Chapter Text
Chapter 1: A Change will Come
Maddy was half-paying attention to the screams of the actors as they were chased by the masked serial killer. She had put the movie on because her parents, despite giving a bedtime, were not in the state to berate her for staying past 10pm. So she decided to treat herself to some popcorn and chips after finishing her dinner (the proper healthy one her dad prepared). At the start, she had been paying attention to the movie, a group of teens getting lost in the woods after they snuck away from their summer camp, woods which happened to have a serial killer prowling in them waiting to kill anyone who stumbled in them.
But now the movie was half-way through and two of the seven teens were dead, and she had stopped paying attention some while ago. The call of the moon had become too strong to ignore. It was old magic, older than all civilizations, out-lasting the Persians and Romans. Magic that ran in her blood, her parents’ blood and their parents before them. She could feel the energy thrum under her skin, power waiting to get out and it made her skin itch, but she couldn’t do anything about it. No matter how much she wanted to answer to the whispering of her name and the call that sounded like an old lullaby her parents used to sing when she was younger.
A call that felt like the safety her parents brought.
She could not answer it, not the way the moon and magic wanted her to. Not the way her parents were doing. Maddy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, recalling her dad’s instructions: “You cannot stop your instinct, Maddy, but you can calm it by listening to what it’s trying to tell you.”
She listened. To the call of the moon, but also the animals who live in the woods of Stoneybridge. The small owls as they swoop down on their prey, the prey’s struggle for freedom, some succeeding and others meeting their demise. The rustling of leaves and bushes, from the winds and from the scurrying animals. She focused on those, stretching her hearing to the rushing water of the creek and the pitter-patter of paws against dirt and stone, drawing closer and closer.
CRASH!
Maddy straightened, one hand still on her bag of popcorn. There was another crash, louder and closer. She stood up, uncaring of where the bag landed and shoved her feet into her shoes not bothering to properly put them in. Opening the door, she darted outside, loving the feel of the moonlight against her skin, but not focusing on it. She was a girl on a mission and quickened her steps towards the noise, rounding the corner, and saw the one responsible for it.
A wolf. His hackles rose at the sight of her, muzzle curling back to expose pearl-white fangs as he stepped in front of his acquired raw chicken. Maddy bent forward, her own snarl echoing with his growls, but neither action was threatening. His body did not indicate an imminent attack meant to harm, despite the growling and exposed fangs, and because of that her own movements didn’t reflect a threat. Just a warning to not move further.
“Get back inside!”
He snarled, jaws snapping at air, but his tail moved side-to-side and Maddy stepped forward, bending even more. He hunched forward, tail up and wagging, and Maddy launched forward, forcing him to move backwards. She maneuvered him towards the open doors, briefly seeing the other wolf jumping in an attempt to escape the confines of the Den. The wolf in front of her tried to get away, but Maddy blocked his path and succeeded in making him fall back down, luckily the height was not high enough to hurt him and before Maddy could close the doors, the other wolf jumped up, snapping at her and Maddy hit the wolf’s snout with her shoe. Before either could try anything again, she closed the door.
She sighed, making sure the latch was firmly placed, frowning at how flimsy it felt and no lock in sight. She glanced around, before finding it not too far from the doors. It was rusted from age and it seemed to have finally given out. Maddy grabbed the closest chains at her disposable, always nearby in case of this,, and did her best to tie it around the handles. Until they could find a replacement, they would have to do.
From below, her parents howled and the call of the moon she had managed to ignore returned.
Maybe sleeping will make it go away.
***
The next morning, Maddy was already in uniform by the time she was downstairs, quickly bypassing the kitchen and instead going down to the basement of the house. She had the keys in hand and opened the first door to reveal a much older, metal one. She unlocked the lock, brand new compared to the door itself, and opened it to the Den. It was a decently sized room, with walls made of carved stone as if it was dug out generations ago, which it was, and the floor was made of the same stone and with specks of dirt over it. Against the walls, bookshelves were screwed on to prevent it from falling, and it was filled with books on wolfblood history, medicine, runes, folklore and anything else one could think of in relation to a hidden-community that spanned millennia. On the back wall, right across from the door leading into the house, was a passage that led to a vast network of tunnels that stretched all over Stoneybridge, but mainly the woods, the Moors in particular. Maddy turned on the light, pulling the chain from the lamp on the ceiling and turned to face her parents who groaned from the small bed pushed against a corner of the room.
