The Bully's Hated Mate
The Bully’s Hated Mate – Chapter 23

CASSIA’S POV:

“He left you?” The Alpha asked, looking red like a tomato and more perplexed than I would ever imagine.

Normally, I wouldn’t care so much if Lucius decided it was okay to leave me stranded between a lion and a bear.

I wouldn’t care because he was an a*****e, but his dad looked angry at the thought.

“Do you have any idea where he went to?” He asked, fisting his palms.

My eyes travelled to his hands, they were turning white. He looked surprised, angry and disappointed all together. I almost felt sorry for Lucius.

“Not sure, I don’t have a clue.” I said, hoping this conversion would steer towards another direction.

“Well, you won the competition. I’m proud of you, but we need Lucius present here.” He said.

It was my turn to make my face turn surprised.

“We do?” I asked, genuinely interested in why we needed him now.

“You both need to be present for the award but for now, you’ll have to take it alone and after, you have to replace him.”

I was tempted to stomp my foot like a child. Lucius has been nothing but a thorn in my flesh since before I even met him.

A thorn in my throat when I met him and now, he has made room in the most uncomfortable place I could think of.

What would make him leave me like that in the first place?

I know we’re practically not in the same boat, but it shouldn’t have prompted him to leave and plus, his insane girlfriend was still present.

As my eyes swept the perimeter in a swift roll, catching her hair in the moonlight, proving my theory right.

So, if he wasn’t sucking her very existence from her face, then where the hell was he?

Looking at the Alpha, it seemed we both had the same questions, and how the hell was I to replace him?

The award ceremony took longer than expected. I had a frozen face from all the smiling I did at all the ranks I had to greet and courtesy to.

It was irritating and to top it off, Lucius had a way of working into my mind like nothing. Breeze in, stay a little while, and breeze out.

After the ceremony, I was summoned to see the Alpha. I already knew what it was he wants but out of respect, I went anyway.

“Sire.” I said, standing before him in the throne room.

There was a chair before me that looked small from where the King’s throne sat proudly. I would be looking up at him with the way the structure of the vast room was erected.

The King had his back to me, his view was to the dome shaped window and the outer world.

I didn’t need to be told to sense the weight of disappointment, anger and sadness radiating from his presence.

“Sit.” He said, still not facing me.

I did as he said, making sure to make a bit of noise to indicate that I had done as he had asked and it worked.

He turned over and he put his hands behind his back, walking slowly till he got to his throne.

“I need you to help me replace out where Lucius went to.” He said straight to the point, which again baffled me.

If the King couldn’t locate his son, how was I going to locate him?

“I don’t know how to do that, Sire.” I said, making sure to make my voice sure and without doubt.

I didn’t know what to do and how to do it.

“And besides, you have armies and spies and everything, what have I got?” I asked again, trying to prove my point that I was extremely useless.

“You have the one thing we can never have.”

My brows raised at that sentence. Was this a trick to make me change my mind on my capabilities?

“The bond, Cassia.” He said.

My brows raised even higher in more surprise. How was the bond even relevant in replaceing him?

“The bond?” I asked, unsure whether I had heard him correctly, or if it as Myla whispering to me.

Which of recent, she had been quiet for a while, nursing her wounds.

“How does that help to replace him?” I asked, genuinely interested and intrigued.

He sat down on his throne now, and my philosophy about him staring down at me was infact correct. He rubbed his hands together.

“You can sense him better. You can smell only him if you put your mind to it. You can run towards only him too. The bond serves like a GPS. It’s like beacon, drawing you to him. You can never truly be apart from each other, and it would feel like you’re on fire once you start looking for him. The more you get closer to him, the more relived you get. You’re even supposed to be able to talk to him through your wolf, but I don’t think you can.”

I didn’t even want to know the reason why I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.

“So, all I have to do is focus on just…him?” I asked, my eyebrows in disbelief.

The Alpha nodded his head in correspondence. Myla growled, making her presence known. How hard could this be?

I was escorted to the gates by the King’s guards. I knew I needed Myla’s help for this.

Lucius just had to make my life be like this. I had suddenly turned to a babysitter — his babysitter. After all I’ve gone through in his hands.

I started to coo Myla, making her understand she was going to have to be a bigger part in this because she was the one with the most strength.

I had a bag waiting in the arms of one of the guards that was waiting for me. I needed to change to be able to track him better and the speed that came with Myla too.

