Mastered by the Rogue Wolf

“We have a wolf problem.” Tessa Williams looked at the
whiteboard we’d christened The Bracket and frowned. The Bracket had been a
mainstay of both seasons of The Real Werewives. It was the place where
we strategized how we’d introduce our Werewives to their potential mates.

“We always have a wolf problem.” Wolves were good like that.
Trouble erupted in packs like little tornadoes, and the Sawtooth pack had had
more than their fair share. I squinted at the board to figure out if anything
had changed since I’d last checked the standings. “What makes today different?
It ends in Y, right?”

She shook her head but at least I got her to laugh. “Smart
ass. You’ve been hanging out with Luna too much.”

“I mean, we built the entire series on the premise of having
wolf problems—”

“Right, but last season, I had much more control over the
contestants. They were all Alaska Bloodhounds, and Coach Phelan would’ve kicked
their asses right off the team if they’d caused trouble for any of the
Werewives. And the only thing harder won than a fated mate is a spot on a
professional football team. This season, we’ve had to cast a wide net to bring
in wolves that the Werewives haven’t already had a lifetime to form an opinion
about. I have some new guys who are really interested in finding mates. Maybe
too interested. After the attack on Luna’s grandmother, I don’t feel
comfortable having any new-to-us wolves cozy up with our Werewives until the
Montana pack is taken care of once and for all.”

Rage thumped in my chest every time I thought of the Montana
pack. The first time I came here, they’d threatened to kill Tessa’s daughter
Jasmine. On Christmas Eve. Not exactly a warm welcome. And when they didn’t
succeed, they abducted me out of my van to lure Jasmine and her mate, Marcus,
into another fight. So if anyone wanted a front-row seat to watch those asshole
wolves get what was coming to them, it was me. But I’d have to get in line,
because the Montana pack had made many enemies in Sawtooth Forest.

I refused to let them take The Real Werewives away
from me. This show had become my entire life. I considered the Werewives my
friends, and Tessa my mentor and honorary big sister.

“So what do we do? Go on hiatus from filming until the pack
takes care of the problem?”

As a human, there wasn’t much I could do to help the pack
besides provide surveillance. It was just another day at the office when I
showed up somewhere with my camera. I’d gotten in the habit of capturing much
more than just happily ever afters. We’d always filmed B-roll of the
townspeople and the locations we used for our dates, but after the latest
attack, I’d paid special attention to the shifters who didn’t have the best
reputation in Granger Falls, just in case I caught something that put all the
pieces together and gave the Sawtooth pack a reason to drive these bastards out
of here. Not that I’d blow my cover to Tessa. She had skin in this game too,
but if she thought I was in danger, she’d yank me out before I could protest.
So if I had any chance of catching the Montana wolves in action, I had to play
it cool.

“I could always work on shelter adoption videos in the
meantime, if that’s your plan,” I added. As long as my camera didn’t get
confiscated.

“We’ll still work on the shelter videos.” She took a quick
look in the mirror. I wasn’t used to seeing her with her hair down, or wearing
anything other than jeans and a sweatshirt, which was pretty much our crew
uniform. I was totally out of my element, dressed up for the showing of Luna
and Rick’s episode. It was just a rough cut, and we also planned to film more
tonight to close out the show.

No mirror needed to see the wheels turning inside Tessa’s head.
“Sounds like you forgot to add the but,” I said.

Tessa turned to me, head tipped, sizing me up. “You’ll be
our next Werewife.”

“Me? No. I don’t have what it takes to be a Real Werewife.”

“Says everyone who comes on this show.” She shook her head
and laughed. “You should know you’re in freak out stage right now. You just hit
it a little earlier than the contestants because you know what lies ahead.”

“Which is exactly why I don’t want to be on camera.” My
protests were for naught. Tessa Williams always got what she wanted. I usually
considered it a badass boss trait, until we didn’t want the same thing.

And right now, we really did not want the same thing.

“Stephanie, you’ve worked so hard, both seasons, to make
sure everyone got their happily ever after. So many of the couples have asked
me after their episode was finished what they could do to thank you. I used to
tell them you were just doing your job, until you took care of me and my
family. Now I’ve been trying to figure out how to thank you, and I
couldn’t decide between making you an executive producer or giving you an
episode.”

“The promotion sounds fantastic. I’ll take one of those.”  Tessa always told the Werewives they could
back out if they changed their minds. She used to try to hold them to their
contracts, but that proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

“I have a proposition for you.”

I knew that grin. The famous Tessa Williams gotcha grin,
honed from years of working with Continental Football Association players. It
always blossomed the moment she had the story in the bag. “If you’ll be the
next Real Werewife of Sawtooth Forest, I’ll make you next season’s executive
producer. You get to call all the shots. If these new guys check out, you could
be up and running almost immediately.”

There was no way she didn’t know I was salivating at the
thought of my own season. “Okay. Say I do it. What will you do next
season?”

“I’ll go back to Alaska and spend some time with my
husband.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “The poor guy gives up his head
coaching job in Boise—”

“Say it—he quit before he got fired.” The Black Diamonds had
a horrible first season with Coach Cole Williams at the helm. He was a great
coach, but he didn’t have the talent on the team needed to execute his vision. Being
a coordinator for the Bloodhounds was a much better fit for him.

“Anyway, he took a demotion to take the job with the
Bloodhounds so he could spend more time with me. And ever since he arrived,
I’ve been in Idaho working with the Werewives. We can have more than one show
going at once. That’s how empires are born.”

She’d taken my next argument down at the knees, that soon
I’d be headed back to Alaska with her to work on the next season, but I didn’t
care because she was talking dirty to me. Most people thought my ambition
bordered on obsession, but Tessa was a kindred soul. She saw potential. Could I
break my one rule, that I’d never go in front of the camera, if it meant my
dream would come true?

I knew all too well what it felt like to love and lose. I had
no plan to do it again. And The Bracket was a reminder that not every Werewife
got a happy ending.

The viewers never saw the late nights we spent with the
unsuccessful contestants. The times we let them cry on our shoulders until they
had nothing left to give, or felt the heartache when they went home to the
lives they’d been so desperate to change.

Those were the ladies I identified with. But I wouldn’t let
Tessa know that. Because I didn’t plan on spilling my guts in the confessional.

I totally sounded like a Werewife.

“And if I say no?”

She shrugged. “We go on hiatus. I can’t put anyone in
danger. We might lose these new guys, and any potential Werewives. Patience
isn’t their strong suit.”

“Can I think about it?” Maybe with time, she’d forget about
her proposition. Or the pack would take care of the Montana wolves, and we’d be
back to business as usual.

“How fast can you think about it? I was hoping to start
tonight.”

“Tonight?” It was impossible to beat Tessa at her own game.
As she liked to say, she wrote the book on being a Real Werewife.

“Why not? You look amazing, and Javier won’t be able to
resist you.”

Javier. The only thing more tempting than becoming an executive
producer was getting to know the gorgeous wolf who made the long hours filming
his pack brothers fly by better. We’d spent a lot of time together in the past
few weeks, and I had fun flirting with him.

I liked it even better when he flirted back.

I’d kept my distance purposely because we’d be saying
goodbye at the end of the season, and I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.
Wolves had a tendency to think in terms of forever, and I wasn’t that type of
woman.

“Ah, there it is.” Tessa grinned in satisfaction. “I keep
hearing about how you turn pink every time Javier’s mentioned, but this is the
first time I’ve seen it for myself. Didn’t think pink would be your color, but
it looks good on you.”

“Thanks, I think.” There was a huge problem with her plan,
because there was no way I could make him think I was his forever mate.