“Goodmorning!”
“Ugh, my stomach is killing me.”
Maddy raised an eyebrow, “Well you are the one who decided to eat the chicken instead of the food inside the Den!” She stormed upstairs, her parents following close behind. “You always say we have to keep hidden from humans. And you broke out for chicken?! What would Tobias and Ingrid say?” Maddy exclaimed, “Oh, we have to replace the latch soon. It’s super flimsy now and the lock broke.”
“Not just the chicken! The pull of the moon…”
“Exactly, you won’t understand--”
“Until my first transformation,” Maddy recited, thinking back to the pull of last night. It had been stronger, but that was to be expected, she was older, fourteen years-old. This was the year of her first transformation, it was just a matter of when. “But the chicken, dad.”
“Well he wasn’t the only one who ate something he shouldn’t, was he?” Mum said gesturing to the open trashcan and the finished bag of popcorn
“Oh yeah, didn’t we say to go to sleep by ten? What were you doing up and still in your clothes?” Dad looked more than happy to change the subject, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed.
Well two can play that game! Maddy grabbed her parcel and put on her sunglasses. Even with the lack of transformation, she was still a wolfblood and that meant that even with the clouds covering most of the sun, the rays could still cause her eyes to tear. She checked her watch and she still had a few minutes before the bus arrived… “I have to go, I wouldn't want to miss the bus.”
She rushed out, the energy from the full moon thrummed under her skin, and she made up her mind. The bus was not going to be there until much later. Running would be faster and she could get rid of the excess energy from the moon last night. With a wide grin, Maddy made sure that every pocket was firmly closed on her parcel, before clipping it close. With one last glance back at her house, to make sure her parents weren’t watching, she turned the corner of the street and ran straight into the woods.
The woods of Stoneybridge have always been her favorite part of the little town she called home. Particularly the Moors, a deep part of the woods that very few townsfolk would dare enter. This was the Smith Pack territory and has been for generations, and would continue to be for generations to come should Lupeto be willing and gods allowed. Maddy laughed, jumping over a fallen trunk as she took in the nature around her. The animals of the woods either paid her no mind, or scrambled away at the sight of her, sensing that she was more than human, and much more dangerous.
By the time she saw her school and ducked under the broken fence, Maddy knew the bus still had maybe ten minutes to go before arriving. And any day she would have been more conscious of that, but the extra energy had to go or else she would not have been able to sit still in the bus, much less throughout the school day. It was a Monday, so there was no physical education for her to use her energy on. The run from her house to the school managed to get rid of enough energy that she would not be driven mad. Or drive her peers mad. Liam would understand, but not the others.
She walked past Kay, Katrina and Kara, ignoring Kay’s comment on her general appearance, and heading straight to the front doors where one of best friends, Tom, was waiting for her. He grinned at her, and reached down to grab something from her hair, which confused her until he showed her a leaf.
Oops.
“What’s all this?”
Maddy grinned, “Woke up earlier so I took a stroll through the woods. Wanted to spot the werewolf,” Tom looked at her confused. “Didn’t you see? It was a full moon last night.”
He shook his head, more amused than annoyed. “Don’t you start!”
“Guys!” Their other best friend, Shannon, ran up to them. Very much out of breath and Maddy wondered if she had run from her house rather than wait for the bus. At least Maddy wouldn’t get out of breath because of that, unlike Shannon. “Did you hear last night on the Moors? Howling”
At those words, Maddy froze. Her house was decently far from the Moors, but still closer than the other houses in Stoneybridge because of how close to the woods it was. Still, there was little chance her parents’ howl could be heard as if inside of the Moors, unless they raced around the tunnels. Which was a slim possibility, Maddy knew that before she was born, her parents would race each other through the tunnel network the Smith family had built over the generations, and sometimes, should the gods deem it safe, they would run in the Moors. But they stopped once she was born, the instinct to remain close to a wolfblood pup prevented them from doing so. Until Maddy can transform, they would not even consider running around the tunnels out of the fear that something happened.
Somehow that same instinct could ignore the metal door between Maddy and her parents.
