Make A Wish (Dandelion #1)

by Jenna Lynn Hodge

  From the outside, the reservation looked like a fairytale. But from the inside, there were a lot more levels to it that couldn’t be seen if you were looking in on it from a distance. It was still incredibly beautiful, and aside from almost being burned alive, I’d had nothing but wonderful experiences here.

  The first time I went to go to the bathroom and had stepped into a closet full of weapons, it’d given me a bit of an eye-opener, but I completely understood the need for all the protection. I myself knew firsthand what it’s like when humans tried to harm wolves.

  The chamber was round and made completely out of bricks, kind of like something you’d see in the medieval era. It was dim and dark, the only source of light being a torch hanging from the wall, a small flame flickering brightly, casting shadows around us.

  In the middle of the floor sat a chair with Miles tied to it, in almost the exact same fashion he had used when tying me up in the office building. A piece of duct tape was taped over his mouth and he had barely visible bruises around his nose leading to just below his eyes—no doubt Griffin’s masterpiece.

  Beau stood with his back against the door, watching as I took small steps in the direction of Miles. Though I was still in pain and having to undergo some treatments from the second and third degree burns I had sustained, I wasn’t showing him how much his actions really hurt me.

  The moment I approached the man in the chair, I reached out with my right hand and grabbed the corner of the tape, ripping it from his mouth. Miles’ condescending laugh escaped from his lips, which only succeeded in causing a shiver to run throughout my body.

  Although my hand was attached to my body, it felt as if it had a mind of it’s own. My balled fist flew into his already damaged nose, a small groan escaping him.

  “Well, aren’t you a vicious little minx. I taught you well.”

  A loud growl escaped from the other side of the room and I whipped my head around to look behind me. Griffin was holding back a very ticked of Beau, who looked as if at any second he was going to lose it. I’d never seen him so out of control before.

  I turned back to face Miles, his spoken words taking effect. I looked at the sneering man who’d hurt me on so many levels, a man who’d also tried to take out his animosity on my perfect unborn little baby.

  I didn’t want to be broken or hurt anymore. I was tired of looking back and only seeing the bad. I’d left it all in that burning building and there wasn’t a chance I was going to turn back.

  Looking at Miles, I felt nothing. Not a single thing.

  I leaned in beside his ear and whispered. “I forgive you.” A weight had lifted from my shoulders and I felt even freer than I had seconds before—if that was even possible.

  For a rare moment since I’d known him, he was silent.

  “You may have destroyed my childhood and left irreparable scars where they don’t belong, but I’m done with you, Miles. I’ll no longer give you the satisfaction of holding anything over me. I’m free. You harmed me and tried to harm my baby. You are a cruel man who destroys lives, and because of that, now you’ll pay the ultimate price with your life.”

  “You? You forgive me? That’s rich, Juju, really rich.” His laugh cackled around us and I just rolled my eyes as I walked away from my past and towards my future.

  “Rot in hell, Miles.”

  Beau grasped my hand, pulling me towards him. With one final nod to Griffin, he led me from the room. I glanced behind me for a second, only to see three large men that I vaguely recognized setting Miles aflame.

  My nightmares were over. Finally.

  ***

  “Your whole macho man routine goes to a new level with every conversation, B. Ridiculous.” I sat sandwiched between my two best girlfriends on the queen-sized bed, my soul mate sitting beside Griffin on a pink love seat in Saylor’s apartment.

  “I have to agree with Pregzilla on this, Beau. Your bossiness knows no bounds,” Saylor said, both of us looking at Eve and waiting for her to agree with us.

  “Uh guys, he’s my Alpha, so technically he’s supposed to be bossy. But for the record, most Were-dudes are totally commanding when it comes to their females, and that is why I don’t date. Who needs a guy telling me what to do and when to do it? Puh-lease!” She rolled her eyes and we could only laugh.

  “I’m not budging on this, Juliette.” He growled, glaring at the two girls who were only adding fuel to my fire. “Do we really need the whole posse in here while we figure this out? Can’t we just discuss this personally?”

