The wolf shifter came to us on a Monday, even though he wouldn’t ruin his own life until two days later. He was the first shifter I’d ever seen, and I didn’t recognize him as one right away. In his human form, to a mortal with untrained eyes, he just looked like an ordinary man in his late twenties. A stunningly good-looking one, all pent-up strength and well-built muscles.
The type most women’s eyes would linger on. But it was his eyes, dark and troubled, that truly caught my attention. I guess I liked them brooding and mysterious. I had just turned nineteen.
I didn’t really know what I liked yet. He waltzed into the shop like a man on a mission. I’d seen him pace the street a couple of times before making his grand entrance. With the storm blazing behind his gaze, you’d think he was here to start a fight.
The tension emanating from him let up slightly when he noticed me, though not by much. “I’m here to see the magician,” he told me in a commanding tone. “I’d like to make a wish. ”
“No shit,” I replied, returning a book to a shelf with carefully crafted detachment.
It probably didn’t belong there at all, but I didn’t know my way around the shop yet. I’d only started working there two months ago. Calling it working was a bit of an overstatement—it’s not like I was getting paid. “Aren’t you going to go get him?
” the shifter asked, crossing his arms. “No, thanks. I choose life. ” When his expression hardened into a displeased scowl, I added, “He’s off today.
Hangover. ”
The shifter clenched his jaw, debating whether to force his way to getting what he wanted. In the end, he slowly nodded. “When should I come back?
”
“Come back tomorrow,” I said. I wasn’t allowed to warn any potential clients, no matter how foolish they were for thinking magic would better their lives. Caleb, for that was his name, came back two days later. He looked almost sheepish walking back into the shop.
Maybe someone warned him about the consequences. Or perhaps he was just embarrassed by his previous display of anger. I led him to a back room where Adrian was busy building a house of cards as if his life depended on it. He didn’t look particularly professional, but Adrian didn’t give a flying fig about what people thought of him.
“Client,” I announced, ushering Caleb into the room. Adrian ignored him, adding an ace of hearts. “He was already here two days ago,” I added, eyeing my boss critically. Still, I wondered why my father had asked Adrian to take care of me in the event of his death—a death that had occurred only three months ago.
I had no knowledge of Adrian’s existence before then, and still knew nothing about what tied him to my father, especially when one knew what the man did for a living. He was a magician who granted people wishes. Any wish, from raising a cat from the dead to becoming president. His powers were practically unlimited, an ability granted to him long ago by a demon who, in return, required that the wisher paid a hefty price.
No price, no wish. “What is it you desire? ” Adrian asked, flicking a finger at his construction, which toppled to the ground. “To become alpha of your pack?
” Caleb blinked at him in surprise, making Adrian smirk. “Don’t act so surprised. Becoming alpha is usually what any shifter wants. Sounds like a hassle to me, but what do I know?
”
“Well, it’s not what I want,” Caleb replied with a frown. “Then what would you like me to do for you? ”
The shifter briefly hesitated but squared his shoulders in resolve. “My brother just took a mate.
I would like you to break the bond. ”
Caleb was part of an impressively large pack. It hadn’t always been that way. When he was young, they had been small and insignificant, vulnerable to other wolves and dependent on other packs for survival.
Caleb’s mother had suffered the consequences of this weakness. Rogues attacked while his father was away, and she was left alone to protect her children. She perished before Caleb and his older brother’s eyes. This tragedy only strengthened the brothers’ will to help their father rebuild the pack.
That’s why Caleb didn’t understand how his brother—their future alpha, on whom the entire pack’s survival rested—could have chosen such a weak, insignificant omega wolf for his mate. Or rather, he did understand. Rowan was strong, willful, kind, and too magnanimous for his own good. He was always trying to help people, save the unsaveable.
So when he met Annie, the very definition of a damsel in distress, the most fragile, ill-equipped wolf to ever encounter the pack, of course he took it upon himself to become her protector. It was only a matter of time before he declared Annie his mate. Caleb had nothing against Annie. She was bland and boring and perfectly insignificant, but she’d done nothing wrong.
