Alek

My knuckles ached from where I connected with Chip's jawbone, but it didn't stop me from getting another punch in before Verity and Flora grabbed onto my arms and pulled me away from him. Chip slumped against the wall next to the front door, heaving in and out as he held a hand up to his cheek.

"Just wait until I transform." He winced at the effort to get out words through his swollen face. "My bite's a lot bigger than your fist."

"Did that make better sense in your head than how it came out?" I asked him. "Besides, I don't think you'll be able to open your mouth wide enough to bite more than a stick of gum anytime soon."

I let the tension in my muscles relax. The fight was gone now that Chip had been subdued. It was nice to have the upper hand over that prick, but the moments leading up to our confrontation were a blur of emotions. I had been a few steps behind Verity in the hallway... and then something had put me on autopilot. "Pick yourself up and go sit next to Norvin on the couch of shame. I assume you two are acquainted."

Chip scowled but did as I asked, mumbling "just you wait," under his breath before walking into the living room.

Flora released me and followed Chip, but Verity kept me back. "What the hell was that?" she asked.

"What was what?"

"Don't do the whole answering a question with a question thing again. You know what I mean. I open the door and three seconds later, you're dragging Chip inside and using him as a punching bag. Why?"

"He has a punchable face."

Fighting a smile, she forced herself to frown instead. "While true, that's not an adequate reason."

"He and his pack ambushed us. Isn't that reason enough?

"Maybe. But he might have useful information for us. Info we can't get if he's unconscious."

To be fair, I hadn't been thinking logically when I'd attached Chip. Something else had been at work. Something raw and undeniable. I'd acted on instinct, as though I'd been compelled. Compelled by Verity.

"I felt what you felt."

She pursed her lips. "You what?"

"You saw him, and the fear was immediate. I felt that. I had to do something."

Verity stared at me a long while, her eyes flickering, gold specks reflecting the light from a nearby wall sconce. "Damn you, Alek. What am I going to do with you?"

Not sure if that statement boded well for me or not, I stayed silent and let her lead me towards the others, the touch of her hand on my arm a white flag in the middle of a battlefield.

There, situated next to Norvin on the sofa, Chip sat with his arms folded around his stomach. A large bandage stuck out from the arm of his t-shirt. He glared at me and I realized today's scrape was hardly the worst injury I'd dealt this guy. My mood lightened a bit.

Don't gloat, Verity thought-spoke to me.

Sorry but I think I will.

The daggers Chip kept trying to send my way with his angry glances fell in a metaphorical clatter when they hit my armor of smugness.

Verity left me to my swagger as she and Flora got to the task of grilling our two assholes.

"I still need to know where my mother is." Flora, armed with a poker from the fireplace, jabbed it at Chip, right where my bullet had struck him back in the mountains.

"Ow!" Chip clamped a hand protectively over his arm. "What did you do that for?"

"Do you know where Val Marquez is?"

"Am I supposed to know who that is?"

Flora poked him again.

"Stop it! I don't know anything about Val Market!"

"It's Marquez, you idiot!"

Verity placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and gently took the poker from her. "If we need to put any more holes in Chip, we'll let Alek use his gun again."

Chip frowned. "Not cool. How can you..." He looked around and then went silent. From Verity's sour expression, however, Chip was still in communication with her. Try as I might, I couldn't get a read on what either of them were thinking.

"We are not!" Verity said out loud. "We never were. It was all in your head."

"What happened between us was not in my head. Well, not this one at least." He pointed to his temple and laughed.

Verity handed back the poker to Flora. "Do what you want with him. Just wait until I've had a chance to ask him a few questions." Hands on hips, she turned back to Chip. "First off, why are you here?"

"Because you're my mate, obviously. I can't stay away from you too long." He reached a hand towards her waist. "I feel that pull."

I stepped closer, ready to intercede if necessary. My gun is in the car if you need me to go retrieve it.

Verity raised a hand to tell me to wait, slapped Chip away from her, then went back to her interrogation. "Two rules: don't touch me and don't lie. What are you really doing here? Did he have something to do with it?" She pointed Norvin's way.

Norvin waved his hands in front of him. "I have nothing to do with this monster, obviously. Why would I want a werewolf anywhere near me?"

The shock in Chip's expression extended to the tremor in his voice. "What do you mean, Norvin? That's not a nice thing to say to me, especially after everything I've done for you."

I froze where I stood. Everything he'd done for Norvin... what the absolute fuck?

Verity pressed on. "I knew it! What exactly have you done for him, Chip?"

"Nothing!" Norvin insisted. "He's lying in a pathetic attempt to legitimize himself to you."

"But..." confused, Chip's leg began to shake like a dog having a bad dream. "It was you who told me if I didn't hear from you by our appointed time, I should track your phone and see where you'd gone."

"In this pathetic form? What help did you think you'd be to me? My god, you are more trouble than you're worth!" Norvin stood and attempted to make his way towards the front door.

I blocked his path. It was a good thing I didn't have my gun on me or it might not be Chip who caught the first bullet. "Seriously, Norvin? Who even are you?"

All my fears had been justified in the last thirty seconds. Norvin had been working with Chip. There was no way to deny it now. Another piece of my soul became crushed under the weight of the terrible truth. Aurum Venari, for all its professed and lofty goals of eradicating the world of its most dangerous predator, was using that predator for its own gain.

You really think Chip is the world's most dangerous predator?

Startled, I began rebuilding my wall of resistance to Verity's thoughts. "You know what I mean," I answered her out loud.

"There's a lot you don't realize, Alek," Norvin said, his voice tinged with annoyance. How dare I put him in a position where he'd have to explain his awful behavior to me instead of me just accepting all the lies he dealt me! "Chip is a means to an end."

"I'm a what?" All the self-assurance Chip had maintained even when I was pummeling him was gone now. "Is that true, Norvin? Is that why you created me?"

The room grew silent. Chip's last question lingered like a smoke ring in the room. I breathed it in, each word threatening to choke me.

"Chip," I said, trying as best I could to leave the hostility out of my voice. "What the hell do you mean when you say Norvin created you?"

With his face stuck in confused mode, Chip rubbed at his soar jaw. "How is it that you don't know."

"Chip... stop talking," Norvin cautioned him, but Chip, who now seemed angrier at him than at me, wasn't going to listen to him.

"You think I'm stupid, Alek? But here you are, born and raised in Aurum Venari, and you didn't know all that time that they're the ones creating werewolves."

My body went numb. I stumbled backwards. "You're wrong."

Chip laughed. "Next, you'll tell me you don't even know what they turned you into."

___

Author's note:  Things are speeding along towards the end of Act Two and our characters are still being hit with a ton of alarming intel. Do you think Alek and Verity can believe what Chip is saying? Is Aurum Venari creating werewolves, even as they profess to be destroying them? And if so, what is Alek's place in all this? How is it that Chip, of all people, might know more about Alek than Alek himself?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Also, after 9 LONG days, I have internet at my house again and I am back on track with life (for the most part) and this story. I am looking forward to sharing the upcoming chapters with all of you. A million thanks to you all for reading. I hope it has remained intriguing for you!

XOXOXO