Page 8 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

I blinked, and despite the cool calm, I still felt incredulous. This wasinsane. What kind of doctor talked about goddesses and glowy hands? This couldn’t be real. This had to be some kind of elaborate prank. Cameramen were going to charge this room any minute.

Right?

“Olivia, do you mind?” Brielle looked over my shoulder, and Olivia came around where I could see her. She smiled softly at me, then held up her left hand. In that moment, everything I thought I knew about the world shifted.

Because, sure as shit, there was an identical soft glow emanating from her palm.

“That’s not all. Are you ready for the rest?” Brielle asked, sounding strained.

“I’m not sure what else you could tell me that would top the fact that I’ve got some magical moon destiny.” It was a little snarky of me, but I couldn’t help it. Apparently, that was my defense mechanism when faced withutter insanity.

“Those wolves chasing you last night? They weren’t regular wolves. They were shifters. So is Reed, and so are we.”

“No, uh-uh.” I tried to stand up, and she let me go, let me get to my feet even though my knees felt like jelly and I was at risk of toppling over if I tried to move too fast. “I can see my hand with my own eyes. And I’ve never had two seizures this close together, so against all odds, well… I think this has to be real even though it’s fucking impossible. But shifters? That’s got to be a joke. This is not some teenage fantasy where the hot guys have superpowers and all want you. This isreal life. And I don’t know who you think you’re screwing with, but I’m out of here. I’ll call an Uber and get back to my rental car and get the fuck out of Romania.”

“Shay, I’m feeling a bit peaked. Would you mind doing the honors?” Brielle swayed a little before sitting on the edge of her bed, and I noticed that she’d gone significantly paler than she was when I first woke up. The third woman, who’d sat quietly in the corner all this time, stood and gave me a grim smile.

“I’m going to show you something, and I just want you to remember that it’s me. I haven’t hurt you, and I’m not going to. I’m still one hundred percent in control, no matter what form I’m in.”

I shook my head, disbelief too strong to even entertain the idea of wolf shifters. This would probably be some shitty close-up magic, and I was going to be expected to fawn over them. Maybe it was a cult.

Were there weird wolf-worshipping cults here? I hadn’t heard of any, but I’d mostly researched the wildlife I might spot, not the crazy-ass humans that lived here. New item added to the travel checklist from now on: research if there are any notorious cults, and avoid them like my life depended on it.

But then Shay’s arms started to grow fur, and her eyes began to glow. I took a shocked step back as I heard her bones snap, and her face morphed in front of my eyes—a snout elongating from her snub nose, elongated fangs protruding over her bottom lip, and cocoa-colored fur bursting out of her skin. Within two heartbeats, the beautiful woman who’d just been speaking to me wasgone,clothes lying in a shredded pile around her paws.

Because where the woman had stood was now a giant, terrifying-looking wolf.

And her eyes wereglowing.

“Holy fucking shit on a stick.” My lungs felt like overinflated balloons as I panted rapidly and backed away. “This is not possible. I don’t know how you made that look so real, but this isnot possible. I’m sorry, you’re all cult whackadoos, but I need to leave. Right now. Take me to Reed. I want to go, and he’ll take me. Please.” I held up both hands, as if this live freaking wolf couldn’t take me out without breaking a sweat.

Wolves didn’t sweat. But that was not the point. I didn’t believe for two seconds that Reed—the man with the kind electric eyes—was part of this mass delusion. Why he had brought me here, well… That was a question for the next time I saw him.

“I know it seems impossible. But haven’t you already experienced several things that shouldn’t be possible in the last twenty-four hours?” Olivia asked sadly. “It’s still Shay. You can touch her fur if you want. She won’t hurt you.”

I glanced at Olivia, surprised to see a frown etched into her cheeks. “You don’t have to live like this. You can leave with me. We can both get on a plane. I’ll take you with me.”

She shook her head and shot a questioning look at Brielle. “Fiona, I have a wolf inside me too. These women are my pack mates. Brielle is a healer, and she has special powers because of her wolf. That’s how she made you feel so calm. That’s why our palms glow. Wherever you were out there doing your photography, you must have gotten close enough to Brielle to trigger your seal to light up. It only happens when you’re in range of a mated alpha-omega pair. Her job is to help us, and his is to protect us. I know this seems crazy. But can you honestly not trust what you can see and touch and experience? This isreal.”

Olivia walked across the room and placed her shining palm on the wolf’s coffee fur, stroking between her ears.

And… nothing bad happened. The wolf didn’t charge, bite, or even flinch. Her tail was wagging like she was an oversized puppy. My jaw dropped when she tipped up her head and licked Olivia’s hand in greeting.

Her question ran through my head like a bulldozer.CouldI trust what I saw? This was absolutely impossible.

If I told anyone what I’d just seen, they’d lock me in a psych ward, just like my great-grandmother.

Dread filled me. Oh, no no no.

Great-Grandma Nell. Who was institutionalized with schizophrenia. I closed my eyes and dragged in a harsh breath. Mom had been telling me since I was a kid that I couldn’t talk about my hallucinations, because, and I quote, “Crazy runs in the family.” She had a real way with words, and little to no empathy.

My great-grandma had been in her early thirties when she started claiming she’d met ablueman. Blue, like the friggin’ genie inAladdin. That was… not possible, obviously. Great-Grandpa had had her put into a mental institution when she insisted the baby she was carrying wasthe blue man’sand not his.

Their second child, my grandmother, Florence, was born in the institution—perfectly healthy and not the least bit blue—and then raised without great-grandma. It was awful even knowing that was in my history. Hiding in my genes.

And my mother had made very sure I knew the risks of talking about the weird stuff I saw when I had seizures. She spent my teenage years reminding me that many women in the past had been locked up for less.

A wolf appearing in front of my eyes when I was stone-cold sober and awake? It wasn’t good.

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