When a joy ride in a heat limo shatters the peace of small town, beta reporter Karen Hillcrest sets out to destroy the career of the limo’s owner - Foster Camden, a well respected heat helper to the elite packs in Port Haven.
During the interview, Foster recounts his experiences. A omega’s first heat. An older alpha concerned about satisfying his young scent match. A pack grappling with their omega’s chronic illness. A single omega who tries to go it alone.
Karen learns some surprising facts about heat, but it might not be enough to derail her plans.
Interview with a Heat Helper
by Amy Nova
THIS INTERVIEW ORGINALLY APPEARED IN “BETA BETTER BEST” MAGAZING BY CURRENT EVENTS COLMUNIST, KAREN HILLCREST.
A perfect summer day.
The sun feels sharper in Exitor. I want to believe it’s because of the pristine air and the idyllic way of life we preserve and protect. Every time I come home, I feel I can see things more clearly.
Exitor Town Square Park is quiet today. It feels like visiting your great-aunt as she convalesces. It’s hushed, purposefully sedate. Little orange flags flutter on the temporary fencing surrounding the new sod that was laid down this week. I choose to see it as a nurturing hug, rather than a sentinel standing vigil over a spot of desecration.
Foster Camden respects the fence with its flags, skirting it as he walks across the square, but perhaps not with the same sort of reverence our neighbors would have. He sticks to the paving stones instead of cutting across the grass. I’m not sure I would clock him as an alpha at this distance, but as he gets closer, I can see it in the shadows of his profile, like the power and the danger are just tucked into his breast pocket.
He brings me a coffee, setting the olive branch dead center in the middle of the table, right next to my microphone setup.
“Three pumps of sugar-free vanilla, 2% milk,” he declares, reciting my preferred coffee order not as a threat—the hunter knowing his prey—but more as proof that he did his research. I tell him I’m surprised he agreed to meet me here, of all places. He cocks his head as if that’s the weirdest thing a beta has ever said to him.
FOSTER: I am a victim of this too.
KAREN: But you took responsibility? Paid for the repairs even?
FOSTER: That’s what business insurance is for.
KAREN: So you insure against your vehicles being used for crime?
Foster’s lips twitch. I can’t be sure if he’s mocking me, or if he just finds the whole situation hysterical. As I reported three weeks ago, students from Spartan Prep and Caduceus University took a joyride in a heat limo, doing donuts in Town Square Park, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage and the shattering of the veil of beta bliss that Exitor is known for.
FOSTER: I agreed to come chat with you, Karen, because I’d rather you call me a whore to my face than in black and white.
KAREN: I never called you a whore.
FOSTER: You didn’t. You called me “a heat helper, little more than government-sanctioned sex paid for by our tax dollars.” We both know the word “whore” would have been edited out, anyway. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings in our conversation when we cleared up inaccuracies in your article.
Foster taps the microphone, which was here at his suggestion. He had requested corrections to the article I posted both in the Exitor Record and the longer thought piece in ‘Beta Better Best’ magazine. We had been going back and forth for quite a while. Coffee in Exitor Town Square, with a microphone, was the compromise.
KAREN: So you don’t get paid to have sex?
FOSTER: Do you want to pay me for sex?
KAREN: If this is how this interview is going to…
FOSTER: You walked right into that one. Sorry. Sex work has always been legal in Port Haven. It’s a thriving industry and is safest when it’s regulated and transparent. But being a heat helper isn’t about the sex.
KAREN: According to your website, not only do you sell sexual encounters, you rent heat limos and other accommodations. It was one of your limos that tore up our park here.
FOSTER: And this is exactly why we are here today. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of heat.
KAREN: What’s there to misunderstand? Heat is a biological drive to have as much sex as possible. In your product listing for heat limos, you lay out all the features and amenities for mobile sex.
Foster nods thoughtfully for the longest time. When he speaks, he has the patient vibe of a second-grade teacher. He is surprisingly not condescending.