Page 6

Chapter 6

La La Land

VANESSA

“S o… you’ve really known I was your mate since, well, since I was born?” I tap my fingers on the steering wheel as I negotiate Los Angeles traffic. I glance at my passenger who’s looking a little green. “Is breakfast sitting okay?” His knuckles are white where he grips his knees.

“Fine,” he says quickly. “Yes, I’ve known from the moment you were born.” A cloud passes over his face.

A dart of pain goes through me at the thought that he wasn’t pleased at my birth. “You weren’t expecting me for a mate?” I ask tentatively.

He reaches for me but drops his hand before making contact. “It’s not that.”

I wait, hoping for more but he seems to be struggling for words, like there’s something he wants to share, but can’t. I change the subject. “Do you come to L.A. often?”

His lips quirk. “Only for you.”

“Oh.” It sounds romantic, but also stalkery.

He adds, “I’m bound to my duties in Wolf-Haven or I would’ve spent more time here.” The ‘with you’ is left out, but we both hear it.

“What are your duties in Wolf-Haven?”

“I watch over the packs, make sure they have everything they need to thrive. I also travel to visit wolf shifters living outside of Wolf-Haven, helping them integrate into other communities. We recently set up a pack in the human town of Pendle.”

“Your job sounds really interesting.”

“No more than yours,” he says as he grips the doorframe when I take a turn.

I shrug. “Acting isn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I mean, it’s fun when I get a job and get paid, but there aren’t many jobs to go around.” I pull into the parking lot next to Laz’s beat up old Buick.

We get out of the vehicle and head toward the building. “So… you’re some kind of prince or something?” I can’t hold back the excitement from my tone. It’s not often an average Jane like me gets to meet a real prince.

“I am.”

“So… do you get to attend coronations or anything like that?”

He chuckles. “Not until recently. The packs of Wolf-Haven kept to themselves until the new King took over. Under King Lock’s reign, we’re branching out and meeting our neighbors. Reconnecting with the world.”

“Must be scary given the prejudice against shifters that’s out there,” I say, listening raptly. I will never admit it to my anti-colonizer, free-spirited best friend, but I’ve been obsessed with royals since I realized what great characters they make for television. Now that the wolves are on my radar, I’ll be doing a deep dive on their royal history as soon as I get myself to a computer.

He leans against the building, crossing his arms as he looks at me, as if gauging my response. “We have a reputation for a reason. Humans should be leery of shifters. We’re stronger, faster, and we’re immortal. We could crush the human race if it came down to a fight.”

A chill goes through me as I’m reminded of how vulnerable I am standing next to an almost stranger who can kill me before I take my next breath. “Then why don’t you kill us all?”

His expression softens. “Humans are useful to us.” He chuckles when I make a face. “For many reasons, the most important being mates. Though rarer than shifter matings, there are occasions when humans are selected by the natural order as our mates.”

“Like me,” I say, then ask, “What’s the natural order?”

“It’s a mysterious being or presence in the universe that directs the fate of all sentient beings. The witches are closest to understanding what the being is while the rest of us shifters simply follow its guidance.”

“Do you really believe there’s a god or something guiding our universe?” My mom was an atheist who encouraged me to question everything, which I do. But nicely, so as not to upset the faithful.

“Gods are a human concept. Shifters worship the natural order, or, to put it simply, nature.”

“Do you go to church or something to pray to nature?” I sense his excitement over my curiosity, which is probably a good thing. I am an endless fountain of questions. If this mating thing is to take off, then he’ll be in for a lifetime of my questions.

He shakes his head. “We have no need of churches. Our worship comes from our existence. Every step I take as a wolf, every instinct that guides me, the immortality that runs through my veins, is homage to the natural order. Filling my lungs with air, eating the food this planet provides, this is proof of my existence, which is proof that the natural order is with me always.”

His poetic words paint an image in my head of the two of us, living together, sleeping and eating together. Breathing in and out together. Our children filling a happy home, proof of the natural order.

His eyes pop wide and I know without a doubt he saw what I was thinking. Heat washes my face and I look away. “We should go inside.”

I feel his disappointment that I’ve shut down our conversation, but I need some time to process… wait… I feel his disappointment! I gasp, then cover my mouth. I’m not ready for him to know I might be starting to feel our mating connection.

I push open the door to Lazarus Acting Agency, leaving Keenan to follow me inside. Taking off my sunglasses, I look around.

As always, Angel’s desk is empty. She’s Laz’s part time-secretary and full-time life partner. They found each other thirty-five years ago on the set of a porn film. Angel isn’t good at her job, but neither is Laz. What matters is they’re happy together helping their stable of talented actors find jobs.

“Laz!” I shout. “Get out here before I run off with your office furniture.”

Keenan turns a skeptical eye to the lineup of five plastic chairs and a fake plant.

The beaded curtain at the back of the room rocks wildly as Laz strides through. “Is that my favourite client I hear?”

He picks me up in a bone crushing hug that has Keenan tensing beside me. I glance at him as Laz sets me on my feet, but his face is impassive as he looks over my agent and manager.