  “See that’s the thing, Beau. You don’t discuss anything. You tell me what I’m doing. You order me to do things and expect me to fall in line. You know me better than that. I don’t follow orders. We’re soul mates. Partners. Equals. Get that through your thick and all too handsome head.”

  “Ouch,” Saylor muttered, suppressing a giggle.

  “Juliette,” Beau warned, his eyes never leaving mine, almost as if in a challenge. I could tell he didn’t like being chastised in front of the pack that was supposed to respect and fear him.

  “Guys, can we have a moment?” I never broke the gaze between us, but I knew it only took a second for our friends to shuffle from the room.

  “Why won’t you let me protect you?” His eyes seemed sad as they took on a faraway look.

  “Beau, I don’t need protection anymore. I need partnership. I want us to agree on things, not to be told or demanded. We’re still trying to figure this whole thing out, and it’ll take time, but being able to talk everything out will make it so we don’t have to fight so much.” I looked down at my hands in my lap. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

  Beau stood from where he was seated and came to me, sitting directly in front of me. “Look, love, I know that I’m overbearing and sometimes hard headed, I get that.” He cupped my cheek, bringing my eyes to his. “I understand what you’re saying and I will do my best when it comes to talking out things that we have differences on instead of commanding. Stepping back and learning that I’m not your Alpha is new to me, and it may take a little bit, but I have no doubt that when I’m being a bonehead, you’ll be the first one to point it out. I do ask one thing from you though.”

  “What is it?”

  “Let me protect you. Protecting those I love is in my nature. It’s in the nature of all the pack members. It’s who we are as wolves. In the time I’ve known you, I’ve seen horrendous and unspeakable things done to you, things that you didn’t deserve. I want to be the one to guard you, keeping you free of harm.”

  “Seriously, moving in with you, Beau? Really? Why that?”

  “It’s the only way that I know how to thoroughly protect you and our daughter. Even though Miles is no longer a threat, there’s no saying how many others may come into play in the future. I can’t, in good nature, leave the other half of my heart unprotected. I also... I also want us to be a family—a real family. ”

  “But—”

  “What do you think will happen when our little girl is here? Will she go back and forth between my home and Saylor’s apartment? You already admitted that you aren’t keeping your place. This will be good for us, Jules, I promise.”

  “But—” I sighed in resignation. “Okay.”

  Beau’s lips met mine momentarily before the door to the apartment flew open, Eve and Saylor charging in.

  “It’s about time. We knew it was coming. Alpha can be pretty persuasive,” Eve said.

  “It’s his face. With a face like that, no wonder Jules crumbles.”

  “Sorry, boss, you’ve met those two,” Griffin said, pointing at the tall redhead and small brunette. “They’re stubborn hard-headed Alpha females. They eavesdropped anyways.” He smirked apologetically.

  I was laughing so hard, tears streamed down my face. “You introduced them, it’s your fault.”

  Pretty soon we were all laughing. The guys excused themselves to deal with “pack business,” or so they said, leaving us girls to ourselves.

  “
Funny. We’re pack, Jules, but did they invite us? No. Of course not.” Eve rolled her eyes.

  “Considering I’m practically about to pop anytime now, I think I’ll pass on whatever they’re doing. What I really wanna know is what’s going on between Griffin and Say. I mean, we’ve all seen the flirting.” I winked at Saylor, who for the first time in her life was actually blushing.

  “Girl, that blush totally isn’t helping your case,” Eve chimed in.

  “He’s hot. So sue me. Let me enjoy it while it lasts, since we all know that he needs a werewolf girl.”

  “You know he only has eyes for you. That poor guy is whipped, and I truly thought I’d never see the day,” Eve said.

  “You’re lying.”

  “Uh, I kind of agree with Eve. I’m pretty much oblivious, but even I noticed, Say. Face it.”

  “Fine. We have chemistry. Happy?”

  “For now.”

