Bullied Mate Of The Lycan Kings
Chapter 82

Lily's POV

Was this a dream? Was I really dreaming or had the events of the last hour happened?

The purr of Fiona on my lap as she wiggled her feet before putting herself in a comfortable position enough to resume sleeping was the slap that I needed to realize that yes, I was not dreaming.

I had kissed Ren... and... he had kissed me back. I had finally stopped lying to him and myself about how I felt and had come clean about everything. More importantly, Ren felt the same way about me? How unbelievable was that?

Feeling like the luckiest person on the planet, I snuck a glance at Ren from where I was sitting on the passenger seat. His profile view was almost angelic, soft silver white hair falling softly against his beautiful face, it almost made my heart stop just looking at him. When he glanced at me and smiled, something bubbled in my chest. My heart felt like it was going to burst from feeling so much for him.

This was real. Ren was driving me to Bia's place like he had said he would, my clothes in a duffel bag that had probably seen better days in the back seat but right now, the last emotion I felt was shame or embarrassment. All I felt was peace and love, so much love that it felt like my heart was about to explode with it.

It was quite ironic because hours ago, I could have sworn that this was going to be the worst day of my life, right from when Tate tried to molest me to coming home to replace my mother injured and my house vandalized and my cat stabbed and on the brink of death. But right now as I stared out the window, a big smile on my face, I could not help but be grateful to whatever powers were responsible for how today ended up turning out.

For the first time in a long time, I was choosing to do something for myself. It was still like a dream that I had taken the bold step to tell Ren how I felt but now that I was taking control of my life, choosing the guy that I liked who also happened to like me back and wanted to try a relationship with me, I felt incredibly powerful. And deliriously happy.

Deciding that this occasion called for some happy music, I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone to listen to some music.

"You still have that? I would have thought that the thing would not last a day the last time I saw it with you." Ren said but there was no hint of condescension or mockery. He sounded genuinely surprised to still replace me using the phone.

"It still works fine. Looks can be deceiving." I answered, hating the giant lump of insecurity that settled on my shoulders, even though I knew he didn't mean any harm.

He was from a class that was on the polar opposite end of mine and someone like him would never have used this kind of phone but it was all I had.

He tucked his tongue against his cheek. "What happens if one day, it just stops out of the blue. We can't have that. I'll be getting you a new phone as soon as possible."

My eyes widened in shock and I found myself already shaking my head in protest.

"You can't do that." I answered, even though I knew it was unreasonable to not accept the phone when he was right. My phone was barely functioning right now and I knew he was being nice but I didn't want to look pitiful to the man I liked.

Ren glanced at me and maybe it was because of his piercing observant gaze or the fact that he could hear thoughts but he smiled gently.

"You're mine now, Lily. I like to care of what's mine. It's as simple as that. Please allow me to take care of you. It makes me happy to do it." Stunned speechless, I blushed so hard and bit my lower lip when he grinned. The air was punctuated with the attraction between us. "So, will you let me?"

Nodding shyly because I was too stupefied to speak, I decided to busy myself with looking at my messages.

My eyes widened when I realized that Bia had been blowing up my phone with messages since I texted her asking if I could sleep at her place for a couple of days. Quickly, I replied with a message telling her that I was already on my way and would tell her everything when we meet.

I was about to leave the app when I saw the string of texts that I had sent to Ren, message after message that had gone undelivered and the smile dropped from my face as I remembered how hollow it had felt to not be able to reach him.

"Did you block me?" I asked and he raised his brows in confusion.

"No. Why would I?"

I raised my phone till it was in his line of sight to show him the messages that I had sent and he shook his head, looking even more confused, his brows furrowed like he was trying to remember something.

"Hold on." He reached into the console and brought out his phone and when he handed it to me, I raised my eyebrows, wondering if it was okay for me to go through his messages.

"Go on, Lily." He said and when I opened my chat box on his phone I saw that none of my messages had been delivered. Worse, I had been blocked truly.

Raising the phone to show him, I watched as his eyes widened in shock and he shook his head immediately.

"Block you? That's absurd. I didn't do that. I would never. All this while, I've been waiting anxiously to get a message from you."

I nodded, believing him. But if he didn't, then who did?

He was about to speak but then his face went cold and I saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

"I remember... this afternoon. I left my phone in the car. Mauve was in the car when I was trying to talk to you. I would not put it past her to pull a stunt like this."

Before Ren told me everything about his childhood and relationship, I might have tried to absolve Mauve of this but now I knew better and was hurt by the fact that while I was making myself unhappy just because I didn't want their relationship to crash, Mauve didn't mind cutting me out of Ren's life, even though we were just friends.

Now I understood why Rhea had said that Mauve could not be trusted.

Seeing how livid Ren was, I reached forward and took one of his hands, linking my fingers through his and when his face softened as he looked at me, I nodded with a smile.

I was not going to let Mauve come between us anymore. I was going to stay with him and make this work.

There was no need for words and I grinned when his shoulders relaxed as he parked in front of Bia's house per my directions.

Bia was already waiting for me on the front steps of her house and when she smiled and waved, I smiled back. I had Ren and Bia and Rhea and Chelsea on my side... dare I say Zac too. Of course I was going to be okay.