The Bully's Hated Mate
The Bully’s Hated Mate – Chapter 22

CASSIA’S POV:

It’s been exactly eight days since the vicious fight we had and his rampant s*x craze with Ariadne.

And frankly, I wasn’t interested in anything that had his name written on it.

We were in the dinning hall, having breakfast with the Alpha. Somehow, we still kept appearances but no longer than a few minutes.

I couldn’t stand the sight of him and while I feel it was mutual, he had no right even thinking the same thing.

We had gone back to our sleeping arrangements with a slight difference. My space on the floor was like a tent now.

No longer was I going to sleep with possibility of freezing to death or seeing things I desperately didn’t want to see.

I now owned my very own personal space and while it wasn’t the same as a bed, it was by far a major improvement.

Since I wasn’t speaking to him and he wasn’t speaking to me in ways I would appreciate, I simply invaded his wardrobe and took out every blanket and pillows he possessed, then I instructed maids to construct a tent for me and everything.

He usually goes to run with the other wolves and do some other things I still wasn’t aware of, and when he came back late one night, I was fast asleep but not too deep in sleep to ignore his obvious hiss and grunt of discomfort.

My mission was accomplished, and because he couldn’t speak to me, he didn’t take anything back.

Not that I was willing to return a thing. He had them all replaced the following morning when I woke up.

“How well did you sleep, Cassia?” The Alpha asked me as he always did every morning and every time we get to see each other in the castle.

Slowly, I was beginning to appreciate the questions, especially since I actually slept the comfiest last two nights and counting.

“It was marvelous, Sire. Beautiful and really long. I love it. Thank you.” I smiled at him in good spirits as he smiled back.

“Lucius tells me you both decided to shift the wedding to a few more days as you haven’t gotten ready yet, and you are still getting to know each other.”

Lucius kept eating as though he didn’t just lie to his father about a topic I wasn’t aware of, and I wasn’t spoken to about.

If it wasn’t because we were having a feud, I swear, I would have kicked him in the place that would have hurt him alot.

I cleared my throat, hoping that nothing sticks to my throat.

Despite having being surprised by Lucius’ lack of honesty, I totally agreed with the shitface.

I was not about to marry this punk of a guy.

“Yeah, we totally agreed for a date change. We haven’t gotten quite ready to tie the knot yet, we still have alot to sort out.” I tried being nice about it, putting a smile into it even while Lucius continued to eat like he wasn’t part of the conversation.

I couldn’t care less, and I wasn’t going to make him speak.

“But you know what tonight is, right?” The Alpha asked me, keeping my gaze as he bent the cup of wine, taking a huge gulp and sighing right after.

I was perplexed at what it was he was speaking of.

“Today’s a full moon but other than that, nothing else. Is there something I should know about?” I asked, my eyebrows a

making a better impression.

He sighed again, twirling his staff that was always invisible till you looked for it.

“I’m surprised that Lucius didn’t tell you about what today is.” He said, taking a look at Lucius but quickly brought me back up to focus.

“So basically, today is what we call the first moon. We hold races and win prizes, fun stuff that royal ranks do. I’m sure you’ll like it a bit, and plus, you get to see other parts of the woods and train too. Trust me, it’s spectacular.” His eyes twinkled with brillance.

I was almost tempted to ask more but he was already standing and leaving the table, bidding us farewell.

There was no way I was going to ask Lucius because immediately the King faded from the room, I found out Lucius was long gone.

I was alone.

It was getting dark a bit when a maid came knocking at my bedroom door, requesting entry which I granted.

“Your clothes, your Grace.” She said, not giving me a moment to speak as she dropped the clothes and left without a word.

I looked at the clothes, wondering if I was back to that moment again where Lucius tricked me, or if this was real.

I opened the clothes and found a well folded top. At the same time, I started to hear some noise outside.

I calmly took the shirt and went towards the window. People were starting to gather and from the looks of it, they were alot.

From far, I peaked at Lucius and decided this must have been the first full moon event the Alpha briefly spoke on.

As I changed my top to the shirt that I was given, I decided it would be best to change to a tracksuit, just to feel extra comfortable and plus, it was what they were wearing down below.

As I came out, everyone seemed to stop and look at me, including Lucius who frowned instantly. I immediately spotted Ariadne, a sinister scowl on her face aa well.

“Now that we’re all here, I want to remind you what today is, for the sake of our Luna.” The strange man said.

He was extremely buff and yet, something about him was vaguely familiar — like I had seen him before.

“So, gather round everybody!” Everyone started to gather round him.

