Pleasing the Shifter: The Complete Series (BBW Paranormal Bear Shape Shifter Romance)
Read Pleasing the Shifter: The Complete Series (BBW Paranormal Bear Shape Shifter Romance) Online
Authors: Ellen Dexter
PLEASING THE SHIFTER: THE COMPLETE SERIES
Ellen Dexter
Copyright © 2015 Ellen Dexter
All rights reserved.
This book is brought to you DRM-free. So please enjoy any way you wish.
This is a work of hot, steamy, unadulterated fiction. All details come from the imagination of the author and any similarities to actual people, places or events is entirely coincidental.
This book is dedicated all those who desire.
Pleasing The Shifter
Hope Whitehall sat in the waiting room, once again sandwiched between the rest of the girls there for the audition. Some sat quietly, their eyes closed, but most recited their lines over and over like broken robots. A hundred girls all there for the same part.
She knew her lines cold. The auditions she gave weren’t always perfect; she was still learning her craft after all. But she knew she was better than 95% of these girls. The way they repeated their lines, stilted and no emotion, told her everything she needed to know.
By all accounts she should be getting the parts ahead of them. The parts she was usually trying for were just bit parts in TV shows, not oscar-worthy films; she had the talent to compete with them, she knew she did.
The response was always the same though: ‘We love you. You’re a great performer. But your look just isn’t right for this one.’
Your look. That was code for ‘You need to be practically anorexic to make it in this business.’ No fat girls allowed. Curvy girls need not apply.
But she kept going anyway. Hope had a dream and she knew you didn’t achieve your dreams by sitting around doing nothing. If she put enough effort into it she knew one day she would catch her break. If she didn’t run out of money first anyway. At least if she didn’t have any money to eat she would lose some weight.
There was always a bright side to life.
A mousy woman, wearing thick-framed glasses that were too big for her face, came through the door and all the wannabe actresses looked up. The woman looked at her clip board. “Hope Whitehall?”
Hope stood up. “That’s me.”
The woman looked at her, made no attempt to disguise her gaze across Hope’s entire body, and raised her eyebrows. “OK then,” she finally said. “Right this way. Ms. Whitehall.”
The audition room was the same as the rest of them. She’d been in dozens of these situations. A fold out table in front of a makeshift stage. Three people sat at the table talking to each other. They didn’t even notice she came in. The man in the middle was the casting director. She’d seen him before.
In his hand he held a copy of her headshot and her short resume. There wasn’t much on there to impress. A few commercials, extras in movies, a lead in a hometown play from back home. In his other hand was a red marker. She knew what that was for. On the table in front of him was a discarded stack of headshots with big red X’s on them. It didn’t take a genius to know what that meant. She’d collected her fare share of big red X’s. But it didn’t stop her from going on.
Hope took a deep breath and took her place in front of them. She’d done this so many times she didn’t even get nervous anymore. You could say she was even starting to feel comfortable doing these things. That was something at least.
The casting director finally looked up at her. He frowned, looked down at her headshot, then back at her. He whispered something to the mousy lady from before who sat next to him. She replied and he shrugged then finally looked at Hope and gave a forced smile. “Ms. Whitehall?” he said.
Hope put on her best bubbly, happy-go-lucky face and said, “Hi! We meet again.”
“Sorry?” he said, squinting his eyes, fumbling with the red marker.
“I auditioned with you last week. For CSI: Animal Forensics.”
“Oh right. Of course. Nice to see you again.” He didn’t recognize her at all. Who could blame him though. He saw hundreds of girls, all hopeful they’d be the one. He looked back down at the stack of headshots of girls that were still to come and started rifling through them, giving no attention to Hope.
Hope cleared her voice. “Should I start then?”
He looked up, startled like he’d forgotten she was there, still fumbling with that damned red marker. “Please go ahead, Ms–” He looked down for her headshot but he’d lost it in the stack already. The mousy lady leaned over and whispered in his ear again. “Ms. Whitehall,” he finally managed, without looking up.
Her heart just wasn’t in it. But she did her best. It wasn’t much of a scene. Six lines. Six measly lines that she’d rehearsed in the mirror for hours. Now that she was here it was obvious what the answer would be. But she still did her best.
When she finished her audition, she stood there waiting for him to dismiss her, watching him rifle through the stack of papers. Papers that represented so many dreams. It almost wasn’t fair: that one man got to decide the fate of so many dreams. One man and his red permanent marker.
After she’d stood there for what seemed like an eternity, unsure if she should speak up and say she’s finished or something. Maybe say ‘The End’ then curtsy. She hadn’t tried that yet in an audition. Finally, the mousy lady whispered to him again and he looked up and forced a smile to her. “Thanks, we’ll let you know,” he said. But his marker was already moving, marking the dreaded red X across her cheek, and putting her in the pile with the rest of them.
It was no surprise. But it always felt the same. Like she was climbing up a hill made of sand and every step she took, the sand would give way and force her even farther down. But she was determined to keep going. “Thank you for your time,” she said and walked passed them to the door, ready to make the dreaded walk of shame past the prying eyes of her peers.
But before she was out the door the director spoke up. “Ms. Whitehall?”
She whirled around. He’d made a mistake? Maybe his red pen marked the X simply out of habit from doing it so many times. “Yes?” she said, hopeful.
