Page 24

chapter Twenty-three

Enzo

T he rays of sunlight coming through my bedroom window heat my face. My head swims as I fight for consciousness. My body aches like I had a strenuous workout yesterday. I don’t remember going to the gym.

As I fight through the last of my sleep, I lie on my back with my eyes closed. What the hell happened last night? My memory is foggy.

There was the moon jubilee. I remember talking to Phaedra about her forming a new mate bond with Ivailo. I then remember seeing Marley and wondering where Michaela was.

The black dress.

The memory of her in that black dress hits me hard. Then the other memories come back. My eyes pop open and I sit up in bed suddenly.

Absolute disgust fills my stomach when I look to my side and spot the naked vamp lying beside me.

“No. No. no,” I repeat as the full memory of last night fills my head.

Slowly and as quietly as possible, I crawl out of bed, being careful not to wake her. I grab a pair of joggers off my floor and pull them up.

My body feels heavy and there is a knot in my belly. I place my hands on my head. How could I let this happen? How could I even think this would be okay? I look down at my arms and turn my nose up. My body feels as if it’s covered in trash.

“My sweet, Zo.” Ana’s voice calls out in my memory.

My heart races. I’ve betrayed her. I’ve allowed the enemy to infiltrate my bed.

“Not enemy,” my wolf harrumphs in my head. “Mate.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I snarl at him. “ How could you let this happen?”

He doesn’t reply. Instead, I can feel him shrug inside me.

“ Outside. Now,” Chayton’s voice breaks through my thoughts. Without sparing the vampire another glance, I walk out of the bedroom and into the living room. The smell of sex is in the air. I nearly gag at the scent. I step onto the front porch, catching sight of Chayton leaning against the porch railing.

“I already know, and I feel fucking disgusted. As soon as she wakes, we are going to break the bond.”

Chayton doesn’t speak. He stares at my bare chest as if I have grown another head there.

“Have you seen your chest?” he asks pointing at me.

“No, why…” my words fade as I look down at the markings across my pecs.

I vaguely remember seeing them last night. I look back up at a startled Chayton.

“She blessed your union.” he says out loud.

“This is a mistake. She made a mistake.”

He shakes his head. “The moon goddess doesn’t make mistakes. Those markings prove you didn’t just bond with Michaela, the goddess blessed you.”

Placing my hand on my head, I shut my eyes and groan.

“I can’t stay in this. I have to break the bond.”

Her vanilla scent hits me. Funny, I no longer smell the metallic scent anymore. Chayton’s gaze goes over my shoulder. I turn to find Michaela fully dressed. The black dress covers up the body that is now painted in my head. Her smooth brown skin spread over her flat stomach flawlessly, and her soft curves were like an old country road. Her body is perfect. And the way her tight tunnel squeezed the life out of my length was everything.

My dick hardens, pulling a groan from me. Immediately, guilt and shame wash over me, softening my erection instantly.

“Sorry, Chayton,” she says without looking at me.

Why isn’t she looking at me? And why the hell does it bother me?

“I didn’t mean to cause any trouble in your pack.”

“You’re not the only one to blame. I can’t be mad at you alone,” Chayton says.

However, I’m not paying too much attention to their conversation. My wolf and I are both wondering why Michaela seems to go out of her way to avoid eye contact with me.

I open the newly formed link I feel pulsing between us. Fear hits me like a boulder. It’s so strong I almost stagger. It’s the same feeling I got from her last night. Right beneath that fear is sadness. Both emotions are surprising, but the sadness is alarming.

I try to push further into her mind, to see if I can figure out why she’s so afraid and sad. However, I hit a wall so solid it feels as if it’s made from some kind of impenetrable metal.

“Blocked,” my wolf whimpers. He doesn’t like this disconnection.

“ What the hell does she have buried behind that wall?”

Instead of leaving the question up in the air, I ask her through our link.

“What are you hiding, vamp?” Unlike the night in the woods, the connection to talk to her feels much more natural.

Silence is my only response.

Is she ignoring me?

I send another question through the link I know we share.

“Answer me,” I growl into her head.

With a hard shove, I’m pushed out of her mind. The connection cuts like she slammed the door in my face. No one has ever done that to me. I don’t even know how she did it.

“I’ll fix this,” she says when I tune back in to her and Chayton’s conversation. Without another word, she rushes past me and down the stairs. I expect her to go into her cabin, but when she bypasses her home and heads for the trees, I panic.

“Where are you going?” I call out to her back.

Once again, she ignores me.

“Follow my mate,” my wolf growls.

“She’s not your fucking mate,” I reply out loud instead of in my head like I thought I did.

Chayton’s chuckle has me turning back to him. “I remember that disagreement with my wolf over Elizabeth.”

Shaking my head, I respond, “This is different. Luna was your true mate. Your wolf was telling you the truth.”

“And so is yours.” He shrugs. “You can’t break the bond.”

“The hell you say,” I say, squinting back at him. “You know this can’t stay.”

“Honestly, when I came over here, I came to demand you break the bond. I didn’t want this in my pack. It was hard enough to get the pack to accept Michaela and Marley. This would push them right back over the edge. It would also make them doubt my Beta and if they can’t trust my Beta, he can’t be my Beta.”

I knew all of this. It’s not against the law for different beings to mate. Obviously, since Chayton is mated to a human. However, of all the combinations, it is most frowned upon for a vampire and a wolf to mate. That’s a pairing that won’t go over as well.

“But now,” he says, looking at my chest. “Those markings change everything.”

“What am I supposed to do here? I don’t know what happened last night. It was like I was under a spell. She tricked me.”

He shakes his head. “You and I both know that even if she tricked you into that mating bond, the goddess wouldn’t have blessed it if it wasn’t meant to be. Kamyra is the perfect example of that.”

“This is bullshit, Chayton.”

He tosses up his hands and grins. “No, this is marriage.”

I run a hand down my face and realize it was a bad idea. Her scent is so strong on my beard. I then remember my face being buried between her legs. The taste of her essence was like the sweetest flavor I’ve ever had. Once again, arousal sets my blood ablaze and then guilt simmers it down.

“You will present your markings to the pack today. I can feel all of them buzzing with questions and doubts. In three days, you will have an official beta mating ceremony with the vampire.”

I growl at the thought of marrying that leech.

“Not leech,” my wolf snarls. “Mine.”

“And then,” Chayton goes on to say. “You will figure out why the goddess blessed your union. There has to be a reason.”

Chayton leaves me standing on my front porch with a lot running through my head. He’s right. The goddess doesn’t bestow her blessings on just any union. There has to be a reason she found favor in this one. Only way to figure it out is to stay in this godforsaken bond.

There is one bonus coming out of this connection. I have access to the vampire’s inner thoughts. Now there is a new goal. I needed to find out what the hell she has buried behind that wall.