CHAPTER THREE

We were all munching on bacon butties, I had resumed my seat on the pillow beside the Rhydian, Tom was now sitting on the end of the bed, Shannon gave up the chair for Gran and she and Mam perched in the window ledge. Dad was balanced on the small dressing table chair. Rhydian was propped up on his pillows looking awkward trying to eat with only his left hand, but he was still managing to munch his third sandwich. Clearly his injury hadn't impacted on his appetite.

The room was quiet now and I could feel the tension start to build; we all had so many questions we wanted answers to.

"So, Gran, tell us about your travels" I began, with a forced lightness to my tone, may as well start with a neutral topic.

Calling my energetic, dark haired, well dressed Grandmother 'Gran' hardly seemed fair; she was not your typical Granny. She had taken early retirement from nursing and decided to go off and explore the world. 'If not now, then when?' had been her response to my parents horrified expressions of protest when she had first suggested it a few years ago.

"Oh Pet, I had a wonderful time. Visited some wonderful places, met some wonderful people" she said with a twinkle in her eye.

"You're a nurse?" questioned Rhydian.

"Yes Pet, that's right."

"But how did you manage to hold down a full time job and be a wolfblood? I mean, I know that Maddy's dad is a carpenter but he works for himself, so doesn't have to explain anything to anyone" asked Rhydian, clearly bemused.

Gran laughed, "It's easier than you think, you've been wild for too long. I was a nurse so I worked shifts. If it happened to be a full moon on a night I was roistered on it wasn't too hard to find someone to swap. I wasn't given shifts every month so it only happened a few times a year. I had Emma to bring up so it was easy to come up with an excuse: lack of a baby sitter, or school play, parents evening, or a party, someone would swap shifts with me. I only phoned in sick three nights in a nearly 25 year career when I couldn't find an excuse or swap." said Gran with pride "My wolf-sense gave me powers of diagnosis that even medical science couldn't keep up with sometimes, there were many times when I nudged a junior doctor in the right direction. Many wolfblood's have a talent of some sort; Dan here can do things with wood that has always amazed me."

Dad looked down and shuffled his feet.

"Rhydian is an amazing artist" I stated matter of factly.

"I haven't done much drawing lately Maddy" said Rhydian quietly.

"And what about you Maddy? Anything come out yet?" asked Gran

"No, nothing." I said, suddenly feeling glum.

"Oh well Pet, I'm sure destiny has something important in store for you." said Gran, suddenly being all mysterious again.

"So" she began again "we have five protectors, including a Witch and a Keeper. Excellent"

I wasn't even going to ask this time. I just glanced at Mam and Dad, who looked resigned to whatever Gran was telling me. Shannon and Tom just looked confused.

"Shannon of course we know about" continued Gran "a first class Witch, I have no doubt, I'm sure it came as a surprise to you, Pet, but Witches have always been associated with wolfblood's, we need them and they need us. One of the old ways to tell a Witch was by her 'Familiar', an animal that would be seen to assist the witch. This was distorted by the Witch hunts and trials that persecuted innocent people who just happened to have a pet, but of course, where it was genuine, that animal was a wolfblood. In fact the Wolfblood needs the Witch rather than the other way round but folklore tells a different story. As I explained last night, real Witches are women of science; they follow their instinct and use all they know to decide an outcome. Shannon has already displayed many of the qualities Witches show towards a Wolfblood, an instinctive understanding and compassion, and of diplomacy on both parts." I guessed Gran was talking about everyone keeping the secret. History didn't treat wolfblood's or Witches with much understanding. "Put away your ideas about caldrons and casting spells, we have Shakespeare to thank for that mumbo jumbo nonsense."

"Now, Tom, it's you that's really important. A Keeper." Gran took a pause, she was being dramatic.

I glanced from Tom, who looked confused, to Rhydian who didn't seem surprised as by Gran's revelations.

