Chapter 9

"So..." Shannon sat on the spare sheets Maddy had laid out for her, looking up at her friend with a fiendish grin. "Aren't you going to tell me?" Maddy couldn't hide her confusion.

"Tell you what?"

"How was it?" Shannon pressed, her grin only widening. Maddy was still none the wiser.

"How was what?" She was starting to get frustrated now.

"Come on, Mads." Shannon sat back and fixed her with a mischievous grin. "You and Rhydian were up there for maybe double the time that it would have taken to just get bedsheets out. Now come on! Spill the beans! I knew it was only a matter of time from when he asked you out in the corridor at school, so it's time to come clean. Did he live up to the hype?" That was when Maddy finally got it.

"Shan!" She rolled over and buried her face in her pillow to squash some extra-colourful words before turning to her friend again and fighting to keep her eyes from burning yellow. "That's none of anyone else's business!" Shannon studied her friend for a second before her expression changed, suddenly ranging from boredom to disbelief.

"It didn't happen, did it?" Her voice was flat and suggested she already knew the answer. "Maddy Smith, I'm disappointed!" She gave an exasperated sigh and flopped back down onto her bedding.

"Well it's not like I didn't try!" Maddy defended herself. "We got interrupted the first time when Dad got home and then the second time we got side-tracked when he found my photo album under my pillow."

"Oh my god, you actually have a photo album under your pillow!" Shannon groaned. "I know you love photography but come on!"

"Shan, I didn't put it there because I love photography." Maddy scoffed. "I put it there because I know where it is then. If it was related to my love of photography I'd put a Kodak under there and hope it breaks in the night when I'm rolling over on it." That made Shannon laugh. Maddy had made no secret of her hatred of Kodak cameras. She'd never managed to use them properly. She'd never got along with them.

"Okay, so what's so special about that album, then?" she asked. In response, Maddy reached under her pillow and picked it up. She flicked through the pages until she found the photo she'd shown Rhydian and took it out. She handed it to Shannon who studied it curiously to the point of turning it upside down to see if it made any more sense.

"That was taken just before I skewered my foot with a garden fork." Maddy muttered as the nostalgia of the day carried her back. "I don't really remember it being taken, but I remember the sun and then I remember the garden fork. I remember sitting under that tree with Mum and not even knowing Dad took that picture. Then I got up, ran off and took a fork tine through the foot." Maddy's reverie was cut off abruptly by Shannon's voice on her right.

"That's not you." It was like cold water had been poured down her back.

"What?"

"That's not you, Maddy. Shannon got up and perched on the edge of Maddy's bed. "Look. You can mostly see the hair, but what little of the face you can see just isn't you. I knew you when you were seven and I know what you looked like. Plus, your hair was never blonde."

"Apparently that was something my aunt did." Maddy shrugged. "My mum verbally cut her a new one over it." Shannon's words had rattled her, but it was similar to what Rhydian had said. And Emma had already answered that question some years ago.

"No, she dyed your hair black." Shannon told her. "I remember it well because the school told your mum that they had rules about girls our age having dyed hair and told her you weren't allowed back until it went back to normal. Emma took you down the hairdressers and asked if they could do anything, but they wouldn't because they were worried about it turning green. You never once had blonde hair, Maddy. That girl in the picture isn't you." Maddy couldn't believe it. Her parents had told her all this time that it had been her. But it all made sense now. When she'd told her mum she didn't remember her looking that young, she hadn't grounded her out of offence. She'd grounded her knowing it would stop her from asking any more questions and stop her from finding out the truth!

"I'm getting answers first thing tomorrow." Maddy took the picture back and carefully tucked it away, unable to stop her eyes from turning a dangerous yellow shade. On that note, both girls decided to go to sleep. Shannon got up and turned out the light, clearly worried that she'd managed to offend Maddy. Maddy buried herself under the covers, just wanting the day to end. "You didn't hurt me, Shan." Maddy told her as she made her way back to the bedding. "My parents have lied to me. That's what hurts." Shannon didn't reply, which Maddy decided was probably for the best.

That night, sleep was turbulent and fleeting. Maddy couldn't rest properly. An intruder had invaded her house and was working to sabotage her life. Now it seemed that her parents had been doing the same thing for years. This she couldn't allow.

The next morning came sooner than she'd hoped. It was only as daylight was breaking that she managed to feel remotely tired and she could have done with an extra hour to sleep it off, but Shannon was an early riser and was listening to music on her phone by half seven. She had her earphones in, but that meant nothing to a Wolfblood.

'I could be your own avenging angel

But this dream is ending soon

Don't you scream when all the wolves come find you

Underneath this bleeding moon.

Listen closely for your sister's footsteps

Lest you fade here all alone.

I have never seen a night this haunting

In these streets of blood and bone.

I can't hold the beast that crawls through my veins

Sacrificing my own eyes.

No confessions left to purify me

Something's watching from the skies.'

Noticing that Maddy was awake, Shannon paused it and turned to face her friend. Her expression was apologetic, but Maddy knew it wasn't just about the music. She knew that wouldn't stop Shannon from trying to brush the topic off though.

"Did I wake you?" she asked sheepishly. Maddy just shrugged before sitting up and stretching to click her spine back into place. With that, she swung her feet out of bed and quickly went to the radiator to turn it on since she'd forgotten it again. It crossed her mind that for all Shannon's brains, even she hadn't remembered the radiator. Maybe she shouldn't be so hard on herself over it.

"It's okay." She went back and buried herself under her sheets again, trying to suppress the shivers that were overtaking her. "I could tell you were trying, but headphones don't make much difference. I have some noise cancelling ones and even with the music up full blast I can still hear my parents when they're arguing downstairs."

