"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...
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( pre-unleashed, pt. ii )
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THE ENGINE ROARS to life, sending a thrill rushing through Vera's entire body. She grins so widely she's sure her cheeks might split in half. Her eyes close, allowing her to relish in this moment that she's been waiting so long for. A goal she'd been told over and over was never attainable, and yet she'd achieved it through her own hard work and perseverance.
Vera has finally gotten her motorcycle.
"Sick!" Dominic cheers, holding up his phone to take pictures of her like a proud father. "You look so badass. Please run me over."
She rolls her eyes but mockingly revs the engine, causing him to jump in fright. Yesterday, she'd spent the entire afternoon walking enough dogs to finally collect enough funds to buy the bike she'd had picked out for months. She already has her motorcycle permit, so she's able to start driving right away.
Vera has wanted a motorcycle since she was little. At the age of five, she'd watched Ride with the Wind with her father and had insisted that she'd have a bike of her own someday. She had immediately been intrigued by the contraptions, fantasizing about the wind in her hair and the feeling of the open breeze. Her father hadn't believed her when she'd told him her wish for one– he'd assumed that it was just a childish fantasy that she'd forget about in a few days.
But she had never forgotten. And now that her dad's not here anymore, Vera finds herself closing her eyes and thinking, Look at me, Pai. I finally did it.
"I'm sending these in my family group chat," Dom informs her as he types away on his phone. "They're gonna be so happy for you."
Vera feels a pinch in her heart at the mention of family. The Shires have always been immensely close— Dom is the second-oldest, born three years after his sister Vanessa. Their parents had waited four years before having Grayson, and five more before the youngest, Maeve, who is eight. There's never been a moment where Vera has doubted Dom's love for his siblings. The gaps in their ages have lessened the amount of genuine fights between them, though they still have squabbles over who gets the television remote or who'd eaten the last cookie.
When Derek and Laura had fled to New York after the fire, Vera found herself longing for what Dominic and his siblings had. She'd still been stinging from the loss of Peter, Talia, Cora, and the others who had perished in the flames. Instead of being with the Hales when her mother went away on business trips, Vera was forced to spend weeks with the Shire family. They had treated her like one of their own, but she'd still felt like an outsider. They always let her have the remote and the last cookie. Vanessa braided her hair and told her all about the latest celebrities— like this new boyband called the Jonas Brothers or how Taylor Lautner from Sharkboy and Lavagirl was so cute, didn't she think?
