Make A Wish (Dandelion #1) (15 page)

The two men are coming. Talk soon, my little bug.

Love you lots!

Xoxo, Mommy

GRIFFIN

I sat in the back seat of Eve’s brand new black Range Rover, while she drove in the direction of Juliette’s apartment. I leaned my head against the headrest, listening to the girls chat in the front seat. I couldn’t help the growl and eye roll as I took in the pure absurdity of the situation.

Me
—
beta of one of the best and strongest packs alive
—
was stuck supervising a couple talkative chicks, while all my buddies
—
less dominant wolves
—
got the more important tasks.
Shocker.
As ridiculous as I felt this job was, I refused to give less than a hundred and ten percent.

“So you’re telling me that she
stole
all your pointe shoes and broke them?” Saylor’s sing song-y voice asked in utter shock.

“Yup! Ironically enough, that day I had my contemporary solo not my pointe one, so she only ended up wasting her time. When they announced the scores, Stacia actually came in third.”

“No!”

“So serious. Even if I hadn’t competed, she still wouldn’t have won. I get a sick satisfaction from that. Petty girls don’t stand a chance with me.” Eve winked, always oozing confidence.

“What a bitch.” Saylor giggled.

“Classy,” I muttered under my breath, so low that I was sure it couldn’t be heard from anyone. But somehow it had. In an instant Saylor whipped her head around the seat to glare at me.

“Bite me.”

I sat there, surprised. Surprised that she had actually heard but even more surprised at her snappy response. Nobody besides Beau ever had the nerve to talk back to me like that, let alone put me in my place. It was a new feeling for me and I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed it or whether it pissed me off. Probably a bit of both, if I was being honest with myself.

It didn’t take long before we were pulling into a parking space of a very run-down apartment complex. No one deserved to live in such a decrepit place and that included the homeless, in my opinion.

Eve and I were out of the car before Saylor had even managed to unbuckle her seat belt. We were getting ready to climb the stairs before I turned back and froze.

Even if I hadn’t had wolf hearing, I would have still been able to hear the quick beating of Saylors heart and how in barely a moment’s notice, her breathing had shallowed. She was freaking out. “No,” was the only word that had managed to escape her lips and it repeated, over and over.

My heart lurched at the sight of her panicking and my feet moved me into motion before I could think about what I was doing. With a few steps I was at her side. My left hand found her shoulder while my right cupped her cheek, bringing her eyes to meet mine.

I could tell she didn’t want to go inside. I could tell
—
as if I’d known her forever
—
that she feared what she would see or worse
—
what would be found.

I brushed the pad of my thumb over her cheek and this time when I muttered something, I knew that only her ears would pick it up.

“Respirez, peu de beauté. Restez forts, je suis ici.” My voice was tender and small, trying to calm and relax the nerves racing around inside of her.

“What does that mean?” she asked when she was no longer freaking out, a small tint of pink grazing her cheeks where my hand had lain.

“Nothing,” I replied, dropping my hand and taking a step away from her, though my eyes never left hers, not even for a second. With a questioning look, she stepped towards Eve, who’d been standing off to the side watching the whole interaction between us take place.

“Awk-ward!” she chimed cheerfully. “Time to get this over with. I have a sale at the mall to hit up!” With a pivot, she began climbing the stairs, Saylor and I treading closely behind her.

Though I was by no means a mind reader, I could still sense the nervousness and worry within Saylor. Her body gave off a pheromone that had my wolf reacting. The wolf in me demanded and the man in me followed
—
no questions asked. I reached down and intertwined my fingers with hers, never taking my eyes from the stairs we were walking up.

Once we reached the very top, Saylor pulled away from me and pulled out the keys to unlock the door. I felt like growling and yanking her hand back but I could only imagine the reaction that would ensue, so I tucked my hands into my pockets to keep myself from making any rash movements.

Eve was the first to step through the threshold. If she was surprised at the sight before her, she didn’t show it. Her face was expressionless, not revealing a drop of emotion.

