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“Hardly. But I like things to be fair for everyone. Having three questions is intentional. You’re taking a giant leap of faith with the shifter you choose, no matter what.”
I scoffed. “That’s for sure.”
“I have a suggestion.” Bibi brightened, and for the first time since that maddening wolf rounded the corner of the stage, things felt normal. “What if you stop treating choosing Armand like a mistake, and consider you might have chosen him for a reason?”
My mouth dropped. “What could that possibly be? I’m not his mate.”
She switched the camera off. “I’m not saying you are. But he comes with a lot of answers about Lars’s old civilization, and maybe why Lars is the last of his kind. We want to keep him as an ally, not an enemy.”
Oh. “So you want me to act like a private investigator.” That could be fun.
“We have an incredible resource at our disposal and it would be a shame to let it go to waste. And speaking of that, we need to talk about a few things. I love the live videos you’ve been doing for the forums, but now that you’ve officially started your episode, production would like to be involved in those. This should be easy, since you’re staying in my spare boudoir. Talk about the subject matter ahead of time, and approve your posts to make sure we’re all on the same page. You saw last episode what happened when we weren’t. But there’s something else I need you to promise me.”
“Anything.”
Bibi put her shoulders back, sitting up straighter. “I love that your friends are in town, but we have to be extremely careful about sharing behind-the-scenes information with them. When the gossip is this juicy, it’s hard to keep it to yourself. But discretion might be our secret and only weapon with this episode and I want to do everything in my power to make sure everyone involved gets their happily ever after.”
* * *
“I already knew Bibi’s place was a vibe, but staying in the spare boudoir is next level. Silk sheets, pillowtop mattress, blackout curtains, temperature control, and essential oil diffusors. I’ve never slept so deeply in my life.” Today I was filming from my bed because I didn’t want to get out of it. No makeup, messy hair, pajamas, this was as real as it was gonna get. I probably wouldn’t get production’s approval to post this in the forums, but that was okay. Sometimes it helped make sense of things to say them out loud.
“Tonight’s my date with Armand.” I stuck out my tongue at the camera, making myself laugh for the first time all day. “Honestly, I feel like I’m physically unable to go. It’s almost noon and I can’t get my ass out of bed. I haven’t slept this late since I was on tour. I thought my days of partying like a rock star were so over. I know, I should give him a chance. His answers were good enough for me to pick him over Lars, but honestly, you want to know what I think? He was only there to sabotage Lars. Get this—Armand and his pack are back from what everyone thought was dead, but turns out, they’d been cursed by Lars’s brother, who used to be known as the king of this valley. Juicy, right? Of course you remember the Hudaknocker—Wendy found it in her episode, and Marissa tried to lose it in the next. They say its discovery is the reason they’re back, and they want revenge. Bibi still wants me to go, because we’re on a secret sleuthing mission. Security will be insane.”
I wished I could do this live, because I thrived off the interaction from the forums. The comment section always filled in any awkward silence, and it wouldn’t feel like I was talking to myself in this amazing bedroom.
“If you’re wondering, no, I haven’t seen Lars at all. It’s killing me. Not even backstage after the debacle, which is what I’m calling it now. Even worse? He might think I don’t care about him. And if you’re one of those people in town hunting him because you believe the reports he’s been sighted, that’s—”
“Good morning, sleepyhead.” The door swung open and I screamed, fumbling with my phone to shut off the recording.
“Hey, Bibi.” I tried to play it cool.
“Are you decent? You know it’s not like me to barge in on you like this, but it’s almost noon, and as you know, today is probably the most important day of filming your episode. I’ve had way too much green tea while waiting for you, and once I heard you talking, I knew you were awake. I wanted to let you sleep, but we simply can’t wait any longer to get started.”
“I don’t want to do it.” I pulled the blanket over my head.
“Truth be told, I don’t want you to do it either. Armand has refused to work with Marissa and Tina. Because he’s been frozen for a millennium, and he’s certainly got some caveman tendencies, we sent Gabe and Bjorn to talk to him. That didn’t work, either. He insists you’ll be thrilled with his choices, and that’s as far as anyone can get with the stubborn beast.”
“Ugh, eww, and no fucking way.” I uncovered myself and sighed, hoping that I could appeal to Bibi’s senses. “Even if we take the fact that he’s not Lars out of the equation, I hate every single bit of it. He’s not my mate. I’m ready to go on stage now and tell him to take a hike back to whatever cave he crawled out of. Where is he even living?”
“Believe it or not, he’s got a pretty nice place on Lionsgate Highway. That leads me to believe these beasts have been unfrozen since the actual discovery of the Hudaknocker, because by all reports, they don’t seem like they’re just getting started. Which makes me wonder what else they’ve been up to, and why they waited until now to approach Lars.”
“Or he’s a total liar,” I suggested. “The reincarnation thing is made up, and he’s after Lars for another reason.”
Bibi’s eyes widened. “That could also be true.”
I raised a brow. “Are you sure this is a good idea? No matter what this dude’s story is, he’s dangerous.”
“Absolutely. Running away from them shows fear. And if these wolves plan on sticking around here, who better to teach them how to woo a lady than you and me?”
“Okay, I give in.” I sat up for the first time all day. “I’ll go on the stupid date with the stupid wolf to try to uncover ancient secrets. But I reserve the right to hate every minute of it.”
Bibi pursed her lavender lips at me. “Let yourself have a good time. I made you breakfast, but I’m afraid you’ll have to eat on the way to HQ. The glam squad is standing by to make sure you look drop dead gorgeous.”
“I was planning on wearing leggings and a hoodie—”
Bibi waved my hand, having none of it. “Absolutely not. You’ll go from gothic cupcake to gothic bombshell. We want this wolf’s chin to be on the floor. Make him realize that he’s the one who has to please you, instead of this backwards notion that he’s concocted that he’s in the driver’s seat.”
I didn’t always understand Bibi’s methods, but they hadn’t failed us yet. I’d asked her to change my life, but there was no denying this major overhaul was terrifying.
