Wilder grips his laptop, the corner of his lip lifting. “It’s not my fault we’re on a time crunch, but you’ll still have breaks to go bake in the sun. If worse comes to worse, I can have a PA rent a tanning bed for you, princess.”
Jett growls and we all hold back laughter. He hates when we call him a princess. He really isn’t one when it comes down to it; the man was raised on a farm, but with everything he does to maintain his Most Eligible Alpha status, including a very careful, haircare, skincare, and diet/gym regime, not to mention his closet of designer clothes, it’s an easy way to tease him. Even if everything he does is a necessary part of his job as an actor.
“There’s also this thing called self-tanner,” Mateo says, tucking a bit of his textured nearly-black hair behind his ear. “Just make sure makeup is aware.”
Jett’s growl ceases but he still maintains an annoyed look on his diamond-shaped face with the perfect amount of dark blond beard that’s been freshly trimmed. “The real sun will be just fine, but hair and makeup will be made aware regardless.”
“Now that that’s settled,” Wilder says, motioning Jett with two fingers to look at something on his laptop screen. “I was talking to Augie about a small change to the dialogue of this first scene where your character Hugh meets Juliette at her bookstore.”
Jett’s gaze flicks from the screen to me. “Have you had a PA send the new pages out?”
I shake my head. “It was something recent that I wanted to run by you first.” The movie we’re shooting is a romcom inspired by a trip we took to a seaside town last year. I had a dream about a beautiful voluptuous Omega who’s a bookshop owner in the sleepy ocean town of Knotting Hill. Her world is turned upside down when a famous Alpha actor unexpectedly walks into her store and their unlikely romance ensues.
This role is natural for Jett, and I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t picturing Iris as the bookshop owner from the start. Molly is an amazing actor, and she was going to be a great Juliette and bring great press to our film due to her rising star after the last hit movie she was in, but she wasn’t the one I really wanted.
When she ended up pregnant, I was ecstatic. Not because she was sick, that was terrible, but because I knew she was happy about the unexpected baby and so was her new pack. It also meant we got to put in the call to have Iris replace her. When I found out she could accept on short notice, I was so excited I nearly passed out. Not that I’d tell any of my pack that, even if Mateo probably knew from the way I was practically vibrating.
Jett studies the line with the change, then looks up to me and Wilder. “That’s fine, I can remember that no problem. Looks like you didn’t change Iris’s so no need to send out the pages, you can just make her aware when she gets here.”
“Must be nice to have a photographic memory,” I tease.
“It’s a perk.” He grins, the charming smile that’s helped make him famous sparking across his features. If Jett and I had a sexual relationship beyond helping with ruts if needed, I’d be smelling like crushed basil right now. Honestly, I don’t know how actors work with him, especially Omegas. I’d go into heat the moment I got a whiff of his lemon scent, or at the very least perfume every time we did a scene together.
There were times, especially at the beginning of his career, that he tried to have relationships with his costars, but after a stalking incident that ended with a restraining order, Jett makes it clear that he won’t fuck his costars. Their relationships are to be professional only. He’s held true to that for years now. By proxy, our pack doesn’t sleep with anyone we work with either.
“I think we’re ready to call her in,” Wilder says as he looks over the set. “You’re good, Mateo?”
“Yep, all good.”
“Great. We can run through blocking and lines when she gets here, then we can shoot the first scene. If we stay on track the first few days we should be able to finish in the next four weeks as planned.”
“You’re speaking like a naive director fresh out of film school.” Mateo laughs.
“I’m trying to be optimistic,” he grouses. “If we go over we risk ruining our future production schedules for the rest of the year. And we’d lose money.”
Between all of us and a trust fund my parents left me when they passed away a few years ago, my pack isn’t hurting for money. But our Prime is a perfectionist and likes things to run like a well-oiled machine. And I get what he’s saying. It’s not like my trust fund could produce every film we do, and it would be bad to anger our investors and risk future productions, including relationships with crew and actors.
I grip Wilder’s arm, right over the black-and-grey ouroboros inked into his bicep, the same tattoo all of us wear on our right arm. I push out a wave of steady Beta calm through our bond, letting it settle over my pack, all of us still on edge from the reminder that even though I’m glad Iris is here, Molly’s exit right before production threw everything off.
We were supposed to start shooting a week ago but we were able to push a week to sign contracts and give Iris a bit of time to learn her lines and get fitted with wardrobe. Thankfully herand Molly are similar in size, though Iris is a bit curvier and taller than she is.
“It will be fine,” I assure them. “We’ve shot on tight schedules before,” I remind them. “Remember theKnot Good Newsproduction?”
Everyone groans. That was one of our first big films as a studio where we got outside funding. It was a dramatic heist-style movie. It was nightmare after nightmare. The cast of Alphas and Betas we chose to star with Jett ended up being complete assholes who partied every night and showed up hungover. There were several points during that shoot where we almost gave up on our dream of Genesis Studios being successful, but we pulled through and that film put us on the map.
“How could I forget?” Jett growls. “I still dream of punching half of those actor’s lights out.”
“Same,” Wilder grunts. “But, Augie is right. We’ve gotten through worse, and from everything I’ve heard of Iris, she’s a professional and great to work with. Everything will be smooth sailing.”
I dip my chin and smile at my pack. “It will be, I know it.”
Wilder smiles back. “I’ll get a PA to bring her to the set.”
Chapter three
Iris
I’vebeenonfilmsets for most of my adult life, but walking on to a soundstage will never get old. The people, the lights, the sounds, I love it. I usually even like the odd mixture of scents because they tell stories of those who filmed there before me.
