Page 6 of Nyte's Rejected Luna

“It’s as permanent as a tattoo or those piercings you are so fond of,” he replied, reaching over and flicking my septum ring with a chuckle.

I swatted his hand away, glaring back at him again. “So, it can be removed then. They have tattoo removals, and the piercing can heal if I remove the rings.”

Nyte growled as if annoyed by my insistence to know that I wouldn’t be walking around the rest of my life with a mate mark of a man who most likely would find his real mate, someone who deserved his mark sooner or later.

“Yeah, it can be removed so long as a pair aren’t fated mates.”

“Good,” I sighed in relief, watching the neighborhood change as we drove deeper into Point Loma toward the packhouse. “If it were something you couldn’t take back, I would have felt like a serious dick for whoever your future mate is. This should belong to her and not me, right?”

Nyte smirked, keeping his eyes on the road. “Yeah, that mark belongs to my mate.”

“Well then,” I looked away from him, a small piece of my heart tightening at the thought of someone else being so lucky as to call him theirs. “It’s a good thing you can reverse this then. And I promise you, Nyte, that it won’t be long. I have a friend at the Academy, so she can get me any books I might need for my research. I’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

“I don’t mind you being in my hair,” Nyte said, sending zaps of electricity through my belly.

I tightened my thighs, hating how much I loved how the words sounded coming from him. They were so innocent, yet they sounded so dirty and sinful on his lips. I had to look away again, focusing on anything but the warmth growing between my legs with every impure thought that crossed my mind.

I needed to get my mind out of the gutter and get real. I knew how messy relationships between werewolves and witches could be. It wasn't easy even when the witch and werewolf were fated mates. My friend Grace proved that when she met her mate, Rome. An entire pack of werewolves came after her to prevent them from being together. They were true fated mates, not just a young witch crushing on her brother’s hot werewolf friend.

Granted, a psychotic vampire stirred that shit pot to boiling to keep them apart, but the facts remained. Matches between our kinds were rare, and when they did happen, it was never easy. Witches and werewolves didn’t typically trust one another.

There has always been a power struggle between the two, but some bad vamps have recently exploited it to their advantage. Mom told me about an entire city where the werewolves and witches were close, but only in the last few decades. Before that, werewolves practically enslaved the witches, policed their magic, and took their children hostages to ensure their laws were followed. Mix that with the history of some witches cursing normal humans to turn into werewolves, and it was no wonder the two groups didn’t get along.

“When we get to the packhouse, stay close to me at all times,” Nyte commanded as if he knew what I had been thinking about.

“Do you think someone in your pack would hurt me?” I asked.

Nyte shook his head. “I wouldn’t put it past some of my packmates. I may trust them with my life, but that doesn’t mean I’d trust them with yours. Oh, and Paige,” he said and paused, looking over at me. “No matter what you hear in the packhouse, I already agreed to help you. So, don’t even think for a minute that I’ll take back my word.”

I smiled, fidgeting with the rings on my fingers. “Thank you, Nyte.”

We reached the packhouse shortly after that. The building looked like any other home in the area. There was even a path from the porch down to the shores below. I plan to spend some time down there during my stay with Nyte. I hadn’t exactly gotten to enjoy the scenery last night when I was running for my life. Having a direct path down to the beach from here would be nice.

Nyte pulled out my bags and suitcase from the back of his car, joining me on the sidewalk before gently pressing his hand to my back to guide me to the house. My heart pounded as eyes turned toward us, glaring as the scent of Nyte’s mark reached them. A few turned to one another, whispering with appalled expressions before following us into the house.

“Nyte,” a deep voice called the moment we entered. “What the hell is going on?”

We both looked up at the top of the staircase to see a large, heavily built man glaring at Nyte and me, his nostrils flaring as he breathed deeply.

“Why is there a witch in my packhouse with your scent on her?”

Nyte wrapped his arm around my shoulder just as he had before announced to Mom that we were mates, the exact words pouring from his lips now to the horror of his pack. “It’s customary for mates to live together, and I just assumed you wouldn’t want me moving from the packhouse at this time.”

The man’s face turned red as the hair pulled atop his head in a knot, his eyes narrowing at Nyte and me. “So, your mate is a witch, then?”

“How can his mate be a witch? He’s meant to be our Alpha. We can’t have a witch as our Luna!” A man behind us called out.

“I can think of at least two witch Lunas in the world right now,” a girl just to my right piped up, her head tilting curiously at me.

“I refuse to follow a witch as our Luna! Nyte needs to choose. Pack or the witch!”

More voices added, drowning out the few who voiced more accepting opinions on my presence in the pack. I bit on my lip, mentally kicking myself in the ass for doing this to Nyte. I knew he was next in line to be alpha, but I didn’t think my plan all the way through. The pack’s response to me hadn’t been a surprise, but their quick demands to force Nyte to pick between me and his future in the pack had not completely occurred to me.

His words in the car echoed in my mind now. It had been a warning as well as a promise. He knew that this was going to happen, and he had already made up his mind on what he was choosing. I looked up at him; his lips tilted in a disobedient smile as he looked back at his alpha, still standing at the top of the stairs.

“I guess I have no choice then,” he called out for everyone to hear over their shouts. The pack grew quiet, a few smirking at me as though they believed he would choose them, only for their jaws to drop when he proved them wrong. “I choose my mate.”

Shock rose from the pack, their voices overlapping in panic and outrage. Angry shouts pointed at me, the looks in their eyes spelling murder. Nyte pulled me closer to his side, his gaze never leaving the Alpha on the stairs, but his attention was just as trained on the pack surrounding us. Not a single movement went past him. Judging by the hairs raised along his neck, no one would go unpunished if they attempted to come any closer to me.

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