Chapter 9 - Hard Choices
Maddy's wolf roared in anger, restless and anxious as she leapt over the kitchen island, knocking over a ceramic vase. With a crash the pieces scattered across the tiled floor. Daniel and Emma both shouted at her, both of them about to change too, their faces twisted and blackening with the transformation.
"Madeline Smith!" Emma's full authority as alpha lashed at Maddy like a whip. The aura of dominance carried through the room like a palpable force. Maddy backed up toward the stairs on her four legs, growling half-heartedly for one last stand. Then she turned and fled up the stairs, rushing through the half-open doorway of her bedroom. She nudged the door shut and leapt up onto her bed, her wolf settling in with dejected eyes as she rested her snout on her paws.
She lay there like that for the next, well, she had no idea how long. The night deepened and the sounds of owls, toads, and insects echoed in the woods, taunting her through the open window. She had no choice but to wait…wait until her parents were asleep before she slipped out and found Rhydian. Poor Rhydian who was waiting for her and probably wondering what on earth had happened.
It was all supposed to go much differently. The worst case scenario was that her parents would confess what they hadn't told her about Dr. Whitewood, and then their guilt over having lied to her by omission was supposed to have compelled them to agree with Maddy to go back to Stoneybridge. How simple and naïve that expectation had been, Maddy realized.
Everything that's happened in Stoneybridge hasn't stayed in Stoneybridge. It's affected us as a family. Since the close shave with Dr. Whitewood there had been a subtle but seismic shift—her parents more protective now, hyper-vigilant. Part of Maddy understood that, sympathized with that. But a deeper part of her spirit couldn't be satisfied with what they had. I won't cut people out of my life because of fear. I won't cut out the people who matter to me, even if there is a risk.
She fell asleep agonizing over how to handle what she saw as her parents' betrayal and narrow-minded thinking. She fell asleep to troubled, half-coherent dreams….
"Maddy." There was a gentle nudge as Maddy realized she'd returned to human form and that someone was with her on the bed. An arm slipped around her waist, an arm that carried Rhydian's scent. His warmth clung to the length of her back as he lay beside her, and his nose buried in her hair as he took in a quiet breath.
"Are you awake?"
She turned over, smiling sadly. "Am now, you goofball." She traced one of his eyelids with her finger and then strained forward for a light, delicate kiss, their lips joining as his scent seemed to seep into her pores. When she broke the kiss, her sad look must have told him everything.
"So…things didn't go smashingly well with the parents, eh?"
Maddy laughed softly. "They did go smashingly—I wolfed out on them and broke my mum's prized vase from Derbyshire. But no, not in the good sense. It was awful, Rhydian. My fears were realized, and to make it even worse they say they won't let us return to Stoneybridge."
"Why not?" Maddy proceeded to tell Rhydian everything. After she'd finished giving him the gory details, she nuzzled his neck, burrowing into his chest with a sigh, letting his simple presence comfort her. She gave him time to absorb it all, and for a few minutes there was just their quiet breathing and the pair of heartbeats of two young wolfbloods deep in thought.
"Any bright ideas?" Maddy asked, still too emotional to think about their next course of action. Her parents' betrayal was a little too fresh.
Rhydian put a finger under Maddy's chin and tipped her face up to look at him. "Don't put up the white flag yet, Mads. We have options, you know."
Maddy's eyes flashed with resolve. "So we do. I could you take you up on the original plan. We could go up to the Northwest Territories just like you said, join your mum's pack."
"No Mads…"
"What?" Her brow furrowed. "But that was your idea."
"I know, Mads, and I've had a chance to reconsider it. Look, I don't want to create some lasting rift between you and your parents. Even if they are misguided, they're still your parents and they love you to pieces. I also think things aren't that desperate, not yet. Now what we can do is use the possibility of joining Sebastian's pack as leverage."
"Leverage?" Maddy's eyes narrowed. An evil little grin broke out on her face and gave her that impish look. "You mean threaten to leave and join Sebastian's pack if they don't accede to my wishes?" Maddy brightened.
Rhydian laughed softly as he took Maddy's hand and squeezed it. "Not exactly. I don't want to force an epic confrontation. I think I see a way we can all win though. If your parents vouched for me staying in Canada to visit and get to know my non-existent birth father for a semester, I think the Vaughns would be okay with it. I say we use the leverage of joining Sebastian's pack so that your parents will help and let me stay."
Maddy bit her lip. "That's dangerous, Rhydian. My parents won't like being coerced or lying to your foster parents. You realize that this'll have to seem like it's coming completely from me, not you. They've always liked you, Rhydian, and I don't want things between you and them to be strained. Sooner or later they have to realize that you're part of my future."
"I know." Rhydian nodded, caressing Maddy's face and sliding his fingers through her satin-soft hair.