"Most wolfblood packs have a Keeper. A Keeper is a human who knows all about the wolfblood changes and helps them, especially during a full moon, he keeps them safe and the humans around them safe too. They too work on instinct much like a Witch but they are bound to the pack they protect and the pack will also protect them. How long have you all know each other?"

"Since primary school" I said, I had known Shannon and Tom forever. I had kept the secret from them for so many years. We had all been drawn together even as little children. Shannon, the self confessed geek; Tom, the comic relief; me the freaky oddball.

"You love Maddy don't you Tom?" Gran fired the question like a bullet from a gun. There was silence in the room. Tom looked uncomfortable, staring at a spot down near his feet. I could feel Rhydian bristle next to me, his body was suddenly tense.

"I... I..." whispered Tom, unable to answer. I had always suspected Tom had a crush on me but he had never done anything about it, and I wasn't sure I wanted him to; I loved him too much as a friend to have risked losing that.

"But not in a romantic way" said Gran firmly, "you want to protect her and look out for her. You want her in your life always but are unsure that you want her as a girlfriend? Am I right."

Tom answered with only a single word. "Yes".

"You love her like a sister"

"Yes" He sounded sure and a little relieved.

"Well, that is what being a Keeper is, you will protect your wolfblood pack with your life if necessary and the pack would protect you too, you help to keep the secret and keep them safe. It's an especially necessary for Tame wolfblood's to have a Keeper. I am amazed that Emma and Dan have gone so long without telling you, especially since you started changing Maddy." Gran looked disapprovingly at Mam and Dad.

Mam justified herself "We wanted to keep them out of it, it should be their choice to join our world. This is pretty heavy stuff Mam"

"You can't always fight fate Emma." Gran stated matter of factly. All this was slowly making sense to me, Rhydian seemed to be staying very quiet, not like him at all.

"Have you had a Keeper Gran? Or a Witch?" I asked.

"Yes love, a Keeper, George. He was a lovely man, a great friend. He died just before I went travelling"

"Died?" queried Shannon, worried.

"Yes Pet, he was 97. A good innings when all said and done, he was my parents Keeper before me."

"I remember him" I mused, "He was your neighbour. Wow."

Shannon's phone suddenly rang making us all jump. "It's my Mam" she said as she answered it.

A brief conversation later and she shrugged "I'm sorry, I've got to go, they want me home".

"That's OK, you have done so much, thank you."

"Thank you" echoed Rhydian.

He look tired again. I felt sleepy and grubby, I still had the same clothes on I was wearing yesterday.

We all went down stairs to see Shannon and Tom out, leaving Rhydian dozing in bed.

I plodded back upstairs and decided to take a shower, nipping to my bedroom first to get a change of clothes.

It felt good to be in the shower, letting the hot water wash away all the mud that was engrained in my skin, it gave me time to think of everything that Gran had told me on my own. Shannon and Tom were linked to my world, in a way that I could never have predicted. Shannon a Witch! Who would have guessed? And Gran's revelation about Tom certainly made sense, he was the brother I had never had, my best friend and our keeper of secrets.

Rhydian. I still couldn't believe that he was here, in my house, back with us. But there was a niggle in my mind, for how long? He had said that he was sorry for leaving but I still wasn't sure why he had left me in the first place. And still the confusion over why Bryn would attack him? I shampooed my hair and tried not to think about the questions that buzzed around in my brain. The important thing was that Rhydian was back, and that was all that needed to matter for now.

Half an hour later I peeped in on him, I was clean, had dried my hair and changed my clothes now so I felt truly more human. Rhydian was still on the dirty bed wearing his jeans and covered in the remands of blood and honey. He could use a shower himself. He was awake and chatting to Gran. Dad came up behind me, reading my mind he suggested that Rhydian have a bath, it would help his shoulder too. "I'll find you some clean clothes and help you into the bathroom" suggested Dad.

