Page 144 of Omega's Heart

“We sell a lot to the humans,” Violetta explained. “Clothing, movie props, pottery and glassware, jewelry. Perfume.” She smiled broadly and led me through a door into her shop. “Good afternoon, ladies,” she chimed, addressing two human women browsing along the glass shelves on the left-hand side of the shop. “How are you doing today?”

“So many choices!” one of the women exclaimed. The other got a pinched, anxious look on her face and ignored us. Violetta’s expression never changed, but she took a firmer grip on my arm and pulled me through into the back.

“Sorry about that,” she said when the door had closed behind us. “We choose our front-end personnel very carefully, but some of the humans still find the enclave unnerving. Tourists, right? Anyway, let me show you around. Maybe you’ll find a scent you like.”

She walked me down the shelves in the room, each one lined with small bottles and boxes. The perfumes had names like Moon Crazy or Scent of Desire. They made me want to laugh, but I was polite and kept my amusement to myself.

Further down, she showed me the larger bottles with the basic ingredients, essential oils and chemicals that they mixed together to make the perfumes. “We sell a lot to tourists, they come up to see Hollywood and take a tour bus out to see the werewolves.” Her voice was rich with suppressed laughter as she said the last word and she held one hand up in a terrible impression of a monster’s claw. “The pack gets a portion of the take on the tour, we have a small museum here just inside the gate that we charge them to see, and a couple of restaurants so people can spend the day shopping and hoping to catch a glimpse of a movie star.”

“Movie star?” I asked. I hadn’t heard of any shifters who were doing any acting. Didn’t think it was a job that was even open for us because of the hours and the travel.

“Oh, well, stunt doubles and stuff, mostly. Sometimes the Hollywood types will come up here for a day trip—a couple of our restaurants gets pretty good reviews.” She stopped beside a heavy door with an imposing looking lock on it. “One of our noses is betrothed to an alpha who works as a stunt double usually. He’s home with a broken leg right now, which means we have to keep chasing him out of the lab.” She laughed and pushed through a locked door into a room that was almost blindingly white. “Our lab, where the new perfumes are made and tested.”

“What’s a nose?” I asked as the door closed behind us. The place smelled almost sterile—I’d expected to be overwhelmed by scent.

“That’s the person who designs the perfume. We shifters are excellent noses.” She tapped hers and smiled impishly. “Me, I’m a marketer. But I thought you might like to meet Eryk. He’s our top designer.” She knocked on another door, just as heavy but without the lock, and waved cheerfully through the little window. “We’ll grab a stool, he’ll be a moment.”

Three stainless steel tables filled the room we were in, each with a couple of stools. Violetta pulled a couple out and gestured to me to take one.

I looked around the room, impressed. “This is interesting. We mostly do construction in Mercy Hills for outside walls.”

“Honestly, if we weren’t right outside L.A., we probably wouldn’t be in such good shape. There was a lot of resistance at first, back forty years ago when they first floated the idea of making ourselves a tourist attraction. Lots of problems with regulations, with getting some agreement on security. When you leave, you’ll see it, because you’ll have to provide your fingerprints before you can exit. It’s quick and easy for humans, and identifies all of us right away.”

“You don’t have problems with people not wanting to give their fingerprints?” That sounded like an interesting way to deal with going in and out of the enclave. It might be handy if Holland and Quin ended up staffing the hospital with humans.

“A few, but there’s plenty of signs where the humans come in. We don’t store their fingerprints, just compare them to the ones in the database, which are just shifter ones.” The door on the other side of the room clicked and she twisted to look over her shoulder with a smile. “Eryk, come meet Felix! You should see his mate. Absolute beefcake.”

Eryk was tall, with dark spiked hair and two earrings in each ear. “I’m jealous. Or I would be if I wasn’t betrothed to a studmuffin already.” He hopped up on the table and slid down it until he could hang his legs over the edge, using it as an impromptu seat. “You must be Felix,” he said and leaned down to exchange scent.

“Eryk’s soon to be mate is the guy with the broken leg,” Violetta informed me with a giggle. “How’s work today, Eryk?”

“I’m not feeling very inspired. I might make Donnie take me into the city to roam around for a while.” He grinned, white teeth very bright against his tanned skin.

“You just want to get your picture taken again.” Violetta laughed. “The last time he went to the city,” she explained, “They got mobbed by tourists. Donnie has a small fan following after his work in A Time to Die.” They both laughed and I gamely joined in.

When the laughter died off, I asked, “So how do you go about making a perfume? You just mix things together until they smell good?”

Eryk shook his head and laughed. “No, there’s more science than that to it. But the final judgment is all mine.” He held up a hand. “Why don’t I walk you through one?” He threw a droll look in Violetta’s direction. “That’s if the boss doesn’t mind me stealing you.”

Violetta hopped off her stool with another chiming laugh. “I have some things I could be doing.” She put a hand on my arm. “I’ll pick you up and take you on a tour of the shops in an hour.”

“I really shouldn’t take up your time,” I began.

Violetta waved her hand. “No, it’s okay. I usually make a tour of the shops every day near the end of business, make sure there’s been no problems. The trials and tribulations of being Alpha’s Mate.” She laughed again and headed for the door.

I turned back to Eryk as the door closed behind her. “Does she ever not laugh?”

“Nope. That’s pretty much it.” He clapped me on the shoulder and asked, “So, do you prefer musks or mosses?”

C H A P T E R 7 9

W e stayed two more days in Los Padres. I enjoyed it much more than Montana Border, but I could see by the end of the first day that they didn’t need the money from the Mutch Trusts nearly as badly as Montana Border did.

I could also see Kaden’s problem very clearly—Los Padres was a much better choice when only measured against what we needed this grant to accomplish, in terms of showing that we as a species would make good use of the money to assure our future. There’d been so much bad blood and anger in Montana Border—they’d spend the money on soothing their egos first, and only later realize how bad their mistake was.

And in the meantime, we’d lose any control over how future funds would be spent. Might lose them entirely, if the humans decided that we weren’t ready yet for independence.

Los Padres wasn’t a top choice either, though, as we found out during our time there.