Chapter 56 Walk Out
Zion's father continued, his eyes never leaving Enzo's face. "Your father isn't here to hear this claim. He's dealing with the situation that those rogues created. Which means I'm in charge until he returns. And I need more than your word before I accept that this girl is your mate."
He took a few, slow measured steps towards Grace and Enzo, his presence commanding the attention of everyone in the room. "What proof do you have, Enzo? What evidence can you provide that she's your destined mate and not just a girl you're attracted to?"
Enzo opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again. Grace watched as he struggled to find an answer, watched as the certainty in his expression wavered slightly.
Because what proof was there? Grace was attracted to him, yes, but that wasn't the same thing as being destined for each other.
"I felt the bond on her eighteenth birthday," Enzo said finally. "That's how mate bonds work, isn’t it? They activate when the younger mate comes of age."
"That's what you claim," Zion's father said. "But where's the proof? Where's the evidence that anyone else can verify?"
Enzo and Grace exchanged glances. Grace saw uncertainty in his eyes, saw him searching for something to say that would convince them.
But there was nothing. No tangible proof. No way to demonstrate something that only Enzo claimed to feel.
The council exchanged knowing looks. Grace could see them mentally dismissing Enzo's claim, writing it off as exactly what Zain had suggested. A lie to protect a girl he was attracted to.
"Zain," the silver-haired woman addressed Zion's father directly. "I think we need to separate them. Take Lorenzo outside to receive proper medical attention. We can continue questioning the girl without his interference."
Several other elders nodded in agreement. Grace felt panic spike through her chest as Zain nodded and started moving toward them.
"That won't be necessary," Enzo said, but his voice had lost some of its earlier conviction.
Zain's expression was set, unyielding. He reached out toward Enzo, clearly intending to physically remove him from Grace's side.
That's when Enzo moved.
It happened so fast Grace barely registered it. One moment Enzo was standing beside her looking defeated. The next, he'd pulled her hard against his chest, his hand fisting in her hair to tilt her head to the side, exposing the curve of her neck and shoulder.
"This might sting a bit," Enzo muttered under his breath, so quietly only Grace could hear.
Then he bit her.
‘What in the actual fu-!!’ She panicked.
His fangs sank into the juncture where Grace's neck met her shoulder, piercing deep through skin and muscle. The pain was immediate and shocking, making Grace cry out. It felt like fire and ice all at once, like every nerve ending in her body had suddenly come alive and started screaming.
Grace whimpered, her hands coming up to push against Enzo's chest. "What are you doing? Let go!"
But Enzo's grip was iron. He held her in place, his fangs still embedded in her flesh, and Grace felt something happening. Something beyond the physical pain. Something that made her entire body feel like it was being rewritten at a cellular level.
The elders erupted.
"Idiot!"
"He's marking her!"
"Stop him! Someone stop him!"
"Has he lost his mind?"
"Zain!" The silver-haired woman's voice rose above the chaos. "Zain, get him off her!"
Zain moved with inhuman speed, crossing the distance between them in a heartbeat. His hand closed around the back of Enzo's neck and ripped him away from Grace with brutal force.
Enzo was thrown backward, his body airborne for a second before he managed to twist and land on all fours like a cat. Blood stained his mouth, Grace's blood, and he licked his lips slowly before wiping them with the back of his hand.
There was no remorse in his eyes. No apology. Just satisfaction and challenge.
Grace stumbled, her hand going to her shoulder where Enzo's fangs had pierced. She could feel blood seeping between her fingers, warm and sticky. But that wasn't what scared her.
What scared her was what was happening to her body.
Heat was flooding through her system, but not like the heat she'd experienced before, this was different. Where her previous heat had made her feel like she was burning alive, this made her feel like she was freezing and burning simultaneously.
Grace's legs pressed together involuntarily, her body responding to something she didn't understand. Her shoulder throbbed with each heartbeat, and with each throb, waves of sensation rolled through her entire body.
‘What did he do to me? What the hell did he do to me?!’
Zain stood between Enzo and Grace now, his body vibrating with barely controlled fury. "Have you lost your mind?" he roared, his eyes blazing amber with wolf light. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
"I've claimed my mate," Enzo said calmly, despite the blood still staining his mouth. "I've marked her. Now you can't question whether she's mine."
"You've marked a girl we haven't verified!" Zain took a step toward Enzo, his hands clenched into fists. "You've bonded yourself to someone who might be working with our enemies! Someone whose life could be snuffed out in the blink of an eye! You've tied your life to hers without permission, without approval, without any thought for the consequences!"
“Oh well,” Enzo grinned mockingly. “My life does belong to me after all. So whose permission do I need?”
“Idiot!”
Grace could barely follow the conversation. Her body was doing things she didn't understand, responding to the mark on her shoulder in ways that made no sense. She felt cold, so cold her teeth were starting to chatter, but at the same time, there was heat building low in her belly that felt disturbingly like arousal.
Her thighs rubbed together, trying to ease the strange ache that had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with need. But it didn't help. Nothing helped. The sensation just kept building, kept intensifying with each passing second.
"What's happening to me?" Grace managed to get out, her voice shaking. "Why do I feel like this?"
The elders were all staring at her now, their expressions ranging from shock to horror to something that looked almost like pity.
"The mark connects you," the silver-haired woman said, and for the first time her voice held something other than condescension.
"Because he's impulsive and reckless and thinks only of himself," Zain said, his fury still evident in every line of his body. "Because he's his father's son in all the worst ways."
Enzo's expression flickered at that, something that looked like hurt crossing his features before he masked it with defiance.
"I did what I had to do," Enzo said. "She's mine. Now everyone knows it."
"Get her out of here," Zain said, his voice dropping to something dangerous. "Get her out of my sight before I do something we'll all regret."
Enzo moved immediately, crossing back to Grace in three quick strides. He scooped her up into his arms, lifting her like she weighed nothing despite his injuries.
Grace wanted to protest, wanted to demand he put her down, wanted answers about what he'd done and why her body felt like it was at war with itself. But her voice wouldn't work properly. Only small whimpers escaped as Enzo held her against his chest and turned toward the door.
"This isn't over, Enzo," Zain called after them. "Your father will hear about this. There will be consequences for what you've done."
"I know," Enzo said without turning around. "And you know just how much I love to fuck around and find out."
Then he carried Grace out of the tribunal room, leaving behind the shocked and furious elders, leaving behind the accusations and demands.
Grace's shoulder throbbed where he'd marked her, and with each throb came another wave of cold heat that made her entire body shiver and burn. She pressed her face into Enzo's chest, trying to steady her breathing, trying to understand what had just happened.
But all she knew for certain was that everything had changed again. Her body was no longer entirely her own. She was bound to Enzo now in ways she didn't understand, marked as his in front of witnesses who could never deny it.
She just had one question as she drifted into unconsciousness. If marking one’s mate was such a big deal: why hadn’t Maddox ever marked her?