Winning Back His Queen

Beloved

Chapter 2

Lilith’s pov

For as long as I could remember, I already knew who my beloved was supposed to be. It was unusual to find out so early, with both having to be over the age of 18 to feel the bond properly. In my case, it was an exception, though.

Hades had been given Claudia as his mate, so they would have an heir to rule, and his son Ezekiel was given to me, or I was given to him. Hades was told who his sons mate was going to be so he could start to build a bridge between Elysium and the underworld and between each of its people.

When I was young, I guess I never really questioned it or even thought about it too much. I like Hades and Claudia, and they were always nice and loving to me, like a bonus set of parents in many ways. Ezekiel, on the other hand, was just an older boy who I was stuck with when they visited.

I was still in my girly playing with dolls stage and thought that boys were icky. So I was relieved when he started to make friends and I could just see my own ones. It worked out well, and our parents never questioned us, thinking we were spending time together.

When he turned 18, I was only 12, so I didn’t really care about him. I didn’t want to sit around with adults who looked down at me as a child when I could be having fun. We had been brought up knowing that we had a soul mate out there, and I already knew who mine would be and didn’t care about much else.

In my culture, in particular the vampire side of it, it was common knowledge that they liked s*x, a lot! At 12, I knew how babies were made, and I didn’t really want to think about it much. I knew that it was common to seek pleasure in others before they found their mate or beloved. It was just an accepted fact.

I also knew that I would never be doing that as I would be expected to mate with my beloved on my 18th birthday, since we were supposed to know each other well by then, and it was hard to resist your beloved.

I thought the idea of s*x was pretty gross as a young teen, I figured that would change as I got older and understood more. I didn’t even care that my future beloved was sleeping with a lot of different women. Demons had just as high a s****l apatite as vampires do.

It was when I started to get older, at 14 I had to train with Hades, as I was the one given control over hell fire. I know Ezekiel wasn’t happy about that, as he thought it was his right to it as the son of Hades. Well, the goddess apparently didn’t agree on that one.

It felt like after that he would be more obvious in his extracurricular activities, making sure he flaunted more women around me, talking about how he needed a real woman and not a child within my hearing range, and also making sure he carried another’s scent whenever he was next to me.

Did I care? No, not really, I was more concerned about training and friends to bother what an immature man child thought and did. It wasn’t until I was over the age of 16 that I started to question things a lot more and look at everything in a new light.

I knew my indifference toward Ezekiel over the years had stated to pi.ss him off. Especially when his friends went from talking down about my looks, age, and figure, which he was happy to join in on, even making worse comments about me, to making some very inappropriate ones.

I bloomed at 16 and started to get my womanly curves, his friends didn’t even bother to keep their voices down or hide their lustful stares at me. To be honest, it gave me the creeps and pi.ssed me off. It also pi.ssed off Ezekiel.

At least him being a jealous a.sshole kept their eyes off of me and their mouths shut in fear of what he would do. What still annoyed me was that he had gotten even more blatant in his s****l trysts around me.

At 16, I understood more about the mate bond and what it was supposed to be like. I observed mated pairs and saw the love and respect they had for each other. It was a beautiful thing in most cases, and Ezekiel turned it into something ugly.

I will never forget the time I saw him screwing someone. I had always known what he was doing, but it was different seeing live po.rn up close and personal, right outside your bedroom door.

Yes, Ezekiel had made sure to be somewhere that I would catch him in the act. He was out in the open hallway a couple of feet from my room door, knowing I would have to walk past him to get there. I instead teleported into my room so I didn’t have to.

I felt rage and upset, I knew that your beloved was supposed to love you unconditionally and do everything in their power not to hurt you, and mine was making a joke of the sacred bond, and doing everything he could to do the opposite of that.

My best friend Regina was there to support me through everything. She had enough problems of her own, but she was always there for me. I knew she was a true friend, I didn’t have many of them anymore as they thought I was a joke.

Ezekiel had embarrassed me publicly too many times, and they no longer felt sympathy. They acted the part, and if I hadn’t overheard them gossip and ridicule me, I would have never known what snakes they truly were.

Regina was different. She was a good person, and I knew she loved and supported me. She made that clear when she threatened to burn Ezekiel if he tried to come on to her again. She wasn’t even tempted by him at all.

She hated him for the way he treated me and wasn’t shy in saying it. She also left all of the fake bit.ches without a name after verbally insulting them. It was amusing, I just didn’t care enough to waste my time with them, but I did enjoy it when Regina brought them down a peg or two.

Just like Regina had done for me, I became a source of love and support to her. Her sister and father were awful to her at times. So I always made sure she had a safe place next to me. She was always welcome in my home.

I made sure she felt safe to discuss her problems with me, all she had to do was call me through the mind link I had set up between us magically and I would drop everything and go to her and bring her back to safety.

I don’t think either of us would have coped with things so well if it wasn’t for each other. She was my sister in everything apart from blood. Even my siblings loved her like she was one of us. She gave me the strength to act indifferent to Ezekiel when he was breaking me day by day.

I became good at masking any upset and pain whenever he was near me, I still tried to be around him as little as possible. When it couldn’t be helped and I had to be in his company I was an emotionless rock, too scared if I showed any emotion the others would break out of their cage and give me and my true feelings away.

It was all going so well until I walked into my room and found him balls deep in my cousin on my bed. It was a betrayal too far from both of them, and she looked far too smug about it for it not to have been planned to hurt me.

Lucky for him, I suppose he was just finishing when I walked into the room. He looked guilty as hell when I could no longer stop the hurt from showing on my face. So I did what any reasonable person would do in this situation.

I mean, what is the use of having hell fire if you won’t use it? Yes, I set the bed on fire with them both in it. Do I regret it? Not even a tiny bit. Suzanne blinked them off the bed before it could cause any harm, and several people came into the room wondering why a bed was burning.

I didn’t even need to say anything, with them still both completely naked, their clothes on my floor as they shouted at me for being so reckless, it was obvious what had happened to everyone. After that, my parents were no longer friendly to Ezekiel.

They hadn’t known how badly he had flaunted his lovers to me in the last couple of years and had no idea he had made it so I could see him in action. They were furious when it came out. Even Claudia and Hades were disgusted and embarrassed by their son.

The only positive thing about it was that no one any longer expected me to be friendly towards him or even in his company. I had hoped he would have learned from his mistakes but no, not only did he proposition Regina, but also my big sister Cassie, he must really fu.cking hate me, much like I do him.