Verity

The injustice of Flora's accusation hit me in the gut. "How can you say that to me, Flora? All I want to do is talk to her. What does her not being home have to do with me?"

I wanted to clear my name, of course, but my question was genuine. If Flora truly felt her mom's absence had something to do with me, I wanted to know why. Could my best friend know more about our situation than she'd let on? A second metaphorical gut punch made me sent my head spinning. Dizzy, I slid into a chair at Val's kitchen table, focusing my eyes on the yellow and baby blue checkerboard pattern woven into her tablecloth.

"Because..." Flora paused. Her hands clenched the countertop like she would fall through the kitchen floor if she let go of it. "You two have gotten yourselves into trouble, haven't you? And if that's the case, you've gone and dragged my mother into your mess."

"Hold on," Alek said, stepping towards Flora. "We haven't dragged your mother anywhere. Stop fighting us and maybe we'll be able to help you figure out where she is."

"No way," Flora said, taking her phone out of her pocket. "The police can do a better job of solving this than you two can."

"Wait," I said, standing again. I kept my hand pressed against its surface to steady myself. Involving the police might lead to an investigation into my life—and Alek's. We weren't prepared for that potential fallout. "I'm sure you have to wait a certain amount of time to file a missing person's report."

"I don't care. She's missing now!"

"Verity's right," Alek said. "Besides, there's no sign here that your mother was taken against her will, is there?"

"No, but..."

"Have you found her phone, or her purse?" I asked.

"Not yet." She unclenched her hands from the counter and rung them together instead. "I tried calling her when I was upstairs though, and it went straight to voicemail."

"There's still a chance she left of her own free will," I said. "Could be that she's having too good of a time to be bothered with answering her phone."

"It's my mom, Verity! Since when does she go off and have a good time without texting me first. This isn't like her."

Knowing Val as long as I had, it was hard to argue with Flora's depiction. I again attempted to comfort her. This time, she allowed me to drape an arm around her shoulder. "Let us help you search for your mom. If we haven't found her in twenty-four hours, we'll call the police."

"Fine, but I swear, Verity... if this has something to do with you." Flora gulped down a sob and turned her head away from me. "I thought we told each other everything."

I'd thought that too. Now, my life was filled with uncertainties, my relationship with Flora sadly one of them. One thing I did know, however: I was an awful friend. I'd never once considered the impact my lies would have on my friend. I'd argued with Alek on multiple occasions, claiming I wanted to tell Flora everything, but the reality was, I had been terrified of what her response would be. Letting Alek talk me out of it had been an excuse to ease the shame of my own cowardice.

No more.

"I need to tell you something, Flora."

"Oh no," Alek grumbled.

"Go in the other room if you don't want to hear it," I told him.

"Hear what?" Flora straightened up.

I stepped away from her and pulled out a chair at her mother's kitchen table. "You might want to have a seat for this next bit."

Two minutes later and the words I'd been holding back had spilled out of me.

"You can't be serious." Wrapping her arms around her stomach, Flora looked at me with a mixture of pity and horror. "This is worse than I thought, Verity. We need to call your father. And Janene too. There's no way the tour can start back up with you in this state."

I did a brief self-check in. Everything seemed in order. "What state? I'm perfectly fine."

"You just told me you can project a real, flesh and blood wolf into the world." Flora pointed to her head. "From your brain."

"That's right. I believe I'm some form of psychic werewolf using an evolved form of astral projection."

"Okay, think about what you just said." Flora rubbed her forehead like my words had brought on an instantaneous migraine. "That doesn't sound at all strange to you?"

"It's very strange." I shrugged. "But you get used to it."

"Verity! It's completely delusional. You must see that!"

Alek, who had remained in the kitchen, stepped towards the table. "It's a lot to take in. More than anyone should have to wrap their brain around." He gave me the side eye. "But what Verity just told you happens to be the truth."

"Oh my God." Flora let her head fall onto the table, kept it there for a minute, then slowly raised it again. It seemed to take her great effort to stay upright. "Did you guys take an edible when I wasn't looking?"

"No edibles." Alek sat in the open seat next to me. "Only the outrageous truth."

"If this is your idea of a joke, or some terrible prank, neither of you are as nice as I thought you were." She shook her head. "Pulling this crap on me right when I'm freaking out about my mom."

"It's not a prank," I told her. "It's not a joke."

"How am I expected to buy this?"

"You're right," I said, knowing what I had to do. "I just threw some heavy shit your way and expected you to accept it with no proof, when I have a way to prove it to you quite easily."

Alek groaned. "Now? Inside the house?"

"What's the problem? You think I'm not housebroken?"

He threw up his hands. "Fine, but she's going to freak."

"She already is freaking," I said. "This won't make it worse."

"Yes, it will."

Flora rubbed her head again. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here."

I stood up and gave myself some space. "Maybe this will help you understand." A few deep breaths, eyes closed, mind focused.

I opened both sets of my eyes as Flora gasped.

"What the hell?"

In wolf form, I put one paw in front of the other and tentatively approached my friend. She held out a hand for me to sniff as though I were a pet collie. Weird, but I obliged her. She smelled like a favorite well-worn sweatshirt and lavender deodorant.

Several minutes passed. My wolf self waited patiently as Flora's heartbeat settled.

"This is...wow." She asked, patting my head. "How is this possible?"

"We don't know," My human self said. "That's what we're trying to find out."

"And my mother?" She asked. "How does she fit into this?"

"It's a long story, but to give you the basics, the clinic she worked at, the one my mom died at, was experimenting with werewolves."

"No way!" She scratched me under my chin.

"Okay, enough of that." In a matter of seconds, I'd taken my wolf back into my brain for safekeeping.

Flora shook her head. "You have got to be kidding."

"It never gets old," Alek told her.

She turned to him, eyes still narrowed with a tinge of suspicion. "So, you've known about Verity? For how long?"

Alek shifted. "A while. There's a lot more to this story, but for now, I think we've given you enough to absorb."

"Alek," I resumed my seat at the table. "About Norvin."

"What about him?"

"Text him. Tell him we need to meet."

"Yeah, I'm not going to do that."

"Okay," I slid my phone across the table to him. "Put his number in my phone and I'll contact him instead."

"No way!" Alek began to slide it back to me, then paused to look at the screen. "What poor sap is in your contacts as Dimples McDouchbag?"

Flora and I gave each other a knowing look, then watched Alek as recognition dawned on him.

"Oh."

I bit my lip. "I've been meaning to change that. Flora, in case you were wondering, Alek doesn't want to talk to his old man, who's really his boss in some sort of secret society that gets off on all things werewolves."

"Gross."

"Definitely," I agreed.

"So, does that mean Alek is a werewolf groupie? Shit, is that why he's... into you?"

It better not be.

"No, of course not!" Alek's face reddened. "I told you, Flora, there's a lot more to this story. We can't tell you everything because there's too much to tell."

"Alek is right," I said. "At the same time, what he could tell you but won't is that if your mom really was taken by someone, this Norvin guy is likely behind it."

"Seriously?" Flora slammed her hands on the table. "And you won't so much as text him? What's wrong with you?"

"Plenty," I said. "But what I've learned about him is that when push comes to shove, he'll do the right thing." I gave Alek my widest-eyed stare. He held it for a moment, then looked away.

"Fine." He brought out his phone. "Tell me how you want to play this, preferably in a way that won't get us all killed."

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Author's Note: Are we trusting Flora yet? Verity seems to really want to... but... should she fully?

I'm excited for all the twists and turns coming up in this story. Thank you for sticking with it!