Alek

During the time I'd spent with Verity, I'd been guided by a certainty that had now come completely undone. A Verity wolf did exist, yet her body itself remained untransformed. I had witnessed the beast in corporeal form, then merge with her seamlessly, two bodies becoming one. Norvin had never mentioned such a thing was possible. Did he know? Would he have been as shocked as I was, or could I add Verity's incredulous state to the growing list of things Norvin had kept from me.

We trudged back to camp with another half-truth to tell the others.

"I wandered off to pee," she said to them. "Yes, I did have a blackout. A short one. When I came to, I was disorientated and started walking, thinking I was headed back to camp when it was in the opposite direction. I got lost. Thank God, Alek found me before I accidentally walked off a cliff. What a hero!"

In their weariness and relief, they dismissed Verity's sarcasm and bought our concocted story. I pulled her aside after everyone else had gone back to bed. "We'll head to the car first thing in the morning. Tell everyone we think it's the best decision for your health."

"What?" Her human eyes flickered in the moonlight, and I imagined the barest glimpse of a wolf hiding behind them. "No, we're finishing this fucking treasure hunt. I'm getting my Gold Rush Revenge loot even if it kills me."

Or someone else. I clenched my jaw, ready for an inevitable fight.

"Be reasonable. Everything's changed now." I said, my voice lowered so only she would hear me. "We have to figure out what's happening to you."

"I already did that while we were walking back here. Turns out, I'm a psychic werewolf."

"Shh," I nudged her farther away from the tents. "Don't let them hear you say that word."

"Why not?" She scrunched up her face, but still obliged me with a whisper. "It's your idea to keep my status a secret from everyone else, not mine."

"That's for your safety, as well as for theirs."

"But you won't tell me why that is."

"I... I can't tell you. You need to trust me."

"I don't need to do anything regarding you. You're keeping secrets—secrets that involve me! But I should just look past that and pretend everything's okay?"

"I didn't say that. Everything is not okay."

"Look, Alek." She tapped me with an accusatory finger, then lay her hand flat against my chest, her gaze fierce and unforgiving. I hated how much I loved having her this close. She knew it too—that part burned the most.

"We're going to finish this treasure hunt," she continued. "We're heading back to LA at the previously arranged time and you will tell Janene that I've got my shit together, so there's no reason not to continue the tour."

My body tensed. Verity may be some sort of psychic werewolf, but she was a popstar first and foremost. "After all that has happened, the tour is what you're most worried about?"

"I'm worried about many things. The tour, my father's inability to handle his own finances. The fact that I'm a wolf-human, obviously."

"A werewolf."

"A psychic werewolf who can project myself as a wolf using only the power of my incredible mind."

"We don't know yet what exactly is happening."

"You mean you don't know. I'm living it, so my opinion holds the most weight. Mainly though..." She patted my chest like I was a dog that needed to be constantly acknowledged to prevent it from running into traffic. "What I'm most worried about is you."

"Me?"

"Yes. You're dishonest and untrustworthy. I don't know if you want to help me or harm me."

"I don't want to harm you." Unless it's necessary.

"I don't believe that—not completely—and there's my issue. You're the only person who seems to understand what's happening to me. Well, besides Chip, and we can both agree he doesn't count anymore."

Chip, who she'd slept with. Chip, who thought he could waltz in, morph into a werewolf, and claim her as his. "He never counted."

"Do you see my dilemma? I need answers and you won't give them to me but also you want me to trust you and stop asking questions. No reason, just because. You're Alek and that should be enough."

"I don't understand what you are or what's happening to you Verity. That's the truth."

"Also the truth: you assumed I was a werewolf. A Chip-styled bone crunching, howl at the full moon werewolf."

I supposed there was no sense in denying it now. "The moon doesn't have quite as much influence as folklore would have you imagine, but... yes."

She nodded. "How do you know werewolves are a thing that exists outside of horror tales and Hollywood?"

