The Mark of Fate
“Is it permanent?” I asked, my fingers grazing the spot on my neck where Nyte had marked me. I kept expecting to feel something wet—blood, perhaps. His teeth had felt so deep in my skin, yet each time I touched the area, it was as dry as the rest of my body. The indention of his teeth was already fading.
“It’s as permanent as a tattoo or those piercings you are so fond of,” he replied, reaching over to flick my septum ring with a chuckle.
I swatted his hand away, glaring back at him. “So, it can be removed? They have tattoo removals, and the piercings can heal if I take out the rings.”
Nyte growled softly, irritation flaring at my insistence. I could sense his annoyance at the thought of me not wanting to carry the mark of a man who would likely find his true mate someday—someone who deserved his mark.
“Yeah, it can be removed, as 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 jerk 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 thought, looking away from him, a small piece of my heart tightening at the idea 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, it won’t be long. I have a friend at the Academy who 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 electric tingles through my belly.
I tightened my thighs, hating how much I loved how those words sounded coming from him. They felt innocent yet dirty, a combination that sent my mind spiraling. I needed to focus—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 had come after her to keep them apart. They were true fated mates, not just a young witch crushing on her brother’s hot werewolf friend. Granted, a psychotic vampire stirred that pot to boiling, but the facts remained: matches between our kinds were rare, and when they did happen, it was never easy. Witches and werewolves typically didn’t trust one another.
There had always been a power struggle between the two, and some bad vampires had exploited it to their advantage. Mom told me of a city where werewolves and witches coexisted peacefully, but that was only in the last few decades. Before that, werewolves practically enslaved witches, policing their magic and even taking their children hostage to enforce their laws. Mix that with the history of 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 could sense my thoughts.
“Do you think someone in your pack would hurt me?” I asked, anxiety creeping into my voice.
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 added, 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, complete with a path leading down to the shores below. I planned to spend some time down there during my stay with Nyte. I hadn’t exactly enjoyed the scenery last night when I was running for my life. Having a direct path down to the beach would be nice.
Nyte pulled my bags from the back of his car and joined me on the sidewalk, gently pressing his hand to my back to guide me toward the house. My heart raced as eyes turned toward us, glowering as Nyte’s mark wafted through the air. A few pack members exchanged whispers, appalled expressions on their faces, as they followed us inside.
“Nyte,” a deep voice called out as 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 inhaled 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 when he announced to my mom that we were mates. The same words flowed from his lips now, sending waves of horror through his pack. “It’s customary for mates to live together, and I just assumed you wouldn’t want me moving out of the packhouse at this time.”
The man’s face turned red, his hair pulled atop his head in a knot as he narrowed his eyes at us. “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 shouted.
“I can think of at least two witch Lunas in the world right now,” a girl 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 joined in, drowning out those who were more accepting of my presence in the pack. I bit my lip, mentally kicking myself for putting Nyte in this situation. I knew he was next in line to be alpha, but I hadn’t thought my plan through. Their quick demands for Nyte to choose between me and his future in the pack hadn’t fully registered.
His words in the car echoed in my mind: a warning and a promise. He knew this would happen, and he had already chosen his path. I looked up at him; his lips quirked into a defiant smile as he faced the Alpha still standing at the top of the stairs.
“I guess I have no choice then,” he called out over the commotion. The pack quieted, some smirking at me as if they believed he would choose them, only for their jaws to drop when he proved them wrong. “I choose my mate.”
Shock rippled through the pack, voices overlapping in panic and outrage. Angry shouts and glares pointed at me, their eyes spelling murder. Nyte pulled me closer to his side, his gaze never leaving the Alpha on the stairs, but his attention was equally focused on the pack surrounding us. Not a single movement escaped his watchful eye. Judging by the tension in his posture, no one would go unpunished if they attempted to come any closer.
His warning in the car played back in my mind, along with his promise to help me. He knew his pack better than I had imagined. Everything he had expected to happen was unfolding. The possibility of a pack member attempting to harm me seemed very real, but not one dared to make a move.
His pack ranked by strength. The strongest was Alpha, and the second strongest generally tended to be Beta. This differed from many packs I had heard about, which passed leadership from parent to child. Alphas were typically hereditary, but in cases of bites, it was a fifty-fifty chance. That was why Nyte’s pack had abandoned tradition; a bitten wolf could be alpha, but a bitten wolf’s children only had a fifty percent chance of being werewolves if their bitten parent paired with a born wolf. Otherwise, they would be as human as the bitten wolf before the transformation.
