Page 15 of Nyte's Rejected Luna

I could have sworn my stalker had pitch-black hair. Chase had dark brown hair, almost black. Could it have been him? Was all his talk about working on winning his mate a hint at trying to get to me? He offered Nyte to sniff him, but it could have been another way to let his guard down.

I was wringing my hands in my lap as I thought about it all, unaware of how far or how long we had been driving in silence…not until we were suddenly parked in front of my family’s home. My grandparents’ car was parked in front; my brother and Dad were sitting on the porch waiting for Nyte and me to exit the car. I hadn’t seen Dad since the day before I left with Nyte. He had already gone to work when I woke up that morning and had been in bed when I had rushed through the door after work. He looked angry now, and the little girl in me shivered at the thought.

“Come on,” Nyte encouraged. “Looks like your dad and Anthony want to have a chat with me.”

Nodding, I got out of the car, Nyte at my side faster than I could blink. We walked up the path to the house, my body tensing as I readied myself for whatever my father had to say, only for him to be cut off before even opening his mouth by my mother and grandmother rushing out the door to greet us.

“Paige! I heard the good news!” Grandma cried out, pulling me tightly and kissing my cheeks. “Oh, and this must be the lucky man to find a mate in my granddaughter!” I watched helplessly as my grandmother turned to Nyte, pinching his cheeks and kissing them just as she had done to me.

“Ama!” Mom cried out to her mother. “Stop hogging him. He’s my son-in-law.”

“Julisa, I am the elder of this family,” Grandma replied smugly. “I will hug him all I want.”

“Ama, Julisa. Take Paige inside. Anthony, Nyte, and I have some business to discuss before dinner.”

We all turned to Dad, his eyes on Nyte as my grandmother let go of his cheeks. I looked back at him, frowning as he nodded and nudged my back toward the house with Grandma and Mom. I reluctantly followed them inside, watching over my shoulder as Dad and my brother walked down the steps of the porch; the three men began to walk away from the house.

“Where are they going?” I asked Mom.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Paige.”

“They seem to be heading to Sunset Park,” Grandma answered, putting on her glasses and looking at her phone.

“How do you know that, Ama?” Mom asked.

“What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t track my daughter’s husband? I put a tracking spell on him the day you two announced your engagement. A girl at my store helped me modernize the spell when I got my new smartphone. Look, it’s like the GPS.”

“Ama!”

I took my grandma’s phone and frowned at the dot moving in real time over the map. Sure enough, they were headed right for the park.

“Why would they be going there?” I wondered aloud.

“Who cares? I need help setting the table. They will be back sooner than we will expect, even if your grandmother is tracking your father. He is never late for a meal.”

Grandma chuckled, leaning in and whispering as she took back her phone. “That would be because of another spell I put on him on their wedding day. But don’t let her know that.”

I laughed. “Did you put a spell on Nyte too?”

Her smile widened, but she never answered, walking to the kitchen to help Mom with the final preparations for supper. I gawked momentarily before jolting at the sound of Mother telling me to hurry up and help set the table. By the time dinner was ready, Nyte, Anthony, and Dad walked through the door. They cleaned their hands at Mom’s insistence before sitting at the table just as she set the last serving plate in the center.

Throughout the entire dinner, Nyte sat close to me, his hand occasionally grabbing my leg and squeezing it as if to make sure I hadn’t moved. I tried to ignore him, watching how Dad and Anthony eyed us from over the table. A few times, I would make a face at Anthony when I caught his gaze on me. I wasn’t a fan of the overprotective macho attitude he was giving off with Dad.

Their attitude was only met with Nyte all but pissing on me to mark his territory. He seemed to have forgotten that this is only temporary. I didn’t belong to him. Not in the way we were pretending that I did. When we left my family’s home, I was utterly annoyed with the men in my life. As soon as Nyte got into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the curb, I let my annoyance become known.

“You need to take a fucking chill pill with your possessive act.”

“Excuse me?” Nyte asked, whipping his head around in surprise.

“You heard what I said. We agreed this was temporary, but you’re acting like I’m your real mate. I can feel the energy coming off you every time you touch my back…even in front of Dad and my brother. You all seemed to have been having some kind of pissing match at dinner. It was embarrassing.”

“You think I was in a competition with your dad and brother?”

“It was some kind of macho man bullshit. I don’t know exactly what they were on, but you were making some kind of declaration that isn’t even true. And honestly, if this is how you act with me, I hate to see how you act with your real fated mate. Poor girl will probably be locked in a tower like a fairy tale princess.”

Nyte chuckled to himself, shaking his head.

“My point is…” I continued, seeing that he wasn’t going to add to the conversation. “I may be enjoying our arrangement, but that doesn’t make me your property. I am my own person, Nyte. That means if I want to walk around the packhouse with Madi, then I’m going to do it. You. Don’t. Own. Me.” I punctuated each word, my finger poking at his arm as he drove.

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