Chapter 3 #2
That’s the trouble with trying to lie to your oldest friend; they know you better than anyone. And Felicity knew I’d never “forgotten” to eat a day in my life. I was always the one watching the clock and counting down the minutes to lunch.
But thankfully, she didn’t push back.
Probably because I hadn’t been acting like my usual self all week. She’d assumed it was because I was depressed about getting fired, and I decided not to correct her mistake.
“So, you’re just woozy from low blood sugar?” she offered.
I gave a non-committal shrug, not wanting to lie to her any more than I absolutely had to.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m sure I’ll be fine once I’ve grabbed a few of those hors d’oeuvres going by,” I told her. “Go enjoy the gala. I’ll find you once I’m feeling a little better.”
Slowly, Felicity’s gaze turned from concerned to skeptical. “Just tell me you’re not just using this as an excuse to ditch the party. Promise you won’t run back home the second I turn around.”
I shook my head. “If that was my plan, I would have gone when you went for water.”
I knew she’d accept that line of reasoning far more than any promise I could have made. Words didn’t mean much to Felicity. Actions were what really mattered. To her, a person was defined by what they did, not what they said.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yes.” To prove it, I grabbed a couple of snacks off one of the passing trays, stuffing one in my mouth before even checking what it was. A shiver of disgust ran up my spine as dozens of salty fish eggs popped between my molars. “See, I’m well enough to keep down gross rich people food.”
“That’s osetra caviar,” Felicity said, fighting back a smile.
“It’s nasty,” I countered. “Now go and have fun. I promise I’ll find you once I’ve filled up on fish babies.”
Glancing over her shoulder at the crowd, Felicity pursed her ruby red lips, clearly torn between her obligation to me and the pull of a party. “You’re sure?”
“Please. You know I can’t stand people hovering over me.”
That much was true. If there was one thing I hated, it was being the center of attention. Even among friends.
“Okay.” She started to turn away, somewhat reluctantly, before shooting me one last glance over her shoulder. “But if you abandon me here, I’ll never forgive you.”
“You should know by now that’s never going to happen,” I assured her.
And it wouldn’t.
From the third grade on, Felicity had been the one stable constant in my life. Parents got divorced. Friends moved away. Lovers drifted apart. But Felicity? She was always right there when I needed her.
But even she couldn’t help me right now.
Not when I was face-to-face with photographic evidence that the world of my dreams wasn’t just some made-up fantasy. It was real.
Frighteningly, terrifyingly real.
Now that Felicity was off, mingling with the rich and famous, I leaned back on the plush-backed couch and stared at the picture, really taking it in.
Minutes ticked by as I studied every familiar detail, the rational part of my brain twisting itself into knots, desperately trying to come up with some reasonable explanation.
But there was none.
I’d seen that jacket dozens of times in my dreams. I knew how heavy it felt in my hands. My fingers had traced over the small tear in the cuff—the one I could clearly make out in the magnified print.
The existence of that jacket, of that cabin, of everything in the photo wasn’t just improbable. It was impossible.
It couldn’t exist.
And yet, clearly, it did.
I stopped caring about the stares and dirty looks from the snobbiest guests. They didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did.
All I could do was stare straight ahead at the impossible picture in front of me.
An hour must have passed before Felicity finally came back to find me in the same place she’d left me.
“Hey,” she said, the sound of her voice breaking me out of my stupor. “Are you feeling any better?”
I blinked a couple of times before managing a single tight nod. “Yeah…totally.”
“I can tell.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she shot a pointed look straight at the second caviar-topped cracker still in my hand. “Is that the same one I left you with?”
“Yep.” I didn’t see the point in lying. Not about fish eggs. Not anymore. “Turns out I don’t have the stomach for the stuff.”
“Well, it’s one of those things that doesn’t get better with age.” Felicity snatched the canapé out of my hand, discreetly depositing it on a passing serving tray. “You want to grab a burrito on the way home?”
I nodded.
It must have been a particularly pathetic gesture because right afterward, Felicity cupped her hand over my shoulder and asked, “Do you want me to take you home right now?”
I surprised both myself and her by shaking my head. “No, I want to stay right here and look at this photo a little while longer.”
For the first time, Felicity glanced over her shoulder to see what I’d been staring at all night.
“Oh,” she said, a single syllable that somehow managed to perfectly express both her surprise and confusion at the same time. “It’s…uh, nice. But there are other pictures you should check out. Ones I think you might like more. Like, did you know they have a photo of a ferus here? An actual alpha.”
“Does he have green eyes?”
The question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Felicity’s brows pulled together tight. “That’s an oddly specific question. Why would you think that?”
“No reason,” I answered quickly. “Just a wild guess.”
“Okay…but I don’t know. The picture was shot from behind, so you can’t see his face. But you can definitely tell he’s an alpha.”
Before I could answer yes or no, Felicity reached down and took my hand, pulling me up to my feet.
“I met some interesting media folks here tonight,” she mentioned while guiding me through the crowd toward the back of the exhibition hall.
“That’s nice.” And it was, but it was also no surprise. LA was the entertainment capital after all. I’d be shocked if there weren’t leaders from every corner of the industry in the building tonight.
“So, I was telling them how I was thinking of starting a podcast—”
“You are?” I broke in, blinking in confusion.
“Yeah, totally,” she said. “Don’t you remember we were throwing around the idea a couple of weeks ago. We even priced microphones online.”
I shook my head. None of this sounded familiar. “That wasn’t me.”
