Maddy

"Please, Maddy! I know she lives with you but she said she's meet me and she hasn't turned up..." This just made me more angry. They had been going to meet up? I was still face down on my bed. But then I heard a blood curdling scream. I was an alert in a second. My ears pricked, my nose adjusted, I tensed up, ready to pounce. Rhydian? No, it wasn't him. I was at the window in an instant. My instincts kicked in.

"Sophie!" I screamed. Rhydian was cradling the cub in his arms and trying his best to hold back his tears. Blood was streaming from a deep gash in her forehead and there was a deep slit up her leg. Her trousers had been ripped to shreds so they wear more like shorts and her bag was no more. Her right wrist was clearly broken. Black was fading from her skin and her blazing eyes were shutting. Wolfbloods feel the need to protect any cub when they see one, especially when they females. And Sophie was in my pack. It made the urge stronger than ever. I leapt from my window my eyes had clouded over gold, as had Rhydian's and both of us had ink spreading from our hands. She groaned a little as Rhydian tried to shift her into a more comfortable position.

"Maddy..." she rasped. I stood stock still as Sophie said my name, "Maddy... Whitewood..." I snarled as I heard the name. Whitewood.

"She did this to you?" My blood boiled and I had to grit my teeth and clench my fists to control the wolf.

"No..." she gulped, "Wild pack... Jana... stopped them... Whitewood... DNA..." I turned my blazing eyes at Rhydian. We blinked at each other trying to read what the other was trying to say. It was a lot to take in.

"Take her to mum," I said, standing up,

"Mads, no!" Rhydian said.

"Rhydian, they'll pay..."

"If you leave and she dies I will never forgive you!" He blurted out. I took a deep breath in to calm myself. I knew what he meant even though he hadn't said it. I nodded. Suddenly my parents burst out of our front door and my mum looked horrified.

"What happened?" my dad asked as my mum picked Sophie up and started to carry her broken body into our house. That was my mum's gift: healing.

"I think a wild pack might be near," Rhydian said as he stood up. His eyes became blue, again, and I could see the tears in them. I couldn't bare it anymore. I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him. I felt his arms holding me close to him. This was what we had both been craving for the past few days. Closeness. But now was really not the time. My dad coughed and we both darted inside without looking at him. It was far too embarrassing. Mum had taken Sophie into the spare room where she was staying and didn't let anyone in for an hour. When she finally did come out she didn't sound too hopeful.

"Give her some time to rest. I've given her something that will make her sleep until around twelve. We'll only know then if..." I could see the question in Rhydian's face. If what? But I knew he knew the answer, really. We had to keep her alive until this evening. The full moon would heal her. But only if she was able to transform. Halfbloods are a bit touch and go when they're young and it comes to transforming, if the rumours are true. Because there is less of the wolf in them they aren't as called to the moon as wolfbloods are she when they've had less than ten transformations they aren't guaranteed to actually become a wolf. Then there was another thing. Halfbloods practically become wild when they transform. Sophie needs to be in the den when she transforms. But moving her when she's in this state could kill her. We'll just have to wait until twelve.

3rd Person

All Maddy and Rhydian could do was wait anxiously and hope that Sophie would wake. Only then would they get the answers they so desperately needed. Why had Sophie been attached by the wild pack? Why had Jana been there? What was all the murmuring about Dr Whitewood and DNA? They would have to wait. The hours dragged by. Maddy and Rhydian remained curled up on the sofa, arms wrapped around each other, hands linked. Eventually sleep over came Maddy and she fell asleep with her head on Rhydian's chest.

"Maddy," Emma said, tapping on Maddy's shoulder to wake her up. Rhydian glanced down at her and couldn't help smiling. But it faded as her remembered his sister was upstairs broken and half dead.

