Verity

Feet buried in warm sand, I closed my eyes and let the ocean's rumble drown out the absurdity of my life. On the beach at sunset, there were no mysterious abilities, no archives with documents about some sort of group obsessed with werewolves. No men chasing me. No unreliable sidekick with adorable cheeks and questionable intentions. Only the grit of shells crushed down to fine grains over millennia and the consistency of waves pulled in and out by the tide.

My unreliable sidekick plopped down next to me and let out a long sigh that took two crashes of waves to complete. We'd come here after our harrowing incident at the archives to breath fresh sea air and decompress for a moment while we decided our next steps. Alek, it seemed, was struggling with the decompression bit.

"This is bad, Verity," Alek said, pounding a fist into the sand. "They're hiding more than I thought."

What he meant was, he could accept all kinds of secret-keeping in relation to me and my mom but keeping details of his own life obscure was a bridge too far.

I wanted to role my eyes at him, but I got where he was coming from. His name in context to mine—that made it personal in a way it couldn't have been before. Whatever he wanted to find out about himself, he wanted it to confirm that all was right in his world, not that his life was somehow interconnected with my messed up existence.

"Don't you think it's time, Alek?"

He followed my gaze out to the blood red horizon and the sun that balanced upon it. "Time for what?"

"You're upset that they're hiding something from you. Meanwhile, here I am seeking answers from Mr. Secrets, and you don't even see the irony."

He kept his lips in a thin line.

"That's it, huh? You're still not going to reveal a damn thing. Who were those men? Who owns that archive? How are you part of all this? How did you know about my mom?" Anger swelled up in me as he sat there silently. My belly still ached where my wolf had been kicked, but still I yearned to manifest her again, to be her—a free, wild being. I would dance into the waves and not care when sand stuck to my wet fur. The power of the water churning against my legs would invigorate me.

And then, just as I felt my most powerful, I'd turn on Alek and make him talk.

"What is it?" Alek asked, and I realized the image of Alek in fear for his life as I stood above him upon four sand-caked legs had made me laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

That snark earned another long sigh from him. "Look Verity, I want to tell you things, but its... it's more complicated than you can imagine. The truth is, we are in danger—both of us. These people aren't going to stop pursuing you. And now they know I'm helping you."

"So, you're in deep shit too. I get that, Alek. I just think I'd be better equipped to deal with all this if I wasn't flying blind half the time."

"I'm not doing this out of spite," he said. "I may be a shitty bodyguard, but I really am trying to protect you."

"Lies won't protect me."

Bending his knees, he wrapped his arms around them.

As we both took in the weight of my words, a seagull hopped nearby, dipped its head to retrieve some unseen treasure from the shore, then darted off down the beach. No cares beyond feeding itself and staying a safe distance from the distraught humans invading its beach.

I shivered, not so much from the cool breeze but from the knowledge that we were getting nowhere with this conversation.

"Haven't you ever had a secret so terrible that you didn't know how to bring it to light?" he asked me.

An interesting question. Maybe all was not lost. "Well, of course. I can form a living, breathing wolf out of my mind. And you're the only one that knows about it."

"There you go, then."

"You're the one who told me to keep it a secret though."

"How easy do you think it would be to tell?" He looked at me, shook his head and turned away again. "Do you just blurt it out to Flora while you're having tea? How would your father react if he knew?"

"I don't know. But if I thought telling them might help protect them for some reason—if their lives depended on that truth, then I'd spill everything. I'd shout this secret to the world if I thought it would do any good."

"Maybe you're a braver person than me then."

I frowned. As much as Alek aggravated me, I wasn't sure that was true. There was a reason he was helping me, at great risk to himself. And then there was the matter of the sixteen-year-old laboratory form that I had folded in my pocket—the one I'd stolen from the archives when he wasn't looking.

I still hadn't told him everything about that form.

"We need to go back," Alek said.

"Go back where?"

"To the archives."

"You've gotta be joking. They'll be watching it, waiting for us."

"We barely scratched the surface, Verity. There are answers there. I need to find them."

"We'll find another way. You must know someone we can ask questions of. Or another location? Maybe we—"

He hopped up. "I'm going to take you home."

"Why?"

"You're right. It's dangerous to go back there."

"Finally, you're thinking clearly."

"So, I'm going to go alone." He held a hand out to me. "I'll tell you what I find."

I let him pull me up. He released his grip, but I held on. The breeze seemed to part for us, as though our two bodies in proximity was a more powerful force than the wind. "This isn't a good idea, Alek."

He moved his thumb back and forth across the top of my hand. I could barely feel my legs. At any moment, I would buckle and collapse into him.

"You do deserve the truth, Verity. That's why I brought you to the archive. But you need to know—the truth will change everything. And it kills me to think about it."

His hand began to shake. Uncertain where this fear had sprung from, I pressed myself to him. He sighed, resting his head on the top of mine. We had never allowed each other this closeness. The connection felt as if an enchantment had been cast over us.

"You've been honest with me," he said. "You deserve the same."

The intake form sat like an anchor in my pocket, it's truth threatening to plummet me to the bottom of the ocean. I had not been honest with him. Not completely. Keeping what I knew was a choice, and maybe not the most moral one.

I could have just told him right then and there when I'd read the purpose of that form—the reason five-year-old me and six-year-old Alek were brought with my mother into that lab. We weren't there because we had a virus or needed any sort of medical treatment. No. The form had been quite clear. Our names, our ages, and our status: Noble Plan test subjects. Both of us.

"What?" he pulled away from me. "What did you just say?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Yes, you did. You said both of us were test subjects. Noble Plan test subjects."

I stumbled back.

This can't be.

"But it is," he said.

My legs began to shake so violently, it felt as though I would collapse and die right on the spot.

Or release my wolf.

Not wanting to do either, I instead did what I did best.

I ran.

___

Author's Note: A couple of big reveals in this chapter. First, what is the Noble Plan Experiment and why were both Verity and Alek involved in it?

And then, perhaps the biggest reveal: Alek heard Verity's thoughts... WHAT?  What is happening?

We are almost at the story's midpoint, so expect a LOT to happen in the upcoming chapters! Thank you for sticking with this story!