Laz is tall and thin, with lean muscle roping his body. Long, thinning grey hair is tied back at his neck in a scraggly ponytail that reaches down his back. He’s wearing beach shorts and a heavy poncho that’s definitely too hot for a Californian summer day, but Laz never goes without it. On his feet are flipflops and on his wrists, stacks of beaded bracelets. Laz was a handsome man during his adult filming days, but a youth filled with unbridled partying has left its mark in the deep lines on his face and the stoop to his shoulders. Still, he’ll be the first to say it’s been a good life.

“You sent me to a madhouse last night,” I say accusingly.

He grins, the lines around his eyes creasing. “Heard about that, though I don’t think you can blame the client for reacting badly when a wolf shifter leapt through his living room window.” He looks Keenan up and down. “I’d say from the size of you, you’re probably the culprit.” He sticks his hand out at Keenan who looks taken aback before enveloping it in his own massive fist.

“Keenan Wolven-North.” He eyes Laz like he’s an escaped zoo animal.

I wonder if shifters see us that way all the time. Like zoo animals that do nonsensical and silly things. Or pets maybe, living in gilded cages.

Keenan shifts his gaze to me. “We don’t think that.”

I realize he’s responding to my thoughts. A shiver runs down my spine. It’s very strange to have another person invade my most private sanctity. How does one go about shielding their thoughts?

“With practice,” he says.

“Stop doing that!” I step away from him. Maybe distance will stop him from spying on my thoughts.

“It won’t.”

“Stop it!”

Laz is looking back and forth between us, his expression bemused. “So it’s true, you really are his mate.”

I round on Laz. “How do you know about the mating thing? In fact, how do you know about last night at all? I didn’t call and I didn’t give your name to the police.”

The beaded curtain sways, drawing my attention as Angel glides into the room. Like her stage name suggests, Angel is angelic. With long platinum hair and a face that has held its beauty into her 70s, a long colourful dress flowing around her lean frame, she can still command a room.

Angel thrusts her phone at me, her rings flashing in the light. “This is how we know about last night.”

I take the phone from her. “Oh shit.”

On the screen is my professional headshot overlayed on an image of Keenan being dragged unconscious out of Yannis’s house. The headline reads, “Long Lost Wolf Prince goes wild over Actress Mate.”

“Not good,” Keenan mutters, hovering over my shoulder to read the story with me.

The rest of the article is about as accurate as the headline, which is surprisingly accurate while sprinkled with embellishments. It says Keenan is next in line for the throne. I look at him and he shakes his head.

“No, it’s Lock’s children, then Rush.”

“What’s a rush?” asks Angel.

“My sibling. Third in line for the throne.”

“Ah,” she says, nodding, then her jaw drops. “You really are a royal prince? I thought that was some paparazzi bullshit.”

“He really is a prince!” I assure her.

She grips my hands and dances in a circle. “Vanessa nabbed a prince!”

I pull away from her, blushing as I glance at Keenan. I don’t want him thinking I’m some kind of gold digger. I like money as much as the next person, but it’s not my biggest motivator in life. If we do end up doing the mating thing, I want it to be because we’re in love.

His gaze turns heated and my blush deepens. I temporarily forgot he can see into my head whenever he wants. I’m annoyed that I can’t do the same.

“You will one day,” he assures me. “If the bond continues to deepen.”

The news makes me feel a little less self-conscious about what he might see. I’ve never had to control my thoughts before. What if I think about something that turns him off? Like bellybutton lint.

I push the thought away and turn back to Laz and Angel who are looking at us knowingly. “So how bad do you think this incident has damaged my career?” Not that I have much of a career, but it’s not great to throw in a scandal before I’ve made a name for myself. “I swear I didn’t know there were photographers or how they got there so quickly.” Something tickles my brain and I realize they weren’t the only ones who got to the scene quickly. “Come to think of it, the police arrived really fast, too.”

Keenan nods his agreement. “I was too addled by their taser guns to realize at the time, but you’re right. It was almost as if they were waiting around the corner for something to happen.”

We look at each other, but I can’t come up with an explanation.

Angel interrupts, “To answer the question of whether or not this has impacted your career, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’!” She dances, her feet gliding as she swishes about, her arms waving in the air. “Laz, you tell. I’m too excited to give her the news!”

Laz turns to me, beaming. “Zachery Wesselman’s office called. He saw the paparazzi footage of you being dragged out of the murder-mystery party in one shoe.” Excitement bubbles up so hard and fast, I can barely sort out his words, “He lost his lead actor for the project he’s working on and he wants you to come in for a screen test.”

“Oh my fucking god!” I screech, unable to keep it in any longer. I jump up and down, then turn and leap into Keenan’s arms. He catches me, his expression surprised, as I wrap my arms and legs around him and proceed to deafen him.

His expression goes from shocked to amused as he holds me to his chest while Angel twerks around us.

“It’s no guarantee!” Laz shouts over the noise.

“It’s my first screen test for an actual MOVIE!” I shout. “This is a VERY big deal!”