  ***

  “Which box do you want me to put these in?” Eve held up some girly lingerie that I’d never used but had bought for a just-in-case moment. I took one look at the stringy ensemble and could barely breathe from laughing so hard.

  Beau, who was in the kitchen area packaging up dishes, peeked his head into the room and waggled his eyebrows at us, causing Eve to bust into a fit of giggles and my cheeks to turn a bright red.

  We were finally finishing packing up my apartment that we’d been spending the previous couple days on.

  I felt the whole thing was crazy and surreal. In close to nine months, I had met my soul mate, gotten pregnant, kidnapped, rescued, found out that I was a werewolf, and now was moving in with said soul mate slash baby daddy.

  Life works in mysterious ways.

  I sat down quickly, breathing in and out as I waited for the small shooting pain to subside.

  “Love, what is it?”

  “Nothing. Just a small pain in my side, nothing serious.”

  “How long?”

  “Please don’t tell me you’re about to pull that overprotective crap with me. I know my body, Beau.”

  “Juliette, how damn long?” he asked, getting sterner with every syllable. I huffed and glared at him with my iciest expression.

  “About a day or so. But like I said, it’s nothing serious.”

  “Well, I’d still like to call Harlow.”

  “What the hell does Harlow have to do with my pregnancy pains, B? Seriously. What aren’t you telling me?

  “Uh...” He ran is hand through his hair. His avoidance of my gaze didn’t go unnoticed. “Harlow is kind of the pack mid-wife.”

  “What? Please tell me I’m hearing you incorrectly because I know you wouldn’t have failed to tell me that I won’t be delivering in a hospital like I thought?”

  “I meant to tell you, but with everything that’s happened…” His voice trailed off. “She can’t be born in a hospital. She’s werewolf. They’d test her blood and would instantly notice the same thing that Miles had.”

  “What about you? You mean to tell me that Laura didn’t have you in the hospital? Puh-lease.”

  “She didn’t, actually. Believe it or not, my mother was, at the time of my birth, Amish.”

  “No!” My eyes widened, definitely not expecting that. Not that it was a bad thing at all, just shocking.

  “Yup. All my mother told me was she hid her pregnancy from everyone. After she had me, she was shunned because I was born out of wedlock from a man who wasn’t Amish. They tried to get her to leave me behind when she left and she wouldn’t.”

  I honestly couldn’t even think of something to say after that bombshell had been dropped. Like seriously, what can you say to that?

  “Fine. You win but just remember—You. Suck,” I whined, not caring in the moment if I came across sounding like a spoiled bratty child—a newly frequent occurrence. “I don’t know Harlow well enough to let her all up in my business. The hell of a first impression.”

  “Juliette, deal with it,” he spoke in finality before picking up his phone and dialing.

  The rest of the day continued with little event. Everyone finished packing up every belonging that I owned, while I spent the day resting thanks to an order from Beau, giving everyone permission to ignore me until I sat back down and stayed off my feet. It took no time at all for everything to be moved into Beau’s place.

  ***

  “So Juliette is perfectly fine. She’s in early stages labor, could last anywhere from a few hours to even weeks. When the pain starts to get even stronger and more unbearable, call me. I’m currently on standby and am at your beck and call, Alpha.”

  “Thank you, Harlow.”

  “So she’ll really be here anytime?” I asked.

  “Yes, Ma’am. She sure will.” Harlow nodded her head politely, the excitement shining in her eyes.

  I stood and pulled Harlow into a hug. “Thank you.”

  “You’re more than welcome.” She smiled when she pulled back. “Your daughter is a true blessing to the pack, and we are all very excited to meet her.”

  “You and me both.” I giggled as we said goodbye. My fingers instinctively laced with Beau’s and he pulled me in the direction of my new home—our home. “You have got to be kidding me,” I hissed as we made it only halfway down the street.

  “What?”

  “My water just broke. This is helluva timing. Couldn’t this have happened back at Harlows?” I grumbled. “I feel like I peed myself. So freaking gross.”

  Beau suppressed the urge to laugh, and I was torn between rolling my eyes or smacking him as I walked past him—in a hurry to get back and take a shower.

