A.N. I'm going to take a bit of a break before the next chapters because I have loads of deadlines and exams, but should post again in June/July so I hope this longer chapter has answered a couple questions and has left you a lot to think about before I return!

Chapter 14: Rhydian

He was surrounded by a haze of warmth and comfort. That was the first thing that he really became aware of once he woke. The space around him smelt so good, and although his bed was particularly hard that morning, a soft and warm weight pressed down on his chest, easing any anxieties similar to how a weighted blanket would.

What? Since when did he have a weighted blanket?

Rhydian's eyes slowly opened as he assessed his situation, and he very quickly became aware of the girl that was wrapped in his arms. She was quite literally lying on top of his prone form, one leg slung over his own, and face pressed into the crook of his neck.

Unable to care in that present minute about anything other than Maddy asleep, lying across him as if she belonged there, he squeezed her closer to him. She made the most adorable sighing sound in contentment, nuzzling into his chest, causing Rhydian to smile sleepily, fully believing that he could have died happy right there.

Closing his eyes again, with the intention of basking in the glow of what could only still be a dream and going back to the best sleep of his life, Rhydian absentmindedly kissed her forehead. It was only when he began to stroke at her back that he noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of mud coming away from her t-shirt at the motion.

Huh?

His eyes rocketed open as reality came crashing down on him. The reason why the bed he was lying on was so uncomfortable and covered in dirt was because it wasn't actually a bed. It was the floor of Maddy's parents' cellar. The den that he should be sharing with those same two adults that would undoubtedly be able to see him cosying up to their daughter.

Rapidly blinking as he attempted to remember what happened the night before, Rhydian realised that for the first time in his life, he had absolutely no recollection of what happened during the full moon. A chill took over his whole body. Something was seriously wrong.

It took Maddy shifting slightly and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like his name for him to realise that he was still bloody holding her. Daniel and Emma would be furious.

At speed, Rhydian sat upright and whipped his head around to take in the room, desperately seeking out the two people in question and silently begging that they weren't there. Unfortunately, he had failed to take into account the state of his sleeping companion, causing her to be rudely jostled off of him.

"Oi! Watch it!" Maddy grumbled as she dragged herself up to sit hunched over next to him, rubbing blearily at her eyes. "Some of us are trying to sleep here."

"Yes. On top of me apparently." Rhydian couldn't help but reply, watching as she took in what he said and became aware of their predicament in the next moment. Her eyes widened and she scanned the rest of the room.

"Where are Mam and Dad?"

"I think I'm more concerned with what the hell happened last night." Rhydian responded.

Maddy's wide eyes turned to him and she gasped, "What, you mean you don't remember?"

If anything, Rhydian grew even more afraid. What had he done to earn that response? He could distantly feel his heart rate accelerating in dread as his mind tried to fill in the blanks. Maddy could probably hear it.

"I've never not remembered the events of a full moon before Maddy. What happened?" His voice had taken on an anxious edge as he glanced between them and at where they had been lying, "And what the hell did I do?"

Maddy's face coloured and his heart dropped, immediately fearing the worst.

"I didn't… force myself on you again, did I?"

"What? Oh no of course not." Maddy scoffed, before realising what he said, blinking across at him like he had grown another head. "Again? You have never done that. I don't think you ever could. Did you really think I didn't want to do what we did yesterday?"

"Well… I…" Rhydian was stumped for words. There was a tense moment of silence while he decided that this was not the time to address that interaction quite yet.

"Please can you just tell me what happened last night. The fact that we woke up like this-" he waved frantically between them, "-and your parents aren't here, makes me think that your mum may be sharpening the kitchen knives waiting for us to come upstairs."

The fact that Maddy didn't refute that claim didn't help his state of stress.

She winced before quickly blurting out, as if she wanted to get it out as quickly as possible,

"Yousortofweren'tinyourrightmindandkeptlickingmeandgrowlingatthem."

Rhydian almost didn't catch what she said, but fortunately, her method worked well enough because the word 'lick' suddenly chimed a whole series of memories to crash down upon him at once. His single minded awareness of her. The urgent need to cover her in his scent and drown himself in hers. How he growled at Daniel.

