Chapter 8

Maddox’s POV      

Here she was pouring her heart out to me and I just laughed at her. I did offer to help her with some things she was struggling with. “How can you help me?” She asked.    

“Remember the wolf from the valley, the big black scary one you said was a good boy?”       

“Yeah, but he wasn’t that scary. More like a big puppy, really,” she replied.    

“Who is she calling a puppy?” Xavier asked me. “That was Xavier. He’s my wolf and he is pretty scary.”      

She looked confused. “Let’s start at the beginning. Do you have a wolf? Maybe voices in your head started when you were about 16. I guess you’re not part of a pack, seeing as you know practically nothing about what you are.”      

“I hear a voice when I need to be cautious or am in danger like last night, but not any other time. I live with my mom and sister. Not sure what makes us a pack. Mom is a witch, Caren is a hybrid, 50% witch and 50% wolf. I know my mom was a wolf but know nothing about my dad, so I could be anything. Are we a pack? I guess we are.”      

I don’t think she realizes what a pack is, yet. But I will teach her. Her phone buzzed when she looked at it before telling me, “It’s getting late. I have school tomorrow.”      

“I can meet you tomorrow if you want to talk?” I told her. Why am I offering? There is nothing in this for me.   

“Are you sure?” She asks. “I am sure you have got better things to do, at least better places to be.” I really do, to be honest. But I tell her I am visiting a pack and the pack lacks entertainment. She laughs at that.    

She got up and started running toward the peak of the mountain. I shifted and Xavier caught up with her. She stops and walks over to him. He towers over her. She places both of her hands behind his ears and starts to scratch them. “You’re not scary, are you, Xavier?” Oh, my goddess, he loves it and even licks her face. She giggles, “You are a good boy, aren’t you?” she asks him.  

“Not a word,” he tells me, loving the attention she is lavishing on him.     

“You’re making sure I get home safe, aren’t you?” She asks Xavier, who yelps.    

It was around midnight when I watched her walk into her house, then I headed toward the pack house at the River Valley Pack. I walked in and my brother Parker was there.    

I asked him how the interrogation is going with the rogue? But he doesn’t know, as he has been told that “Alpha Hudson is handling the situation and that ‘as it is not his pack, therefore none of his business, he is to butt out’. He may share the information with me, though, Alpha to Alpha.” I agree to speak to the Alpha but I need my little brother to do a job for me and I know he won’t like it.    

“Parker, I need you to do something for me.”     

“Oh, goddess what?” He asks    

“I want you to enroll in the human high school about 10 miles from here. I need to know more about her.” He looks confused. “The girl from last night.”       

“Ah, Maddox. I hated going to my high school, never mind a stinky human one.” He couldn’t really say no. I am his Alpha. “Parker.”    

“Fine, but I want an explanation why and even then, you owe me big time.”      

I told Parker I would meet him near the woods after I spoke to Alpha Hudson. I didn’t want anyone to overhear the conversation with my brother about Lottie.    

I approached Alpha Hudson. He must have been in his late forties. It’s rare that an alpha is that old with no family. “Alpha Hudson, may I ask what the interrogation was going with the rogue wolf from last night? I was there and have a few questions of my own, if you will permit me to ask him.”  

“He is dead. I do not tolerate rogues in my territory. I don’t care about what he had to say.” He says abruptly.     

“Bu...” I started to say.    

“I said I don’t tolerate them, not since.... his eyes glazed over. Not since the attack on my mate.”         

“Sorry Alpha Hudson, I didn’t know.”         

“I never saw her again after that, so no, I do not tolerate them.” He retorts.    

I can see he is not in the mood for talking. I politely request for my stay to be extended here in his pack. Originally, I was only there for a few days because of the ceremony. Now I want to see what happens on Lottie’s birthday.    

“That’s fine, but I won’t be calling you Alpha, not here in my pack.” He says.    

I noticed a vase of white roses by the door of Alpha Hudson’s office as I was on my way out. Strange for a man to have flowers in his office, but the housekeeper may have put them there to lighten up that side of the room.    

I left the pack house and went to the woods to meet Parker. I told him what happened at the mating ceremony, the girl, the valley. Even though he was there, he didn’t see what I saw. He knew I followed her, but not who I saw her living with. I told him about following her tonight and talking to her and everything she told me.     

Then I told him how she called Xavier a good boy and a puppy. I am an Alpha, leader of my territory, feared by many and respected by my peers, and here is this girl calling my wolf a good bloody puppy, and Xavier was okay with it.    

Parker doubled over with laughter, then fell to the ground. “It’s not funny,” I said as I kicked him. He carried on laughing.    

“You know how to cheer a dude up. Being in this territory having to go to a human high school and you plant it on me that you find your Luna, who doesn’t know she’s a wolf, hasn’t got a wolf or knows anything about our customs. Above all, she turns 18 in a few days and is on the brink of receiving a gift that no one knows about.” He was practically howling with laughter by now. “Oh, come on Maddox, if someone was telling you about this, you’d be laughing as well.”       

I could see his point and smiled, then laughed. “Yeah, I suppose.” I sat on the ground next to him. “You really think she could be my mate?”       

“Who’s a good boy?”        

I glared at him. “It’s a good job you’re my brother, otherwise Xavier would punish you for this disrespect.”         

“So why didn’t she get that response?” He went back to laughing. “Good enough reason to stay, though. Mom and dad would have been thrilled if they were still alive.”     

If she is my mate and her birthday is in a few days, I need her to be ready for what is coming. “Let’s go. I need some rest. It’s been a long couple of days and I don’t think it’s going to get any easier.” Parker laughed again.   

“Don’t you need to get ready for school, Parker?” He quickly stopped laughing then. 

Parker’s POV      

Oh,this is hilarious. I have a front-row seat for my brother finding his mate. Got to admit the girl from the valley had speed. Knowing she’s a wolf explains it, though. With training, she could be a formidable opponent. But I shouldn’t laugh at Maddox too much. He is my Alpha after all, and he could kill me. Then again, he’s sending me to high school here, so I may want to be killed. He owes me big time for this.