Somehow, Lucius and I got to be at the same side.

“So! The first moon is a day every month where the various elders and kingship houses compete for a prize for best in strength, agility, speed, endurance and smarts. We choose only one task per month, so we get to look forward for the others. So, we have different teams. All teams having a colour code, hence the shirt you’re putting on. So, replace your partners and team up. It’s a team of twos, the game for today would be ‘FIND THE FLAG!’ And take it to the finish line. All of the flags have been previously well hidden. You don’t get to use just speed, you need smarts too. So! Pair up and stand by the lines, and wait for the horn to blow.”

Before the strange man even finished talking, I knew who it was I was being paired with.

I scowled.

Immediately, we walked towards the line, not saying a word to each other.

At that moment, Ariadne stood close to the strange man and the resemblance was striking! He was too old to be her brother. He was her father and looking closely at the man’s vest, it had the distinct color of a particular hierarchy of the pack.

He was a beta. I knew that because my father was once a beta, so it only made sense that this was the new beta, and Ariadne was his daughter.

My scowl grew fangs on my face.

“Why are we a team?” The first thing Lucius had said to me in days, and it just had to be that.

Like I could manufacture a better answer to the question.

I ignored him.

As we got to the line, waiting for our positions, I glanced at Ariadne and caught her smirk. I didn’t understand why she was smirking at me, but I wasn’t about to care.

“Now! On your Mark!” Everybody started to take off their shirts one by one.

I was surprised at the shift in activity. Lucius took off his shirt, revealing his tank top. I took off mine too.

“Get set!” He shouted and some people began to shift and change into their wolf forms.

Lucius started to shift too. Screams started to ring out as people’s bones snapped and enlongated, clothes ripped and shredded in the change.

“Go!” We all ran with our teams, with me running closely behind Lucius.

Lucius headed straight for the finish line. Still with my human form, I trailed behind him.

“Lucius! I can’t run that fast!” I shouted at Lucius, watching him go even faster than I thought he could go.

His wolf was the most beautiful black wolf I had ever seen. The only black wolf I had ever seen. He looked back at me, not caring that I had spoken at all. Our mate bond wasn’t strong enough for us to communicate through our minds.

“Lucius!!” I yelled again, but he didn’t pay any attention.

He just kept racing and running like he was running away from me. As I ran, I noticed an object underneath a shrub. I stopped in my tracks and with my keen sense of smell, I realized it must have been one thing of good interest.

I ventured towards it, hoping it was what I hoped it would be. I bent down and saw it was the flag we were asked to look for.

I smiled so much, my cheeks hurt.

“Lucius!” I shouted, but I knew Lucius was already gone.

I had recovered the flag that had been assigned to us. Where the f**k was Lucius now going to?

I knew that I was behind. The best thing to do was to allow Myla bring out the strength in me — not that it was much anyway.

I started to morph. It started out slowly but when Myla emerged, she was as white as snow and quick as lightening.

I raced towards the finish line, hoping I wasn’t going to be the last one out even though I knew how weak Myla was — mostly because I never trained her once.

We raced till I felt the air in my now expanded lungs. As I raced, I noticed other wolves were starting to emerge from different parts of the forest.

I begged Myla to increase her speed and just when my eyes watered so bad from the burn I felt in my lungs, I crossed the finish line, and everybody cheered so hard as my breath started to catch up in my throat.

I didn’t know if I won but I knew one thing for sure, Lucius was not here.

There were other people on the side of this forest. I recognized their vests. They were Beta, Delta, Gamma and a bunch of others.

As I looked for him, I noticed that the Alpha was also present.

The Alpha walked towards me, bringing me new sets of clothes and a maid that followed closely behind.

“You won!” He shouted when he came closer to me.

Being that I couldn’t talk, he put the clothes on the maid’s hands and with a gentle gesture, made me realize he wanted me back to my normal form.

I left with the maid and came back fully refreshed.

I kept on seeking for Lucius. I couldn’t smell him and I didn’t know where he was. I started to get worried a bit with how he disappeared.

The Alpha came looking for me where I stood and even though he wore a smile on his face, I could tell he shared my worry.

“You were briliant out there!” He said, and I bowed in appreciation.

He started to look around everywhere.

“Where is Lucius?” He asked, his eyes furrowing, his brows knitting his white hairs that were at close intersection with each other.

“He left. He left me in the middle of the run.” I said, my voice getting thick.

I had only seen the Alpha’s face turn red from far. Today was the first time I had ever seen the Alpha’s face turn red from anger. It was extremely frightening.