“I do remember you. You’re good. You’re a good actress. Better than most of the girls I see. But this part…” He was searching for the words.
Hope helped him find them. “I don’t have the right look for it?”
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Yeah. Not the right look. But we’ll let you know if something else comes up that would work for you, okay?”
Outside, at the bus stop, she thought about what he said. It was a compliment after all; and it was progress. He seemed genuine when he said it. Like he meant it. Of course he meant it. But compliments wouldn’t pay her rent. And right then that was what she needed more than anything. She was already a month overdue with the rent and going to her apartment had become something of a game where she did her best to avoid her sleazy landlord. It was a game she couldn’t keep up much longer though.
“Ms. Whitehall?”
Hope turned around to find the mousey woman from the audition. “Did I forget something?” Hope said. She checked and still had her purse with her. No money in it of course.
“No,” the woman said. “My name is Gina. I run a temp agency on the side.”
“Ok.”
“I have a job that you might be perfect for.”
“I already have a part-time job waiting tables in Uptown. And the rest of my time is spent… well, it’s spent doing this.”
“Yes, I know. I looked at your file. I’ve seen how many auditions you’ve done. It’s impressive.”
“Impressive is one word you could use to describe it. What would be impressive to me is if I actually landed a part.”
“I think you’re good,” Gina said. “And that casting director thinks so too. I’ve never seen him say what he said to anyone. In fact he usually makes girls cry by telling them how terrible they are.”
“That’s nice but if he gave me a job it would be even nicer.”
“Yes, well, this job I have to fill, it’s kind of like an acting job.”
“What, it’s a play? A commercial? What do you mean it’s ‘kind of like acting’? If it’s for one of those people that dresses up like a Disney character and hands out flyers in Times Square for minimum wage I’m definitely not interested.”
Gina snorted and it made her large glasses fall down her nose. She pushed them back up. “No, this job is for a personal assistant.”
Hope wrinkled her forehead and looked over her shoulder for her bus. She could see it a few blocks away. “That’s not an acting job.”
“No, not exactly. But do you have any experience as a personal assistant?”
“None at all.”
“Okay, so if you take the job then you would have to act like you’re a personal assistant.” She offered a sheepish laugh.
Hope wasn’t amused. “Thanks but I don’t have the time, the experience, or the interest. And that’s my bus. So, see ya later.” She turned as the air breaks from the bus pulsed to a stop.
“Just take my card if you change your mind.” The woman thrusted a business card over Hope’s shoulder.
She snatched it and got on the bus, fumbling in her purse for her bus pass.
While she was digging around for the pass, the woman yelled to her from the street. “It pays very well.” And right before the door closed she added, “And you have the perfect look for it.”
Hope would usually try to enter her building with some semblance of stealth to avoid the landlord, Hector. For a while she was going up the fire escape directly to her window but the last time the thing had almost fallen down so she stopped that. Today she was in no mood for theatrics though and she just went in the front door, not bothering to sneak around in case he was lurking in the building. She was perpetually late on the rent and this month was even worse than normal.
Just her luck, Hector was coming down the stairs just as she was going up. Great. His trademark toothpick stuck between his gold teeth as usual.
Might as well take a direct approach this time. “I’m really sorry Hector. I don’t have it right now but I’m going to real soon. I’m getting paid tomorrow.”
“It don’t matter,” he said, stopping on the stairs above her, leaning forward, not even bothering to hide that he was trying to look down the front of her shirt.
It didn’t matter? That wasn’t like him. He usually hounded her relentlessly for the money while he wasn’t suggesting she fuck him to make it up to him. “It doesn’t matter? What do you mean?”
“Maybe we could have worked something out you know? With you always being late with the rent. And me, you know I like thick girls.” He grinned, flashing the gold at her.
Hope shook her head and looked away.
“But it don’t matter now.” He brushed past her on the way down the stairs.
She turned and called after him as he hurried down the stairs. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?”
He held his hand up and just kept walking.
When she got to her door she found out why it didn’t matter. It was obvious what the piece of paper tacked to her door was before she even read it. An eviction notice.
She slammed the door behind her, threw her bag down, and crumpled the paper up into a tight ball, squeezing it hard in her fist. “Goddamnit!”
It was going to be impossible to find another apartment now. This place was a total shit hole and she couldn’t even afford it as it was. Now she didn’t have money for a deposit, or first month’s rent. Goddamnit. What the hell was she going to do? Giving up on her dream of being an actress wasn’t an option. But she needed money bad.
First she was going to do her daily ritual of checking the new audition listings. Something about it always made her feel better. Like there was always a chance that the audition she was looking at could be the one. She opened her laptop and sat at the kitchen table to load up the page that had all the listings but the internet wasn’t working.
Awesome. After she reset the router and it still wasn’t working she called the internet company ready to bitch them out but the lady informed her that her service had been cutoff for failure to pay.
Hope sat at the table shaking her head, staring at the blank screen on her laptop, refusing to cry. This day was one of the worst she could remember. One more failed audition, getting evicted and she couldn’t even look for work if she wanted to because she didn’t have internet.
She got her purse to see how much cash she had. The card the lady gave her at the bus stop fell out as she was digging for the emergency twenty-dollar bill she knew she’d stashed at the bottom. Then she remembered she spent it on food the week before.