But that is the only logical explanation was that her parents’ howls were heard, and just confused as if coming from inside the Moors. After all, wolves are extinct in Europe and if one was found, well, that was not a wolf. It’s a wolfblood and that would bring an entirely other set of problems. Still, this was Shannon, one of her best friends, saying this. Not that it wasn’t trustworthy, but when it came to the Moors and her Beast, she always came to the conclusion that anything happening or connected to the Moors had to be from the Beast she saw years ago.
Or at least that was what she thought, until Shannon practically shoved her phone towards her face, swiping through the many pictures she had. Maddy saw some of the three of them, the woods, the Moors, and even books. Sometimes it was the view from Shannon’s window. Until Shannon stopped at a picture of a paw print. A large one, too big and with too sharp claws for it to be from a domesticated dog. Maddy would be able to recognize a paw-shape like that anywhere, having seen them all her life. That was a wolf. A wolfblood.
And it was not her parents’. She had managed to get them back into the Den before they could leave the property, not that she thought they would have, again, she would have been inside the house and it went against their instinct of protecting a ‘defenseless’ pup. So unless someone in Stoneybridge managed to adopt the rare wolfdog mix, that pawprint came from a wolfblood.
Maddy handed the phone to Ton, and she sniffed, more out of habit of checking that her friends were all in school than for any other reason. Tom and Shannon were in front of her, and she caught the familiar scent of Liam already inside, with Jimi and Sam, but something was off. There was another scent, familiar, but she knew it wasn’t any of her classmates. The Three Ks were still outside on the bench, their perfume basically suffocating their area.
But that scent… it was almost like her parents. Which wouldn’t make sense, her parents were either at home getting ready to go to work or on their way to work already, which was nowhere near her school.
Before Maddy could try to think or maybe seek it out, Tom and Shannon began heading inside and she followed, deciding if she smelled it again then she would follow.
***
Luckily, they still had a few more minutes before homeroom so Maddy decided to switch out her books and folders. Placing the ones she took home back inside her locker and replacing them for the ones she would need for her class after homeroom.
“Guys look! People signed up!”
Maddy went over, closing the locker behind her, and looked at the sign up sheet for the Photography club she, Shannon and Tom had started earlier in the year. But at a closer glance, none of the names were real, not unless some parents actually named their child the Incredible Hulk, Superman and Bum Head.
“That is some atrocious hand-writing,” Mr. Jeffries commented looking over the paper with a disappointed frown. “Sorry kids, but if you don’t get three more members by the end of today, I will be forced to offer your dark room to another club who has the minimum members.”
“Who did this?” Shannon gritted out, snatching the paper from the billboard and glaring at it as if it could be intimidated into answering.
Maddy frowned and focused her hearing on her surroundings until she heard a very familiar laughter. At the end of the hallway, Liam was laughing with Sam and Jimi. “There is no way they are getting three members by the end of the day.”
“They either do or don’t, but Maddy is so going to get me back.”
“There is no way Maddy is figuring it out, mate.” Sam chuckled, “Bet. Jimi and I will give you five pounds each if you are right.”
“And if you are wrong, you give us five pounds each,” Jimi finished. Maddy glanced over, watching as her brother in all but blood shook each of his friends’ hands. Liam looked up with a raised eyebrow, and despite being unable to see her expression from so far, Maddy knew that he knew that she figured it out already.
“It had to be Jimi and his friends.” Oh Liam is so getting it. I better get half of it after this. “Who else could it be with this handwriting?” Maddy nearly snarled, grabbing the paper from Shannon before crumbling it and putting it in her back pocket.
Shannon and Tom laughed, agreeing with her observation and followed her to their homeroom. But that is when she caught it again, the scent. It was closer. And it was not her parents. Theirs was the woods and soil, her mum’s favorite perfume and her dad’s favorite cologne. It was the underlying hint of Pack that all three shared, and made sure that Liam and his family also had even if they themselves could not smell it. This one, had the usual wolfblood scent, the one they all had, but there was also charcoal and paper and was distinctively male. And something that Maddy could only imagine was the smell of a big city.
Ignoring her friends, she rushed to follow the scent. This was another wolfblood in her territory. And this was no wolfblood just passing by, she would have smelled him in the woods if that was the case. But he was in her school. He was here to stay, and hadn’t even greeted her parents or asked for permission. You don’t just trespass into another’s territory, it was not done, and while her family was on good terms with the Hunters, that would not stop them from going after another wolfblood who could potentially bring trouble.