"OK, so let's discuss details," Maddy said eagerly. "Let's talk about how we're going to ambush my parents with our little ultimatum."
With an answering grin Rhydian nodded, and the two wolfbloods began their work in earnest.
Everything was carefully planned, like tactics laid out before a battle. Except in this case the battlefield was the Smiths' house and surroundings. Maddy woke up early. Rhydian had stayed a while to cuddle and talk some more before roughing it wolf-style in the woods. They hadn't wanted her parents to catch his scent, so he'd slipped out as secretively as he'd come, leaving through Maddy's bedroom window.
Now the early morning clouds looked as if they'd been painted with a golden brush. Maddy gingerly took out the cinnamon buns from the oven and buttered them. She flipped over the scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage links, sliding them onto two large plates and setting them on the breakfast bar. The smells crept up the stairs like scouts luring in the enemy. Soon Emma and Daniel were bustling about upstairs. Maddy washed her hands and set out the napkins and silverware. Her heart fluttered and her stomach twisted in knots. This was it.
She walked over to the kitchen window, opening it, letting in the cool morning breeze and, more importantly, giving Rhydian the sign to be ready.
"Maddy?" She turned around to see her dad looking dumbfounded at the two plates as if they were too good to be true.
"I made you guys breakfast."
Maddy had dressed in a short-sleeved sky blue and peach summer top with tight-fitting jeans, and her emerald earrings brought out the color in her eyes. She looked nothing like the t-shirt and jogger-wearing late-rising Maddy who her parents were used to seeing.
"What's all this?" Emma came down the stairs, her turn to be shocked.
"Like I said, I made you guys breakfast. Eat up." She ran up to her mum and gave her a big hug, then did the same to her dad. One of those looks passed between her parents, and the subtext couldn't have been more obvious; what's our daughter plotting?
"Sorry, I forgot the coffee." Maddy cringed apologetically as her parents began to eat, waking up more with each bite.
Finally, once their human stomachs and wolves had been satisfied, Emma put down her fork and gave her daughter a more scrutinizing look.
"That was very kind of you to make us breakfast."
"I felt guilty about last night," Maddy admitted. "I shouldn't have wolfed out on you guys like that. Also, I think I might know a good compromise."
"Compromise?" Emma shot Daniel a warning look, and her dad shrugged as if to say Let's hear her out at least.
"If you guys are finished, I'd like to show you something. Come outside with me please." Emma and Daniel cautiously followed their daughter to the meadow out back. Standing in the meadow they looked at her curiously. Understanding only dawned on them when a large, sandy-toned and-cream-colored wolf moved sleekly from the shade of the pine trees.
As Rhydian came to greet them both parents gaped. Rhydian morphed into his human form, nodding politely to each of them.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I came to visit with Maddy yesterday. I apologize for any trouble I've caused. I hope you don't mind me visiting?"
Emma's expression softened immediately once she overcame her shock. "Of course we don't mind, Rhydian. You're welcome to come see us any time. How did you find us though, and—"
"Mum, I promise you he's here with the Vaughns' permission, more or less. We can get into that soon enough. I brought you out here because I have a proposal for you and Dad."
Even Daniel looked alarmed now. "What kind of proposal, Maddy?"
Both of her parents were staring at her, their bearing on the cusp of changing from neutral to defensive.
"I've been thinking a lot about what you said last night, and you guys were right. Moving back to Stoneybridge might be too dangerous still. I can even see how you guys were just trying to protect me." She paused, ready to let that other shoe drop. "But, I also don't think it's right to isolate ourselves. Rhydian has permission to stay 4 weeks in Canada. His mum made the arrangements with Mrs. Vaughn." When her parents' eyes widened in total shock, she hurried on.
"I'd like Rhydian to stay with us for a semester. Between you two, Rhydian, and Ceri I know that something can be worked out to the Vaughns' satisfaction."
"What kind of arrangement are we talking about?" Emma asked.
"It may involve you needing to tell a few half-truths," Maddy hedged. "The Vaughns think that Rhydian is here to visit with his birth dad, but obviously they won't be happy with the thought of him staying with his birth dad since they're his foster parents and they don't even know him. But they do trust you guys and would be OK with Rhydian staying with us. So that's what I'm asking, for my sake. Please?" The slender wolfblood girl turned to Rhydian, clasping his hand tightly as she faced her parents. "Mum and Dad, I love Rhydian, and he loves me. This would mean a lot to me, for you guys to help us be together."
Daniel's face softened and Emma's expression looked conflicted, but ultimately a frown won out.
"Sweetheart, I know you and Rhydian think you're in love. You're both 16 and I know you've been through a lot together. But we can't just lie to the Vaughns. We also can't afford to have the Vaughns know where we live. It's a risk that the information could get out, or that someone else in Stoneybridge might discover where we are."
