can stay. I'll go with Rhea." Chase offered but Rhea frowned at him immediately.

"Don't bother. I have all the help that I need."