The Bully's Hated Mate
The Bully’s Hated Mate – Chapter 25

CASSIA’S POV:

They were giants, and they knew how to run fast!

I had previously already used a good supply of Myla’s energy and right now, my reservoir was running at a dangerous low.

I ran as fast as I could, Myla was already snarling, at the same time whining. I begged the goddess to take me somewhere as I could hear the hard thumping of their mud soaked boots run on the soil.

I saw a sharp corner, and I knew my legs were going to give out.

I tumbled, causing a sharp pain to shoot through my ankle to my head in an instant.

I badly wanted to stay there and nurse a possible internal bleeding, but I needed to replace help now that I was meters way from the cave and the entrance.

I stood up, leaping but I was dragged by the hair by a man that couldn’t keep his mouth odour from his heavy breathing.

“Where are you going girl? We’re just getting started.” He shouted in my ear, making me wince and cringe immediately.

The rest later joined him as he started to rub himself on me, feeling my mouth skin and with his dirty fingernails, and sharp curved knife.

My body released shivers I didn’t know it possessed. He turned me around to face the rest, and my breath caught in my throat.

He had brought me to another part of the forest that I wasn’t familiar with. My eyes started to water after all the images my brain brought up as I tried to look for a solution out of this mess.

“What do you want!” I shouted at all three of them.

They went silent at first, and then like hyenas possessed them, they smiled and one snickered.

“We want everything you own and then maybe, we want you too.” The man that held me by the hair, dragged my hair back and spoke into my ear so harsh again.

“Who are you guys! What do you want?” I screamed again, panic making me ask the same questions I had lready asked before, earning me a slap across the cheek.

“You deaf or something? Take off her jacket, let’s see what’s inside.” The one who had been so slow up till now said.

From futher glance, one would treat him different with his short stature and somewhat kind face.

But now, as he menacingly walked towards me with so much hatred, I saw better. So much better.

“Yeah! Take it off.” Another said.

The man pulled my hair even harder, earning a grunt from me as he pulled and my mind wandered off towards Lucius.

The Alpha king had said if I wanted to replace him, all I needed to do was to concentrate on just him.

These people weren’t here to help sell cookies or fruits. I needed help, and I needed it fast.

I closed my eyes, tears causing an extra kind of pain as I squeezed my eyes shut and started to think of Lucius pretty hard.

I thought of him, begging him to come, to help me out of this mess when a thunder-like strike descended on my face from above.

My hands were restricted and my hair let loose as my eyes opened so fast and so wide. One of the men had struck me, tears welled in my eyes, forming a hill and blocking my entire vision.

“You are rich? Huh!” He shouted to my face.

I didn’t know if it was a good idea to answer or not, so I kept mute. He held my hair back, making me wince even more as he dragged and searched my jacket for more items.

“Seems like our friend has alot of valuables. We won’t mind taking your hands off that.” The man said.

All this while, I have offered prayers up to the goddess and while I did that, I never lost focus on Lucius.

Lucius! Please, help me! Please!

I was full on screaming in my head as I focused more and more on just his figure.

“Just look at this jacket? Ever seen something like this?” The man asked his other friend, looking at the other two as well, each of them giving him a negative nod.

There was something in their eyes, something dangerous as they all full-on looked at me dead in my eyes, approaching me menacingly.

I swallowed once.

Twice.

Help!

Who was I kidding? Lucius didn’t care about me. What guarantee did I have that he could sense anything about me. I was going to die here.

Miserable, and probably stripped off every valuable thing I ever had and no one would notice they were gone.

I closed my eyes as the men approached me, one deciding to arm himself with a knife. I closed my eyes one last time to pray to the goddess about letting my soul anchor onto a good place, letting go.

First, I heard aloud scream, then a deep growl.

I got so frightened, my eyes snapped open immediately. I saw a black wolf, prancing but in a defensive manner. He was defending me!

It was Lucius!

The first man began to shift, drawing out a shout as he began to transform. Lucius attacked him immediately, earning a whimper from the man.

The others drew back bit, thinking of what they were to do now that their leader was hurt and defenseless.

“What are you doing! Finish him!” The man shouted from the ground as he grounded in pain, holding his torso and his half changed face.

The change didn’t complete and soon, it was going to be unbearable for him to stay that way. He would feel it for a long time before he’d decided it was best to end it.

The second man started to change. His change completed immediately, and he charged towards Lucius.

