Make A Wish (Dandelion #1) Read online

  Make a Wish

  JENNA LYNN HODGE

  Jenna Lynn Hodge

  All Rights Reserved.

  Jennalynnhodge.com

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This work is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover Design by J. Hodge

  Edited by Becca Bates

  First Edition, 2016

  Copyright © 2016 by Jenna Lynn Hodge

  ISBN 10: 1535059052

  ISBN 13: 978-1535059053

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Hi . My name is Juliette, but you can call me Jules. This is just one part of my story and how over the past year or so, everything I thought I knew about the world, and most importantly myself, changed drastically. We’re talking changes so big that Lifetime could make a movie out of the chaos that became my life.

  It sounds pretty crazy, right?

  You have no idea.

  I’ve come to learn that the world works in mysterious ways, testing and pushing you to your final breaking point, and just as you’re about to hit that brick wall, something changes. You find that little spark of hope, igniting from the most unlikeliest of places.

  With that being said, I think we should start from the beginning of the story. Sit back, grab some popcorn and watch the craziness unfold.

  JULIETTE

  “I think I can, I think I can.” Same mantra, different day. Sometimes I wondered if my life was worth the daily struggle, but I trekked along anyways.

  Today, all I could manage was a messy bun and an un-ironed work uniform I found in the bottom of my small, almost nonexistent cupboard. Like everything in my life, my clothes were crammed into spaces they didn’t really fit into. The hat, the one that accompanied the hideous uniform, fell to the floor, its small pixie-like tent a sad reminder of the dead-end job awaiting me.

  The day I started working at Ziggy’s Diner, my manager had handed me the ugly red and white gingham dress and the silly pointed hat and had told me I was expected to wear it everyday. Yeah, right. I tossed the hat into his face, a smug smile playing on my corners of my lips, knowing that he wouldn’t try to force me to wear it.

  He hasn’t mentioned it since, so I guess I did something right? In fact, he had even said that the diner could use a waitress with my kind of spunk and personality. And boy, has he been paying for that comment ever since. I milk it for all it’s worth. When I leave work early, when I come in late, or when I end up with a snobby customer who’s nearly impossible to please and the snide remarks just beg to escape my lips, I remind him just how much I’m needed.

  I walked over to the full length mirror just inside my bathroom door, the image of my tall, slender self starring back at me. My eyes told a story, the story of a girl who’s gone through more in her short life than is warranted, but I pushed those thoughts away.

  This is as good as it’s gonna get.

  With a quick swipe of my hand over the top of the counter, I grabbed my keys and rushed out the door, hoping I wouldn’t be late. Again.

  It took me about fifteen minutes to drive to Ziggy’s and park my old beat-up lime green Volkswagen Beetle.

  As I walked through the two glass doors, the smells I’ve come to know and love wafted around me and assaulted my every sense. The oil from the fryer and the delightful smell of the burgers cooking on the grill only succeeded in making my stomach grumble.

  Ziggy’s made the best burgers in downtown Hollywood, and although if given the chance I would gladly accept a job elsewhere, this sleepy and albeit a little boring diner was almost a second home to me, though I’d never admit it.

  When my manager Jack finally noticed me, it wasn’t a surprise to hear him yell, “You’re late again, Jules.”

  It happened so often that I almost looked forward to hearing it. Almost.

  “Sorry, Boss. There was traffic,” I fibbed, knowing I was a terrible liar and he could read me like a billboard on Hollywood Blvd.

  “Mm-hmm... Sure... Well, don’t let it happen again. That’s your third time this week and I’d hate to put in a complaint with Zig.”

  Ziggy, who everyone called Zig or Crazy-Z, happened to be the diner owner. He was a total stickler and would holler and yell over the tiniest little things. So instead of tattling to him when things went wrong, no one really ever said a word. All the employees tried to handle any situations that arose like adults. Well, most of the time, anyways.

  “Oh, c’mon! We all know business has picked up exponentially since I started working here a few months ago. You wouldn’t risk it.” I smiled smugly as I clocked in and rushed over to a customer’s table to take their order before Jack could muster up a response. Being the typical charming girl I am, I looked up at Jack from across the room, knowing his eyes had never left my direction. He wore a very intense expression across his face and was shaking his head so hard it reminded me of those silly bobble head dolls that made me laugh as a kid.

  I sent a very dramatic and flirtatious wink in his direction, rendering him speechless. Jack turned quickly and stormed back into the kitchen.

  HAH! Gotcha! I laughed, proud of my ability to infuriate him.

  Sadly, the day progressed with little change. I rushed around cleaning tables, taking orders, and tending to customer after customer. My day was as repetitious as the motto that I’ve grown accustomed to.

  I hate this.

  The closer it got to closing time, the more excited I was. I was so ready to just curl up in bed and binge watch Netflix.