Saylor and I stepped through the door together, sliding sideways so we could both fit in the small door frame.

SAYLOR

I imagined that what I’d see would be horrific, but much to my surprise, it wasn’t.

While it wasn’t the organized mess that Juliette was accustomed to, it wasn’t as bad as it could be. The blood splatters that had sat in the entryway of her apartment had been cleaned up and most of the strewn about shopping bags had been tossed into one large pile.

Eve got straight to business, Griffin right on her tail, as they split up and began perusing every inch of the place Juliette had called home, a place that I despised being at right now.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to do and I definitely didn’t want to get in the way of the two working, so I made my way over to Jules’ make-shift bedroom and plopped down on her bed. I pulled the covers to my face, just inhaling the familiar scent that I’d known my entire whole life. The scent that belonged to the sweetest, most amazing girl in the world.

I let my body fall back into the bed and that’s when I noticed there was a notebook tucked under the pillow, not unusual for any other twenty-two-year-old girl but it was for Jules. She hated writing; in fact, she found journals pointless since she could never keep up with them.

I lifted the book into my hands as I sat up, leaning my back against the headboard while fingering the beautiful flower design on the front cover.

I couldn’t help the tears that sprang to my eyes the second I opened the book and read the first couple words on the page.

Dear Baby...

“Saylor? What is it?” Eve asked, worry etched in every line on her face as she noticed how emotional that I was.

“N-n-nothing,” I said, hating myself for lying but knowing that if Eve knew, there’s no doubt the info would find its way back to Beau.

“Okay, if you say so.” She turned and headed back in the direction she’d come from.

I sat there, drowning myself in the baby journal that Jules had started. Such raw emotion conveyed in the sweetest words. I suppressed the urge to cry and scream. To shout how unfair life was. Beautiful souls suffered, while the damnable one’s waltzed through life unscathed.

I craved hurting the person who dared to take her away from me and that fact scared me. I wanted revenge and justice. Most importantly, I needed Juliette to be here, to balance out my craziness. It’d always been that way, even as children. We needed each other in ways that most people did not.

GRIFFIN

I stood in the kitchen acting as if I was searching for clues or evidence. And while I was, I was also paying close attention to Saylor, who was curled up on Juliette’s bed with a book of some sort, streaks of makeup flowing down her cheeks. At moments she looked as if she was going to smile, but she always stopped herself before she could.

I told myself that these gestures were being made out of necessity, that they meant absolutely nothing. It was only my job, after all. But I’d be lying to myself if I said she wasn’t attractive.

I found Saylor’s spunky attitude frustrating yet enticing. She wasn’t girlfriend material, but if she flirted, I would flirt back. I amounted her to a brief moment of felicity. I was startled out of my introspection when a loud slam came from the bathroom
—
the place Eve was searching.

“Anything, Evie?” I spoke loudly, just short of a yell.

“Nothing. You?”

“Nada,” I said as I walked from the kitchen to the front door, leaning back against it. My arms crossed over my chest as Eve made her appearance from the bathroom.

“Now what?”

“We leave.”

“Oh thank God. This place is giving me the creeps.” One glare at Eve and it took her no time to realize her mistake. “I mean, I’m used to this. So, whatever,” she responded, no doubt trying to cover her tracks.

“It’s okay,” Saylor said as she stood from the bed, stuffing the notebook into her purse. She wiped the tears that had fallen and focused on trying to put on a brave face, that much was clear. “It creeps me out being here too. After knowing what she went through here— Well, lets just go.” Her shoulders back and her head held high, Saylor walked to the door and opened it, stepping into the sunlight and fresh air outside.

JULIETTE

You’d have thought that with everything I’d been enduring, I’d grow used to the pain. I didn’t.

Every time Miles entered the room and tried to take my blood or my hair, I fought
—
like any other person would do in my position but even more so because I was fighting against all my memories and demons.