Wolfblood
Best Date of all Time
Author's Note: I'm so sorry this took so long. This is the third and final story in the Best Date Ever trilogy. I hope you all enjoy it. The first in this trilogy was inspired by an idea from Lovecamedown, who I feel deserves a shoutout here. Please remember to review. As always with any trilogy or series I complete, thank you to everyone who reads my stories for making each of them a great journey all of their own.
"God this is so boring!" Maddy growled as she banged her head against the desk.
"Maddy, these lessons are essential." Shannon whispered to her. How else are we going to know how to fill out a college application form?"
"I'd rather fill out an unemployment form." Maddy snapped. "For god's sake, I'm only going to study photography. You just wind on and click. The rest comes naturally. It's not that hard! I can go self employed as a photographer anyway! Dad says when I'm ready; he'll start mentioning me to his clients! This is pointless!"
"Well if you feel like that Maddy, then maybe you want to get out and go do it?" Miss Parish said from over at her desk. Maddy hadn't realised that she'd stopped whispering and started yelling. She just put her head in her hands and stared down at the desk, trying to keep her eyes from turning yellow.
"What is it, Mads?" Rhydian asked as he reached over and rubbed her back lightly.
"I don't know why, but my wolf feels ready to break loose." Maddy whispered so that only he could hear.
"Why is that then?" Rhydian asked.
"I don't know." Maddy muttered. "Can we go running in the woods at break?"
"Yeah, that won't be a problem." Rhydian said. Maddy was enjoying the feeling of him rubbing her back. There was something about it that she knew no one else would be able to replicate. Just as she was about to lose herself to the feeling, there was a knock at the door. Miss Parish opened it to see Mr Jefferies standing there. He'd not long got back after the incident at the movies six months ago.
"Could you please send the person on this note to my office at the end of the lesson?" he asked. Miss Parish nodded and he left.
"You know, I might just as well go now." Rhydian said.
"Rhydian, I haven't read the name out yet. It might not be you." Miss Parish replied, opening the paper to see the words 'Send me the boy!' written on it. "No, it's you. Sorry about that, Rhydian." Rhydian sighed and left the room. He hated leaving Maddy, but at least he'd be able to spend all of lunch time with her if he went now. It was a short walk to Jefferies' office. Once there, he knocked on the door.
"Come in." Jefferies called. As Rhydian entered, a look of confusion crossed his face. "I thought I asked Miss Parish to send you at the end of the lesson."
"It's nearly the end anyway, sir. I thought I could save us both time if I just came now." Rhydian explained.
"Well, I don't quite have the heart to send you all the way back." Jefferies muttered as he gestured to the chair in front of his desk, signalling to Rhydian to take a seat.
"Is everything okay, sir?" Rhydian asked.
"Rhydian, what happened at the movies?" Jefferies asked. This time it was Rhydian's turn to be confused.
"What movies, sir?"
"The Shadow Pack movie that you went to see. I was there as well with Doctor Whitewood. What happened after I was taken to hospital?"
"Why do you ask, sir?" Rhydian asked.
"I think she's angry at me for not being able to handle it." Jefferies confessed. "I was thinking that if I found out what happened and told her…"
"Trust me, sir. Spoilers really aren't the way to a woman's heart." Rhydian said. "If Maddy wasn't able to see a movie and I gave her spoilers, do you think she'd ever talk to me again?"
"What are you saying, Rhydian?" Jefferies asked.
"Sir, the DVD comes out in two days." Rhydian said. "Just buy her a copy and apologise for what happened. It wasn't your fault anyway, and she didn't have to go in the ambulance with you. She could easily have stayed and carried on watching."
"You're right, Rhydian." Jefferies realised. "I really shouldn't blame myself. By the way, did you and Maddy enjoy the movie?"
"Yes sir, we did." Rhydian said. "I think it helped that the cinema had air conditioning. We'd probably have died otherwise."
