Page 79 of So I Fell for Bigfoot

“I’m so glad you’re going to be okay,” she said, taking a seat at the end of the cot. She motioned for me to sit on the other side. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Zoe nodded. “I’m not sure I remember everything, but I’ll try.”

“Use your superfan sleuthing skills.” I had to lighten the moment. Zoe was usually a badass woman who was ready to take over the world, and now she was on this portable cot looking frail and gray. There was no telling what would’ve happened to her if she’d been in that cave a moment longer.

“Whatever you can tell us will be helpful. We’ll talk to some of the others as well, but I’m particularly interested in your experience because you were dating one of Armand’s wolves.”

I shook my head. “I dodged a bullet.”

“It was never my intention to put you in danger, but I don’t think any of us comprehended how big this operation actually was,” Bibi said, then turned to Zoe. “Did they talk about this…operation in front of you?”

“Not exactly. They talked about business, but I always thought they were trying to impress me with money. They obviously had money, but had a weird association with it. Like they didn’t understand it’s value?”

“Someone had to be funding them.” Which meant this was bigger than we’d uncovered, unless the people who were working in that lab were the ones who had been giving them money.

“Did they say who?” Bibi asked.

“No, but they certainly knew how to impress us. They took us out to dinners, bought us clothes and jewelry, and we had open credit at the spa.”

“So you weren’t mistreated?” Bibi put her hand on her chest.

“Not until I wound up in that place.” Zoe shuddered. “I thought I had been drugged, but it turns out, I’d been drained.”

Bibi gasped. “Were you told what was happening?”

“Only that we were helping with a very important project.”

I looked at Bibi. “It sounds like they had a lot of help from modern wolves.”

“It definitely does.” She tapped her finger on her chin. “But who would benefit from such a dangerous scheme?”

Out of everyone involved with the show, I was the least qualified to speculate on any shifter conspiracy theories. “Do you think it has anything to do with Calista?”

Bibi’s face darkened. “I certainly hope not. Zoe, you’ve been very helpful. If you remember anything else, you know how to get in touch with me. And if you’re interested in a mate that doesn’t have a maniacal plan to resurrect packs of ancient beasts, we are casting for future episodes.”

“I think I’ve had my fill of shifters.” She laughed. “But thank you anyway, Bibi. If you do any other kind of show where you can make me fabulous, I’d definitely be in.”

“Oh, don’t give me any ideas.” Bibi squeezed Zoe’s hand before she got up and walked away.

It took everything I had to keep my eyes from falling out of my head before Bibi walked away. “Done with shifters? I’m sorry, what? Should I get the nurse over here? Because the Zoe I know was all about the wolf dick, before it turned into evil wolf dick.”

“I think that was enough to satisfy my curiosity.” She laughed. “Seriously, it was fun getting to live like I was on the show, but I have a life back home. A job. My family. This was just a fantasy.”

That hit me like a ton of bricks to the gut. On a day like today, I didn’t expect that to pack such a punch. “This is my life now. My family.”

“And that’s amazing.” She grabbed my hand. “I didn’t say it to make you feel bad. Sunset Springs is awesome. I’ve loved my time here, and that you’re part of the show. It’s not like you’re just a contestant. You’re more than that. You belong here. Not to mention, you’ve fallen head over heels for Lars, who might I say, is hot as fuck as a human.”

There was my girl. “He shifted back to squatch.”

Her lips curled into a shit-eating grin. I didn’t need have a medical degree to be confident that she was going to make a full recovery. “You better write more stories about what he does to you with that tail. I might be headed home, but I still want to live vicariously through you.”

thirty-four

Bibi

I talked to every single human and shifter recovered from that horrible cave and not one of them had even heard of Calista, much less seen her.

There was a piece of me that felt like we’d chased the wrong tail. Of course, we stopped Leif and Armand from their murderous—and downright apocalyptic—plan. Armand and his wolves had been conspicuously absent from our raid, which was a concern. But I was confident that we’d dismantled enough of the operation for there to be no way for them to continue.

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