Chapter 155

Dylan POV

"You asked Oliver to be my travel companion?!" I shouted while glaring at Lewis with eyes that screamed nothing but betrayal.

"It'll be good for the packs to see the old gamma working with you. And he's as strong as I am, so if anything were to happen, then he would protect you." Lewis tried to justify his decision, but I shook my head at him. I couldn't believe he would put me in such a position.

"Protect me?! You actually trust him to do that? He's the kings friend Lewis, he's one of the reasons why I'm in danger to begin with." I yelled causing heads to turn to me in shock at the words coming out of my mouth. "If you think I'm actually going to be able to get things done while he's skulking about, then you clearly don't know me."

"I knew this was a bad idea." Oliver mumbled before holding his hands up in surrender and turning to meet my furious gaze. "I promise, I will do what I can to support you."

"Your promises don't mean anything to me." I was so angry, I felt almost betrayed, how on earth could Lewis have done this to me?

"He's protected you before. He’s a good person, Dylan. Everyone deserves a chance." I shook my head, he'd lost all his chances with me. Nothing was going to sway my mind.

"I could always go with Riley. I mean, we work well together, and I know how..." Lewis cut Ryan off rudely with a growl and grabbed the backpack from him, placing it onto his own back.

"You're not going anywhere with, Dylan.” He snapped, this was clearly not one of our better plans, but he chose Oliver. The root of some of my anxiety was the fact that people often took The Kings side on matters were he was completely in the wrong, and Oliver was one of them. “Look, Dylan… I trust him, if he does anything at all to put you in jeopardy, I’ll kill him myself.” I sighed, half of me knows Lewis would never intentionally put me in harms way, but this was Oliver we were talking about. I simply didn’t trust him.

“I don’t trust him…” I stated coldly, glowering at the newly appointed royal beta, before sighing and turning to my boyfriend. “But… I do trust you. So if you say he will be an asset, then I will believe you.” I nodded, then turned to Ryan Clarke who just looked at me with raised eyebrows, he wiggled them quickly and I rolled my eyes at his playfulness.

“So, you and the royal beta… you know, it actually, sort of makes sense. I think you’re both well suited.” I shrugged and walked towards him, giving him a hug of gratitude.

“Thank you for agreeing to this… I think you will be able to help him a lot, especially with the areas he doesn’t know about. Make sure to Mention the smuggling trade to the alphas, you know more about that than anyone, and the entirety of America benefited from it.” He nodded his head and smiled at me, nudging me on my shoulder playfully.

“A chance to blow my own horn?! Sign me up.” He chuckled doing a typical ‘macho man’ pose showing his small muscles.

“Yeah… let Lewis do all the heavy lifting.” I poked his arm in amusement and watched as his face dropped in fake hurt. “Clarke… don’t get into any trouble ok… I can’t see anyone else I care about get hurt.” Clarke was essentially a brother to me, and I was very grateful to have him. “Take care of yourself, and I will see you in a couple of weeks.”

I walked back over to Lewis who was just finishing his own conversation off with Oliver. Probably telling him to keep me safe and all that jazz. Once he was finished he turned to me, giving me one last meaningful look before scooping me up into his arms, while both Oliver and Vee did the same thing.

“Dylan… be careful… and don’t forget that you are so much stronger than you believe… I love you… I love you so much.” Obviously it wasn’t a final goodbye, I mean we would see each other again in a few weeks time, and we had used last night to truly say farewell to each other, but now that we were actually about to part from one another, I felt my chest go heavy. I didn’t want him to go.

“I…” the words got caught in my throat, I wanted to say it back, I wanted nothing more than to express to him just how much he meant to me, he may have fallen for me first, but I undoubtedly fell harder for him, however now that the time had come to say those three words, they stopped in my throat. The few people that were present as an audience shouldn’t get to witness me saying those words, not the first time I say them anyway. I should also be done when we aren’t departing from one another. No… I would save my declaration for when we got back, for when we were alone. “I’ll miss you.” I gave him a huge squeeze of a hug, and felt his lips at the top of my head.

“I’ll miss you so much more.” We broke apart and I felt cold at his absence, the mate bond truly was a powerful thing, but I couldn’t help feel like we made our own choices, that without that magical bond, we still would have found each other.

I sighed, turning my back to the love of my life and meeting Olivers shocked gaze. I glared at him, hatred clouding every inch of me as I slipped the backpack that rested on my shoulder off and threw it at the poor guy. “You can carry the bags.” I left no room for argument as I began to walk away from the farewell party.