It wasn’t her fault she didn’t have what it took to mate with his brother. But he’d be damned if he’d let the omega ruin all that his family had built. Annie had to go. “So, you want me to break your brother’s bond?
” Adrian resumed after Caleb finished telling us his life story. By that point, I was feeling much less sympathetic. It was none of his business whom his brother wanted to mate with. But it was also none of my business to comment on what Caleb chose to wish for, so I kept quiet.
“Yes, I want him to forget about Annie and find a better-suited mate,” Caleb continued, looking more and more resolute. Honestly, what a selfish prick. “Can you make that happen? ” he asked.
“She is his mate, but not his fated mate? ” Adrian asked. Caleb nodded solemnly. “I would never request breaking a fated bond,” he replied.
“Then yes, I can do it,” Adrian said. “But it will cost you. ”
I frowned. Why did he have to agree to such a selfish, obtuse wish?
“How much do you want? ” Caleb asked. “It’s not money I want. I’ll grant your wish.
And in exchange, I’ll take what matters most to you. ” I shivered, just like I always do when Adrian explains what a wish costs. “I guess that would be my Lamborghini,” Caleb said with a displeased frown. A car?
That’s his big thing? “But I’m happy to give it up for Rowan’s sake,” he added. Adrian sent him a bored look. “I could use a new car.
Though, keep in mind what matters most to people is rarely what they’d expect. I can’t guarantee I’ll be taking your car for payment. I’ll be taking what matters most to you. ”
“It’s definitely the car,” Caleb insisted with a smirk.
“It’s vintage. ”
Adrian shrugged. “If you say so. I’ll let you think about it for a minute.
I think my assistant wants a word. ” He turned to me, and indeed I wanted a word—or more accurately, to yell at him for agreeing to grant this stupid shifter’s wish. “Don’t do it,” I implored once we were alone in the adjacent room. “It’s a selfish wish.
He’s going to ruin this couple’s chance at happiness. ”
“I don’t make the rules,” Adrian reminded me. “If a client wishes to make a wish, then I’m obligated to accept. ”
“But you could discourage him.
Make him understand what he wants is wrong. ”
“How would you know it’s wrong? You’ve met him for all of ten minutes, and you don’t know the brother or the mate. She could be a conniving snake for all you know.
”
I pouted. “Do what you want then. You always do. ” Minutes later, Adrian granted Caleb his wish.
And somewhere, not too far from here, a bond broke. A month later, Caleb came home to find Annie sitting by herself on the porch drinking one of those insipid herbal infusions she liked. “It doesn’t even smell good,” he told her. “Seriously, why do you drink that stuff?
”
“Caleb! ” Annie greeted him warmly, as if she’d only just realized he was there. Some wolf she made. Most pack members would have heard him coming from miles away, but Annie was always daydreaming.
Caleb didn’t regret breaking the bond for a second. Neither of them were the wiser. They didn’t even remember being bonded. He’d made sure of that when making the wish—he didn’t want Rowan renewing the bond later, and he didn’t want Annie to be sad.
She may have been useless, but Caleb wasn’t a monster. “Would you like me to make you one? ” she smiled, pointing at her drink. “I guess, if you add whiskey to it,” he replied.
“I can do that,” she said, looking pleased. They drank their infusion together in silence. Annie didn’t attempt small talk or flirting like most women from the pack. She just sat there, emanating peaceful waves that felt rather nice.
“You know, Caleb,” she told him as he was about to retreat back inside, “I always wanted to thank you. ”
“Thank me? ” he asked, surprised. “Yes, I’m very grateful your family agreed to take me in.
” “That wasn’t my decision,” Caleb confessed. “Maybe not, but I know your brother and father. They’d never have agreed to let me stay if you’d argued against it. And for that, I thank you.
”
An uncomfortable feeling settled in his gut. He’d seen her as a lost cause, ignored her, and yet here she was, thanking him. “I know I’m not very strong,” Annie said, smiling sadly. “So I’m really grateful you’ve given me a chance, Caleb.
