Chapter 36 You Messed Up!
The weight bar creaked ominously as Enzo added another plate to each side. The gym in the pack house was mostly empty at this hour, just a few early risers scattered throughout the space. Good. He didn't want company.
He positioned himself under the bar, gripped it, and lifted.
The burn in his muscles was immediate and intense, but Enzo welcomed it. Physical pain was a distraction from the other kind, the kind that had been eating at him for the past two days.
‘A rebound.’
The word kept echoing in his head, taunting him. Grace had called him a rebound. Had looked him in the eye and told him that sleeping with him had meant nothing, that she'd just been trying to forget about someone else.
Probably that boy she'd been friends with forever.
Enzo's jaw clenched as he lowered the bar and pushed it back up. The weight was substantial, more than most wolves could handle, but it still wasn't enough to quiet his thoughts.
He'd known Grace was his mate the moment he saw her that night, and he had felt the bond with a certainty that had stolen his breath. And when she'd let him take her back to his room, when she'd given herself to him, he'd thought she'd felt it too.
But she hadn't. She had no idea what she was, no idea about the bond, no idea that fate had tied them together in a way that couldn't be undone.
‘No.’
She knew. She’d known the whole time and had just wanted to humble him.
She'd just been using him to dull her pain over some other guy. Over Maddox fucking Barker of all people.
‘How dare she?’
Enzo had underestimated his mate completely. Had thought she was sweet and innocent and incapable of that kind of casual cruelty. Had been so happy when she'd wanted him that night.
He'd thought it meant something.
Turned out he was just convenient. Just available, a warm body to help her forget.
The bar slammed back onto the rack with more force than necessary, the clang of metal on metal echoing through the gym.
"Whoa there, man. You’re trying to bring the whole building down?"
Enzo looked up to find Micah, one of his packmates, standing over him with a bottle of water extended. Micah was grinning, but there was concern in his eyes as he took in Enzo's expression.
"Take a break before you hurt yourself," Micah said, shaking the water bottle slightly. "You've been at it for over two hours. Even you have limits."
Enzo sat up and accepted the water, though he didn't open it. "I'm fine."
"Sure you are," Micah said, not sounding convinced at all. "That's why you're in here before dawn trying to bench press a small car."
Enzo didn't respond, he just stared at the unopened water bottle in his hands.
Micah sighed and dropped onto the bench beside him. "Look, I don't know what's eating you and I'm not going to pry. But the recon team got back about an hour ago. Thought you'd want to know."
That got Enzo's attention. The team had been out for three days tracking a group of rogues who'd been causing problems in the territory. "Everyone make it back okay?"
"Yeah, everyone's fine. Actually brought back some people they rescued from the rogues. The whole operation was apparently pretty successful." Micah stood and stretched. "Oh, and Zion was looking for you earlier. Seemed like he wanted to talk."
Enzo frowned. "What about?"
Micah shrugged. "Didn't say. Just asked if I'd seen you."
Enzo considered going to find his cousin, but the thought of dealing with Zion's inevitable questions about why he looked like death warmed over made him want to avoid the conversation entirely.
"I'll catch up with him later," Enzo said, standing and heading toward the showers. "I need to clean up first."
The shower was one of the few places Enzo could think without interruption. He stood under the spray, letting the hot water pound against his shoulders, and tried to figure out what to do about Grace.
The mate bond didn't care that she'd used him, it didn't care that she'd broken his heart. It still pulled at him, still made him want to go to her, to claim her properly, to make her understand what she was to him.
But his pride and his heart were wounded. He didn't know if he could get past that.
Maybe he should just let her go. Find another way to deal with the bond. It would hurt like hell, but it couldn't hurt worse than knowing your mate saw you as nothing more than a distraction.
Enzo was halfway through rinsing shampoo from his hair when the shower room door slammed open with enough force to crack against the wall.
"Enzo! You in here?"
Zion's voice echoed off the tile walls, urgent and excited in a way that immediately put Enzo on alert.