I had gotten to a good talking stage with Myla, to the point where I believed she would help me.

I began to feel the excruciating pain that ran across my arms and legs as they began to widen and grow.

The change was always painful hence why Myla remained in my mind most of the times. How people just shifted to their wolf without crying was always a mystery to me.

My bones began to thicken, my b***d vessels expanded, my nose grew longer and my jaw tore open.

All the while, I kept screaming as my back snapped and bent at the right angle. I started to wonder if all this was worth it for Lucius.

The same Lucius I was hoping that I could have the chance to kill at first glance.

Once I switched to Myla completely, she began to lick the b***d that stained her white fur.

The guard walked towards me with the bag, strapping it to one of my hindlegs. If I could guess, it was going to be clothes.

He stepped back and for a moment, I took in the shakiest and deepest breathe I could muster and cleared my thoughts. I was going to need a clear head to do this.

I had no clue on what it was I was going to do but when I focused on replaceing Lucius, I found my feet feeling as though it was on fire.

I sprinted away, fast as the wind and happy that the guard tightened the bag on my leg. I couldn’t think of anything other than Lucius — memories of him, pictures of him, everything about him flooded my head at an alarming rate and speed.

My head felt as though it was about to burst. It was as though I kept a gallery of him in my head and while it was embarrassing to even believe that I had kept sort of a museum, a gallery of him, I was astonished at how much details they had.

Of his mischievous smiles and angry eyes.

I sniffed the air, my lungs catching his scent and fire, my legs caught. I didn’t feel a stone, a shrub. I was like a machine!

Running through the woods at a flashing speed, whipping the shrubs and outstretched branches of anonymous branches away, causing their roots to turn with the force and speed at which Myla possessed.

I could smell him faintly and frankly, I wanted to drink in his scent but no matter how I sniffed the air, it isn’t enough.

So I sniffed, and sniffed, allowing the air to navigate my search and my mind to explode with further images.

I got to a turn, deep in the forest, a part I had never crossed before, where the moon was hidden from plain sight, leaving only traces of it’s light piercing through lots of trees that don’t know how to cover up with their branches.

His scent was the strongest here. I decided to implore my other senses, having blocked them so I didn’t get weak sooner than I was supposed to.

My ears were hearing different voices, filtering through the very obvious males that kept shouting.

I had stopped running and was on the outskirts of what looked like a cave opening, but at the same time, larger than a cave.

From where I was, I could hear so much noise and yet, I kept on filtering the voices to see if I would hear Lucius’.

I didn’t, so I decided to look in myself. The place was surprisingly not guarded at all, it was like a walk in the park.

I decided to switch back and Myla growled again. I knew why but it was something we had to do if we didn’t want any attention.

There weren’t many white wolves in the kingdom, even I knew that.

I started to switch back. The switch was just as painful as before but by the goddess, I had to bear it if at all to kill Lucius myself.

I tried my best not to scream so much as before and while that worked as good as it could, I quickly changed.

I had been given a black hoodie and some jeans. At least I would blend in a bit, I thought to myself.

I walked in, still secretly sniffing at the air to make sure I hadn’t stopped at a place where I would easily get mudered.

Well, if I got killed, it would be Lucius’ fault, and I was going to make her he knew that once I crossed over to the other side.

Immediately I entered the cave, my mouth dropped open at what I began to suspect was what was happening.

I had only heard of these things from the mouth of drunks and the rest of the crowd that people considered lowlifes.

It was said that deep in the forest, a fight never ended, in the day nor the night.

I thought it was a joke but as I finally came out of the mouth of the cave, I stood feets away from an obvious scene.

People surrounded something. They kept yelling and people were even in their wolf forms.

I raised my hoodie higher to hide my identity because as I looked to and fro, I didn’t see a any long lock of hair.

It was obvious I was the only female here and the only clean one for that matter.

Everywhere stank of stale beer, piss and spit. I had to cautiously protect the air that passed through my nostrils and as I did so, my curiosity rose higher at what it was they were so adamant at shouting at.

They kept trying to fight for space to shout even higher. I pushed past some people that were at the back.

As I approached the source of their yelling, Myla sniffed greedily.

Lucius was definitely here.

I was going to drag him by the ear immediately I saw him, I thought to myself.

At the very moment when I saw the source of the dirty men’s attention, my jaw dropped.

“Lucius?” I quietly whispered, shocked to my bones.