ONCE UPON A REC CENTER WISH (City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams #2)

I don’t have time for wishes… but that didn’t stop me from making one.

I need a new place to live. Due to neighborhood redevelopment, my apartment building will be demolished in a week. And I still don’t have a new home. I plan to continue my search after I get some sleep.

Then my neighbor asks for one last favor. She needs someone to take her kids to the rec center for their lessons. I can’t say no, so I’m back on the bus again with three kids in tow.

After dropping them off, I run into a strange man who hands me a card and tells me to make a wish. All I want is a place to lay my head.

That’s when everything changes.

Instead of rushing for the bus, I run smack into a brawny alpha at the edge of a meadow. Wearing only a toolbelt and a trapper’s hat, he promises me a place to stay and a mate if I agree to have shifter babies. It all seems like a dream, but what if I finally found everything I’ve ever dreamed of?

Once Upon a Rec Center Wish is the second story in the new City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series by USA Today bestselling author Jessica E. Subject. Once Upon a Rec Center Wish is a MM MPreg shifter fantasy romance that features a man in desperate need of a place to live, a shy alpha beaver shifter who takes pride in his work, the wizard who brings them together, and many other new and old fantastical creatures from the Enchanted Forest. If you like fated mates, true love, males having babies, baby beaver shifters, and a guaranteed happy ever after, read Once Upon a Rec Center Wish. While each book in the City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series is set in the same world, they can be read as standalones.

Enjoy an excerpt from ONCE UPON A REC CENTER WISH...

I had the strangest dream. About a beaver who looked like a man. There was a wizard. And a forest. I opened my eyes, expecting to be on the bus, as I knew I hadn’t made it home because I couldn’t feel the broken springs of my mattress. Instead, I wasn’t anywhere near the city. There really was a forest. A naked man, save for his tool belt and the red-and-black plaid trapper hat that he wore. Was he really a beaver, or had I just imagined that? 

Sitting against the trunk of a tree, he whittled away on a small log, carving out larger chunks and using a file to shape the wood. Regular tools I remembered from shop class. I watched him for a long time, not wanting to let him know that I was awake. I needed to figure out where I was. And how much of what I thought was a dream was real. The unclothed man was one hundred percent real, and a damn fine specimen, too. He had wavy, strawberry-blond hair that seemed to be kept trimmed, and a beard the same color, also neatly kept. Not a body-builder type, but his wide, firm chest and thick arms explained why I fell when I smacked into him. 

Wait! If he lived in another world, how did he have tools from my world? The wizard?

Geez, it all sounded like some fantasy tale rather than reality, but I was definitely not on a bus, at the rec center, or at home. And if I was at a park in the city, someone would have called the cops already to report the beaver guy for indecent exposure. Maybe I fell and hit my head, and I was actually unconscious in a hospital. That sounded like the most plausible explanation. I decided to enjoy my fantasy while I could. There was no point in missing out on such an attractive man who didn’t run the other direction when he saw me.

Carefully sitting up, I decided to chat with him. “My name is Falco.”

Lion's Crossing has released! This MM MPreg Shifter Romance is part of both the multi-author shared world of Love Sync Mates Season Two and my Shifter Towers series.

It was partially inspired by the Via Rail incident that happened at the end of August last year, where passengers were stranded on a broken down train for over 10 hours. If you want to read an more about what conditions were like for passengers on that train, check out this article from CBC. 

Also, Linc, who is the alpha in this book, was also mentioned previously in my Shifter Towers series, in His Omega on Stage. 

​“Attention passengers,” the voice came over the coach’s static-filled PA system. “There has been a brief delay in our travels, and we are working quickly to get on our way again.”
 
That didn’t tell us much. It could have meant there was a problem with one of the passengers, or there was an engine malfunction. Either way, I hoped to be moving again soon. I was supposed to arrive ahead of the check-in time at my hotel, but with the delay, I would likely arrive right on time.
 
The alpha beside me began typing furiously on his phone, so I leaned back and pressed play on my music streaming app. I had my playlist on shuffle, so I didn’t know which song would play first. “Fated For Forever” was the first random song I heard, sung by the pop group FNL about how when an alpha finds their fated mate, they will love them forever. The group had since disbanded, but I still enjoyed the music they had released. I wasn’t a huge fan of theirs, didn’t know all their names or anything, but appreciated their sound. A short clip of the group played on the app, showing the group dancing to the music. And that’s when I realized the identity of the alpha sitting beside me. He was a former member of FNL.
 
I froze for a moment, hoping he hadn’t looked over to see what music I listened to on my phone. I didn’t want him to think I was some crazed fan who would be all over him because of his celebrity status. Leaning into the corner of my seat, away from the alpha, I switched to a new song then brought up my search engine. Looking up FNL, I tried to find a list of the members to figure out which one sat beside me. After checking out a few fan pages, I learned his name was Linc, he was a lion shifter, and he lived in Shifter Crossing before heading to Saramto to become a pop star. And after leaving FNL, he’d become a music producer for Adan Records.
 