Thank you. ”
“Why are you telling me this now? ” he asked. Annie turned away.
“Because your brother has arranged for me to be mated. He’s from another pack, so I’ll be leaving soon. ”
Caleb agreed to act as Annie’s chaperone during the courting period. Because the parties were from different packs, custom warranted that Annie be accompanied by a member of her own pack for protection.
When Rowan requested Caleb take on the role, he couldn’t say no. He was also excited at the idea of Annie finding a mate outside the pack. She’d be assured a future and protection, but away from Caleb and his family. Best of both worlds.
Now, if only Annie was a little more enthusiastic. “Corbin is as good a wolf as any,” he told her, driving her to the meeting in his Lamborghini, which, against all odds, hadn’t been confiscated. He’d been worried about what the magician would take. But in the days after making his wish, nothing he cared about had gone missing.
So he concluded that whatever mattered most probably hadn’t been very significant. Maybe it was an old photo or toy he’d forgotten. “I’m sure he is,” Annie agreed easily. “I’m very lucky to have found a match with a strong wolf.
” She said the words like she’d practiced them. “Give him a chance,” Caleb encouraged. “If you don’t like him, then you won’t have to mate with him,” he added without thinking. What was he saying?
Of course she’d have to mate with him. It was her best chance at a safe future. But she’d been luckier before, a little voice whispered. She was your Alpha’s mate, your own brother’s mate.
There is no better wolf than Rowan, but you took that away from her. “Don’t worry, Caleb,” Annie placed a hand on his arm, misinterpreting his unease. “I’ll make Corbin like me. I won’t let you down.
” The unease only grew. After Annie left them to discuss pack politics, Corbin told Caleb, “To be honest, I’m not very difficult. I just want a nice mate who can cook and bear my children. I don’t care that she’s not very strong, and your father promised me a nice dowry for her.
” He said it reassuringly, as if this was something Caleb would be happy to hear. Strangely, he would have been only a month ago. But ever since tearing Annie and Rowan apart, he just hadn’t been the same. It’s just the guilt talking, he told himself.
Annie wasn’t some stock to be cheaply bargained for. She was a person with thoughts and feelings, but everyone seemed to have forgotten that. Even Annie didn’t seem to pay any mind to her own reservations. “But what did you think of him?
” he asked as they drove back. “He’s a strong wolf,” she replied politely. “Yeah, we’ve established that, Annie. But did you like him?
” “What’s not to like? I’m very lucky to have found a match. I’m grateful. ”
Caleb ground his teeth.
“It’s not just about finding a random match. It’s about finding love and happiness. ” Annie looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she confessed in a small voice.
“Do you think you could grow to love him? ” he asked. Annie hesitated, then replied in the firmest tone he’d ever heard her use. “My heart has always belonged to another.
And it always will. ” Caleb’s heart sank. “But don’t worry,” Annie added, placing her hand on his arm. “He’s not someone I stand a chance with.
I’ll mate with Corbin, I promise. I would never let you down, Caleb. ”
The date for Annie and Corbin’s mating ceremony was set, but the faster it approached, the more anxious Caleb became. He lost focus, sleep, and appetite.
He couldn’t stand the idea of Annie leaving with a wolf she didn’t truly want just because she believed she couldn’t do better, just because Caleb had ensured she wouldn’t do better. She said she loved another who would never have her. Except Caleb knew the man she loved would have—and in fact had—taken her for a mate. She was happy with Rowan, and Caleb had taken that from her.
“How about I train Annie personally? ” he offered his brother. “If she became stronger, we could find her a better match. ” Rowan didn’t object.
So Caleb started spending time with her, hunting in their wolf forms, practicing fighting skills, trying to attune her senses. And he saw how hard Annie tried to improve. Except he realized it wasn’t for herself or the chance for a better match. Annie was just trying to please him.
“Maybe that’s your problem,” he snapped at her, anger directed at himself but let out on her. “You’re always thinking of other people and what they want. What do you want, Annie? Do you want to be stronger?