"Yeah," Enzo called back, wiping water from his face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, but you're not going to believe what just happened." Zion appeared around the partition separating the showers, completely unbothered by Enzo's nudity. It seemed like something normal, the pack members shifted all the time so they were used to seeing each other naked.
"Remember that girl from my school? Grace?"
Enzo's heart slammed against his ribs so hard it actually hurt. His hand froze halfway to the soap dispenser.
He forced his voice to remain casual, disinterested. "What about her?"
"She was one of the people we rescued." Zion was practically vibrating with energy, the way he always did when he had gossip he couldn't wait to share. Enzo was one of the few people who’d seen him like that. To the outside world, Zion was cool, calm, and collected, slightly mysterious even. But Enzo would beg to differ.
"Can you believe that? She was in the truck with the other captives."
Enzo's mind went blank. Grace had been kidnapped? Taken by rogues? When? How?
He turned off the water and reached for a towel, wrapping it around his waist as he stepped out of the shower. His movements were careful and controlled, betraying none of the panic rising in his chest.
"That's interesting," he said, his tone deliberately flat. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she seemed fine when we got her out. Shaken up, obviously, but not hurt." Zion leaned against the wall, watching Enzo with an intensity that suggested he wasn't buying the casual act. "But here's the weird part. She smelled like a wolf."
Enzo's hands stilled on the towel he was using to dry his hair.
"Not a strong scent," Zion continued. "Actually, it was kind of weak, like it had been suppressed or hidden all this time. But it was definitely there. The guys think she's probably from a family that's been living among humans for generations. Sometimes the bloodline gets diluted enough that they don't shift anymore, but they still carry the scent."
Enzo resumed drying his hair, processing this information. It made sense. It explained why Grace had been targeted, why the rogues had taken her along with the other wolves. They must have sensed what she was even if she didn't know it herself.
But why now? Why was her wolf scent suddenly becoming known? And why did she have witch abilities the first day they clashed in that bathroom?
Was she some sort of hybrid?
"So you rescued her and brought her back here?"
Enzo asked, already planning how he'd handle seeing her again. What he'd say. How to get back at her.
"Well, no. That's the other thing." Zion's expression shifted slightly, becoming more serious. "We couldn't bring her back with us. She smelled… funny."
Enzo turned to face his cousin fully. "Funny how?"
"Like she was going into heat. The scent was just starting to develop when we left, but it was getting stronger by the minute." Zion shook his head. "Elder Silas thought it was too dangerous to travel with her. You know how unmated males get around a female in heat. We'd have had half the group going feral before we made it halfway back."
For a moment, Enzo just stared at his cousin, his brain refusing to process what he'd just heard.
Grace was in heat.
And they'd left her?!
Left her out there, alone, vulnerable, broadcasting a scent that would draw every unmated male wolf within miles straight to her like a beacon.
Something inside Enzo snapped.
He moved before he could think, crossing the space between them in two strides. His hand shot out and grabbed Zion by the collar of his shirt, slamming him back against the wall hard enough to rattle the tiles.
"Say that again," Enzo growled, and his voice was barely human anymore. "Tell me you didn't just say you left an unmated female going into heat alone in the middle of nowhere?!" He growled in anger.
Zion's eyes widened in shock. "Enzo, what the hell?"
"Answer me!" Enzo's grip tightened on Zion's collar, and he felt his control slipping.
"We didn't have a choice," Zion said, and there was genuine confusion in his voice now. He wasn't fighting back, wasn't defending himself, just staring at Enzo like he'd lost his mind. "You know the protocol. Unmated females in heat travel separately, with female escorts only. We couldn't risk bringing her with seven unmated males. The instinct override would have been too strong."
"So you what? Just left her on the side of the road?" Enzo could feel himself shaking, could feel the rage building to dangerous levels. "Left her to fend for herself? Do you have any idea what could happen to her?"
Zion’s expression suddenly turned serious as if realising for the first time just how badly he’d messed up.