“You’re right!” she said, gently smacking my arm at the realization. “I did that with Jessica. Anyway, I was telling these media guys that I wanted to start a podcast, but I just needed a premise, and they suggested these photos, which I thought was brilliant.”
“I’m sorry.” I wasn’t following. “You want to do a podcast on this one exhibition?”
How would that even work? Would she just interview the gallery staff or the photographer? Or—
“Not exactly,” Felicity said. “I’m going to do one about the Wilds.”
Sure, she was.
One side effect of Felicity’s endless enthusiasm was a seemingly never-ending stream of these brilliant ideas. Last week, it was a food truck that only served store-bought candy bars. Today, it was a Wilds-themed podcast. Tomorrow, it would be something else.
She tightened her grip on my arm, pulling me closer like she was about to spill the juiciest secret she’d ever heard. “Did you know that the woman who took all these pictures was kidnapped by an alpha to be his love slave?”
“What?” I shot her a sideways glance, not buying it.
“It’s true,” she said. “I heard it straight from the mouth of the gallery’s curator.”
“I don’t believe it.” I shook my head. “Alphas kill people like us. They don’t help us get shows at the country’s top galleries.”
“Well, this one must have,” Felicity argued. “These photos had to get here somehow, after all.”
She was right. To take photos of the Wilds, you need to be in the Wilds. And no civilized person went over the Wall willingly.
But being taken by a ferus. Being carried through the Wilds in his arms. Being thrown on his bed and used night after night for his sexual pleasure. That was…
…the same erotic fantasy you’ve been dreaming of for the last month straight.
No—it was horrible. That’s what I meant.
Absolutely horrible.
“So you want to do a podcast about the photographer?” What was her name? “Hannah Carter?”
“It’s no longer a matter of wanting,” Felicity said. “I’m doing it. One of those media guys I was talking to already agreed to produce.”
“What guy?”
“His name is Josh, and apparently his dad is some higher up at a television studio. He’s been looking for a project that would prove to the old man that he’s ready for more responsibility.”
I thought it was far more likely he was looking for an easy way into Felicity’s bed.
“That sounds interesting,” I told her. “I hope you guys can work something out.”
“We already have,” Felicity said. “The details are all set. He’s paying the bills. I’m going to be the talent. Now all we need is a sound engineer to complete the crew.”
If I’d been talking to anyone else, I wouldn’t have believed it. But strange things had a way of happening around Felicity. Especially when men found themselves drowning in those big blue eyes of hers.
“Where do you find one of those?” I asked
Felicity slowly turned her head and pinned me with a pointed look.
Oh no.
I shook my head.
“You can’t be serious,” I said. “Felicity, I don’t know the first thing about being recording equipment.”
“You press the record button,” she said with an exaggerated shrug. “How hard could it be?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s more complicated than that.”
“So, we’ll watch a couple of online tutorials and figure it out together,” she said, unlinking her elbow in order to throw her arm fully over my shoulder. “Think of how much fun we’ll have, taking a road trip up to the Wall together, spending time outside LA. It’ll be like a vacation.”
“You want to go to the Wall? No one goes there.” There wasn’t anything up there but farm land, concrete, and military outposts.
“They will in a couple of weeks once this exhibition opens to the public,” Felicity said.
Stopping in the middle of the floor, she grabbed me by my shoulders and turned me to face her.
“Journalists, documentarians, TV crews—they’re all going to rush up North to cash in on the story, but we’ll already have beaten them to the punch. ”
As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. A podcast like that could generate a lot of revenue. But that didn’t mean I should be a part of it.
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I should probably stay in LA and look for a job.”
“This is a job,” she insisted. “I’m telling you, this guy already cut us a check.”
My eyes widened as she pulled the slip of paper out of her pocket as proof. Holy crap. She was telling the truth. This was actually happening.
“But..but…” I sputtered, searching for a reason to say no.
“Oh, come on, Sophia,” Felicity groaned. “For once in your life, take a risk. Don’t you want an adventure? Don’t you want to take a chance on something? Don’t you want to live big?”
Then, with a dramatic flourish, Felicity spun me around to face the massive print hanging on the back wall of the gallery.
Even if it had only been a simple landscape, the photo still would have been magnificent.
A lush green setting. A crashing waterfall kicking up a cloud of white mist on a crystal blue pond below.
A rocky shore. A few spears of golden rays piercing the shadows to light silver sparkles along the surface of the choppy water.
The setting was breathtaking.
But that wasn’t what anyone was looking at.
All eyes—mine included—were fixed on the figure standing in the water. Strikingly tall and broad-shouldered, he stood near the center of the pond, his hips submerged, his heavily muscled back exposed.
Even with only his back on display, it was impossible to deny the strength and ferocity of the creature. He was huge. Powerfully built. Every bit the wild, barbaric beast that had fueled our deepest fears.
Felicity was right. There was no doubt that the creature was anything other than an alpha. Even though the picture was nothing more than a static image, I could still feel its intimidating presence pouring through.
Still, the tension in my shoulders eased at the sight of the ferus.
This wasn’t my alpha.
Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could still tell. The hair was too long, and the color was wrong. His hips were too narrow and his shoulders too high. The musculature of his arms was off.
Disappointment mixed with relief, a strange contradiction that left me feeling even wobblier than before. What the hell was happening? Did I want my dream alpha to exist or not?
I couldn’t make up my mind.
All I knew was that I wouldn’t be able to sleep in peace again until I found out.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said, nodding my head even though I still couldn’t bring myself to turn away from the picture. “I’ll go with you to the Wall.”