"You know, they think that's what caused me to collapse." Jefferies said. "I just got so hot that when I cooled down so suddenly my heart was thrown out of rhythm."
"Sorry to hear that." Rhydian muttered as the bell rang. "Anyway sir, I'd best be going. I need my dinner." As Rhydian said this, Jefferies seemed to almost wake up despite having never drifted off.
"Yes of course. Off you go." Jefferies got up and walked round to the door, holding it open as Rhydian walked through it.
"I'll see you later then, sir." Rhydian waved back over his shoulder. Just then, he noticed the veins in his hands had turned black. He quickly pulled his sleeves over them to stop Jefferies seeing them. "It's a good thing Maddy taught me to be careful!" he muttered sharply to himself as he lost track of where he was putting his feet and fell down a flight of stairs. Picking himself up and salvaging his dignity, he made his way back to the classroom where Maddy was probably waiting for him.
Line Break!
Maddy ran through the woods with Rhydian just behind her. The trees passed by in a blur. Eventually, they realised they were too hot, so they stopped and sat down to eat lunch while they cooled off. As always, Rhydian gave half of his to Maddy, while Maddy gave him the extras Emma had packed so Rhydian didn't have to eat too much vegetarian food. As they ate, a thought crept into Rhydian's head.
"Do you want to do something tonight?" Rhydian asked.
"Were you thinking your house or mine?" Maddy asked instantly.
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of another date." Rhydian said, turning red quickly.
"Oh, okay." Maddy shrugged. "By the way, what I just said..."
"... never happened." Rhydian cut in.
"Thank you." Maddy let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"That said: I've found a brilliant little hideout." Rhydian said. "If we ever wanted a moment to ourselves, we could always camp out there. I've checked it over and everything. There are no spiders, wasps or anything else we hate. All we need is a tarpaulin and some blankets to keep the cold out."
"Where is it?" Maddy asked.
"It's an old tree house at the far end of the woods." Rhydian told her. "It looks perfect for a dinner for two."
"Is that what you were thinking of?" Maddy asked.
"Yeah, it looks perfect." Rhydian told her. "All I need to do is find a way to keep the cold out and we could make a night of it."
"That sounds good to me." Maddy said. "How about I meet you at six?"
"Yeah, six is great." Rhydian said. "You should be able to find me with Eolas provided you can control it this time."
"Yeah, I can control it. Don't worry about it." Maddy nodded. Just then, she caught sight of her watch. "Oh crap, we should have been back at school ten minutes ago!"
"We need to move." Rhydian nodded. They quickly kissed each other before getting up. Maddy tucked the now empty extra lunch box into her bag before the pair of them sped off back to school. Rhydian ducked through the rip in the fence before hearing a muffled curse from behind him. He looked round to see Maddy holding the side of her face.
"God, that hurts." Maddy growled.
"What did you do?" he asked. Gently, he took her face in his hands and moved her hand away from her face. The shredded edges of the wire had caught her just below the eye.
"How bad is it?" Maddy asked, fearing the answer.
"It didn't actually catch your eye." Rhydian said, looking it over carefully. "That said: it's not far off at all. I think you've just had one hell of an escape."
"What the hell am I going to tell the teacher or whoever asks?" Maddy hissed frantically.
"Just tell them you were in the darkroom and caught your face on the edge of the shelf." Rhydian nudged her playfully. "Aren't you glad you've got me?"
"I'm always glad to have you." Maddy kissed him again before they headed into the school. They made it into Jefferies' history class a record-breaking twenty minutes late.
"Would you two care to explain where you've been?" Jefferies asked as he looked at them. "And Maddy, what happened to your face?"
"I caught it on the edge of a shelf in the darkroom." Maddy said. Tom and Shannon rolled their eyes.
"You are such a klutz." Shannon muttered.
"Maddy, have you grown?" Kara asked. "I didn't know you were tall enough to reach the shelves."
