Page 28 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

“I think so, it’s just… strange. I couldn’t sense anything until it started raining.”

“Uh, hate to break it to you, short stack, but it’s not raining.” Galyna pointed to the window behind us, which was completely dry.

“I don’t know, I swear I heard raindrops. Like it started storming out.”

Everyone shared glances, but nobody offered an explanation.

Shay was the one who finally broke the silence. “Magic works in strange ways sometimes. If it led you to the book, it doesn’t really matter how it works.” She shrugged. “Come on. Let’s go see what’s in that book.”

I felt a bit like a sideshow as we all tramped back to our table, with everyone watching me stand there holding a mystery book.

The cover was blank; not exactly promising, given the weird shapes on the spine. “Does anybody know what alphabet these are from?” I pointed the spine toward them so they could all see.

When everybody shook their heads or shrugged, I set it down on the table and slid into my chair.

The cover opened easily, not a creak or puff of dust to indicate how long it had been undisturbed on the shelf.

There were more unreadable symbols on the first page, but when I tried to flip past it, see if the inside held any answers, the pages might as well have been made of concrete. They were immovable, a solid mass.

Even the back cover was stuck.

“Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” Leigh muttered, abandoning the group to go get another bowl of stew off the other table.

Brielle rolled her eyes at Leigh’s impatience, making me smile. “Give her a minute, y’all. Maybe she’s supposed todosomething.”

“Ignore them,” Reed murmured, leaning down over my shoulder. “If you need to, close your eyes again. Your power led you to the book. Maybe it can show you how to open it.”

“I’m not sure itmattersif it opens, I can’t read these random symbols.” Frustration was rising as I tried again to peel back the first page, digging my fingernail into the corner, as if I could just find the right spot…

But no, all I got was an unpleasant shock, making me yank my hand back on reflex.

“Itzappedme!”

“I don’t think it likes you trying to force it open,” Olivia said, squinting and leaning closer from across the table. She brushed one fingertip over the top of the cover, and yelped, snatching her hand away. “It feels like stinging nettle, but electrified.Angry.”

“Okay, so, nobody but Fi can touch the book. That’s something.” Elodie grinned, her enthusiasm undampened by my failure to read it or do anything with it.

I angrily closed my eyes again, willing the book to tell me what to do.

As if it were sentient, which was utterly stupid. This wasn’tHarry Potter. Books weren’talivelike the sorting hat.Although…

I bracketed the book with my hands, focusing all my attention on it. There was somethingotherto it, something… aware?

What do you want from me?I thought as hard as I could, hoping the book would answer, or maybe the blue shimmer would come back and show me what to do.

Nothing happened.

But I kept trying.

Tell me how to open you.

Nada. Zip. Zilch.

I took a steadying breath, rolling my shoulders back. Brute force clearly wasn’t doing anything, and when I found the book, I had been calm.Zen. I stopped trying to communicate with it directly, focusing inward instead.

It took a bit, with the muffled sounds of the other pack mates settling into their chairs around the table, going back to reading, turning pages. But eventually, I found it. Reed’s hand on my shoulder, warmth spreading down from the point of contact. That sensation of life below, the slowly pulsing beat. And then it came again—the rain on the rooftop.

I sighed, leaning into the feeling. Rain had always been my favorite. I knew people hated it, called it bad weather whenever there was a storm, but I lived for rainy days. I had a big chair back in my apartment by my biggest window. Any time there was a real storm, I’d pull the curtains all the way back and revel in the force of it, trace the droplets racing down my window for hours.

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