"So enhanced hearing isn't all that fun then." Shannon let herself flop back as the music continued. They sat in silence, unsure of what to do for a good few minutes until something caught Maddy's attention.

"Can you hear that?" she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Hear what?" Shannon was clearly trying, but Maddy had known as soon as she spoke that it was pointless.

"I can hear something heavy moving downstairs." Maddy got up, grabbing her photo album as she did so and gestured for Shannon to follow her. Together they headed for the stairs, Maddy mentally assessing the best and worst options. The best case was that it was something one of her parents had bought online and the worst case was that the shapeshifter was back again and up to something. Crouching low and peering down to see what was going on, she let out a relieved breath at the sight of Rhydian and Tom being put to work in turning the sofa back the right way around. Emma and Dan had obviously turned it to face the back door to keep watch better.

"Thanks, boys." Emma called over from the cooker as she continued frying bacon. As she did, she looked up at the stairs. She could see Maddy and Shannon crouched there. "Come on, kids. "Get some breakfast." Without having to be asked twice, the girls made their way downstairs. They sat at the table with Maddy resting the album next to her. She knew Emma and Dan noticed, even though they pretended not to. That was fine with her. There was no getting away from it.

"You know, I was thinking about the shapeshifter's obsession with my photos last night." Maddy let her words sink in. She could see the hairs on Emma's neck and Dan's arms threatening to stand up. "They were looking frantically for something in the darkroom, and they were determined to see them while they were here. I think I know what it wanted." She opened the album and took out the one she'd shown Shannon and Rhydian the previous day. "This is a photo I've had forever. If you look at it, you'll see my hair looks blonde. Why is that, Mum?"

"Your Aunty Whitney dyed it that colour." Emma shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Look Maddy, we've been over this before. I fail to see why the shapeshifter would want an old photo."

"So did I." Maddy nodded. "Until Shannon reminded me that Aunty Whitney dyed my hair black and not blonde. So the question re-opens: why is it like that in this picture?" Emma took the bacon off the heat and turned to face Maddy who kept her expression fixed. She knew. She also knew that Emma and Dan could both tell it. They looked around at the others nervously, knowing she wouldn't hesitate to drag up family secrets in front of them. And they were right. To Maddy, Tom and Shannon were basically family. And Rhydian was so much more.

"Guys, can you give us a minute, please?" Dan asked. They all nodded and got up, heading for the stairs muttering about getting dressed. Dan took Rhydian's seat as Emma sat on the other side of Maddy. Instantly, she knew this wasn't going to be a fun conversation.

"Maddy, you know the secret is the most important thing to our kind." Emma began. "That being said, if this gets out at all it could expose us for what we are. No matter how angry you get at us, you cannot let this get out, got it?" Maddy just nodded.

"It's not me, is it?" The disappointment was plain on her face. "You lied."

"You weren't ready to hear this back then, Maddy." Dan reasoned. "The fact that you've come to us now having worked it out for yourself proves that you are. We needed to stop you asking questions before you were ready for the answers."

"So what happened?" Maddy shrugged, scratching at the back of her head as her temples throbbed with an impending headache. "Who is that if she's not me?"

"Okay..." Dan began, letting out a breath. "Before I met your mother, there was a Wolfblood who lived near to our territory. She was a beautiful woman and we spent a lot of time together. Then all of a sudden, we just... Well it just faded out. And she wouldn't say why. Anyway, I met your mother and my life has been incredibly happy since. But then I found out the reason the other Wolfblood and I drifted apart. She was pregnant and was too scared to tell me. But she suffered from the stress it put on her body. Four years later, I had someone from Segolia on the phone telling me that she unfortunately hadn't made it. They'd picked the child up and she was mine now. Your mother agreed to support me and then we worked together to raise her."

"So I've had a half-sister this whole time!" Maddy's eyes flashed yellow before she managed to reign her wolf in. "So where is she now?" As she asked, she noticed Dan turn pale.

"That's the thing. She was unfortunately taken from us shortly after that photo was taken. We tried our absolute damnedest, but in the end there was just no hope. It was shortly after that we ended up having you. And I really saw it as a second chance. I felt I failed them both so badly that I needed to prove to myself that I was still really worth something. And the way you've turned out plus the fact that you were prepared to go to school the day after what happened with the quiz... I couldn't be more proud of you if I tried." Maddy sat back and considered her dad's words. This was a lot to take in and coupled with the shapeshifter issue was making for a dangerously unsettled stomach later. Eventually, she turned to Emma.

"So where do you come into all this? I can't believe you didn't mind that he'd had a kid with another Wolfblood." Emma rested a hand on Maddy's shoulder and took a patient breath.

"You have to understand, Maddy: Your father and I weren't together when his first partner got pregnant. And she made the decision to hide it from him. We had no allegiance to one another. Whatever he did before he met me is on him and when I found out that a child he didn't know he had was suddenly being dumped into his life then I wanted to help him raise it. That little one had no one else, but that was her mother's fault for keeping her a secret. This was a problem that got placed on our doorstep, but we wanted to take it and turn it into something that would only make our lives together stronger. It's just a shame it didn't work out."

"I see." Maddy nodded. It made sense. It hadn't been her dad's fault and her mum was just being supportive. That only left one question on her mind. While she was confident she already knew the answer, she also wanted to hear it from her parents. "So my half-sister, what was her name?" The look Emma and Dan shared clearly showed they knew exactly what she was thinking. They also knew why she was asking. They understood she needed to hear it from them.

"Her name was Maya."

Author's Note: Okay, so I just wanted to give a quick credit here. The song Shannon was listening to was called No One Will Save You. It's a Bloodborne-inspired song by a group on YouTube called Aviators. Even if you don't play Bloodborne I recommend checking them out. Their music is very atmospheric and has served as inspiration for more than one piece of work I've done in the past on this fandom.