Jane burst through the iron gates, her lungs burning from the smoke, her eyes watering from the heat. She had seen the flames from the road, black smoke curling against the evening sky like a dark omen, and she had driven faster than she ever had in her life. The mansion was engulfed. Fire licked hungrily at the stone walls, and the roar of the blaze was deafening.
She screamed their names—Reese, Marcus, Sophie—but only the crackling of the fire answered back. A small figure stumbled out from the edge of the woods. Marcus. His face was streaked with soot, his small body trembling, tears carving clean tracks through the grime.
“Where’s your father? Where’s Sophie? ” Jane grabbed his shoulders, her voice shaking. “Sophie left with Uncle Bill and Miss Teal earlier,” he sniffled.
“But the Alpha… he’s still in there. She made him drink something, and now he won’t wake up. ”
Jane’s blood ran cold. She started for the house, but Marcus grabbed her arm with surprising strength.
“Don’t go,” he pleaded. “She told me… she told me if I helped her light another fire, then she’d leave. ”
Jane froze. His words hit her like a physical blow.
“I didn’t want to,” Marcus sobbed. “But she kept asking, and she sounded so sad. I just wanted it to stop. ”
Jane pulled him into her arms, her heart shattering into pieces.
She had been so focused on Reese, on keeping the ghost away from him, that she had never thought to watch out for the children—for the ghost’s own flesh and blood. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I know you didn’t want to. ”
“Mom says she just wants to be with him again,” Marcus told her.
“She says they’re fated mates and they can’t be apart. ”
Jane shook her head, confused, but there was no time to understand. The fire crackled and snapped behind her, and she could barely breathe. “Marcus, listen to me,” she said, her voice hardened with determination.
“I’m going to find your father. You stay outside, and no matter what you hear, you do not come back in. ”
“Jane, you don’t understand,” Marcus cried. “Reese isn’t my father.
He pretends to be for Sophie. My real father… my real father is dead. ”
Jane stared at him, her mind reeling with disbelief. But the flames were rising, and there was no time for answers.
She pushed through the front doors, the heat searing her skin, smoke thick in her lungs. The house was collapsing around her—beams falling, walls crumbling. She raced through the haze, every step dragging her deeper into the inferno. A massive shadow moved in the smoke.
An enormous wolf, larger than any she had ever seen, emerged from the flames. Its eyes gleamed in the flickering light, and there was something familiar about it, something she couldn’t quite place, but there was no time to question it. Jane scrambled onto the wolf’s back without hesitation, clinging to its fur as it leapt through the debris, clearing the ruined staircase in a single bound. They reached the top of the tower, where Reese lay unconscious on the ground, his skin pale, his body limp.
And beside him stood the ghost. Eliza’s form glowed in the eerie light, her face twisted with sorrow and longing, her eyes locked on Reese’s still form. “Stop! ” Jane screamed.
“That’s not Cliff! He’s gone! He’s dead! ”
The ghost looked up, and Jane’s heart clenched.
This woman—this tortured soul—had been trapped here for years, unable to let go because she didn’t think she could. “Eliza, please,” Jane pleaded, stepping forward. “Your mate is gone. You can join him now.
You can rest. ”
The ghost’s form wavered, her face crumpling. The giant wolf stepped forward from the shadows, its eyes meeting Eliza’s, and something passed between them—a silent understanding. Tears streamed down Eliza’s face as she reached out, wrapping her arms around the wolf’s neck, clinging to it as if her very existence depended on it.
And then they were gone. The ghost vanished, melting into the flames, and the wolf dissolved into the shadows, leaving only a hollow silence. Jane rushed to Reese’s side, her hands trembling as she touched his face. His skin was too cold, too still.
“Reese,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Please wake up. Don’t leave me. ”
For a moment there was nothing.
The fire crackled around them, the heat oppressive, but Reese didn’t move. And then his eyes fluttered open. A weak smile tugged at his lips as he looked up at her. “Jane.
”
Relief crashed over her in waves, and she pulled him into her arms, holding him tightly as her heart pounded with a mixture of fear and joy. “I love you,” he murmured, his words slurred but clear. When she pulled away, Reese was gone. In his place was a massive wolf, nearly identical to the one that had carried her through the flames.
Its amber eyes stared into hers, full of warmth and understanding. Jane climbed onto its back without hesitation, and the beast leapt through the shattered window, soaring through the flames, carrying her away from the destruction below. The wind rushed around them, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Jane felt free. —
A few weeks later, the call came from the store at the end of town.
Bill had found the magician’s shop, and Adrian had told him everything. Jane had made a wish—a wish that Eliza would find closure instead of simply being erased—and in exchange, she had lost her ability to see ghosts. It was the thing she loved most, the only thing that had ever made her feel special, the thing that had led her to Reese in the first place. And she had given it up willingly to save him.
Bill had listened to Adrian’s story, then he had made his own wish. “I fell in love with a human woman about thirty years ago,” he confessed, his voice raw with decades of guilt. “She was married. She wanted to leave her life behind for me, but I knew it was too dangerous.
So I let her go. She was pregnant when I found out—she wrote to me after the baby was born. The child was human, thank God. But her mother still died in childbirth.
”
His hands trembled. “I never raised my daughter. I told her husband I was a distant relative. When social services reached out after her father passed, I said I couldn’t take her in.
She was human, I told myself. She couldn’t be part of my world. But the truth is, I was a coward. ”
“So what do you wish?
” Adrian asked, his dark eyes unreadable. Bill met his gaze without flinching. “Jane is in love with Reese, and he loves her. But she’s human, and being with a shifter is dangerous for her.
She could get bitten and die. She could get pregnant and die. She knows the risks, but she won’t leave him. So I wish for her to become a shifter—to fully and safely be with him.
”
Adrian leaned forward, studying Bill carefully. “You know what this will cost you. You’ll lose what you love most. ”
“I’m growing old,” Bill said.
“I’ve got nothing left to lose that matters more than Jane’s happiness. ”
Adrian’s expression flickered, and for a moment, Bill thought he saw a trace of respect in the magician’s dark eyes. “Very well,” Adrian said quietly. —
Now Jane stood at the edge of a wide, flower-filled field, watching as Reese and the children stood before a grave.
There was no ghost lingering in the peaceful landscape. No shadow, no chill, only the soft summer breeze whispering through the grass. “This was your father, Cliff Hawthorne,” Reese said, his voice heavy with emotion. “He was a good man.
And my brother. ”
Jane’s new senses caught every word. Her hearing wasn’t the only thing that had changed. She had become one of them—a shifter, with all the strength and instincts that came with it.
But more importantly, she had gained a family. “Was Cliff my mom’s mate? ” Sophie asked, her voice filled with innocent curiosity. “Yes.
She loved him very much,” Reese replied. “She loved you both too. And your dad loved you more than anything. ”
Marcus was quiet for a moment, his eyes thoughtful as he stared at the grave.
Then he nodded and turned to take Reese’s hand. “You’re our dad,” he said softly. Jane smiled as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long golden rays across the field as Reese and the children turned and started walking back toward her. For the first time in her life, Jane wasn’t alone.
And she knew she never would be again.
