A/N: So I've finally found a plot and a title for my new story. It's taken a while. (This is why I don't write full time) I hope you enjoy it!

"I'll do it." Bryony suggested. "I'm around the same age as him. I can join his school, his class. Lure him back to the pack."

"He's not interested in you." Ceri snapped. "All he wants is that tame."

"He might be." Bryony said slowly. "If I used some dachfume."

The older man scoffed. "Like we're going to waste a whole pot of dachfume on you." Bryony flinched.

"I think we should let her." Another woman said. She had long, blonde hair like her daughter. The other man roared with laughter.

"Since when has your opinion counted?" He asked her. The woman acted like he hadn't spoken.

"We can put it on a cord around her neck. It would affect anyone within a several yard radius." She explained. "I could teach her how to act in the human world. She'd be fine."

The man frowned. "How can you assure me that this will work?"

"Because" The woman said quietly, looking away at the ground. "Love is the biggest trap of all." The other woman looked down too. The man smiled.

"On your head" he said "be it."

{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}

"No." Bryony shook her head furiously. "I won't do it."

"Oh won't you?" The big man took a lumbering, threatening step towards her. Bryony backed up against a tree in fright. She squeezed her eyes shut. "In case you've forgotten it was you who botched it up the first time. You have failed me, and you know what happens to those who fail me." Bryony nodded, too terrified to speak. "I have spared you punishment this time on the condition that you do this." He grabbed her ear and twisted. Bryony bit her lower lip to stop herself crying out. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. He bent to whisper in her ear. "Do you understand?" Bryony nodded feverishly, barely aware of what she was agreeing to through a haze of pain. The man let her go and stepped back. "Good." He said. "That's settled then."

{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}

Explaining Bryony's disappearance to Jeffries wasn't easy. Eventually Maddy's parents rang up some Wolfbloods they knew in social services and it was all sorted out. Rhydian didn't know what they did, but it worked and he was glad of it. Everything was back to normal.

Well, not quite normal. There was still the problem of his mother and Bryn. How could he have left Bryn on his own? Guilt clung to him like a leech, sucking the life out of him. Maddy had noticed. Of course she did. She tried to cheer him up, she told him it wasn't his fault but it was no good. He still had nightmares in which Bryn, cold and hungry called out to him to help and he wasn't there. He woke up in a panic and lay in bed, shivering. Maddy, in her sleep, sensed he was distressed, woke up and came to sit on the end of his bed to talk to him, cuddle him and tell him it was going to be okay, but the nightmares kept coming. One night he woke up in a silent scream having watched Bryn die before his eyes. He sat bolt upright in bed and wiped the tears from his cheeks before the inevitable arrival of Maddy. He didn't want her to think he was a wimp. But sure enough, when she arrived she knew that this one had been worse than the last. She sat on the end of his bed and regarded him silently. She didn't tell him he was going to be fine, that everything was going to be okay because she knew that it wasn't and she would never lie to him. It was one of the things he loved about her. He looked at her sadly. "I can't keep doing this Mads." He said. She nodded. "I have to do something, I have to know how he is."

"I agree, but not tonight." Maddy said firmly. "Now you need to get some sleep. It's Friday tomorrow and at the weekend we can ask mam and dad if we can go look for him." Rhydian nodded in agreement. It was as good a plan as any, and Maddy was particularly good at making plans. That was another thing he loved about her. Not that he'd ever tell her of course. He didn't want to seem soppy.

"Are you okay to get back to sleep now?" Maddy asked, raising her eyebrows. Rhydian frowned. Of course he wasn't okay to get back to sleep but he didn't exactly have a lot of choice. Maddy cleared her throat. "Are you okay to get back to sleep on your own?" She asked.

"Oh…" Rhydian blushed and swallowed a lump in his throat. It suddenly seemed rather warm in his bedroom. He was aware that Maddy was sitting on the end of his bed, her legs tucked under her body, her brown eyes regarding him with a mixture of sympathy and desire.

Rhydian shook his head slowly. He ran his tongue over his dry lips and tried to get his mouth to work. "No, I don't think so." He looked down and tried to stop his heart beating quite so fast. "I think I'd sleep better with some… company." He looked up and raised his eyebrows. Maddy smiled and crawled up the bed towards him. Rhydian moved over and pulled the duvet back so she could climb in beside him.

Maddy snuggled down beside Rhydian and he pulled the duvet down over them both. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him so they touched down the full length of their bodies. Maddy pulled her hair back behind her ear and then put her hand behind Rhydian's neck and gently drew his face towards hers. Their lips met and Rhydian could feel fireworks sparking behind his closed lids. He tightened his hold around Maddy and pushed his mouth further onto hers, opening her mouth and using his other hand to move her head to the best angle. Maddy moved her leg up and wrapped it around Rhydian's hip and smiled as she felt him gasp. He moved his hand down to her thigh so he could pull her further on to him and then he pushed his hips forward.

Maddy pushed him off her with a sigh. Rhydian let go immediately. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No." Maddy said. "Not at all, I just think that's far enough for now." She grinned. "Plus I don't think that this is helping you get to sleep."

Rhydian chuckled. "Fair enough." He planted a kiss on her forehead and smiled as she snuggled down in his arms. He reached over and set his alarm so that Emma and Daniel wouldn't find them like this in the morning and then he settled down and shut his eyes.

{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}{~}

She was running, running down a country lane. The tarmac was hard and unyielding beneath her feet. Her lungs felt like they might burst. She'd been running all night. Blonde hair flew behind her as she ran. She finally made it to the woods. She turned and looked back at Stoneybridge. The trees were bereft of their leaves and this had made it hard to go unnoticed. But it was dawn. The deep black of the night that had been her shelter was slowly fading to grey. The birds were just waking up to begin their chorus. It was still dark enough to hide her form and from now on the morning mists of the forests would hide her. She'd completed her task. The village was calm and still. All was going as planned. She turned back to the forest with a sigh. It was time to run again. She fell forward but by the time her hands touched the ground they were no longer hands.

The wolf bounded off into the forest, heading south.

A/N: Please review! It's always good to know that people are enjoying my stories and I'd love to know what you think is going to happen!