She went down the stairs, she was getting closer, but Tom grabbed her arm saying that they would be late for homeroom if she didn’t move it. Maddy wanted to protest, but it wasn’t like she could say that she smelled a wolfblood when Tom didn’t even know what a wolfblood was. With one glance at the hallway, Maddy turned back and instead messaged Liam.
Me
Heads up. Monkshood is invading my backyard
Got it
Do you need help weeding it out?
Me
I don’t think so, but I’ll let you know
Satisfied, Maddy pocketed her phone and entered the homeroom with Tom, barely acknowledging the person who Mr. Jeffries was talking to. Instead, she gave Liam a pointed look and threw the crumbled sign up sheet at his desk. His response was to smirk and a stretched out hand, his smirk only widening when both Jimi and Sam groaned, but handed their five pounds with no other protests. Maddy rolled her eyes, but gave him one last look, a clear indication that half of his earnings were hers.
She put her stuff down on the table, ready to sit down until Mr. Jeffries called for attention. “Everyone, this is Rhydian Morris who I’m guessing is from… Wales,” but Maddy was barely hearing their professor’s attempt at breaking the ice. Her nose twitched as the scent she had been trying to follow became stronger than before, and much closer, she slowly glances up and sees him.
The wolfblood. Her age and now that she could really smell him clearly, he must have been able to turn recently. Her mum said that a recently able to transform wolfblood and a wolfblood who had been doing it for a while smells differently. Something about being more intune with their wolf. There was no other way to describe it, but Maddy could only think that’s what this was. Yet, the oddest part was that it was only his scent. Nothing else. No indication of parents, siblings or Pack. She and Rhydian made eye contact as he made his way to the open seat.
There was something going on with him.
For the rest of the homeroom, she barely paid attention. If there were any announcements, she could get it from Tom or Shannon, or Liam. The moment they were allowed to actually head to their first class, Maddy shouldered her parcel, ready to follow Rhydian and ask him why the fuck he was on her Pack’s territory and if anyone else was coming. But Liam called for her before she could even step away, and Rhydian was long gone.
She turned to Liam, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “What?”
He raised an eyebrow, and glanced over her shoulder and towards the door Rhydian had just left through. Maddy could hear Tom and Shannon waiting for her just outside, and Jimi and Sam were doing the same for Liam. Neither of the pair interacted with the other, which was not a surprise to Maddy. They weren’t friends. Outside of the odd football truce between Tom, Jimi and Sam, Liam and Maddy were the two who got along from their respective friend groups having known each other since they were babies. And Liam and his family being the only humans in the know of the wolfblood secret, being wolfblood hunters.
Without saying anything, Liam handed over her share of the bet winnings, which she happily took, her annoyance slightly quelled at the gesture. “Do you want me to tell my parents about the monkshood? We have a homemade recipe to deal with them.”
Maddy shook her head, already stuffing her five pounds inside her parcel. “Nah, I don’t think my parents have even noticed yet. I saw them, but didn’t recognize them until now .”
“ Rhydian? ” He hissed, not even needing her nod of confirmation. “I’m going with you. Guys! Don’t wait up, Maddy and I need to chat about something.” Maddy nodded towards her friends and they left, following the already departing Jimi and Sam. “Let’s go.”
Not that she needed to be even told once, already out the door and following the scent fully aware that Liam was close behind her. She goes down the stairs, spotting him easily among the students who clearly know where they are going, while he looks more like a lost pup learning to walk for the first time. Which was why she approached him slowly, despite how brash she wanted to be. He was an intruder on her land, her family’s land, but until she knew exactly what he was doing here, she didn’t want to risk a fight. Especially with Liam around, between the two of them, she had the better chances even if he was trained to hunt people like her.
“Hey do you need help?”
Rhydian turned to her, and she noted how his nose scrunched as if catching her scent. But there was no reaction other than that. Strange , she thought. He should be able to tell that my family’s scent is all over Stoneybridge.
“What are you doing here?” Liam snapped, causing both Maddy and Rhydian to look at him. She frowned, but couldn't bring herself to be mad at Liam. That is what she wanted to say. At least he waited until there were no other people around, all already in their classes.
“What? I’m just looking--”
“Yeah, on our territory,” Maddy jumped in, stepping in front of Liam the moment she saw Rhydian move. Hunter or not, wolfblood knowledge or not, Liam was still very much human and Rhydian was very much not. If he tried something… Maddy was raised to defend her Pack no matter what. “You are breaking the rules. If my mum and dad get a sniff of you--”
“I don’t even know you. Either of you.”