"Oh God." his voice squeaked out as he fixated on a particularly dark spot on the rough floor of the cellar as it all came back to him. "Oh my God." he looked up and met Maddy's eyes. "I tried to lick your…" She blushed, "Oh my God." He wished he was capable of another thought.

"Fuck." He rapidly flickered his eyes between her own, "I'm so sorry Maddy." He leaned forward to shake her shoulders to bring home the point of how serious he was, but at the last moment thought better of it. He probably shouldn't touch her again right now.

Instead he ran a frantic hand through his hair, "You tried to stop me as well…" He choked out as the memory came through, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry."

"Yes, you've said that." Maddy replied emptily, seemingly just to fill the silence.

"Jesus Christ. I…" he was aware that his breath was coming out in harsh stabs, almost like he was hyperventilating. "What is happening to me?"

He rubbed a now shaking hand down his face, "I keep doing stuff I can't control. Or… well, it's not like I don't want… But…" His hand was definitely shaking now, "It's like I go underwater for a second… fuck, it's so scary."

Rhydian glanced up at Maddy, aware that what he had been saying probably made no sense, but he needed to say it to make it real, to make her understand. She had a sad look in her eye. "Maddy, I..."

"It's happening to me too." She interrupted so quietly that he would have missed it if it hadn't been her saying it. "I keep wolfing out for no reason and my senses have been so crazy this week."

As she said it, he was reminded of that time in Drama class and up by Liam's trap. If he had only noticed it there, then it must have been happening more while he was not around. Maddy must have been as scared as he was.

"Maybe we've got some wolfblood flu or something?" he muttered hopefully, but he could see the doubt in Maddy's eyes.

Unable to hold back from her while she looked so lost, he reached forward to take her hands in his, ducking his head down to catch her eye. "Maddy, it's alright." It most certainly was not alright. "Hey. don't look at me like that. It's going to be fine." He wasn't sure how that could be the case, but he couldn't have her looking so scared. "Whatever it is, we'll sort it. If it's happening to both of us that means it will be easier to work out what's wrong and we can sort it quicker."

Maddy sniffed but smiled, "I'm sure if we mention it to Shan, she'll have a load of tests that she wants to try out on us by dinner time."

Rhydian laughed, "Yeah, we'll sort it out in no time." He felt the burning need to hug her and so did so, cocooning her back in his arms, smiling when Maddy closed her arms around his waist and tilted her head back into his shoulder.

The position was so similar to how they had been lying a matter or moments ago that he stiffened at the memory, embarrassment flooding through him again. He could distantly hear a clang of a pan above and some bacon frying which could only signify their growing need for an interaction with Maddy's parents and his consequential impending doom.

Maddy must have felt his change of attitude because she eased herself out of his embrace, and glanced up at him in question, an air of awkwardness enveloping them again.

"So… I guess we should go up and face them. Give you mum less time to sharpen her knives." The joke fell flat and Rhydian laughed, the sound coming out much harsher than he intended.

More than aware that he needed to find a way to salvage the situation in any way possible, he stood up and began to brush down his clothes, aware that out of the corner of his eye that Maddy was doing the same. He absently brushed a hand down his face and suddenly Maddy was right there, in his personal space as she reached up to run her hands through his hair. Rhydian was unable to stop the full body shiver that this intimate action caused, and she jumped back as if burned.

"Sorry. You just had a bit of a bed head. I didn't think"

He blinked.

"Should I not have?"

"No, no. It's fine." He croaked out. "It just surprised me."

The space around them was suddenly incredibly awkward again, as Rhydian's face flamed and they both grappled for something else to say to diffuse the tension.

"Should we…?" She pointed up the stairs.

"Oh yes." His face coloured more, already losing track of what they had just planned to do. "After you."

God. Why was this so difficult? They'd spent all week surviving jokingly pretending to be a couple and now he blushed at mere eye contact. Not to mention his inability to look away from her arse swaying in front of his face as she ascended the stairs in front of him.

