Beast Tamer's Rebirth National Treasure Edition novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sierra’s tone was so cold that the line went quiet for a moment. Finally, Maggie stammered, “T-The producers want to shoot an introductory segment early. I don’t care where you are. Get back home now and start filming, or you can pay the ten- million penalty.”

Maggie knew that Sierra had donated most of her money and couldn’t possibly afford to buy out her contract. The thought of Sierra trying to break the deal and she would get chewed out by the execs just made Maggie nastier.

She sneered, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is a top variety show with serious backing. If you mess this up, ten million will be the least of your worries.”

After a cool pause, Sierra replied, “I never signed any updated contract about filming at my home. So I’m not in breach. If they want to sue me, tell them to try.”

Maggie instantly went quiet. The production team had changed the contract days earlier, insisting on shooting at Sierra’s place. But her home was private and she would not agree to that

In the end, Natalie quietly suggested just giving them the address. With so many identical buildings, they’d never figure out

which one was hers.

Maggie couldn’t help comparing Sierra to Natalie. They were sisters, but in Maggie’s eyes, Natalie was so easy to manage while Sierra was just defiant. She let out a cold laugh, thinking, Cancel the contract? Dream on!

“You’ve got one day,” Maggie snapped, clearly fed up. “Drop everything and come back to start filming.” Then she hung up.

As her screen went dark, Sierra looked over at Ethan and the others, who were still watching in confusion. She took a breath and said, “Looks like I’ll have to head back sooner than I thought

“I’ll drive you to the airport,” Ethan said right away.

“We’ll see you off, too,” Mark added.

Sierra had helped solve many lingering problems; neither the wildlife team nor the rescue experts wanted her to leave. They were eager to see her off.

When they reached the airport, Sierra looked at her oversized luggage and sighed.

*****

By the time Sierra got home, it was already ten in the morning. She’d called the pet shop ahead of time, so after landing, she went straight to pick up her dog, Payton.

After two weeks apart, Payton went wild with excitement the moment it saw Sierra. It started howling like crazy. Its howls set off every motion-sensor light in the building, floor by floor.

“Sierra, I missed you so much. You look even prettier in real life. Next time you go out, can’t you take me with you? The pet shop is so lonely without you.” Payton kept whining nonstop all the way home.

Sierra’s patience finally ran out. She clamped a hand over its snout.

Payton let out a confused “woof” and stared at her, puzzled.

“Keep it up,” she warned, “and no treats for the rest of the month

Payton’s amber eyes went wide with betrayal. It got the message loud and clear and didn’t make another sound, but Sierra could practically see the hurt all over its face.

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Chapter 12

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Just then, the elevator doors opened. Sierra spotted a crew camped outside her door with live-streaming gear. Hearing the noise, they immediately swung their cameras toward her.

Seeing Sierra step out loaded with bags, they hesitated for a second, and then rushed over and surrounded her.

Sierra went pale and instinctively backed up. In her previous life she’d been entertainment industry roadkill. Paparazzi always mobbed her on the red carpet. Even now, facing cameras again made her uneasy.

Payton tilted its head, shot Sierra a sharp look, and then glared the crew shoving cameras in her face. Suddenly, it bared its teeth and let out a fierce bark, trying to shoo them off.

Payton was a big husky to begin with, and thanks to its love of snacks, it was even bigger than average. Its bark was seriously intimidating; the crew actually jumped back in surprise.

WonderWild Live had already started streaming, and Sierra’s channel already had hundreds of thousands of viewers. The moment Payton barked and scared the staff, the chat exploded.

[Sierra, get out of showbiz! She wasn’t even home for filming, made the crew delay the stream a whole day, and now her dog’s harassing the staff? I feel bad for the crew.]

[Her dog’s going off and she doesn’t even apologize.]

[Look at Natalie and Shawn next door. Their Westies are so well-behaved. Sierra’s dog is just rude.]

[Word is Sierra used to live with the Sterlings. Maybe some distant relative? But she got kicked out about two weeks ago.]

Sierra couldn’t see the live chat, but she knew exactly how haters operated. She was sure Natalie had paid bots to flood her stream with negative comments.

Thinking that, Sierra smiled. She patted Payton’s head and told the crew, “Sorry, my dog is nervous around new people. Payton, apologize.”

Payton looked seriously put out, but when it saw Sierra’s calm smile, it caved. It let out a couple of half-hearted howls, which sounded more sulky than sorry.

The crew was stunned. They hadn’t expected the dog to actually be that smart. Feeling a little guilty, one staffer stammered, “It’s fine, Ms. Sterling. We showed up unannounced and started filming. We probably scared your dog.”

Payton shot them a side-eye with its eyes, and then howled again. “Just so you know, I wasn’t scared. But you spooked my

owner.”

Then it grabbed Sierra’s luggage in its mouth, trotted to the door scanned its face at the doggy-recognition lock, and locked the door.

Everyone was stunned. Sierra just strolled inside like it was no big deal. After slipping on her house slippers, she turned the still-stunned crew and said, “Don’t worry about taking your shoes off. Come on in.”

to

On her way back, Sierra had another look at the live-stream contract Maggie sent at the last minute. WonderWild Live had five guests total. Besides her and the Sterling siblings, the other three were genuine pet lovers.

Sierra had never posted photos of Payton on her own Twitter. Instead, she’d set up a separate account for it, which now had close to ten thousand followers.

Natalie couldn’t care less about pets. When she first moved back in with the Sterlings, she’d hated Payton so much that she tried to sneak up on it with a needle. But Payton bit her back.

Afraid of being caught for abuse, Natalie turned the tables and blamed the dog. Now that she was trying to play pet lover on camera, it was only a matter of time before she got exposed.

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