"Sorry, Lahey, but I'm more of a cat person."
Vera Pérez is no stranger to the supernatural. Growing up alongside the Hale family has kept her fairly well-informed about the creatures that lurk in the darkness. However, she didn't become one of thos...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
( unleashed, pt. ii )
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
THE FIRST PERSON that Vera sees after emerging from the locker room, freshly-changed into a black and white button-up blouse tucked into her ripped jeans, is Boyd. She has to do a double-take at first to make sure it's him. After a closer look, she determines that the vacant, half-bored expression on the dark-skinned boy's face couldn't belong to anyone else.
The hallways are starting to fill up with students the closer the clock ticks toward the warning bell, so she has to squeeze between people in order to reach him.
"Boyd!" she calls, catching his attention and causing his ears to twitch. He turns around, sweeping his brown-eyed gaze over the hallway, before realizing it's Vera and looking down at her. He's even taller than Isaac— it leaves Vera's line of sight at the bottom of his sternum. She has to crane her neck to make eye contact with him as she continues, "I didn't know you were coming back to school today."
"Yeah, I don't exactly have a phone anymore," Boyd replies in the same disinterested tone he always seems to have. "Since, you know, I was kidnapped."
"Right," Vera responds with a nod, unsure of how he wants her to respond to that. "Well, I'm glad you're back. Have you seen Isaac? I'm trying to stop him from murdering the twins in broad daylight on school grounds."
The boy manages a partial laugh that's more like a huff through his nose, running a hand over his closely-shaved head of hair before gripping onto the straps of his backpack. "I haven't seen him, but I can't say that if I saw him beating the shit out of them in the hallway, I would stop him. I gotta go— I'm visiting Kyle Weigen's locker before first period."
"Kyle?" Vera questions as she creases her brow. "The boy who... you know..."
Boyd nods, all traces of amusement having vanished from his face. "Yeah. We were in Junior R.O.T.C together."
She feels a surge of sympathy for her pack member. Boyd has been through an indescribable amount of pain and trauma in the past year. He's a fairly private person who prefers to keep his emotions masked behind a wall of indifference and large muscles, but it must be taking a toll on him. Nobody is an outcast, gets turned into a werewolf, is captured and nearly killed by hunters, captured and nearly killed by Alphas, endures a pack member's death, returns home, loses another person in their life, and walks away from it unscathed.
Vera reaches up to pat him on the shoulder, then realizes she's too short to do so without standing on her toes and decides to aim for his forearm instead. He seems confused by the display of comfort but also grateful for it. Some of the tension in his shoulders fades away as she draws her hand back to her side. Even though Boyd doesn't prefer to share his private life with her, they've always gotten along.