Gran and I changed the filthy bed while Rhydian soaked. She chatted away to me about nonsense while we worked, tutting when I didn't make the bed using hospital corners. "So, you and Rhydian hay?" She questioned as we worked.

"There is no me and Rhydian Gran, there never has been." There was a tone of regret in my voice that there was no point trying to hide from Gran. She could see things in my heart I hadn't even admitted to myself.

Dad helped Rhydian back into the bedroom. He looked pale and tired again, he was wearing a fresh pair of Dad's pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt, his hair looked even blonder now that it was washed and clean.

"Hi" he said to me smiling, as Dad helped him back on to the bed, Gran easing the cover over his legs and adjusting the pillows.

"Hi" I whispered back, blushing again. How could he make me do that? All he had said was Hi and I still felt the blood rush to my face.

Dad and Gran melted away, going down stairs to Mam, busy in the kitchen.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, rather conventionally.

"Better now, first hot bath I've had for ages, my shoulder is sore though but that stuff your Gran keeps giving me is OK."

"She couldn't have arrived at a better time. It's like she knew she would be needed."

"Maybe she did," said Rhydian, smiling, "recon she reads the tea leaves or uses a crystal ball your Gran."

He was teasing me I could tell, he knew something more about the things that Gran had been talking about. That was understandable, he had been living wild with his Mum and brother for a year, they used the natural ways of being a wolfblood, using Eolas to see things that others didn't.

I took a deep breath. "Rhydian, where have you been?" I could hardly form the words, mumbling them to my toes as I sat on the small dressing table chair pulled closer to the bed. I couldn't ask the questions I really needed an answer to, 'why did you leave and why did you come back?' until he had answered the former.

Rhydian took a deep breath and prepared to tell me. "I left Maddy and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone like that, but Tom and Shannon knowing, seeing what we were, it scared Mum so much, I thought she was going to attack them, or you. I was convinced that the place would be crawling with a lynch mob looking for us. I went to see Tom and Shannon before we went because I knew that your family would go and hide and I didn't want you to have to leave because of my Mum or because of something Shannon and Tom had done, I knew that they wouldn't want that really. We left pretty much immediately, by the next day we had travelled well into Yorkshire and for there we spent a couple of weeks moving into Derbyshire and then through Staffordshire and into Wales. That's where we have been mainly. I don't really know the exact area as Ceri, Bryn and the rest of the pack don't bother with the place names human's use."

"The Pack?" I interrupted, "how many are there?"

"Changed all the time, people come and go, maybe a dozen or so, wild wolfblood's, some Tame who needed a change. Met some interesting people, couple of lovely families, wild children though." He laughed "It was hard when we were travelling, crossing other wolfblood's territory, took some negotiation sometimes, but Mum is well known and it was only me they felt threatened by. A new male suddenly appearing worried a few people. It's amazing that I had stayed under the radar for so long but I suppose that it was my first transformation that makes me more noticeable, that's how Mum found me, when I started changing, she could see that I was a full wolfblood and find me using Eolas."

"What did you eat? Where did you sleep?"

"We eat what we can hunt, I was rubbish at it at first, it was grim, I'm not exactly into kill-it, cook-it, eat-it but I got better and the food was pretty good, winter was hard, I got a bit sick of rabbit but a couple of times Mum hunted as a wolf and brought down a deer, that would keep the pack going. Some wolfblood's will take livestock from fields and Mum said that they had done it in the past. It was something that doesn't sit well with me, too much like stealing, the last place I wanted to end up was another police cell on full moon again." He smiled at me as we both remembered when Rhydian had been taken into our local police station and they had wanted to keep him in the cells over night to teach him a lesson, fortunately Dad had told them that he suffered from clinical lycanthropy, a psychological condition where the sufferer thinks they can turn into a werewolf, in Rhydian's case though it was far too close to the truth. They had soon released him to our care and we had headed to the moors as we changed.