Lucius had taken a defensive position, arms outstretched and taking the second man in a death hug. With alot more strength than I thought he possessed, he threw the second guy making his shoulder and back crack in a sickening thud.

He screamed immensely. I was free but instead of running, I knew here was safer was with Lucius. If I ran, the attention would be divided and my leg…

The third guy came running towards Lucius. He was able to knock him down with one blow. My throat went dry instantly. I scurried like a little rat, trying to get away, but the man rushed after me and grabbed my hair.

“This your boyfriend? Huh?” He asked me, dragging me back with my hair.

My skull was ablaze instantly, every fiber and every neuron, every atom present on my head tore and burned as he tugged my hair, dragging my whole body with it.

Suddenly, my hair was let go of and I fell to the ground with a thud. I scurried again, turning around to see that Lucius had this guy’s neck in his mouth as he growled and showed teeth.

He used his teeth as a point of contact, sinking his teeth even more as he screamed and cried, and used his shoulder to shake him vigorously back and forth as he finally flipped him and sent him flying in a different direction.

There was one guy left. He looked so scared and yet, he held a knife. With the look of fear in his eyes, he lunged forward. Heading straight towards me.

I screamed.

Lucius rammed into him with so much force they both went tumbling. Somehow, the tumble got the man to hit his head and he was rendered unconscious.

Everywhere was quiet and still.

I couldn’t believe my eyes at what had just taken place. I had called for Lucius and he had come.

But how?

Lucius came towards me. He growled a bit, showing me teeth and yet, licked my face at the same time.

I was shocked.

He growled again, stepping back from my space so that I could stand. I understood immediately, and I tried to stand but I ended up screaming as I stood.

My leg had an injury, and many other scratches. While I knew I could walk with it, I also knew it wouldn’t be possible to walk the trek back to the palace as I was also exhausted.

Lucius saw this. As I slumped back to the ground and looked up at him, he started to change back to himself. He did so in a small amount of time, only his wolf whining and morphing back to himself.

I marveled at the beauty.

Immediately he was in his human form, he cast a look down at me. I put my face to the ground as I knew what was coming.

“What the f**k are you doing here?” He yelled and asked at the same time.

I shrunk but suddenly, I remembered why I wanted to kill him in the first place.

“You shouldn’t be here! You shouldn’t have come here, at all!” He was livid.

He was livid? The audacity he had. The nerve he had to think, to even feel, he had the right to be mad.

My leg hurt so much but I calculated giving him a piece of my mind in exactly twenty seconds. So, I stood up.

He eyed me greatly, speaking with his eyes that I read as ‘what does she think she’s doing?’

“You’re the one who left me! You’re the one who hasn’t been speaking to me, and you f*****g abandoned me in the middle of the woods, while we were having a competiton. A competition! That we were supposed to be f*****g partners! You left in the middle of the run, and you have the audacity to be what? Livid? I think not.” I stared at him, my face contouring in obvious shades of pain as my legs finally gave way.

He caught me by the waist and hoistered me in his arms, in a cradle position. I was shocked, but relived at the same time that he helped me.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Cassia. You could have been killed, or worse…” His voice still held venom but at a milder dose.

I was drained from talking, and he began to carry me and walk towards the castle as I was doing before. I found out I was even going towards the wrong direction. I was grateful he had come.

“How did you know where to replace me?” My eyes looking straight at him as he carried me, his eyes set on the road and not giving me an eyelid bat.

“I just…knew.” He said, his cheekbones displaying their angularity in the moonlight that showered above us in great depths.

I could watch as he softly breathed, earning a slow breathing tempo that as I noticed, quietly matched mine.

“I just knew how stupid you could be. I had to come and save you before you decided it best to kill yourself.” He said as we walked closer still to the castle.

I frowned immediately, but had nothing to say at the same time. I opened my mouth but no words spilled out from it. I was disappointed and exhausted at the same time.

It had better be some kind of impromptu exhaustion to cause me not to speak, and not that the sight of his face and this close caused panic attacks.

We walked towards the gates and instead of walking directly towards the gate and going in, he walked even further to the side.

And there, lo and behold, a crawl hold. I frowned at why the hell he was going to pass through a crawl hold when in fact, there was the door.

He put me down gently and I landed on my feet, getting a bit of support from his hand.

Until he indicated for me to crawl into the space.

“Lucius? Why aren’t we going through the door?” I asked, ready to kill him this time.

He looked me up and down like I had something on my face.

“Because you’re going in yourself.” He said matter of factly and did something I wasn’t expecting.