By the time that they both entered the kitchen, the bacon was done and Rhydian had managed to tear his attention away from Maddy. Emma took one look at their bashful faces and pointed at their usual seats at the kitchen table opposite the already seated Daniel. "You two, sit." They sat.

Not looking at each other or up from their plates, they both managed to eat a rasher each before Emma cleared her throat. Rhydian's eyes flashed upwards to meet hers and knew that Maddy's had probably done the same. Suddenly he wasn't very hungry anymore.

Before anyone else could talk, Rhydian began, "Daniel I'm so sorry for snapping at you. I don't know what came over me, I could barely remember it this morning and I have no idea wh…"

"Whoa!" The older man cut into his panicked tirade, "Let's just all calm down a second, I don't blame you son."

"What?" Rhydian asked. " But I…" he glanced at Maddy and they both blushed.

"It's actually very understandable given the circumstances, especially considering that you're…"

"Daniel!" Emma cut in, ignoring the shocked looks of the teenagers across from her, "I thought we weren't going to do it like this."

"Well, you can obviously see they're confused enough as it is," Her husband argued back at her, "It's no use dragging out the explanation any more, we've already waited too long anyway."

"I told you that I needed to see for myself!" She asserted.

Daniel scoffed, "Well there you go!" He threw his hands out towards them, "I hope you're happy. It might be irreversible now!"

This argument was witnessed silently by the pair, who had been watching the adults trade remarks like they would a tennis match, and yet Maddy had to cut in. "What are you on about? What's irreversible?"

Emma sighed and Daniel dropped his head into his hands before she replied, "Sweetheart, why don't you come with me," She got up as if to summon Maddy from the room, "I wanted to wait for Ceri to come back to properly have this conversation with the both of you but seeing as you're so impatient…"

"I'm not impatient." Maddy grit out. "I just don't like being kept in the dark." Rhydian watched as she glanced between where her mother had extended her hand and then back at him. He was content in that moment knowing that her curiosity would be so potent that she would feel the need to go with her mum.

"No." She finally replied, shocking all those at the table, "Anything you say to me you can also say to Rhydian, after all he is clearly the most affected by it. Whatever it is."

Her father scoffed. "You think that now…"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Maddy angrily asked at the same time as her mum bit out another chiding, "Daniel!"

"Only that…" he glanced at his wife as his face heated, the woman in question only glared back. He crumpled, "Go on then, you explain it."

Emma rolled her eyes and sat back down in front of them, pressing her palms flat to the table as if to ground herself. "The first thing I want you both to understand is that what is going on between you is completely natural."

"Between us?" Rhydian gulped out. Well there goes that hypothesis of wolfblood flu.

"Yes." Emma continued, "The symptoms that I am sure that you're both experiencing have been brought on by one another, and your proximity."

The two teenagers subconsciously began to shuffle away from each other in their chairs and glanced at one another. Rhydian could see a shadow of fear in Maddy's eyes and almost went to clasp her shoulder in support before remembering that that was what had got them in this mess in the first place. Instead he brought his hovering hand to his chair and shimmied it back from Maddy.

Emma sighed and Rhydian's attention was drawn back to her. "This side of being wolfblood isn't commented upon that often because it is quite private, and very intimate…" She glanced between them once more before seemingly forcing herself to bite out, "...between a wolf and their mate."

"Mate?" Rhydian echoed, unsure of the term, looking across at Maddy and blanching at the ashen look on her face, "I assume we're not talking about best mates and other friends here?"

"No," Daniel cut in, "A mate to a wolfblood is a partner, usually a life partner," he swallowed deeply and followed up, "romantically."

"What?" Rhydian laughed, although it sounded a bit hollow. "Are you saying Maddy and I are…"

"Yes." Emma replied, "Or at least you've started the process. It just surprised us a bit because you're both so young."

Maddy finally seemed to have found her voice, "A process? Does this mean that we can't just choose a mate?" A lick of something warm travelled up Rhydian's spine as he heard her say the word and he was alarmed for a moment. "How does this explain me wolfing out all the time?"

"You've already started wolfing out?" Daniel asked in surprise.