Maddy shook her head, her eyes turning to steel. "No, Mum. You and Dad can't play the no-lying card. You two were fine lying to me by omission. Rhydian came here because he was worried about us, worried that they'd heard no word from us. You can't isolate us like this. You can't prevent me from being with the other people I care about. Life is about risks, risks you can't run from forever. I'm no longer a cub."
"Mads, it's not so simple," Daniel began.
"I get that more than you do!" Maddy said, exasperated and nearly shouting. She consciously toned it done, taking a deep breath as she moved to stand in front of Rhydian. Rhydian put his hands on Maddy's hips, standing supportive right behind her.
"I get it, there are risks involved. We'll have to be careful how much we let the Vaughns know. Maybe we'll have to give them a fake address, take whatever precautions we need to. I know it'll be a lot of work and I know that this kind of deception isn't easy."
"Maddy, you're asking us to lie," Emma broke in.
"You lie every day! You lie every time you wave at one of your new human friends in Swan Hill walking down the street! None of them know what you really are, what we are." Maddy choked back her inner wolf's growl. "Ever since I became a proper wolfblood, no longer a cub, I discovered that not all lies are the same. Now I'm not asking too much of you. I'm asking for your help to give me and Rhydian a chance at happiness, and yes, that contains risks, but I hope you'll say yes."
Daniel interrupted before Emma could respond, seeing that the two alpha females were ready to get into it.
"Your mum and I will discuss this. Take Rhydian inside."
To both of the older wolfbloods' shock and dismay, Maddy shook her head.
"No. I'm sorry, Mum and Dad. I will not be treated like a cub anymore. If you don't help me make Rhydian at least a part of my life, I'm prepared to join another pack. There's a pack in the Northwest Territories that lives a hybrid existence between wild and tame, a wolfblood community loosely connected to the human world."
"Maddy, you don't know what you're saying," Emma said as Daniel's fists clenched, hands darkening.
"I know better than you do! You claim to know what is best for me, but you consider only some risks and ignore the tradeoffs. That isn't being fair or even smart." Maddy gathered steam as she bit out, "And you know what the worst part is? The hypocrisy of it. Remember when Rhydian first came to us in Stoneybridge? What did you say to me? 'Invite him over Maddy. No wolf should be alone, Maddy. Make sure he knows he can have a pack and that he can feel welcome with us.' Remember those days? If you were thinking objectively without fear tainting everything, you'd realize that going to school with another wolfblood would be a good thing for me. Rhydian and I can watch out for each other. I'd have a friend I could fully trust with my secrets and to help keep me from wolfing out."
Maddy's mum opened her mouth, but before she could get in a word edgewise Maddy muscled ahead, disappointment fueling her words. "And remember when I told you I couldn't confide in any of my other friends at Bradlington High, what did you do? You said 'At least you have one friend you don't have to lie to.' You were the one who encouraged me to befriend Rhydian in the first place! Well guess what? I don't abandon my friends."
Maddy's face was flush with passion as she finished her piece. "The truth is that Rhydian's become more than a friend and I'm not willing to give him up. Either help us be whole as a pack or I'll flee and join another pack. That's the choice, and this wasn't Rhydian's idea either. It was all my own."
The silence hung like a thick and oppressive force that might as well have been as wide as the Grand Canyon.
The shock of Maddy's defiance was still sinking in judging by the way her parents still appeared more stunned than angry by their daughter's outburst. Maddy took Rhydian's hand and tugged him toward the front door.
"Rhydian and I will wait inside. Whatever decision you make, I…I still love you guys." Maddy left her parents with a longing look as she turned from their stunned faces and led Rhydian inside the house and into the kitchen. She sat at the breakfast counter, trembling a little as a tear spilled down her cheek. Rhydian hugged her from behind, brushing her hair aside to kiss the nape of her neck. His presence created a bubble of warmth and safety that was the closest thing to heaven Maddy had ever felt, and she sighed, relaxing in his arms.
"You did great out there Mads. You. Were. Amazing." She turned and flashed him a tight grin.
"Yeah…well the jury is still out on that." She gazed out the window, watching her parents in somber discussion. She had never seen them so animated as they started to go back and forth. Were they arguing? She couldn't quite tell.
"You were, Mads. You said what needed to be said, even if it wasn't pleasant."
Asking my parents to lie for us and calling them hypocrites was more than just unpleasant. They must think me a terrible daughter. Will they ever forgive me? Maddy frowned. It wasn't as if she could ever take the hurtful words back. Was the rift between Maddy and her parents inevitable then? Was there already a chasm wide open and growing? Soon enough she and Rhydian would get their answer.