  ***

  “Close your eyes.”

  “Why?”

  “Must you really question everything, love?” Beau asked.

  “Fine.” My eyes shut, all I could feel was Beau’s massive arms scooping me up as if I weighed nothing. Though I couldn’t see what was happening or where he was taking me, I did know that he was climbing the many flights of stairs in our house. After all the time I’d spent there, I had yet to explore every room on every floor.

  He finally came to a stop as he placed me gently down.

  “Now open.”

  The first thing my eyes saw was a white door with a gorgeous over-sized pink satin bow. My heart felt as if it’d skipped a beat. I was instantly more nervous that I realized.

  “Go in.” Beau smiled his handsome goofy smile and his bright green eyes sparkled.

  I swung the door open and stepped inside. Tears instantly sprang to my eyes as I took in the beautiful room I stood in. Beau’s mom, Laura, stood off to the side with a huge teary-eyed smile on her face. I pulled her into a hug.

  “Did you do this?”

  “Well, it was more of a joint effort. Beau and I wanted this perfect for his first little girl,” Laura said.

  The nursery was adorned in pink, white, and gray accent, every inch of the room put together in absolute perfection.

  The beautiful white crib that Saylor had bought me sat in the middle of the far wall, a small little wolf mobile hanging above. Gray and white chevron baby blankets with small satin bows sat inside, along with a plethora of stuffed animals. Our daughter’s name danced along the wall beside a giant teddy bear that reached from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. Inside the closet was a ridiculous amount of baby clothing and I was completely sure that a year could go by and my daughter would never repeat an outfit. Anything she could possibly need for the first four years of her life was in this room.

  Beau and his mom had pulled out all the stops, and I was completely overjoyed. I hadn’t expected anything like this.

  I took a deep breath, hoping that it would help the sharp pain that’d begun in my side, but it didn’t. I walked to the rocking chair beside the large window, overlooking the reservation.

  “Beau... It hurts.” My breathing was shallow and I was scared. It was too soon.

  “I’ll wait with her. Go get Harlow,” Laura jumped in, ordering Bea
u off. “Breathe, Juliette. In and out. It’s only a contraction—it won’t last long.”

  “I’m not ready. I don’t know if I can do this. What if I’m a bad mom?”

  “Shush.” She ushered the words away as if they were nonsense. “Your baby is coming whether you’re ready or not. I know it’s painful, but you can do this, Juliette.”

  I looked into Laura’s big brown eyes and continued to follow her breathing advice. The pain finally began to subside as Harlow and Beau walked through the door.

  “So kind of you to finally arrive.”

  “Juliette,” Laura scolded as a mumbled apology left my lips.

  “Freaking mother of God…” I doubled over, the pain once again returning, the timing comedic as ever.

  “She’s about four and a half minutes apart.” Laura relayed the information to Harlow, who rushed around gathering everything that would be needed to deliver the baby.

  I sat with my head down between my knees, breathing like I’d been told. It felt almost like a miracle when once again the pain was gone.

  “Beau, I hate you.” He smirked, which only caused me to get even more upset. “I suggest you wipe that smirk off your face before I do it for you.”

  “Honey.” Laura bent in front of me, her eyes filled with sympathy. “I know it hurts, but you need to stay calm. If it makes you feel any better, Beau was about nine and a half pounds when he was born. Be happy your little girl is measuring much smaller.”

  “Ouch. I can’t imagine.” I cringed while trying not to laugh at the horrified expression that Beau was wearing.

  “Tell me about it.”

  BEAU

  Fear crippled Juliette with each passing second that the shooting pains continued. Every curse word imaginable escaped her lips, but for the most part, everything was calm. Harlow gathered the supplies needed for the delivery, while everyone else catered to her every whim. If it wasn’t for the stabbing pains, I knew she could almost enjoy it.

  “I want her out. I can’t do this much longer.” A single tear slid down her face as she tried her best to suppress the overabundance of moisture that collected in her eyes the moment a contraction ended.