  And as fate would have it, just as I realized the day would end as boring as it had began, he walked in the door. In an instant, I felt my world shift completely upside down.

  I’ve never seen someone so beautiful before in my life.

  Every little thought that was fluttering through my brain seemed to seep from my ears the minute the guy stepped inside the door. Holy. Hell. I froze, my body paralyzed and motionless. I couldn’t think or breathe; all I could do was stare, my mouth wide open, as I took in the man before me.

  Breathe, Jules, breathe.

  My inner pep talk did little to calm my nerves. I’m not normally boy crazy—in fact I pretty much avoid them. When I get asked out, I make up excuses to turn the guys down. If they’re relentless, I make sure to punch my numbers into their phone, changing the last digit or two so when they do try to call, it’s the wrong number. Relationships haven’t ever been something I’ve been interested in and I’m not a hundred percent comfortable with being touched anyways.

  But I’d totally make an exception for him.

  Looking at him, I could feel my insides turning to mush. He walked with a kind of elegance that you don’t see in guys nowadays. His broad shoulders were held b
ack, head standing tall, as if he was on a mission and knew exactly where he was going. He sat on a stool at the front counter, deep in thought as he ran his hand along the stubble that was peeking out from his chin.

  He didn’t notice me, so I took it as my chance to stare, running my eyes up and down his confident exterior.

  His shirt strained against his large round biceps, a tattoo peeking from beneath his shirt sleeve, although I couldn’t make out what it was of. Long sandy, almost golden, hair was just long enough to fall into his face with every movement he took and I caught myself wondering what it would be like to run my hands through the luscious waves. His eyes were probably the most captivating of all. They were a bright peridot green, with golden specks sporadically sprinkled throughout the irises, one of the most beautiful sets of eyes that I’ve ever laid eyes one. He had nice full lips that turned up into a lopsided goofy grin, emphasizing a dimple in his left cheek. Just looking at him made me weak in the knees, a completely new feeling for me.

  “Hey, Beau!” Jack yelled as he rounded the corner from the kitchen, coming up just behind me. With a knowing chuckle, he walked beside me and patted me on the back, pushing me fairly hard in the direction of the guy whom I now knew was called Beau. A name that surprisingly fit him to a T.

  “Back to work you go, Jules. No time for dilly-dallying.”

  I wanted to retort with one of my usual snide remarks but my mouth and brain just weren’t working together, leaving me with no choice but to let my feet guide me to do my job.

  “Hey, Jackster! Long time no see, bud,” Beau responded.

  The deep timbre in his voice caught me completely off guard. I wasn’t expecting it to have that much of an effect on me, but it did. I stumbled, losing my usually stable balance.

  It was one of those rare occurrences where everything goes in slow motion. I held my hands out to brace myself on the counter but I missed and just as I was sure I was going to face plant in front of the entire restaurant and, more importantly, the handsome guy in front of me, it stopped. A strong hand reached out to steady me, a tingling sensation appearing just beneath the hand on my arm.

  It took me a few seconds to gather myself before I brought my eyes up to meet his, the gorgeous green orbs staring back at me, freezing me in place. There wasn’t a single person around; it was just us, as if we were in our own little bubble of weirdness.

  I heard a small noise escape his lips as he stepped back, releasing my arm. It sounded as if it was a growl and I shook my head, trying to shake away the noise I was sure I just concocted in my head, the rest of the world reappearing and making itself known.

  I turned my head and noticed Jack still standing there, watching us as everything unfolded before him. I mustered up what courage I could to take Beau’s order.

  “H-h-hi, I’m Jules. I’ll be your waitress today. Can I get you something to drink while you look over the menu?”

  Don’t act like an idiot. If there’s one thing you know how to do, it’s your job.

  Beau continued to stare at me for what felt like a very long time before he spoke.

  “Uh...An ice water would be nice. Thank you.”

  “Oh, okay. I’ll go grab it and will be right back. In the meantime—” I pulled a menu out from beneath the counter and handed it to him, “—take a look at the menu and let me know if you need anything.”

  I rushed out of there as fast as I could, nearly colliding with one of my co-workers who was carrying two plates full of food on one arm and one plate on the other. All I knew was I needed to get out of there before I made an even bigger fool of myself.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled and ran right into the girl’s bathroom.

  What is wrong with you? He’s just a guy. You see a freaking crap-ton of guys all day, every day. Get out there and do the job that you’re getting paid to do.

  I was shaken up over the onslaught of emotions I was suddenly feeling but I knew I had to face him sooner or later. I was his waitress, after all.

  I quickly ran my hands under the bathroom faucet and under the hand dryer before emerging and rushing to the kitchen to grab his water.

  “Thank you for the water, Jules. I actually just got a call and I won’t be staying but it was very nice to meet you.”