"He came to question us you know, after you left..." I said hesitantly to Rhydian.

"What? Who?" queried Rhydian.

"The policeman that had wanted to keep you in the cells that night, he came to question us all when you disappeared. The Vaughn's reported you missing, after they had about broken down our door looking for you. The police came to us all after school to ask us if we had seen you or where you had gone."

"What did you tell them?"

"I told the truth, that a woman had come claiming to be your mother and that you had gone off with her. There was nothing more we could tell them, there was nothing more we knew. They asked about addresses, names, areas... We didn't know." I shrugged.

"Thank you" he said reaching for my hand on the edge of the bed. It felt good to have him squeeze my fingers and gently rub his thumb over my palm.

He gave a long yawn. I realised he would be tired, he was still recovering.

"I'll leave you to have a sleep."

"Stay for a bit Maddy." He said, relaxing back into the pillows and pulling the blanket up. He still had a hold on my hand. He slowly closed his eyes, "I'm glad I'm here Maddy." He whispered before falling asleep.

Mam had cooked a great big beef stew for supper that night served with loads of mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, she took some up to Rhydian while I chatted to Gran about her travels. They had taken her all over the world, backwards and forwards through Europe, on to India and Asia even briefly to Australia for a couple of weeks. It sounded amazing, I thought the urge to be free just meant running wild near the time of the full moon, but maybe there was a certain wanderlust in me too. I wanted to see the world.

We went to bed early, Gran still sleeping in my bed; I was on the sofa with a spare pillow and a sleeping bag. I was so tired it didn't really matter; it was still more comfortable than the floor by the side of Rhydian. I just felt relieved that he was happy to be here.

I was woken early by someone quietly calling my name.

"Maddy, Maddy, help me put this on..."

"Rhydian?" I was groggy from sleep and strange tangled dreams that had shown Tom holding a giant key and Shannon setting up a campfire with a cauldron in the middle of an English lesson.

"You're going?" I questioned, opening blurry eyes to see Rhydian standing at the foot of the sofa struggling to pull my Dad's wax jacket on over his injured shoulder. There was a tone of panic in my voice.

"No" he smiled, shaking his head, "I'm here now. We're going outside to get some fresh air."

"What time is it? Why now?" I was warm and comfortable.

"To watch the sun come up, come on Maddy, help me."

The puppy dog face. I knew he was up to mischief when he looked at me like that, those little boy lost eyes luring me in to something that was just a little bit dangerous.

I clicked my tongue and shook my head laughing at him. Better to go along than let he go off on one of his adventures and miss out. I'd missed this, the thrill of being with Rhydian when he was feeling maverick, normally it happened just before a full moon, not after, but I could tell that he had something planned.

I helped him into the coat and pulled mine off the hook by the door, "I just need a sec" I whispered to him. I climbed the stairs to the bathroom as stealthy as I could two at a time. While I was there, I hastily brushed my teeth, pulled a brush through my tangled hair and grabbed a thick pair of socks from the airing cupboard.

Back downstairs I pulled on my boots and met Rhydian by the back door, he was holding the pillow and sleeping bag I had been using on the sofa in his arms. What was he planning?

We opened the back door onto the cold and misty morning, the sun wasn't even peaking over the tops of the woods in the distance, it was still dark, the stars pin pricks of pure white light in the blue sky. I glanced at the clock on the side, it was just after 4am, what was he up to?

"Where are we going?" I questioned

"Not far. Just into the garden. I need to get out."

We moved into the garden, down to the bottom under the fruit trees, to a seat my father had made. It was beautiful, his craft and skill had always fascinated and amazed me, the seat was carved for my mother, out of a single tree that had fallen in the woods, the curves were soft and sanded so smooth it was like silk. Rhydian propped the pillow into the right hand corner of the seat and sat down with his back to it, he gestured for me to come and sit next to him. I sat down and he carefully spread the open sleeping bag around us both. The seat faced east, we would be able to see the sun come up over the trees.