"Do you want to say that again?" Rhydian snarled.
"What did you do?" Jimi asked. "Did you get some of those toddler height shelves?" Rhydian barely suppressed a growl of rage. Jimi had made the mistake of sitting right next to the door, which was exactly where Rhydian was standing. Rhydian easily hoisted him out of his seat and pulled him over the desk. He hauled him over and threw him so hard he landed awkwardly in the corridor, cracking his head on the opposing wall as he did so. Rhydian stepped forward to grab him as he tried to pick himself up, only for Maddy to get in his way.
"He's not worth it." As Maddy spoke, the red mist cleared from Rhydian's vision. Jefferies had already moved to help Jimi, who still hadn't quite managed to stand up.
"Right, that's it. You're both in detention after school tomorrow." Jefferies said sharply.
"Why is he only getting a detention and why am I getting one at all?" Jimi asked, sounding almost drunk.
"He's getting one for what he did to you and you're getting one for provoking him." Jefferies really couldn't be bothered anymore. All he could do was look forward to the future. He only had two more years until he hit retirement age. That wasn't too terribly long. He could just about live with it. On the other hand: putting in for early retirement looked more and more appealing every time Jimi started an argument. "Just get back to your seats and shut up." Jefferies rubbed his temples and prayed that the class couldn't tell his heart wasn't in it anymore. Everyone sat back down. Rhydian and Maddy held hands again as Jefferies started teaching. While he was talking, Maddy took notes while still holding Rhydian's hand. Rhydian looked to his left to see Maddy's right hand holding his left and her writing with her left hand.
"How are you doing that?" he whispered.
"Did you not know I'm ambidextrous?" Maddy asked.
"No, I didn't know that." Rhydian replied. "Seriously though, how do you manage it?"
"What do you mean? I just do it." Maddy told him. "You can't really ask that. That's like me asking you how you draw so well. You can't answer it. It just comes naturally." Rhydian was about to reply when the head teacher stuck his head round the doorframe.
"What can we do for you, sir?" Jefferies asked.
"I'll keep this brief, but if everyone looks to their left they will see a dramatic change in the weather." As the head spoke, everyone looked over to see snow falling heavily outside.
"How the hell did that happen?" Maddy muttered to herself. "Everything was fine literally five minutes ago."
"Due to the heaviness of the snowfall, the rest of the school day is officially cancelled! Everyone needs to call their families now!" Before the head had even finished speaking, the whole class had erupted into a chorus of cheers. Jefferies tried to raise his voice to maintain order, but he knew it was hopeless before he even tried. Everyone was gone before he knew it. They'd all charged out the door and could be seen running out onto the playground making snowballs with their bare hands.
"I thought we could run fast, but that's just ridiculous." Maddy muttered. Jefferies looked up at the sound of her voice to see Maddy and Rhydian still sitting there.
"Why are you two still here?" he asked. "I thought you'd jump at the chance to go out and play in the snow."
"To be honest sir, we'd rather stay in a warm building and wait for my mum to get us than go out in the cold." Maddy replied.
"Whenever I get cold, I just want to hibernate for a few months." Rhydian joked, causing Maddy to burst out laughing. The head teacher took the edge of the door and slammed his head into it twice.
"No, it's no use. I'm definitely awake!" he muttered as Maddy text her mum.
Line Break!
Emma pulled up at the school ten minutes later. The heaters in the car were on full and she wasn't winding the windows down for anyone. Maddy and Rhydian raced from the building and jumped in, enjoying the warm paradise that shut out the frozen hell. The snow had got worse and had now neared blizzard conditions. As they pulled away, a thought crossed Maddy's mind.
"How are we going to go out in this weather?" she asked.
"We can't." Rhydian replied. "It looks like we're going to have to rearrange this one."