  Beau stood, gulped down the water, and then reached into his pocket to pull out a couple dollar bills. Slapping them onto the counter, he glanced at me one last time and then walked out.

  Well, that was weird.

  With no other customers to tend to, I cleaned up and started prepping for closing.

  An hour later, I left and headed in the direction of my home.

  BEAU

  “Mom, I cannot just drop everything that’s on my plate right now to come home, as much as I want to. I need to be here to help train the pups, and I can’t pass off that responsibility to someone else, you know that.”

  I tried to reason with her but it seemed no matter how hard I tried, she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, understand.

  I guess I get it. She’s human. She’s never been a part of this world. After all, it isn’t everyday that you find out your only son is a werewolf.

  It was as if I was all of a sudden back in time, the day that had changed my life fresh in my mind. Memories flooded me of the scrawny fourteen-year-old boy that I used to be.

  “Beau, honey. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” My face took on a dark expression and I could feel my body heating up as my nerves collided inside me. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, just itching to be alone after the day that I’d had at school.

  My mom followed behind me, worry laced through the words that she yelled. I couldn’t deal with her right now. I slammed my door, just wanting to be alone, but she turned the knob and followed me inside anyways.

  One minute I was standing there breathing and trying to calm down, the next I was on all fours covered in fur and sporting a tail. I looked at my mom and, for the first time in my life, I saw fear. Not just any fear—fear of her son, of me. I tried to go to her, to comfort her, but her eyes widened as she inched back, away from me, calculating her every move. I would never hurt her, but in that moment, she didn’t realize that.

  She backed up slowly, avoiding looking into my eyes, the eyes of a beast. The second her feet hit the hallway, she reached out and slammed the bedroom door closed, ensuring that I would stay locked in there.

  It took me close to twenty minutes to figure out how to get myself back to normal, and when I was, I threw on some sweats and exited my room.

  “What in God’s name was that?” My mom spoke, the fear and concern leaving her face.

  “I don’t know, Mom. I was upset and, before I knew it, I wasn’t me anymore. Well I was, but I was different.”

  “Whatever the hell that was that just happened, Beau, I don’t want it happening again, do you hear me? I don’t like it one bit.” Her eyes hollow, momentarily only a shell of the woman she was just seconds before.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  From there it had been kind of trial and error on figuring everything out, since I never had a biological father to turn to for answers. When I asked her about him, she never gave me any details, just said that he was long gone before she knew about me. I accepted that and the last thing I wanted to do was to push her for information.

  She eventually came to the conclusion that I couldn’t suppress my inner wolf. We learned that the hard way when I nearly phased in the grocery store after witnessing a mother spanking her child right there in the aisle.

  My mother allowed me to practice and learn to control my werewolf abilities and phasing, a feat I tackled with complete ease. I enjoyed being in my wolf form. I still do.

  About seven years ago, I’d come across another wolf—actually, he’d come across me. He could smell the wolf gene in my blood and had instantly dragged me to his pack reservation. I was accepted into the pack as one of them, family. I’d never had much family; it’d always been my mom and me. Finding people w
ho were like me and understood what I was feeling and going through changed my life. I was home.

  I was trained in hand-to-hand combat, various forms of martial arts including Taekwondo, Kenpo, and Jujutsu. I learned how to handle sixteen different types of weapons along with all pack rules and regulations. I learned everything I’d ever possibly need to know to live as a werewolf.

  My mother’s voice penetrating through the phone snapped me from my memories.

  “Thanks, Mother! I love you too. I’ll see if I can find some time in the next couple weeks to get away and come up to visit you. Take care of yourself.” I hung up the phone and headed out to the quad where I’d scheduled a training session.

  Early on in my training, it became clear that I was more dominant than most of the other wolves. I didn’t want to be their boss, though. I just wanted to fit in. When the Alpha, Angelo, asked me to become his Beta, the second in command, I hesitated, but before I knew it, I had given in. I gained a new level to my werewolf status. I was respected and looked up to, with more responsibility than I knew what to do with. It was scary at first, but I thrived in the leadership role and I grew to love it.

  Angelo passed away five years ago in a territory war with another pack and soon my wolf status rose again. The tough and almost impossible position of Alpha fell to my eighteen-year-old shoulders.

  As Alpha, one of my many jobs was to train the wolf pups and any new members that found their way into the pack, just as I had been trained all those years ago.

  The littles, Kiara and Colten, are a handful but I am beyond honored to be their Alpha and train them. I wasn’t sure if one day I’d ever have a family of my own, so in a way they are kind of like my children.

  Kiara is seven years old and has curly strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Her father is my third in command, the one behind my Beta. She’s a sassy little thing that’s not afraid to test the limits, which kind of has me nervous for the teenage years that lie ahead.