WISH UPON A TYGER (AGAIN)

"I wonder… What would be a suitable mating gift in return?"

When Bell regarded me with this question, I wondered what complicated plot was turning in his Lorent Prince head. I felt quite sure it would be convoluted and I wouldn't understand even if he told me.

I also remembered the way Grandpa Bell would go out of his way to invite his own children and grandchildren to visit him regularly - and it wasn't that he would ask them to like a normal person, no… the Tyger King had to make up the most intriguing excuses. And if any of our offspring inherited his mind, I was sure at least half of his visitors understood the farce and were merely playing along. The other half… the half who were stuck with my slowness gene would suffer among crazy manipulative OP wolves… hopefully they would have at least inherited my goddess luck along with it. Sigh. The future was going to be a messy world.

Not that it was any less messy now. Welcome to my life.

But my momentary angst was distracted the moment I looked and our eyes met.

Mate! ~ ❤

Mine. My life was perfect all over again. (No, it was not! But it was hard to argue with myself.)

"I want you to love me." I did NOT say aloud. Suddenly, I was much more understanding of Bell's inability to verbalize his wish to spend time with his love ones. Some desires were very hard to say aloud... especially when your Dad and his Beta, and your own entourage of smart alecky betas and advisors were watching.

Oh yes, Stephan was there too, but the guy stood like a statue - if he were breathing, it was in a way that even my wolf could not notice it. So I forgot he was there. Actually, I quickly forgot anyone was there.

We just stood there trapped in each other gazes as if it were the first time we had met. The whole world must have stopped spinning and fallen off is axis - or at least even if it did, Bell and I would not have noticed it.

I knew what I wanted, but I couldn't say it. I had no idea what Bell wanted, since he wasn't saying it either. We just stood there staring at each other like… like idiots.

Because Ben coughed, not very discretely, just loud enough to remind me that the world was still spinning as it should and that we had an audience.

"You don't need to give me anything." I told Bell, physically taking half a step back as if the physical distance would help me keep my sanity. Those eyes, they were like orbs of amber lit with golden lava, but there were a lot of other less romantic eyes surrounding us. We must have looked like idiots to them.

Bell's flames licked upwards and flickered, but he was otherwise unmoved, "Is that so? Tell me, princess, is there nothing your heart desires?"

Yeah, I would like to stop being an idiot whenever Bell was around.

Bell was a very natural Tyger King, he moved like a tyger, he looked like a tyger, he even talked like a tyger. At least if this were a lycan legend… that would be exactly what a tyger would say.

His fumes curling, his mouth turned upwards in an arrogant smirk, and the feeling of standing before a person with the power to kill you with a thought. Bell was nailing the Tyger King gig.

But if this were really a lycan legend, then what was my role in it? All my life and every lycan legend and fairy tale I had ever read - I had always been the hero in my mind. The brave young lycan who chased after legends until he too defeated the tyger and had his name written among the greats. 

There was no where in any of these tales that the hero mated the Tyger and lived happily ever after. There was never a happy ending for the tyger.

"I wish!" I declared.

Bell's fumes rose, along with a roomful of concerned hands, but I decided to ignore them. I realized more than anything else - even more than Bell falling in love with me, there was something else I wanted more.

Bell was mine and in this life, I was going to treasure him.

The moment I said the word "wish", Bell's tyger magic was triggered. He growled, his curse spread out and darkened the floors of the room. My wolves looked down worried at the darkness under their feet, and then they looked up at me.

"Sam…" Beta Lucas looked worried.

Dad was wearing a frown that was not quite his thinking frown, but he held up his hand to stop his beta from interfering. I'm not sure if I should be worried if the only one who was okay with what I was doing was my Dad. Especially now that I was aware of the grain of truth behind his "Mad Maverick of the Green Packlands" title.

The air turned frigid and the magic thickened.

"Think carefully before you wish, Sam." Dad did caution.

"Yah man." Beta Lucas breathed.

"Make it air tight, Sam." Ben said. Did I look like I had the skill to do that?

"I can grant your wish, your very heart's deepest desire." Bell the tyger king said, magic weaving through each word, "But it would cost you something of equal value."

At this point, the hero would hesitate. Would he really be able to afford his wish?

"I wish that you will live happily ever after." I told Bell straight to his face.

"My happiness?" Bell asked.

Wait, why did it feel that this had happened before?

"The price of my happiness…" Bell seemed to be seriously considering the weight of the payment, "Are you willing to pay it?"

I probably should have asked him how much or what it would cost, but at this point, maybe the magic was messing with my brain, but my lucky sense of direction was on full throttle and I had decided I would be the hero.

All my life (all three of them), all the lycan legends and fairy tales and make-believe adventures… they were all preparing me for this moment. I would be the hero of this lycan tale, but in my story, I was going to make the tyger fall in love with me and live happily every after.

"Whatever you want." I said, "What's mine is yours anyway."

Bell took the few steps to close the distance between us, "Do not regret it, princess."

"No regrets." I promised. He was so close, the air around me were all his scent. I took a deeper breath in.

Bell reached over and carefully slipped a chain around my head, it fell neatly around my neck and glowed, the dark red familiar stone I used to wear in the Original Timeline.

"As long as you bear this stone, my happiness will be guaranteed." Bell told me.

Yeah, this definitely happened before. His heart stone. {Mine ~ ❤}

I tried to grasp the stone in my hand, but it was floating and ended up hovering and glowing just inside my cupped hand. Okay, that was different.

Bell raised his brow at that too. I don't think he was expecting it either, "Strange… since when did you learn to manipulate magic, princess?"

And then I remembered… I used to be quite a genius at magic manipulation (at least according to Alpha Gunter.) I watched the stone glow in my hand, and then let it go. The moment I did, it fell back, turning dark and cold. I looked back at Bell, "Don't forget your side of the bargain. You need to live happily ever after now."