"Were you two planning another date?" Emma asked. Maddy nodded disappointedly. "Rhydian, why don't you just stay at ours for supper and cook a meal for you and Mads? We stocked up on food but we got far too much, so there's plenty of extra meat." Rhydian looked at Maddy for an opinion, only to see her using her irresistible Bambi eyes on him.
"I think that decision just got made for me." Rhydian muttered.
"I'll phone Mrs Vaughan and let her know you're staying over tonight as well if you want." Emma said. "I don't think this snow will be gone by tonight and I don't want you on your own in the cold." Rhydian looked to Maddy for an opinion again only to see her using the Bambi eyes again.
"Yeah, I'd love to stay over, thanks." Rhydian replied.
"Good choice." Maddy nodded smugly.
"You act like I would have picked differently even without you making that face at me." Rhydian said as he hugged her close and kissed the top of her head.
They pulled up shortly afterwards before making a dash into the house. As soon as they got through the front door, Maddy and Rhydian threw themselves in front of the heater and hugged each other close.
"You feel about as cold as I do." Maddy shivered.
"Just think of the supper you'll be getting later." Rhydian replied as he took off his jacket and wrapped her in it while leaning them both back against the radiator.
"What are we having anyway?" Maddy asked, trying to stop her teeth chattering.
"It's a surprise." Rhydian replied as he tried to think of ways to warm her up quicker. In the end, he just settled for hugging her until she stopped shivering.
"How about we go upstairs and finish getting warm?" Maddy asked. She grabbed his hand and led him towards the staircase. Rhydian smiled to himself. He knew that she'd warm up quicker by the radiator, so her real reason for wanting to go upstairs was obvious. Sure enough, as soon as they got to her room, she gently pushed him backwards to lie on her bed. Not wasting any time, she climbed onto the bed and sat straddling him as their lips connected. Rhydian pushed himself backwards so his back was resting on the headboard. Rhydian tilted his head as Maddy leaned back slightly so they could kiss more deeply. After a few minutes, they were both exhausted, so they lay down properly and Maddy threw the covers over the pair of them. Maddy's shirt had managed to un-tuck itself and hitch up, so Rhydian pulled her close and rubbed small circles on her stomach. Normally, something like that would have tickled Maddy and caused her to punch whoever was doing it. Something was different though. Rhydian's touch seemed to burn her skin in the best way possible. The more his hands glided over the smooth skin on her stomach, the more she wanted it.
"Something tells me you're enjoying this." Rhydian teased as he briefly took his hand away causing Maddy to let out a threatening growl. Getting the message, he carried on massaging her.
"I need to ask my mum if it's possible for a Wolfblood to have more than just one talent." Maddy groaned. "You seem to be so good at everything it's unbelievable." Just then, another growl rang through the air. Rhydian felt the vibration beneath his hand and realised it was Maddy's stomach.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
"Actually, I am quite peckish." Maddy realised. Without a word, Rhydian scooped her into his arms and carried her downstairs. He brought her to the table and sat her in the seat he knew she usually sat in. As she dragged herself up and got a knife and fork, Rhydian grabbed an apron.
"You won't need a knife and fork. This is a meal wild wolves can only dream of." Rhydian called through. Shrugging, Maddy put the knife and fork back. Just then, Maddy looked over and burst out laughing at the apron he was wearing It was Dan's old one that he'd been given as a present years ago that said 'Please do absolutely nothing to the cook'.
"What is it?" Rhydian asked.
"It's alright." Maddy said through her laughter. "So, what are we having anyway?"
"I've already told you, it's a surprise." Rhydian teased as he grabbed a frying pan and left it to heat up while he went to the freezer and grabbed a pack of burgers and a pack of bacon. He tipped all eight burgers into a meat tin and whacked the oven on full while he put two rashers of bacon into the frying pan. As Maddy relaxed at the table, the heavenly scent of bacon and burgers drifted across to her.