"Choice is actually a big part of the mating process." Emma cut in.

Unable to get over the term 'mating' Rhydian just blinked as Maddy talked, "And what's that supposed to mean that we're so young? I thought you and dad met around our age?"

"Yes we did, but the process takes a long while to develop, so it wasn't till the final year of university that we bonded "

"Bonded?" As Rhydian parroted-back another word back to the group he realised that he must stop doing that.

Maddy ignored him while she continued to ask questions, "So you're saying that this happened to you both?" Her parents nodded, "Then why haven't you ever mentioned it? I mean…" She paused for a moment in frustration, "Rhydian and I have been going out of our minds for the last couple of weeks and now you tell us that you've done it all before? You could have at least helped us!"

"Well that's what we're doing now!" Emma replied, "Or at least trying to."

Rhydian could sense Maddy's eyes rolling even without looking at her.

"Get on with it then," she scoffed, and when Emma raised her eyebrows at her daughter's rude tone, Maddy just continued, folding her arms in front of her. "I think you've kept us both in the dark long enough, and now we need some answers please. All of them."

More than happy to follow her lead, Rhydian just nodded in agreement.

"Okay so, where was I?" Emma appeared to collect herself, "When two wolfblood's spend a lot of time together, and their wolf sides sense a possibility of a strong pairing, then their instincts will encourage them to mate."

"This biological impulse is carried across from wolf traits, where they typically mate for life. To accommodate for this, the timeline before bonding is therefore quite long to allow for both parties to change their minds." She glanced back at her daughter, "As I said before, there is always a strong emphasis on choice throughout the whole thing."

"But it's permanent?" Maddy cut in, "You and dad can never split up ever?" Even as she said it Rhydian could feel himself frown, that couldn't be the case considering his parents situation.

"Oh no we definitely can," Daniel replied a little too quickly, causing his wife to glare at him. He smiled sheepishly and continued, "It used to be that you couldn't break the bond, but over generations of evolution and because of the increase of the human world, mate bonds can definitely be broken." He grimaced, "It's just very painful to do so."

Emma nodded solemnly, "It does happen occasionally and can be horrible. You'll have to ask your mother yourself Rhydian as it wouldn't be my place to butt in." She smiled softly at him as she spoke and Rhydian was hit with a pang of sorrow at the thought of Ceri going through something like that alone.

"The mating bond is often used as a sort of biological marriage to bond people into a relationship with a family unit in mind. But with the nomadic nature of wild packs and how long it takes to form, it is not always utilised to create children. After all, you don't need to be mated to get pregnant." Daniel raised an eyebrow and looked between the teens, causing Rhydian to blush and Maddy to gasp out a "Dad!" in annoyance.

They certainly weren't there yet…

Desperately seeking out any chance of a change of topic, Rhydian asked, "So does that mean that you can mate with multiple people in a lifetime then? Or can you reform an old bond that was broken?"

Emma gave him that soft look again as she replied, "It is possible to mate multiple times, but unfortunately no, you can't re-establish a broken mating bond. Once that damage has been done then it's irreparable, sorry love." Rhydian looked down to the tabletop as he took this in, feeling Maddy's hand land consoling on his knee under the table.

He didn't know why he was so let down by this, it wasn't like he'd ever actually expected to see his parents back together, and yet hearing that it was a complete impossibility was still a punch to the gut.

"Okay, so…" Maddy cut into his thoughts, "...at least now we know what is happening to us and why. What do we need to do now?"

Always the pragmatist, Maddy. He couldn't help but smile towards her.

"Yes, what's our next steps?" He agreed with a nod.

Daniel scoffed, "Well I thought that should be obvious, you need to decide if you want this bond to form."

"Is that it? But can't we wait for a bit? We're only 17, I don't want to get married yet!"

Emma reached her hands across the table to her daughter, "Maddy I don't think you quite understand, your wolfblood sides have already begun the mating process for you. You have two months now to agree to it, or the option may never arise again."

"WHAT?" Both Rhydian and Maddy replied simultaneously.