” Her kind smile broke and tears pricked her eyes, making Caleb feel like the lowest of the low. “It doesn’t matter what I want,” Annie said with resolve. “Because I won’t ever have it. I know that, and I’ve made peace with that.
But if I can bring a smile to someone else’s face, then at least it won’t have been a waste. ”
“You’re not a waste,” Caleb protested, feeling it in his heart to be true. She was calm, collected, understanding. She read people easily, always found a way to help them even to her own detriment.
That’s not nothing. He couldn’t believe he ever thought it was nothing. “Please don’t be angry with me,” Annie said, taking his hand. “I just want you to be happy, Caleb.
I always have. ”
Caleb was back at our shop not long after that. I was upstairs making dinner when he arrived because I’d realized that if I didn’t make Adrian food, he tended to forget to feed himself. I only became aware of Caleb’s presence when I heard yelling from below.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I hurried to the entrance to discover our shifter client yelling at Adrian in a tone that made me freeze. “I’ll pay whatever you want or do whatever you want. I don’t care, but you have to cancel my wish,” he ordered. Adrian was perfectly indifferent.
“I couldn’t cancel your wish even if I wanted to,” he explained. “Once it’s done, it cannot be undone until the day I die. ”
Caleb looked like he was seriously considering making that happen, so I jumped in. “What if he makes a second wish?
Would that work? ” Adrian’s eyes snapped up to him. “Go back upstairs, Iris. ” “But what if—” “One wish per person.
No refunds. ” Caleb’s anger deflated before my eyes, replaced with a sharp, heartbreaking sadness. “Please,” he begged in a defeated tone. “If not for me, then for her.
Annie’s a good person, the best, really. And she’s about to mate with someone who doesn’t even see the beautiful soul she has. But Rowan did. He would have made her happy.
What I did to her was unfair. ”
“Life is unfair,” Adrian interrupted. “Now, leave us, shifter. You’re scaring my assistant, and she doesn’t easily get scared.
I won’t have it. ” Caleb left looking like his entire world had just ended. We never saw him again. But a week later, another shifter came into the shop.
A frail, pale-looking girl with light blonde curls, freckles, and earnest brown eyes. She didn’t look powerful or impressive even if she tried, but she didn’t try. She greeted us with a warm, hopeful smile. It was Annie.
“I heard you grant wishes,” she told Adrian. “So I’ve come to make one. ”
I wondered if Caleb had confessed what he’d done to her. It must have been why she was here.
After all, he couldn’t make a second wish, but Annie could make one for herself, to annul Caleb’s and be reunited with Rowan. “All right,” Adrian said. “What is it you desire? ”
Annie’s expression became resolute.
“There’s someone in our pack who’s so worried about us being vulnerable that he focuses his entire life on making sure we’re safe instead of thinking about his own happiness. I don’t think he even knows how to be happy. ” She frowned sadly. “It’s because when he was little, his mother died protecting him.
He feels guilty. And he’s afraid that if he starts thinking with his heart rather than his head, he’ll lose everything again. But he deserves better than that. He’s a good man, and he deserves to be happy.
I just want him to be happy. ”
“Is that your wish? ” Adrian asked, not unkindly. “Yes, sir.
I wish for the man I love to be happy. ”
I became nervous. Adrian hadn’t even told Annie about the consequences, and she’d already lost everything once because of his magic. I opened my mouth to object, but Adrian snapped me a warning look.
“Very well,” he said. “Tonight, the man you love will ask something of you. Agree to it, and you’ll ensure his happiness forever. ”
A bright, relieved expression spread across Annie’s features.
“I will! It really will make him happy? ” “I guarantee it,” Adrian replied with a small smile. She got up, eager to get the task done, then turned back.
“What do I owe you for the wish? ” Adrian shrugged. “That one’s free of charge. ”
The next day, Annie was to be mated to Corbin, and Caleb had decided that was unacceptable.
She’d made it clear she was only agreeing to please their pack, but she needed to understand that everyone needed her here. Caleb needed her here. But he also understood Annie needed a mate. So there was only one thing left to do.