“Exactly!”
“Look, I don’t want to stick around this place. But no bossy girl is going to tell me when I should stay or go.” He snapped, close to a snarl and Maddy began snarling back, but he already left.
“That could have gone better,” Liam snarked and Maddy glared at him, huffing and pushing him out of the way so she could head to class.
***
Even though Maddy still had classes with Rhydian, they both did everything they could to ignore each other, which didn’t go unnoticed by their classmates. Tom and Shannon had shot her looks, but didn’t say anything which she was grateful for. She already had to deal with being able to hear the whispers of her classmates about the possible reasons she and Rhydian were pointedly ignoring each other despite it only being Rhydian’s first day. Liam did not help quell the rumors, especially with how he kept on putting himself between Rhydian and Maddy, and if not him, he made sure either Jimi or Sam where there.
“I heard that Rhydian tried to flirt with Maddy. Liam did not like that, you know how he is when it comes to her,” Katrina whispered to her friends from the other side of the room.
“No way. I bet it was the other way around and Maddy lied about it!” Kay giggled, and Maddy could feel their stares. “That has to be why people heard Liam yell at Rhydian.”
“That has to be it. Why would Rhydian want anything to do with her. ” Katrina sneered before joining in on the laughter.
“Something to share with the class girls?” Mrs. Fitzgerald asked them, using one of her fingers as a bookmark in order to cross her arms. “Or may I continue?”
“Sorry Mrs. we didn’t mean to be so loud,” Kara smiled sheepishly and Maddy rolled her eyes.
Mrs. Fitzgerald seemed satisfied with the answer because she went back to reciting Shakespeare and his works. Maddy had stopped paying attention half-way through class, the whispered rumors of what happened on the stairwell was much more interesting despite being involved in them.
“Yeah right, more like gushing over Leek Boy over there,” Jimi hissed at Sam who managed to hide his snort of laughter.
“Shut it Jimi,” Liam gritted out, sending a glare towards Rhydian who sat at the furthest corner possible. “He is just an asshole with no manners.”
“Liam!” Maddy hissed, eyes darting to the professor, but she didn’t seem to have heard her. What she really wanted to tell him was to not antagonize Rhydian more than what they already have. He seemed Tamed, but he was still Packless and her parents always warned her about packless wolfbloods. There was a reason and usually it was not a good one. Instead she settled for, “Stop it.”
Liam side-eyed her, but huffed, crossing his arms and muttering sounds rather than words because he didn’t want her to hear what exactly he thought of her reprimand. She frowned, glancing at Rhydian and made eye contact with him for the first time since the stairwell. They both looked away quickly.
“So, we don’t like him?” Sam whispered to Liam.
Liam glanced at her, ignored her glare and instead smirked at his friends. “No, we do not.”
From where she was sitting, Maddy couldn’t see it, but she heard Jimi’s grin. “Perfect.”
Fucking great. Lunch cannot come any faster.
And lunch did not come faster, Maddy had to sit through two more classes, hearing every new whisper and rumor about the stairwell and no matter how much she wanted to snap at people, she stopped herself from doing so. Only because she had to stop Liam from making anymore comments, and surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, she also had to stop Jimi and Sam from doing it.
Her relief of finally sitting down on the table with her lunch laid out before her only lasted so long under her best friends’ expectant stares. She groaned, retelling an edited version of what happened, while doing her best to stick close to the truth. Rhydian was not sitting too far from them and at the end of her retelling she stabbed her pasta with a frown.
“Bossy girl,” she mocked. Knowing he would be able to hear it loud and clear.
Shannon nudged her, “To be fair Maddy, it sounds like you started.”
“I did not! Liam just decided to be an asshole!” She didn’t quite yell, but was loud enough that Liam could hear it, and from the hunch of his shoulders he did. “I asked if he needed any help.”
“And then you were an asshole back?” Tom concluded, rightfully, but it was not like Rhydian didn’t deserve it. There are rules and, as a wolfblood, he knows them, and he was blatantly breaking them. First entering claimed territory and then threatening a member of her pack in her family’s territory. Even if the Hunters are human, they are considered part of the Pack and have been for years, even if adjacent. Rhydian would have smelled that, and he still stepped towards Liam. “Liam is an asshole to practically everyone but you and his friends.”