We were sitting so close together, I smell the wax from Dad's coat, Rhydian suddenly unzipped the coat and pulled me closer to him, tucking me inside the jacket and pulling it around my back. I was snug and warm next to him. I couldn't help it but I giggled "What are you up to?" I asked him turning my face to look him in the eye.

"Keeping warm" he replied smugly. An answer to everything as usual.

As we sat there, in the cold damp morning air, my eyelids were heavy and our breathing fell into the same pattern together. My head rested onto his uninjured shoulder and he tucked me again under his chin

"Rhydian?" I questioned suddenly, "Why did Bryn attack? Is that why you came back, because of a fight?"

"No." He answered. There was a long pause. Then he took a deep breath and started to talk. "Bryn didn't attack me. He was going for you, I pulled you behind me, got in his way." I had thought as much but I still didn't understand.

"Me? But why? What have I done? I haven't hurt Bryn have I?"

"No, Maddy, No you haven't." He paused again. "It's hard to know where to start."

Rhydian took a few breaths and gazed into the distance. He began to speak.

"I wanted to come back as soon as I left. The very second. I went to see Shannon and Tom and I wanted to come and see you but I thought that if I did, I would put you in danger. When Bryn came to find me he said that Mum had spent months looking for me, leaving him behind with others in the pack. She wanted to bring me home. I didn't know what he meant by that as they were wild wolfblood's. As we travelled further away for days and days I didn't know where we were or how to get back to you. I kept using Eolas but it was confused with moving about so much. We travelled close to big cities and it became messed up with all the interference from the humans. I could see that your family had stayed put and I satisfied myself that you would be happy and settled and go on with your life with Shannon and Tom as though I had never been a part of it."

"We settled in our territory in the forests of North Wales. I still couldn't understand why Mum had abandoned one child to go and look for another, why she needed me so much. Bryn's behaviour was odd, one minute he wanted me in his life, the next he hated me, I mean really hated me. All I could think about was coming back here when he was like that and that just made him worse. He hadn't started to change fully yet, though he wasn't far off. Did you know that wild wolfblood's change earlier than Tames Maddy?"

"No, I wonder why?" I pondered absently.

"I think it's because they need to survive more independently..." Rhydian shrugged. "Anyway, eventually Mum took me away from the pack for a few days to explain why she had needed to get me back."

"And?" I questioned.

"And, well, I'm special Maddy."

"Yer, we know Rhydian" I said laughing at him.

"Shut up" he said, nudging me with his good shoulder. I turned to look at him and laughed, his face was so close to mine, I could feel the warmth of his lips so close to mine, taste his breath on the tip of my tongue. I closed the gap between us and kissed him, softly on the lips. He responded pulling me closer to me, deepening the kiss. My arms moved around him and I drew him to me tightly, like I would never let go.

"Agghhh" he moaned through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." I had pulled his injured shoulder wrapping my arms around him. I quickly pulled back and shot to the other end of the seat. He simply smiled at me and drew me closer again, pulling me onto his lap, putting my left hand around his waist so I didn't hurt him, I slipped it up under the edge of the coat.

He kissed me this time, softly and gently at first then more intensely, his lips opening and his tongue brushing along my lower lip. My arms drew him closer, one feeling the muscles across his back, the other on his neck, tangled in his hair. My senses were all consumed, I felt warm and safe, his arms were around me, one hand held my face gently rubbing his thumb against my cheek. I could hear the birds begin their morning chorus, backwards and forwards to each other, I heard Rhydian groan from deep within his chest as our kiss deepened. I could taste him as his lips moved on mine. He smelled so good, clean and fresh, like the morning. My heart was beating faster, we were both gasping for breath, laughing at each other. His lips moved along my jaw and down towards my neck.

"Maddy" he whispered and held me tight. It was like he had come home.

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