"She wants to speak to you," Emma looked from Rhydian to Maddy. She still didn't entirely approve of their relationship. She was going to let it happen because wolfbloods had been driven mad by being kept apart from their soulmate. But that didn't mean Emma thought that what was happening between her cub and a lone wolf was right. She would have preferred Maddy to have fallen for her second cousin once removed who was from a respectable background. She wasn't going to say anything to Daniel because she knew it shouldn't bother her but she still cared about their reputation a little.

"Okay," Maddy said and she and Rhydian both stood up. Their hands remained together and Emma's eyes followed them across the room. But she didn't follow them. She knew far better than that. They crept up the stairs. They didn't quite know why they were going do quietly. Rhydian took a deep breath to prepare himself and opened the door. Maddy gasped as she saw Sophie. The cut in her forehead really was deep and the newly changed bandage was already bloody. She was eerily pale. Sophie opened her eyes when she heard the door and smiled, weakly.

"Maddy..." she said, "There's no time. Whitewood is back. In fact she never left," Rhydian shook his head,

"I don't..."

"I know," Sophie had tears in her eyes. She took a deep breath, "I'm so sorry. Six months ago Whitewood captured me. She discovered I was a halfblood and she threatened to uncover the whole care home. And she said she'd experiment on them. Unless I found her another wolfblood," Rhydian's eyes were wide in disbelief.

"You didn't..." Maddy said,

"I had to," tears stained Sophie's face,

"How could you betray your family?" Maddy yelled. Rhydian stayed silent.

"I couldn't. The people in that home are my family! They're my pack, Maddy; I couldn't watch Whitewood tear them apart!" A tear rolled down her cheek and fell from her chin onto the blanket, "I told Whitewood I had a brother, that I would help her find him if she promised to leave my home alone. I'd never met you," she looked at Rhydian, "And I didn't think I'd have to. She'd been injecting me with all these things. She had been trying to get me to transform. It was pure torture. I didn't want to sell you out, Rhydian, you have to believe me," Rhydian's mouth was dry, he couldn't say anything.

"What about me?" Maddy demanded, "Where do I fit it?"

"You were just a bonus for Whitewood. I never planned to hurt anyone else,"

"But what about the badge? The wolfing out? What was that?" Maddy insisted. She needed to know. Even though this was the evidence she needed there was a pull at her heart. It felt wrong.

"She gave you an injection," Maddy was about to interrupt but Sophie stopped it, "She managed to give it you without you noticing. I don't quite know how she found you. She's a real mad scientist, Maddy. Driven by the mad hope she'll make a name for herself. She'd do anything. I just made up the story as I went along,"

"What about your eyes?" Rhydian croaked, desperate to find something in his sister that wasn't completely false. But she couldn't lie to him, even though she knew it would make things easier.

"I can do that whenever I like, Rhydian. It's all part of the act. I'm so sorry..." They all stayed in angry silence for a few agonising minutes. And suddenly Maddy realised what Sophie had done.

"You sacrificed them, didn't you?" She said, looking over at Sophie the truth sinking in. Sophie had risked everything she cared about. Well... almost everything she cared about. And she had given it up. Sophie shut her eyes in pain.

"What?" Rhydian was so confused. He didn't know what to think.

"How can we stop her?"

"You can't Maddy," Sophie cried, "She won't stop. Not now, not ever. I tried to get her to just take me... But I'm not enough to prove her theory," Maddy let go of her anger towards Sophie. It wasn't worth it.

"Where is she?" Maddy's eyes blazed.

"Follow your nose. You can smell her experiments from a mile away," Sophie practically spat.

"Where is she?" Maddy's blood boiled.

"Maddy!" Rhydian put his arm around her shoulder to restrain her.

"You can't go out there. That wild pack is there..." Maddy froze. There were so many unanswered questions. She saw the pain in Sophie's face and it reminded her, painfully, of Rhydian when she had had to say goodbye. But she couldn't stand there and do nothing. Just as she had been about to open her mouth they heard screaming from downstairs.

"Mum, dad," And she ran from the room.