Maddy didn’t give him a response. Not that one was expected, Tom was right to an extent. She was aware that her friendship with Liam was odd, but how could it not be when she’s a wolfblood and he a wolfblood hunter who considered each other as siblings.
“But that doesn’t matter. You guys are not asking the right question!” Tom grinned and Shannon and Maddy looked at him. She had a feeling where this was going, “Does he play football?”
“Is that all you ever think about?”
Tom pretended to think before answering Shannon, “Basically. Yeah.”
Almost as if summoned by the word, Jimi walked by with his lunch tray. “Jimi!” Tom called out, and the other slowly turned, looking at Tom with a raised eyebrow, “Are you going to ask the new kid to try out?”
Jimi looked over to where Rhydian was sitting before sending Maddy a quick glance. Something crossed his expression but it was too quick to decipher, still Maddy had a feeling she knew. “Leek boy? I don’t think he is the right sort for the team. Do you?” Without even glancing at them again, he went to sit with Sam and Liam
Tom became crestfallen, but Shannon’s quick comment that Jimi didn’t say Tom couldn’t ask, brought the bounce back and he stood, despite Maddy’s attempt to sit him back down. Shannon may have made a comment about Rhydian not biting, but knowing exactly what he was, Maddy was not so sure. She and Liam had already put him in a bad mood from their confrontation, Tom’s question may not help.
Maddy focused on the conversation, hearing Tom compliment something before Rhydian asked what he wanted. “Just wanted to know if you liked football?”
“Not really.”
Leave it there Tom.
“Cause you know, it’s a good way to make friends.”
“I don’t like football and I do not want to make friends. Especially with you and your weirdo mate and her asshole mate.”
Maddy’s hold on her fork tightened at the comment, more pissed at his description of Liam than his opinion of her. It was one thing for her or her friends to call Liam an ‘asshole’ it was something else entirely for Rhydian to do so.
The sound of a chair scratching against the floor caught her attention and she whipped around to look at Liam. He met her eyes, half-way standing and clearly having heard the comment and if she was pissed about what Rhydian called Liam, then Liam was equally as pissed at what Rhydian called her. Jimi and Sam sat frozen, unsure of what to do but more than ready to follow Liam’s lead, because they have done so before.
They could be idiots, but they were good friends.
“Sit back down because if I can’t kick him for calling you an asshole and not get detention, you don’t get to do anything either.”
They stared each other down before he sat down and began scribbling on a napkin.
Maddy turned back and continued on eating, ignoring the rest of the passerbyers leaving and entering the cafeteria. Tom and Shannon chatted with each other and every now and then she would put in her two cents. The tension she had before seemed to dull with every passing second and she was beginning to enjoy her lunch. Even ignoring the sneers from the Three K’s as they beelined for Rhydian’s table.
“That weird girl, who is she?” Maddy glanced at them, seeing Rhydian pointing his pencil to her direction. Neither Shannon or Tom made a comment, and she didn’t hear Liam get up to try anything either.
“Maddy Smith?” Kay scoffed, as if saying the words put a bad taste in her mouth.
“Her?” Kara hummed, and Maddy could see her do a glance at her clothes. “Her family has lived here for centuries, never leave the area, and they don’t like strangers or questions.”
“They are all a little cuckoo,” Katrina sang, laughing to herself. “Liam’s family is the other old family, but they are normal.”
“But why are we talking about her? Let’s talk about something more important. Let’s talk about you and me--”
“And us,” Kay finished for Kara.
***
Maddy could not wait for her day to be over. She just wanted to go home, tell her parents about Rhydian and let them handle it because she no longer wanted to deal with anything. She was either going to crash on her bed or pay a surprise visit to Ingrid and snitch on Liam for being dumb enough to antagonize an unknown wolfblood. Maybe she could make herself some popcorn to enjoy while she watched Ingrid give her son the lecture of his life, if Eloria and Tobias were home, she might share it with them too.
“Guys! I have an idea on how we could get new members!” Shannon grinned at them, showing them the Badger Watching poster. “All students can go, but grade sevens are obligated to. Maybe we can get three of them to join!”
“Shannon, that’s brilliant!”
“Yeah,” Tom grinned. “We can go to Bernie’s after school and then join the scouting group.”
