**Ch 349: Unjustified Punishment

I was rather heartbroken to hear such a violent act was done to Emily.

"I will take the full punishment for what happened to Emily." Gaston submitted as he lowered his chin upon his heartbreaking shame.

Steam snorted from Morbius's flared nostrils, and his chest heaved like a bull that was more than ready to take on his opponent. His maddened expression only darkened once he eyed the sacred bite mark on the crook of Gaston's neck.

Losing his temper, Morbius bellowed his inimical voice like thunder. "That is not good enough for me! You've allowed that little tramp to mark you! I want the tramp you mated with during the Blood Moon while my daughter needed you! She will be punished for the harlotry she wooed over you!"

"Tell us the name of the vampiress you've allowed to mark you!" Zach's grandfather snarled with a fiendish snort.

Gaston protectively growled. "I will never turn over my destined mate!"

A widespread gasp was heard in the room once he announced the news for all to hear.

"You will!" Vlad barked his fangs. "You and your destined mate have equally committed adultery, which you know is forbidden in my Coven. You've marked each other and mated during a Blood Moon before marriage. If Headmaster Nasberry senses she is pregnant, her punishment can be dire!"

Gaston growled. "I am the one who deflowered my mate and marked her out of wedlock! Therefore, I will take responsibility for taking her virtue as well!"

Edgar flatly asked him, "Did you force her?"

Gaston sighed as he mumbled a lie. "Yes, I was too caught up in the moment to acknowledge her feelings."

Vlad furrowed his expression to see right through him. "Don't you dare lie to the council! Unlike other vampires, I know you could never stomach doing such a thing! I can tell by your voice you both have equally broken my Coven's rule!"

"Then she will take her part of the punishment for breaking your Coven's rule," Edgar disclosed. "Tell us her name."

"You must be stupid to think I'd allow you to harm my mate while she likely carries my offspring!" Gaston refused with a rumble deep inside his chest as he insolently defied the council before him, and I had to say, his impertinence really aggravated them.

"She will not be harmed," Edgar clarified. "Only punished."

Before another word could be spoken, Dwight, Mr. Mill, and a few of their friends appeared to the front as they threw Kai's mother to the hardened limestone floor towards the Headmasters and their wives.

"I found the little tramp he's protecting!" Mason announced to the crowd.

Gaston growls viciously, and he charges to protect her, but Mr. Mill's Alpha friends are quick to restrain him to his knees, which is more than enough to hold him down from reaching her draped body over the floor.

Vincent and Rihanna were mortified to see their daughter had already been beaten and likely assaulted from the way her dress had been torn from her shoulder and up her leg. Her body was mutilated with unhealed bite wounds that are mostly on her legs, chest, neck, and arms. Then her face was bloody from her getting hit multiple times as if she became a punching bag. From being fierce, Vlad's eyes had softened to see the condition Morticia was left in.

"What have you done?" Edgar roared as he was disturbed to see the young vampiress in such a horrifying state.

Mason snarled as he snapped his fangs ferociously. "She got what she deserved for seducing my sister's fiance!"

There was no remorse as he deemed their actions justifiable.

In his wrath, Vincent roared. "You had no right to revile my daughter with such a macabre punishment!"

"They have every right when I gave them permission!" Morbius confirmed, and I was aghast.

Serena defended as she spoke out in anger. "As a council of this planet, every Headmaster is to determine the rightful punishment. A vampiress carrying a child or if she's suspected to be pregnant; should not be punished!"

"You pipe down!" Morbius briefly pointed his finger at her from around Vlad. "A vampiress has no say in our court! Everyone knows a Royal vampiress can be exiled for tainting herself, especially if she gets herself pregnant! In this case, Morticia deserved to get a taste of what my daughter had suffered while she was fooling around with Emily's soon-to-be husband!" Morbius snapped, and I noticed a brief darkness glistening in Vlad's eyes. He didn't take it too kindly that Morbius snapped at his mate.

"Regardless, you have no right to do such a thing to my daughter! I am the one to determine her punishment, not you!" Vincent hissed, clenching his fists.

"You can't keep any of your daughters from stealing an already betrothed vampire. I can't see you handling this properly. Unlike Emily, Morticia wasn't detained. Therefore, her injuries and violation weren't a crime." Morbius's acerbity remark rumbled with a mocky laugh as he besmirched Vincent and his daughters.

"What does he mean by justifying what Mr. Mill and his friends had done to your mother?" I was downright disturbed by it as I asked.

Kai explained. "To this day, it's not considered a crime or act of war if another vampire forces himself on another vampiress or if he beats her up. It's more like a message or warning given to her loved ones and to her Coven. Now, if a vampiress were to be detained or kidnapped, then those violations would be deemed as an act of war."

"How is that right or fair?" I couldn't understand it.

"As I said before, vampires have a higher sexual drive. We'd always be at war if it was deemed as a crime instead of a message for how often it happens. The First Generation Headmasters are the ones who disclosed it as not a crime. Then the Vampire Covenant never changed it," Kai replied, and I could tell from his tone of voice that he didn't like this rule either.

"Back away from her and Gaston!" Edgar shooed Mason and his friends away by flicking his hands.

The second Gaston was freed, he went right to Morticia, and he held her over top of his folded knees. Her battered body shook, and she refused to look at him or anyone else. Her brothers gritted their teeth in outrage, and her friends were crying with her. Humiliation bleached her complexion as she softly sobbed in small whimpers that were faintly heard.

"How could Mr. Mill do such a thing to your mother when he was friends with your dad?" I was in near tears when I inquired for an answer.

Kai clarified. "My dad told me Mason and him grew apart once they reached their teens because he got closer to Aaron. Like his father and their Allies, Mr. Mill hated the O'Donnell Coven too."

Instead of saying something, I listened again as my heart raced faster to know what would happen next.