Here it was, the moment of truth. And I was about to deliver another half-assed response. "I saw one. When I was a little kid. Ever since then, I've tried to learn as much as I can."

"Why?"

"The one I saw... it was dangerous. Violent. People are at risk around them."

Her eyes widened as her head tipped back. As she peered up at the night sky, perhaps searching for the moon with its fabled control over her, her hand, still pressed against my chest, heated like she'd been holding it up to a raging fire.

"Why did you expect that I, Verity Jayne of all people, was a werewolf?"

Trapped again. I couldn't tell her the truth, but she would see through any lie I wove. "You just... you gave off that vibe."

"A werewolf vibe? Is that a thing? For fuck's sake, Alek, I can't figure you out."

"Verity."

"You think I'm a risk." Gaze aimed at me again, she tapped her hand in rhythm to my heartbeat. "That's why you took the job as my bodyguard. Not to protect me, but to protect others from me."

"I didn't know anything for sure at that point."

"That's not a no." Her fingernails scratched lightly at the hem of my t-shirt. I suppressed images of her tearing it off in the heat of passion as well as a fleeting thought of her claws ripping into me, gashing flesh like it was no more significant than woven cotton.

"So, in all of your supposed studies, you've never encountered any information on the sort of werewolf I am?"

At least this response would be the whole truth, summed up in one little word. "No."

Her palm stilled against my chest, my heart beating fast underneath it. She brought her other hand to the side of my neck, two fingers pressing in. "Are you lying? Your pulse is starting to race."

Bringing my own hands up, I placed one behind her neck, and the other on her lower back, tugging her towards me. She gasped, which only made me pull her closer.

"It's racing," I said, my face dangerously close to hers, "not because of anything either of us are saying. You want it to slow down, Verity, you're going to have to take your hands off me."

She narrowed her eyes. "You first."

I let go and so did she, but the tension between us remained.

"You think I'm so mysterious." She took a step back. "But there's something about you, Alek. You don't even know what it is yet."

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

She sighed. "That only proves my point."

Missing how she'd felt under my touch, I stuck my hands into the pockets of my jeans. "We should head back to LA." I needed to talk to Norvin, and that wasn't going to happen until we got off this mountain.

"I'm not ready to leave." She wrapped her arms around herself. "It's going to take me a couple of days to determine what I want to do with you."

Do with me. This could be very bad or very good depending on which fantasy I entertained. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"In the morning, you'll remove your werewolf hunter hat and put back on your conman hat."

"I'm not a conman."

"Bless your heart," she said so sweetly, there was no mistaking that she thought I was an idiot. "Someone who lies to themselves is the most dangerous kind of liar."

Damn.

The darkened woods crept in as though she was calling to it to strangle the life out of me. "You have the wrong impression of me." Did she though? Or was I just frustrated that she might be right.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "I've been mistaken before. I can admit that. You, on the other hand, have a lot of self-reflecting to do. Take the next few days for that. Meanwhile, we're going to discover Buckshot Barney's missing treasure, which I'm sure is still hidden after one hundred and sixty years and not at all planted by one of your underpaid employees just last Tuesday."

"Wrong again." I held my hands up. "We pay a living wage."

She pointed at me again, this time stopping short of touching me. "You think because you have knowledge that I need that I'm going to keep you around indefinitely."

"No, I don't."

"You also think your physical charms are enough to make me look past your faults."

"You think I have physical charms?"

"Charm is not enough." She looked like she was about to let her wolf out with an order to go for my jugular. "If I don't walk out of this wilderness feeling that I can—at the very least—trust you more than I distrust you, you are gone. Gone from my life! And you can take all your precious secrets with you."

Before I could respond, she'd turned on her heal, heading towards the women's tent, adding one last threat before disappearing inside. "If it comes down to it, I'll find my answers on my own, even if I have to kill for them."

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Author's note: Things are heating up for our main characters. Do you think Alek will gain Verity's trust before the treasure hunt ends?