Eventually, Rhydian had cooked all twelve rashers of bacon and all eight burgers. He grabbed four burger buns from the packet and laid two on each plate. He started with the bun and put a rasher of bacon on top. On top of that he put a burger followed by another piece of bacon and then another burger. After yet another piece of bacon, he stuck the other half of the bun on top. Maddy watched in fascination as he repeated the process three more times. He put two on each plate before bringing them over.
"How the hell did we not think of this?" Maddy muttered.
"Do you want ketchup?" Rhydian asked.
"I'd love some." Maddy said, blushing for reasons she didn't know. Rhydian went and got the ketchup before sitting back at the table. "So, does this recipe have a name?" she asked.
"I call it, 'If it doesn't move it can't escape'." Rhydian said. Maddy burst out laughing.
"Okay, that's strangely appropriate." She took the top off and slathered ketchup all over it. Once she put the bottle back, Rhydian picked it up and did the same. They each took a bite and groaned involuntarily as the flavours filled their mouths.
"I think that's one of my most successful meals yet." Rhydian said as he took another bite. Maddy nodded in agreement. She would have spoken, but she was too busy eating. Her face was a picture of sheer bliss with a smudge of ketchup in the corner of her mouth. The two of them ate in silence until both double burgers were gone.
"God, that was amazing." Maddy said as she relaxed back in her chair. "I wouldn't mind having that again."
"As I said, I think that went well." Rhydian relaxed back as well. Maddy locked her legs around his under the table.
"Considering the last time you cooked was in Food Tech at school and you put salt in the cake mix instead of sugar, I think that was quite a step up." Maddy nodded.
"What's the point in cakes anyway?" Rhydian asked. "They don't even have meat in them." Maddy only giggled.
"As dates go, I'm enjoying it." As she spoke, Rhydian took the plates to the sink.
"I'm only sorry it couldn't be in that tree house or a movie." Rhydian said over his shoulder as he untied the apron strings from his back.
"Rhydian, do you really think what we do makes any difference to me?" Maddy asked.
"What do you mean?" Uncertainty crossed Rhydian's face.
"Rhydian, I don't really care what we do provided I'm with you and we both have a good time." Maddy told him. "Provided those two things happen, then I know I'll enjoy it. I don't care if it's a movie, dinner, a picnic or just a night curled up in bed together. I love you, Rhydian Morris. Provided you're here, I have everything I need."
"I love you too, Maddy Smith." Rhydian said as he walked back over and leaned in. As their lips connected, Rhydian scooped her into his arms again without breaking the kiss.
"You're getting good at that." Maddy muttered admiringly. Rhydian laughed as he carried her towards the stairs.
"Oh god, he's carrying her again." Dan muttered as the young Wolfbloods vanished upstairs.
"If he keeps doing that, her legs are going to waste away." Emma laughed. "We'll have to do what your mum did with you when you put that extra on round your middle." Dan shivered at the thought.
"Emma, we are parents." Dan reminded her. "We don't make our daughter run laps of the block and smack her on the backside with a spatula every time she finishes a lap to make her go faster!"
"It worked for you though." Emma reminded him.
"Yes it taught me a lesson I'll never forget, but Maddy isn't getting fat. The danger is her legs wasting away."
"In that case, let's just put a headband on her and tie a piece of meat on the end of it, tie her hands behind her back and watch her run trying to get it." Emma said simply.
"What actually happened that made you so evil?" Dan asked.
"I learned a lot from watching Maddy." Emma told him. "Come on, I say let's get an early night. Dan nodded and followed her upstairs. On the landing, he glanced into Maddy's room.
The two Wolfbloods slept peacefully in each other's arms. Even in his sleep, Rhydian subconsciously tightened his embrace around Maddy. As for Maddy, she dreamed about Rhydian, even though he was right next to her. She meant what she'd said to him. Provided he was there, she had all she needed. It didn't matter if it was snowing, windy or flash floods up over her head. Any date with him in it would be the best date of all time.