The True One

Chapter 40 Part 2

Alek

The elevator dinged as it came to a stop. I pulled Val close to me again, glass shard at the ready.

The door opened upon chaos. Two wolves in a vicious tousle yelped and groaned as they fought. They were a tumbleweed of flying fur, bur almost certainly, one of them was Verity.

From the opposite end of the corridor, Chip sprung, man bun flopping against his head as he ran past the elevator without giving us a glance. Mid sprint, his body contorted. He screamed like he'd been strapped to a medieval rack and had every limb dislocated.

"It's still light out," Flora said. "I thought his kind of werewolf couldn't transform during daylight hours."

"Oh my God," Val tried to push me to the back of the elevator. "He must have been juiced with a new formula. Him and his whole pack."

I fought the urge to step back, close the elevator doors, and save ourselves. "What does that mean exactly?"

"It's... not good." Her voice rose until each word seemed to be spoken by a panicked mouse. "We've been experimenting with ways to up our control over them. It should make people safer overall, but in this case..."

"Who has control over them? You?"

"No." Val's face paled. If I was to place bets, it would be on her projectile vomiting all over the elevator's control panel. "Norvin. He has an app on a tablet with a set of commands."

"Seriously?" Flora asked. "A werewolf mind control app?"

"You have to help us end this," I said as the faint outline of wolves appeared from a darkened room across from us. I nudged Val out of the elevator. "Or we all die here. And for what?"

From out of the shadows, two sets of eyes glowed golden. Chip may have been preoccupied with Verity's wolf fight, but these new wolves had nothing on their agenda other than us.

"Marietta, Lonzo, stand down," Val said, with exactly zero conviction in her voice. She shook so violently that I was afraid she'd end up slicing her neck with my shiv all on her own. The werewolves' ears perked at her words, but they continued to edge forward, mouths foaming, teeth bared.

"They'll eat us," she said. "Flora, get back in the elevator. We have to leave, now!"

"No," Flora shouted. "Not until we get Verity out of here. You seem to know everything about these werewolves. So, figure out a way to get them to stop."

"I can't!"

"I can." Norvin emerged from behind the wolves. "But I'm not sure if I will."

"Please, stop them, Norvin." Val folded her hands like she was willing to pray to him if that's what it took. "This is madness!"

"You're helping them now, Valerie?" He clucked his tongue. "I was wrong to trust you."

Val's heart beat rapidly against my wrist, but her shaking subsided. She cleared her throat. "Can you not see that Alek is holding sharp glass to my neck, Norvin?"

Norvin. The man responsible for orphaning me. For weaving a web of lies for me to fall into. It wasn't until I saw the bright red dripping from Flora's scarf that I realized I'd been gripping the glass hard enough that it cut me through the fabric. I imagined the blood was Norvin's instead. The desire to slit his throat open damned near made me senseless. Shoving Val to the side, I stepped towards him.

"Why this drama, Alek?" he said in that mockingly calm manner that made me extra ready to stab him. "You've done a great service for the world. How many times do I have to tell you that? I can still call off these wolves. Even stop Chip and Sam from killing your furry little sweetheart, and all you have to do is calm the fuck down."