He knocked on her bedroom door. He had barely knocked once when Annie appeared, looking hopeful and expectant. “Caleb! I was worried you weren’t going to show, but you’re here.
” She pulled him inside and made him sit on a chair. “Go ahead,” Annie encouraged him, squeezing his hands. “Tell me, what can I do for you? ”
Caleb frowned.
“How do you know I have something to ask you? ” “A hunch,” she replied with a smile. His plan was to ask Annie to mate with him instead of Corbin. If she became his mate, she wouldn’t have to leave the pack.
He’d be a good mate to her. He may not have been Rowan, but perhaps he could be the next best thing. But with her looking at him so earnestly, holding his hand expectantly, with that warm, kind expression he’d grown so fond of, Caleb understood he’d been a selfish fool once more. This wasn’t about offering something better to Annie.
If he wished for her to mate with him, it was because he’d fallen in love with her and wanted her all to himself. Instead of reuniting her with the mate she deserved, he’d wanted to claim her. He felt sick, but he was determined to fix things, even if it meant giving her up. “Annie,” he began, bringing her hand to his lips.
“You once said there was someone you would always love, that you’d prefer to be mated with. ” Annie searched his gaze, confused. “Yes, but—” “Well, I came here tonight to tell you that this person does in fact love you. And that he would love nothing more than to have you for his mate.
And if you let me, I promise you, Annie, I will make sure you—” Annie threw her arms around his shoulders, burying her face into his neck. “You love me? You really love me, Caleb? ”
“I—” Caleb interrupted himself.
“What? ” he asked, disbelieving. Annie recoiled, looking terrified. “I thought you just said the person I loved felt the same,” she said, her voice trembling.
“But I misunderstood, didn’t I? Of course you don’t feel this way about me. ” She looked like she was about to move away. Caleb didn’t think he’d survive it.
He grabbed her arms and pulled her onto his lap. “Of course I love you, Annie. But you said there’s someone you’ve loved since forever, and that you’d always loved—so I assumed you meant Rowan. ”
“Yes,” she said, placing her small hand onto his.
“It’s you. It’s always been you. ” Forgetting customs, the fact that Annie was engaged to another man, and that Caleb hadn’t yet requested permission to court her, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. He hadn’t known what real happiness felt like until this very moment.
“Break your engagement, Annie,” he begged, bringing their foreheads together. “Be my mate instead. ” “Yours? ” Annie asked, tears of joy streaming down her face.
“Yes. Please, will you accept me as your mate and make me the happiest man in our entire pack? ” Annie’s eyes widened, then a slow, hopeful smile graced her lips. “Yes.
Yes, of course I will. ”
Back at the shop, Adrian stared at our dinner with a disgusted expression. “And what is this supposed to be? ” I ignored him.
“Do you think Annie’s gotten her wish by now? ” I asked nervously. “Undoubtedly,” Adrian replied, bringing his fork to his nose. “I think it’s burnt,” he complained.
Poor Annie. I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight. Why did my father leave me with a maniac who ruins people’s lives? Even his own rules don’t make sense.
He always claimed he couldn’t grant wishes for free, and yet—
“How come you agreed to grant her wish for nothing in return? ” I asked. “I thought you said you couldn’t. ” “Because I didn’t actually grant her anything,” Adrian replied with a shrug.
“She got what she wanted, magic free. ” I frowned, unsure what that meant. “Well, Caleb will be relieved to see things end well for her, I guess. I guess maybe you didn’t ruin anyone’s life today, then.
”
“I guess not,” Adrian replied, making his way to the stove. “Though you still took the thing he loved most,” I observed. “Don’t you think he’ll miss it? ” “Not really.
If anything, it was holding him back. ” Seeing my confused expression, he sighed. “It was his fear. His fear of losing the people he loved.
He was holding on to it like his most precious possession. So it’s what I took from him as a price for his wish. ”
That took me a good minute to process. “His fear?
But that sucks. How does it benefit you taking someone’s fear away? If anything, you actually helped the person on top of granting his wish. ” I couldn’t read his expression, and I was left staring at his back.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he eventually replied before getting started on a sauce.
