Chapter 12

"I still can't believe Emma said yes to this." Shannon grinned as she grabbed a top off the rail and held it up to herself. "Do you think this is me?"

"I can see you in that." Maddy nodded. "I don't think she felt she had a choice. I'm not going to be the first one to apologise though. I've been holding that in for about eleven years now and I've never even been allowed to talk about Sarah in that time. It sucked and I tortured myself for the longest time thinking she was just about to walk through the school gates at any second."

"Honestly, I did too." Shannon nodded. "At least you had the luxury of knowing what happened to her. The rumours flying round were that she was sick or that she'd moved suddenly... Hell, some people were even saying she was dead. It was sick!"

"I remember." Maddy nodded. "Still, I suppose I'll have to talk to her about it at some point. It's not going to be easy."

"Why?" Jana asked as she grabbed a shirt with a Celtic-looking design on it. "Sarah doesn't need to know about those rumours."

"I was on about my mum, Jana." Maddy replied, taking a deep breath. "It's really not going to be easy after the way I went off on her like that."

"That one's going to have to be your thing to sort out." Shannon shrugged. "I think if we get involved now, Emma might eat us."

"Maddy's mum is a lot of things, but I don't think she's a cannibal." The girls all jumped a mile at the voice behind them. They spun round to see Sarah leaning on a clothes rack and grinning at them.

"Um, I'm not sure how much of that you heard..." Shannon began.

"Shan, I heard all of it." Sarah shrugged. "Don't worry, I kind of guessed most of it anyway after all this time." She switched her focus to Maddy who was now looking sheepish. "Sorry to hear your having family troubles. Listen, the last thing I want to do is cause more problems, but here's some advice: go easy on her, okay?" Sarah lowered her voice so as not to be heard. "She may be a Wolfblood, but she's only human."

"We should really keep in contact." Maddy suggested. "I'll add you on Facebook or something. Subtly, she glanced around. She knew the Segolia agents were watching carefully but they now knew that Sarah was a friend and didn't want to intervene after the problems from the previous day.

"Come here." Sarah said, taking Maddy's arm and fishing a biro from the side pocket of her backpack. It took a couple of tries to get it to work, but when she pulled away, Sarah's mobile number was written on the back of Maddy's hand.

"Thanks." Maddy grinned as she pulled out her phone and started adding Sarah as a contact.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Sarah reached into her backpack and pulled out a plastic sandwich box full of pasties. "Here's what I promised yesterday. The container's air tight so they should keep fresh until you get home. Just try to keep them out of the heat as much as possible. I should have put enough in there that you've all got two each."

"Thank you." Maddy hugged Sarah close and Sarah returned the embrace.

"It's really okay." Sarah grinned, breathing deep and taking in Maddy's scent. "God, part of me can't believe you're really here."

"We're not staying long." Maddy replied, a note of genuine disappointment creeping in. "We're staying in the house here while we're selling it and then we're heading home. I don't know how long we're here for, but the chances are it won't be long." Maddy was using the cover story the Segolia agents had worked out. As much as she hated lying to Sarah, she decided it was better than telling her the truth and getting her worried.

"Ah, so that's what those Segolia Wolfbloods were doing." Sarah realised. "You said they were valuing the property, but I didn't think your family seemed like the type to own more than one. They seemed comfortable where they are."

"Yeah, it belonged to my great uncle." Maddy told her. "It's a really nice place but we can't afford to manage it and have our own house. Just don't talk to my dad about it though. He's gutted."

"How much did they value it at then?" Sarah asked, nudging Maddy playfully as she grabbed a red t-shirt with a gold pattern around the neckline. "Oh, this looks perfect!"

"That would suit you." Shannon nodded.

"Why do you ask?" Maddy tilted her head curiously. "You said you had an apartment and the rent was decent. What would you do with a three-bedroom house?"

"An apartment doesn't offer somewhere to change at the full moon and a place to really get my life together." Sarah shrugged. "Hell, I'd probably never get my own place on the wage I earn, but I'll try anything."

"So what do you do for full moons around here?" Shannon asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, I didn't think about full moons." Maddy added. "Back home, we've got a secure room we transform in. I thought most families did too. I never thought about your apartment not having anything like that."

