Page 26 of Chosen By The Grizzly

Please callie, this will really help my career

Id do the same for you

I snort out a laugh. Like hell she would. Then I tap out a message:

Linz, I love you because you’re my sister. But you don’t have an altruistic bone in your body. Let’s be real about that.

Also, are you kidding me??? After the bear and me saved your life yesterday???

I dump my phone on the nightstand and get out of bed. I cast around for something to wear. My hiking gear is lying in a heap on the floor. It’s probably all muddy and gross. Not very appealing. But there’s a shirt, hanging over the back of a chair. I pick it up and instinctively press it to my face. It smells of fresh laundry, andhim. Hope he won’t mind me borrowing it. I pull it over my head, and it goes down to my knees.

My phone pings again:

Altru-whatever. You don’t understand Callie. He’s dangerous. I’m worried about you being alone with him.

Then she’s calling me. I hit cancel.

“Dangerous, huh?” I look around for my underwear.

There’s another ping.

Fine, if you won’t answer my call, at least watch this!!!:

There’s a link from YouTube.

I toss the phone on the bed in annoyance, but somehow I must’ve touched the play button, and the video starts up.

There’s a bunch of soundbites from different news anchors, coming one after the other, like bullets:

“Trentino’s promising career ends in shame.”

“Jason Trentino seriously injures co-star on set.”

“Trentino assault charge mysteriously ‘disappears’… and so does Trentino.”

“Jay T goes AWOL with career in tatters.”

I grab the phone. There, on the screen, is Jason. But not as I know him. His hair is shorter and his beard is shaved off. He’s bare-chested and wearing some kind of warrior outfit, and he’s in the midst of what looks like a film set of ancient Rome… and he’s going after some guy.

His fist is raised and he looks as mad as hell. The other guy has his hands raised in self-defense, but it looks like Jason is about to beat the crap out of him.

My heart lurching, I stab at the screen. I’ve seen enough.

Then something catches my eye: the golden statue sitting on a shelf in a corner of the room. I was wondering why it looked so familiar.

Because it’s not a statue, doofus!It’s a trophy. A famous actor’s trophy.

Jason Trentino is a famous actor. An A-lister.

“But you knew that already, didn’t you?” I mutter to myself.

I just didn’t want to accept it, because I wanted so badly to believe he was my mate.

He’s not my mate, because he’s a big deal. A Hollywood star.

And soon he’ll go back to his A-List life.

Last night was just a beautiful dream.

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