He must have scrambled to pick the backpack up because he fell into step next to me quickly, both bags testing one on each of his shoulders, as we walked to the first pack on my list, the one I had already been to, alpha Daltons.

We were silent as we walked, I took the scenery in and refused to look at my pack mules face. That was what I had decided he would be, a simple pack mule, carrying the bags and performing anything I may require. He was after all lucky to have even been allowed to accompany me.

“Look… before we go any further, there’s something I need to say to you.” He gently placed his palm on my lower arm and sighed when I instantly flinched out of his grasp. I wasn’t in the mood for talking to the likes of him, and so I simply continued walking, not at all bothering if he was following me or not. “I was wrong…” he blurted out quickly and loudly, his words made me stop in my tracks and I turned to the loyal beta in front of me. His lip made its way between his teeth and his eyes met mine. “I was wrong…” he repeated, stepping towards me testing my response to his closeness. “Vee is my mate… and I couldn’t for the life of me, ever imagine doing anything to invoke pain, or sorrow onto her.” He allowed his eyes to meet the floor, and his feet fidgeted in his shoes. “What King Josh did to you… everything that he did to you, was wrong!”

“Yeah… I fucking know that!” I spat at him, as he stood their staring the obvious.

“But I didn’t…” he went on to say. Holding his head low in shame and regret. “I thought your mate was supposed to give you the things you wanted, no questions asked. We were told that Your mate belongs to you, so you could do whatever you desired too, but after finding Vee, I now know that, that is just not the case.” Ok, I may not like the guy, but the admiration swimming around his orbs at the mention of Victoria was a shock. He held genuine affection for her. “I could never even imagine hurting Vee the way Josh hurt you. I just don’t understand now how he took things so far. Even before I met Vee, after the death of your mother, I began suspecting that the goddess Luna had other plans for you. I’m not sure why the goddess paired you together, but I’m certain that she chose you for a reason. Not to mention she has obviously given you and Lewis her blessing to mate. I respect her judgment, and hope that in time, you can forgive me for lacking mine.”

My mouth hung open at the heartfelt confession of the royal beta. His words striking a chord with me that will forever haunt my mind. Every word he had spoken had meaning, and I was actually quite grateful he acknowledged his arrogance when it came to certain topics.

I sighed, I suppose my silent treatment wasn’t going to do us any good, we were, after all, stuck with each other for the next few weeks, and so without a word held my hand out and made a come here gesture with my fingers.

“Give me the bag… I’m not going to make you carry everything.” I stated quietly ignoring everything he had said, but finally acknowledging him being there with me.

“It’s no issues in carry your bag, I just want you to know, that I understand your contempt for me, but I hope that in time you may begin to see me as an ally. I will support you as best I can, and I will stand with you during your fight. The only thing I ask is that you don’t ask me to go directly against Josh.” His look was pleasing and I had to somewhat admire the poor guy.

It takes a lot to admit when your wrong, and this wolf has done just that. He hadn’t apologized for his actions, but he had acknowledge his wrongdoings and vowed to stand with me instead of against me.

“You, want to stand by me? You’d abandon your king, your friend, for the sake of a snarky human girl who, ‘really bought everything on herself’.” His comments after The king defiled me in front of Lewis before banishing him from the grounds stuck with me. I would never forget How he stood there and blamed me for being raped, how he said that it was what I had deserved… but… Lewis was also right, everyone deserved a chance.

“You’re mouth got you in trouble a lot… but you shouldn’t have faced consequences for rejecting Josh… that was your choice to make, and he discredited that. If Vee had rejected me, I would have fought for her… but I never would have tortured her for compliance.” He sighed, holding his hand out as if to ask for a handshake of mutual understanding. “The world needs to change! It can not stay segregated with lycans believing they are entitled to more than humans. I’ve seen equality while living with Vee, and it’s possible to provide that to the world.”

I eyed his hand wearily. Unsure whether I could trust him, but it had been almost two weeks since his arrival, and he hadn’t done anything to endanger anyone, so stupidly I took his hand a shook it firmly.

“I do have one request though…” I looked at him pointedly Waiting to hear what he had to say. “If you’re intending to abolish all human punishments… then I’d also like to request that you pass a law prohibiting the hunting of our kind.”

I assumed that would be obvious, but nevertheless I nodded my head. “You have my word…”