Maddy grinned before turning around just in time to see Rhydian taking out a leek from his locker. “I’m not even Welsh.” To the right, she saw Jimi, Sam and Liam sharing fistbumps while laughing.
For fucks sake Liam! Maddy internally groaned, I hope both sides of your pillow are warm tonight because you don’t deserve anything you stupid stupid idiot!
Rhydian growled and threw the leek at the back of Jimi’s head, Maddy heard some on looker mutter a finally, and Maddy could not help but agree. Jimi had it coming at this point. Maddy and Liam made eye contact just as Jimi turned to glare at Rhydian, and she watched as Liam’s two neurons finally connected and he realized what exactly was happening in front of them, right in the middle of a hallway full of humans.
Jimi ran at Rhydian and he, without hesitation or the use of much strength, pinned Jimi to the floor and his growling became less and less human with each second. Maddy stepped forward, grabbing Rhydian who was staring at his hands in horror and she understood why. He was about to transform and it didn’t seem he could prevent it. He had no control and that was a problem. Briefly, she made eye contact with Liam, who was helping Jimi up with the aid of Sam, he looked regretful, but Maddy didn’t focus on it, shoving Rhydian into the Dark Room just as Mr. Jeffries stormed into the hallway yelling for someone to tell him what happened.
Maddy pushed Rhydian further into the room, locking the door and praying to Vestisu that neither Tom or Shannon decide to enter the room. She turned to Rhydian who’s breathing was worsening and before she could tell him to calm down, he shoved her away and she saw raw panic in his eyes.
“You need to leave. Now.”
“What? Why would I--”
“Now! You have to leave now!”
Before Maddy could try anything, Rhydian growled and began to shrink down. He was whimpering and crying in pain; he was fighting the transformation and Maddy couldn’t understand why. She was a wolfblood, he smelled it on her earlier on the stairwell, she saw it happen.
“Don’t fight it.” She implored, “It will cause you unnecessary pain.”
She wasn’t sure if he heard her, but the whimpering died down until in his place was a brownish-gray wolf. He was smaller than her dad, probably around the size of a young adult wolf, and he was so scared. She could smell it on him, the fear, but she also saw it in his eyes and with how jittery his body was. He glanced around, tail tucked between his legs before darting under the nearest table with only his eyes visible.
“Rhydian,” she approached slowly, ignoring his growls and snarls. “I need you to calm down.”
He darted past her, knocking over shelves and other equipment on his way. Something was seriously wrong, she couldn’t recall anything like this from her parents’ lectures about things to watch out for in other wolfbloods. Rhydian was just erratic, as if trying to get away from her or scare her. But Maddy couldn’t let this continue, even the noise became worse than Tom and Shannon would definitely try to enter.
“Rhydian!” He froze and Maddy slowly kneeled down, taking a deep breath and called forth her own unfinished transformation. She raised her head, slowly, aware that her eyes were a matching yellowish gold, but didn’t fully meet his eyes, just enough for him to see.
The one and only time I’m ever submitting to anyone. She thought, fighting against the instinct to show dominance. Clearly that is not what Rhydian needed and if this calmed him down faster then she would do it.
Rhydian sat down, his panic finally leaving. “I need you to transform back, Rhydian.” He cocked his head to the side before slowly transforming back.
Maddy stood up, not bothering to wait for him to return to a human form before picking up everything that fell. She was pushing the shelves upright by the time Rhydian was back to normal and helped her get it off the floor. She ignored him, silently seething for everything, and the submission was just the icing of the cake.
“I knew there was something about you. But when your eyes went… it’s true isn’t it? You’re like me. You’re like me.”
Maddy froze, Excuse me? Like you? She growled, turning to face him not paying attention to the excitement in his eyes and something that looked like relief. If anything, that angered her more. Did he want the submission?!
“You are not like me!” She snapped and he froze, the smile slowly falling off his face. “I am not like you! I do not pick fights or show off! I do not threaten the secret! Much less break the rules and enter another pack’s territory! Or even threaten pack members!”
If Rhydian wanted to say something, he never got the chance because Tom and Shannon barged into the room, taking in the mess that was still there. Maddy’s eyes never left Rhydian though who was now back to glaring at her, before pushing her out of the way, doing the same to Tom and Shannon.
“You do not belong here,” she hissed at his retreating back, only for his ears to hear.