Page 35 of Luna Trials
Aspen
“Mic check,” the attendant spoke into the little speaker he clipped on my shirt, brushing my hair over the cord as I adjusted my seat on the round chair in the center of the trifold green walls.
Cameras moved on either side, carried by wheels and positioning themselves with black lenses pointed at me. In the dim light behind them sat Molly with two other human males at a table. I knew Molly was the PR consultant, but she wore too many hats here. It was making me nervous as I thought back through our interactions so far.
Actually, everything was making me anxious.
Having the cameras pointed at me made this feel real and not some fancy vacation like I was imagining. I shouldn’t have eaten so much for breakfast. My stomach was churning.
Relax,my wolf reminded me. I was working her up too and she couldn’t understand why.
I forced myself to smile, pretending this was a job interview. Though I’d never done one of those before. Alpha Derek assigned our roles in the pack and when I requested to change from the custodial team at the prison to the Education Director when Ellen retired, he just grunted an affirmative at me.
Ha. I thought I was nervous then.
“Aspen from Nuva Pack,” the human male with thick rimmed glasses said.
I nodded, wiping my palms on my skirt and hoping the dark material wouldn’t show the sweat stains.
“Act normal. We want to see that sweet personality of yours shine.” Coming from anyone other than Molly, those words might have sounded kind.
I didn’t know how to tell them I wasn’t normally this soft-spoken orsweetlike the fans were saying. But I guess everyone acts a little differently in a situation like this.
“Ready.” The director nodded. I tried to get a good look at him in his seat behind the cameras since I was sure I’d be seeing him a lot. All I got was the whiff of some sort of bird and the silhouette of willowy limbs. I wasn’t a huge avian person so I didn’t want to offend him by guessing wrong. But I assumed he was some kind of crow shifter.
“3, 2, 1.” A crewmember clapped a production slate.
The spotlight blinded me for a moment and I blinked, clearing my vision, but kept up my smile.
“Aspen, thank you for joining us today,” Molly’s voice was crisp and clear. No wonder they used her for the interviews. “Can you tell us a little more about yourself? What made you decide to come to the show?”
Was this a trap?She said to act natural, but the only way I could answer that was to lie. There weren’ta lot of shifters in the room, but I didn’t want to be sniffed out so soon.
“My Alpha thought I’d make a good contestant,” I panic answered, not sure if it was okay to say that I didn’t want to be here.
“And why is that?” the male next to Molly asked.
Hell if I know.“I’m young, unmated, and I stay out of trouble.” Wow. I didn’t realize how boring I sounded. I could tell them I loved to sleep, but that would make me sound even worse.
Molly grinned, propping her elbows on the table. “Is that a problem in your pack?”
My eyes briefly flicked to the cameras as I imagined Alpha Derek watching. This was not the line of questioning that put my pack into a good light. “Not at all. Nuva Pack boasts some of the most disciplined shifters in the region. We need order and control to maintain Holton Penitentiary.”
Molly’s grin widened like a predator going in for the kill which was a hard look to pull off for a human. “I’ll be honest, we love the contradiction. A sweetheart like you coming from a maximum-security shifter prison. What is it like living there?”
I guess I could see how that angle would bring in viewers, but this wasn’t about me. Alpha Derek would kick my ass if I put down Trenton or any member of my pack. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck and I tried to ignore it.
“I grew up there. It’s home.” Even I could smell the wisp of the lie.
“That’s nice.” The human male with glasses nodded. “You have to tell us what it’s like teaching all those dangerous beasts.”
“Beasts?” My eyebrows shot up to my forehead. We called ourselves beasts, but coming from a human, it sounded like a derogatory term.
Molly waved the insult away and the cameras moved, changing angles. “As you know, Holton Prison is the only institution of its kind where dangerous shifters are sent. These are the worst of the worst. The criminals who can’t blend into modern society. Yet here comes you, this pretty little thing, who teaches the GED program for them.”
She was painting a picture I didn’t like. True, there were some shifters who deserved to be in there, but others like Clara and Bishop weren’t all that bad. They got harsher punishments just because they were shifters. Tell me how that was fair.
I could feel my blood pressure rising and I struggled to stay in control of my breathing. Now wasn’t the time to lash out.