The Bully's Hated Mate
The Bully’s Hated Mate – Chapter 43

CASSIA’S POV:

“He’s my friend! He was only trying to —“ My voice grew hoarse as the realization that he was truly going to suffer to death hit me.

“— he was trying to protect me” I said, my eyes burning from the tears that I was currently holding.

The alpha snarled and looked back at Marcus, he growled and steped into the cage, driving Marcus to go to the edge of the cave. Marcus was currently looking like a rat that had been cornered.

“Protect you from what!?” The alpha asked while consciously snarling and showing more fangs at a now trembling Marcus.

“He thought I was in danger and he was protecting me from Lucius. He thought Lucius was an attacker” even while been faced between helping Marcus and nailing Lucius to a cross, I still chose to evade the parts where Marcus actually thought Lucius was abusing me and tried to save them both, now as I saw a glimpse of how the Alpha’s anger came out in waves.

“Protect you from lucius?” He asked and I nodded, even though the alpha was currently still snarling at Marcus, he wasn’t able to see my nod.

Gradually he stepped out of the cage and looked to me, anger still flooding his eyes.

“As far as I’m concerned! Only the mate of the Luna has the right to protect his Luna. No other person has that right, nobody has the right to try to abuse either one of you and as such, my decree remains the same” he said matter of factly.

All of the tears I had balled up inside seemed to erupt as his words hit home.

“Lucius was there! Lucius can tell you that he was merely doing what he felt was right. Lucius!!” I shouted, looking over at him as his focus came onto me.

I gestured towards his father, hoping that the new attention would prompt him to chip a word or two as Marcus was undeniably facing the death penalty.

“Luicus! Say something!” I shouted at him, I was far away from Lucius but I walked towards him anyway, creating a pathway in the bodies of bodyguards as I walked with fury towards him.

Lucius was there! Lucius knew that Marcus acted only because he thought I was in danger only because he felt that Lucius had been abusing me. Why couldn’t Lucius speak?

“Lucius!!” I shook him, expecting that as I walked closer to him, he would see the desperation in my eyes as I mentally begged Lucius to save Marcus.

Lucius just looked at me, his eyes cold and dead like his soul had gone on a vacation.

No, it couldn’t be. He couldn’t do this to us not after what we have been through!

I deserved every bit of his confession, Marcus deserved that.

I watched as Lucius bent his head further wallowing in shame and I revolted immediately.

“It is final! Prepare him for the gallows, we will celebrate the new year with him hanging from a noose!” The king said. I fell on my knees in anguish as the king started to make his way back.

“You can’t kill him! You’re a monster! You’re a goddamn monster!” I screamed from where I had fallen on my knees.

The movement had stopped, that much I was aware of.

I stood up and with force, I shoved Lucius hard. I may have been small but channeling my werewolf energy into the force, I knew I had made a good impact.

“You’re a goddamn monster Lucius! You and you!— I pointed a long finger to the Alpha.

” You’re all the same!” I screamed and ran out of the dungeon, tears blinding me and me directing my steps based in scent and not of sight.

I ran all the way to my bedroom, locking it as I plopped on the bed, grief eating me out in several ways.

Marcus didn’t deserve any of this and Lucius was a bastard! The pain, the anguish mixed together forming something I couldn’t quite understand. All I knew was, I was in severe pain and they had once again taken someone I loved.

I have never hated my existence than the way I hated it right now. Laying in the bed, my tears dried on my cheeks. I started to reminiscs how many times Lucius had made it known that he didn’t want me and how many times I was given an opportunity to end whatever thing we had.

I could have ended this a long time ago, clearing up the drafts and the memories as I left. I would have brought him the shame and disgrace he deserved but instead here I was, eyes closed, heart shredded and knowing that as the last moon rose for the end of the year, Marcus would be executed by sunrise.

This was all my fault, if I had read the signs, acted sooner and maybe even left as I was supposed to. I wouldn’t be where I was, I would have my old life back, I would go to school with Marcus, we would have dinner at my mom’s house, we would watch the moon and look at the stars erupt and beautify the night sky as we sat and looked in the cave that was close to my mother’s house.

Everything would be the way it was, before Lucius and before any or all of this. Everything would be normal. Marcus would be normal. Marcus won’t be in a cage like a mere dog, a petty criminal and been harrassed and treated like the ay he was just treated maybe if Marcus didn’t meet me, he would be living freely.

***

LUCIUS’ POV:

It has been a week since Marcus was captured, a week since cassia looked me dead in the eyes and outrightly demanded that I help her in the face of my father. A week since I disappointed her, a week since she locked herself in our bedroom, a week since I’ve seen her and a week since the pain in my chest started.

I was in the infirmy, getting my bandages replaced, the pain coarsed through my veins but what was worse was that I knew it wasn’t just the pain from the bandages.

The pain from the bruises had nothing to do with the pang that erupted as I breathed. I must have deserved this pain for me to feel this miserable.

I remembered all of a sudden as cassia had stared at me, hope bloosming in her eyes as she felt, that I was going to remedy the situation.

There was nothing, I could have done, nothing. There was a rule that stated that anybody that assaulted the royal family was to be out to death. Nothing I could have said could have changed that rule, father’s say was final.

So why then was I still feeling miserable?

Why then was life so full and uninviting?

I couldn’t have challenged my father in the presence of his kingdom, I couldn’t disrespect him like that but at the same time, I could have helped cassia. I should have spoken at her behest. The look in her eyes when she knew I was not going to help her has been a thorn that has constantly pricked me where it hurt most.

“You’re all set sire” the nurse said to me as she finished bandaging my arms.

I had been lost in my thoughts that she needed to tap me lightly to get my attention.

I looked at her, no energy left in me. I looked down at my hands, knowing just how the bruises were behind the bandages. I nodded to her and left the infirmy, somehow I needed the bruises to be worse than this. If it meant feeling less miserable, less guilty, less shame then I would walk straight to where Marcus was held and ask him to take the whole arm off but I knew, that was just another deadend.

Somehow, I had walked towards my bedroom, I knew that the infirmy had a connection to my bedroom and inwardly i winced as the double doors came in sight.

Damon was currently ignoring me as he too felt even more disappointed by the turn of events and how I had managed to mess everything up.

I couldn’t face her, I g*****d in shame as I tried to hear her from the walls that seperated us. I wondered if she could sense that I was miserable, I wondered if she knew that I hated myself each day because I knew just how much I had gone over the line.

I had hurt her more ways than one but this topped the list so much, it came with a pain I had never experienced.

Even as I walked away, head bowed in shame i walked towards the dining hall and got reminded again just how much her presence was missed.

She didn’t join us for breakfast, rarely ate herself, the evidence pulled up as the maids always brought their trays of food back to the kitchen on the request that she had asked it to be taken away.

Father wasn’t as joyous to see me whenever she didn’t come with me for breakfast, we shared the Shame equally and as we shared the Shame, I made sure to bear the pain alone, having to go to school alone.

It felt as though I had always had her walking in my shadow, trailing me from behind, it was strange now having her absent. Life had lost its meaning to me and because of that, I made sure to always remind myself how I had stripped myself of my happiness, the day she asked me to tell my father about Marcus and instead hanged my head in shame.

I deserved every bit of pain that I was feeling. I deserved much worse.