The only time a former human passed on the werewolf gene was through curses, and even curses came with specific stipulations.
“You choose to turn away from the position you pledged to take on just last night in front of the entire pack?” the Alpha snapped, silencing the angry pack around us.
Nyte shrugged. “I didn’t know I would have a witch mate today. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have pledged at all.”
The Alpha closed his eyes, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a headache. He looked back at the pack, sighing. “Very well. Since the pack refuses your mate as their future Luna, you are relieved of your responsibility to take over as pack alpha. Now get your ass up here; we have business to discuss.”
“Alpha!” one of the men called out in shock, glancing up the stairs. “You’re allowing him to remain in the packhouse after refusing to choose the pack?”
“Alberto, to be completely honest, I don’t give a flying fuck that he picked his mate over taking on my position. There are far more pressing matters to handle, and since Nyte is still the strongest wolf within Coronado, I would be an idiot to kick him out of the pack right now. If you don’t like it, there’s the fucking door.”
Alberto lowered his head, backing up a step in submission. I could almost hear the whine of his wolf as he retreated. Nyte looked down at me, then beckoned the girl behind us to come forward.
“Madilyn, take care of my mate while I go with the Alpha. Don’t let anyone come within five feet of her,” he instructed. She nodded in response, linking our arms together.
“No one will lay a finger on her, Nyte. I promise you that,” Madilyn said confidently.
He turned back to me, brushing a purplish strand of hair out of my face. “Stay with Madilyn. Don’t let her small size fool you. She was primed to be my beta if I had become Alpha, so she’s the second strongest wolf in the pack; she can protect you just as easily as I can.”
I glanced over at Madilyn, whose arm was linked with mine. Her blonde pixie cut accentuated the sharp angles of her face. She smiled brightly, a twinkle in her light blue eyes. She had been the one to remind the pack about the two witches known to be Lunas in the world. One was my friend Grace.
Looking back at Nyte, I nodded. “Okay, I’ll wait with her for you.” I knew better than to argue. I had no business listening to whatever his Alpha had to discuss with him, and I wasn’t about to turn down a babysitter while sitting in a house filled with werewolves eager to kill me. I had never considered that asking Nyte to pretend to be my mate could be this dangerous. I thought it was a foolproof plan for my protection, but it seemed I was the fool.
Nyte turned away and made his way up the stairs, leaving me feeling vulnerable in his absence. Madilyn led me to a room just beneath the stairs, a low growl vibrating in her chest whenever anyone attempted to approach us or got too close.
The room was bigger than I expected and very, very pink. I stared in shock and awe at the collection of stuffed animals piled on a plush chair in the corner. I turned to look at Madilyn for an explanation of why this had been the room she chose to bring me to.
“Sorry for the mess,” she sighed, walking around me to pick up a few items of clothing I hadn’t noticed on the floor. I had been too shocked by the bright color and decorations to notice what she considered messy. “I wasn’t expecting company in my room today.”
“Oh,” I gasped, looking around. “This is your room?”
Madilyn smirked, dropping onto the edge of her bed. “Yeah, I haven’t redecorated since I was ten. It’s a little jarring, I know.”
“No, no. It’s not that bad,” I replied quickly.
Madilyn laughed, shaking her head. “Has anyone told you that you’re a terrible liar?”
I felt my face drop, a heavy stone of fear settling in my stomach. “What?”
“You don’t have to be polite. I know my room is bright and very girly. It doesn’t match the room of the second strongest wolf in the pack.”
I let out a relieved sigh; I had been worried she could see through our lies. I knew that some wolves could smell deception, and given her strength, I was concerned she might be one of them.
“I mean, yeah,” I admitted reluctantly. “It was a little hard on the eyes walking in. I almost pulled out my sunglasses to keep from going blind.”
Madilyn laughed, her sound pure and joyful. “Well, I’m glad it didn’t blind you. Now, I smell some familiar magic from your bag. Would those be tarot cards?”
I smiled, feeling the faint whisper of my cards promising a reading for the she-wolf. “They are. And they would like to read you if you don’t mind.”