"There's an old bunker I found on the edge of town." Sarah replied. "It's at least World War Two era and it's secure as anything. It's mostly below ground too, so it limits the chance anyone might hear my howling. It's not risk-free though and the damp is a nightmare."

"Surely Segolia could do something to help." Maddy said, knowing that Robyn was hovering nearby and would have heard her say that.

"When my mum was ill, she contacted Segolia and their only response was to offer to take me into the care system." A note of irritation crept into Sarah's voice. "I was almost sixteen and I already had a Saturday job. I managed without them. I have human friends that got me through it, so I was fine for the most part."

"What about the Morwal?" Jana grabbed a hoodie that caught her eye and tossed it over. "Here you go, Shannon."

"Wow, that's a nice one!" Shannon looked it over. It was deep blue and had been dyed all around in patches to make it look like clouds in a night sky. On the front was a picture of a wolf howling at the moon.

"The Morwal was awful." Sarah nodded as Shannon went to try the hoodie on. She rolled her shoulders in it to test the fit before taking it off.

"No, that's far too small. Maddy?" She passed the hoodie to her and she slipped it on.

"Way too long." Maddy took it off while trying not to accidentally smother herself in the excess fabric. "Sarah?"

"I'll give it a look." Sarah caught the hoodie easily and looked it over. "It's amazing but it's not my colour."

"Yeah, it doesn't suit me either." Jana shrugged as she caught it and put it back. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Yeah, it nearly drove me insane." Sarah grimaced at the memory. "I can't remember much, but what I can remember is mainly full of broken mirrors, windows and car windscreens, people with injuries of every kind, multiple visits to a private emergency room to avoid blood tests and so on. That was my life until I started making human friends again. By that point, I'd ruined most of my old relationships. The new friends were the ones who helped me get a better part-time job, get an apartment and so on."

"They sound like great friends." Maddy remarked as she cast a glance at Shannon and Jana, reminding herself just how lucky she was. Tom and Rhydian had gone to hunt out a games shop and go on a movie binge along with Barry and Maurice. Robyn was blending in with the crowd but stuck out like a sore thumb while Barry was waiting outside the shop and messing with his phone while observing who went in and out of the door.

"I bet your friends are just as good to you." Sarah said, nodding to Shannon. "Hell, I'd say they're better even since mine don't know the secret yet. I want to tell them but I don't feel comfortable trusting all of them with it."

"You'll know who to trust and when." Maddy assured her. "I remember when Tom and Shannon found out."

"Yes, you mentioned!" Sarah perked up as she remembered.

"That day was utter chaos." Shannon muttered. Suddenly, Sarah seemed to remember something.

"That's a point, you mentioned Maddy and Rhydian transformed in front of you. Jana, where were you?"

"I wasn't there." Jana told her. "I was living with the wild pack. I met Rhydian shortly after and met Maddy, Tom and Shannon about three months later."

"That in itself is a story too long to tell right now." Shannon said as she struggled not to laugh at the memory of her and Maddy chasing Jana around the gym in Drama while Jana was busily trying to seriously injure Kay.

"Yeah, speaking of time..." Sarah pulled out her phone and took a look at the time. "Jesus, I'd better be going! I've got to get lunch before work!"

"You know, I could have told you from the sun reflecting off the window that it's quarter past twelve." Jana said.

"Cool. We should meet up sometime and you can show me how to do that if you would." Sarah grabbed the t-shirt she'd picked out for herself and went towards the counter. "That'll be helpful if I'm running late for work."

"It'll be easy to teach you with our sense of direction." Jana nodded. "The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, so we just have to find something south-facing and we're set."

"Cool." Sarah grinned and handed over the money to the lady behind the till. "Well, I need to be going. I'll see you guys around. Enjoy the food." With that, she was gone. Robyn came over and offered her backpack to Maddy as a means to carry the box of pasties.

"Thanks." Maddy grinned as she took it gratefully and stored the box before handing it back. She moved over to the counter with Jana and Shannon and dug in her pocket for her wallet.

"I could smell the pastry through the box." A grin crossed Jana's face. "If anything might start to change your mum's mind about Sarah, that'll do the trick."

"I hope you're right." Maddy sighed as she checked her watch. "It's getting on. We'd better go meet the boys."