It all made sense why he hid his identity. I would have, too, if I rode on a train with all these people. Most wouldn’t care about his identity, but one fan pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable behavior would be enough to ruin the ride. And I didn’t want to witness that, either.
 
I made a mental note to only talk to him about being from Shifter Crossing. That was, if he decided to talk to me. Because, so far, he seemed engrossed in his phone. Even though we weren’t moving, I returned to looking out the window and listening to my music. It wasn’t as if I could do anything else.

Every year, Spotify does their Wrapped summaries at the beginning of December, telling their users what songs and artists they listened to the most, along with other interesting listeners facts. They do the same for the artists, telling them their most popular songs, and where the majority of their listeners are from. This year, I saw authors and readers doing the same sort of thing, but about books. I found the template they used on Canva, and decided to make one for myself. So, if you didn't see my Wrapped on social media, here it is. Though I've added a few more tidbits here. Enjoy!

Above are my goals for 2024, none of which I accomplished. With Left On Earth, I contemplated over and over whether to make it a novella or a short story. And I wrote it as both throughout the year. In the end, I decided to make it a longer short story, but I still have a lot of writing to do for it. I plan to continue working on that story this year. With 3 Secrets, I did get some more words into the story, but it is not finished yet. I hope to finish it this year. I did work on the plot for 2 Fans, but only the first half. Not sure if I'll get to that story this year.

Though I didn't accomplish the goals I set at the beginning of 2024, I did have two book releases, and write a total of 84,415 words that doesn't include the words I removed during edits. Those words were between Once Upon a Dance Club Wish, Lion's Crossing, and my three works in progress I mention below.

2024 releases:
Fox Trapped (Shifter Towers book seven)
Once Upon a Dance Club Wish (City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book one)

Coming in 2025:
Lion's Crossing (Shifter Towers book eight) - will be available for pre-order soon
Plus more to come!

My current works in progress are:
1. City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book two
2. Romance Tales from the Quadrants book two (working title 3 Secrets)
3. Dystopian short story (working title Left On Earth)

I also asked for the rights back to four of my older stories. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but didn't know if I would have the time to revise/rewrite them and republish them. But it is my goal to work on them this year along with my other WIPs.

Authors are not only supposed to write, but they're supposed to read, too. In 2024, it was not only my goal to write more, but also to read more. I'm a slow reader, so I set a goal of 24 books for the year. Two a month. In 2024, i surpassed that goal, reading 31 books. There were many I started but did not finish. Because I'm a slow reader, I don't have time to push through books that don't intrigue me. I never mention these books or review them, as they simply weren't meant for me. But I did read a lot of great books, the longest one being 448 pages, and the second longest at 447 pages. Plus, I tried the Fold Reading Challenge to diversity my reading. It was a great way to find many new authors and read from a variety of settings, cultures, and view points. There is another Fold Reading Challenge this year, which looks fabulous! I will not being doing it, as I already have a diverse collection of books waiting on my physical and digital bookshelves for me to read. So, my goal this year is to get through them. I'm hoping to read at least 30, though hopefully more. Plus, there are some upcoming releases that I have pre-ordered, and many more on my wish list waiting for their release.

2025 Books Pre-Ordered:
You Started It by Jackie Khalilieh - May 20
Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnston - May 27

Here's a recap of the books I read in 2024 (in the order I read them):
All of them were great reads, but my top 12 are in bold.
Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik
Gaza Writes Back Edited by Refaat Alareer
The Jackal by Erin E. Adams
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
The Red Palace by June Hur
His Ducking Alpha Dragon by Lorelei M. Hart
TJ Powar Has Something to Prove by Jesmeen Kaur Deo
The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
Deadly Cure by Mahi Cheshire
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Road to Ruin by Hana Lee
Missing White Woman by Kellye Gerrett
Pretty Furious by E.K. Johnston
Delivered to My Tigers by Mazzy J. March
Midwife to Destiny by Nana Prah
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
Love in the Air by Mariah Ankenman
Dead Sound by Anise Eden
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau
Sensory: Life on the Spectrum Edited by Bex Ollerton
Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

What were your favorite reads of 2024?

I have many goals for 2025, many of which I already mentioned. I will be posting them in a separate post on social media, but I'll recap what I already mentioned...

• Lion's Crossing to release in February
• finish City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams book two and submit for publishing
• finish Romance Tales from the Quadrants book two and submit for publishing
• work on Dystopian short story
• Revise/Rewrite four formerly published stories and republish them

Thank you for all your support over the last year!