Chapter 7: Maddy

The argument with Shannon and Tom had been superseded slightly by the arrival of Jana. However it only got worse the next evening when Tom discovered Rhydian and Maddy poaching.

She had been against the idea at first as it went completely against the principals that she had grown up with. Unfortunately though, with Jana's sudden arrival so soon after the Smith's had also returned, her parents hadn't had time to go and source some fresh good quality meat. That's what she and Rhydian surmised anyway; something had possessed her while they had been talking, that had made her want to do it without anyone else's help. They were getting older now, and everything shouldn't have to be up to her parents to sort out.

The only alternative therefore had been to poach.

At first Aran had volunteered to go with Rhydian, but Maddy had begun to notice that both men had been acting quite oddly around each other recently, and so rejected the idea in case they ended up attacking each other. The only other alternative of course was herself.

Rhydian got very annoyed with the idea of her going with Aran for some reason and the other wolf didn't disagree. That left it down to her and Rhydian to encounter Tom halfway across Liam's sheep fields in the middle of the night. The mad dash back to her house left no room for him to yell at them until they entered the house.

"What the hell are you two playing at poaching?"

"Yana needs red meat and my parents haven't had time to source a fresh butcher!" Maddy began.

"And I suppose that they condone you stealing!" Tom replied, just as her parents, Ceri, Jana and Aran appeared from various points around the house. "Because that's how they would have seen it when you'd have gotten caught."

"Wolfbloods don't get caught." Aran instinctively replied, causing Tom to sneer at him.

"Oh, have you been chatting to Rhydian? Can't contribute because I'm not a wolfblood then?"

"Oh come on Tom," Maddy whined, "You know he didn't mean that."

"He's right though." Maddy's mum chimed in, causing her to frown at her in confusion. "No, not about that! About stealing, when did we say you should do this?"

Maddy winced, she had been hoping that they could deliver the sheep to Jana and not involve her parents until later, "Ah, it's just that we thought that you've already got so much on your plate at the moment and you're already helping Jana so much…"

Emma huffed under her breath, "Since when did you stop telling me things and leaving us out of your plans then." She glanced to Rhydian, "Who's this royal 'we' then that gets the deciding votes, you're still my cub even if he's your-"

"Emma-" Daniel cut in before she could finish, eyes also fluttering towards Rhydian, who was frowning, "I think we're getting off topic now. If you needed access to red meat you could have just told us." He directed at Maddy, "I thought we taught you better than this, at least you weren't seen."

Rhydian scoffed, "Well we weren't!"

"What?" Exclaimed Jana.

"You were seen?" Ceri asked.

"Only for a second and it's only because of these two that the farmer was even out there!" Tom replied angrily, moving towards them.

Rhydian pulled Maddy to his side and got up in Tom's face, "It would have been fine if I hadn't had to go back for you, what were you even doing out there in the first place?"

As their voices had been rising, Aran had also stepped forward to protect Rhydian, and yet Rhydian turned away from Tom to growl at him in a very out of character way. Aran flinched in surprise and Maddy felt the hand that Rhydian had put on her arm to move her out of the way, flex and tighten slightly. Strange, she hadn't even noticed that he hadn't let it go.

"Okay okay, this isn't Tom's fault!" Yana cut in, not noticing how Rhydian's growl had been directed at Aran.

Neither had Tom given his immediate reply, "I was taking a shortcut to give this to Jana." He took his laptop out of his bag and dumped it on the table, Maddy immediately felt awful for her anger and for Rhydian having a go at him.

"Maybe they could poach elsewhere…" Ceri began to rationalize but Jana cut in.

"No, we're guests here and so we'll follow their rules. I didn't know that you weren't aware." She referred to the Smith's, "I just couldn't ask any more of you after letting us stay here."

Daniel shook his head, "No, we should have thought to get you some more meat. I'll have a look around a couple local butchers tomorrow morning." He glared at his daughter, "And you young lady! You need to keep us in the loop before you go cavorting off on your next plan without our say so."

"You're both still in our pack at the moment and so I expect to hear what you're thinking." Emma chimed in sternly, glancing at Maddy and Rhydian.

"What do you mean 'at the mom-" Maddy began to ask, noticing the odd wording but was cut off by her dad again, who was quickly shooing Tom towards the door to give him a lift home.

She turned to her mum to ask again, but before she could, Emma had offered to join them. The fuming look that Tom gave her and Rhydian as he left the room was enough to stop her trying to follow them.

The next morning by the lockers, Rhydian still seemed to be annoyed at Tom, and Tom was equally annoyed at him. This wasn't helped by the fact that she and Rhydian yet again had arrived out of breath and smiling just as the bell went, when usually they would try to turn up early so that they could all talk before form time. Shannon rolled her eyes at them and walked into the classroom, quickly followed by Tom.

Liam tossed Tom his missing planner as soon as they sat down and they began to argue about how it ended up in his dad's field. Maddy turned and watched their altercation from her seat next to Rhydian closer to the front, noticing that he put his arm subconsciously across the top of her seat as both boys stood up to yell at each other.

It wasn't touching her in any way, but she felt something warm stir inside her at the unintertional display, whatever it may mean. She was so preoccupied smiling to herself that she almost missed the announcement that Shannon and Tom were apparently going out. Although she knew it was an alibi, absolutely nothing would make her miss that announcement if it were true.

As the classroom tittered, she caught eyes with Shannon, knowing what this must mean for her considering how recently she had split up with Harry. Shannon held her gaze and then faced the front as Jeffries started his usual speech. Maddy made to do the same and leaned back onto Rhydian's arm.

She looked across at it and then up at Rhydian, where he finally noticed where he had put it. "Oh!" He said quietly, retracting it and putting it on the table in front of him, "Sorry." His cheeks warmed as he rubbed the point on his arm that had touched her back.

"It's alright." She replied automatically, and he looked so sweet blushing in that moment that she took the plunge and continued in a whisper "I liked it there anyway."

His head whipped around and she couldn't help but smile, knowing he was watching. It was the first verbal acknowledgement of what the hell had been going on between them since they had told each other that they loved the other. Upon seeing her smile, his face broke out into a toothy grin of his own and they faced the front as the lesson began.