"Once it's begun, you can only stop it by rejecting it or accepting it. It's your biology so you can't reason with it or ask for a stay of execution."

"And if we reject it in order to give ourselves more time to decide?" Rhydian asked quietly, as if afraid to hear the answer.

"The option may not come again. Your bodies could see that rejection as a complete stoppage of all possibility of a relationship and so will stop the mating process from ever beginning again."

She paused before emphasising, "If you reject the bond, you both have to do so in full understanding of what that choice will entail."

Emma had a look of complete seriousness on her face and Rhydian knew that this was it. Judgement time.

"How long do we have left to decide?" He heard himself utter out, lowering his hand to cover Maddy's where it was still placed on his knee.

She jumped at the contact, clearly having forgotten that she had placed it there. He caught her eye and smiled slightly as if to say 'we've got this!', squeezing her hand underneath his own.

"I would guess a month," Emma replied, "Due to how you acted last night and how odd you've both been behaving since we came back then it can be assumed that you're one month into the process." She glanced between them with a practical, assessing air, "Most mate bonds take two to three months to progress so you seem to be a month in. The culmination of the bond has to take place at a full moon so let's say you have a month to decide if that's what you want."

Rhydian couldn't help but gulp at the thought. He had one month, barely 30 calendar days to decide on the fate of his entire future. He shared a shocked look with Maddy and corrected himself, it was only his entire future if it involved her.

Well of course it would involve her. His unhelpful mind immediately supplied.

"Okay…" Maddy hummed, eyes flickering left and right very quickly as she thought it through. She's about to bite her lip, he guessed and smiled when she did. Her thinking expression was adorable. He shook his head to clear the thought. Don't get distracted, Smith.

"Okay, okay, okay… so… what do we need to do in the build up to that? Are our symptoms going to get worse by then?"

For some reason, Maddy's dad went bright red and his eyes unconsciously flickered towards Rhydian. He frowned at the movement and sent a questioning look to the older man, but he just shook his head and looked away in what appeared to be embarrassment.

"I reckon that you should both definitely stay as far away as possible from each other as your bodies prepare you for the full moon." Daniel finally muttered to them, keeping his eyes locked on the table instead of meeting their gazes.

"But I thought we were meant to be deciding on whether we want to spend the rest of our lives together?" As he said the words Rhydian saw Maddy make a small jolting movement out of the corner of his eye like she had only just taken this information in for the first time. "How are we meant to decide if we can't spend any time together or talk to one another?"

"Oh I don't think talking is the probl-" Daniel began before his wife cut him off.

"Daniel! Stop it, this isn't helping!" As Rhydian looked at the older woman he was surprised to see that she also looked a bit flustered. What on earth could she have to tell them that would make her feel so embarrassed?

Emma glanced back towards the door hurriedly before continuing, "Oh I do wish Ceri would get back so I didn't have to…" She appeared to collect herself before facing the pair and bluntly saying, "To form a mate bond, the couple must bite each other during sex in wolf form, and to prepare you for this your bodies will increasingly make you want to do this in the lead up to the full moon."

Unfortunately for Rhydian, in the moment before this proclamation was made, he had chosen to take a sip of his orange juice. Unsurprisingly, this was also unfortunate for his soon to be parents in law sitting across from him, who both received a face sprayed with orange juice in the next moment.

"What the… MAMMY!" Maddy screeched in horror, and Rhydian was sure he would have joined her if he wasn't presently coughing up a lung in a desperate attempt to get orange juice out of his windpipe.

Jesus Christ.

"So we have a month to…" Whatever Maddy was saying faded away as he took in what had just been said. He… well they… would have to…

Fucking hell.

And they wouldn't even get a choice to do so? What if they weren't ready? What if they changed their minds? He knew he wanted to, but what about Maddy? A million and one questions rushed through his mind as he digested this information.

"We'll obviously have to build you a separate den for the week," Daniel's voice cut into his rapidly devolving thought frenzy and Rhydian's head snapped up to take in the scene.

Maddy appeared to have as many questions as him but she seemed to be voicing them all to her parents at a frankly alarming speed. They both were stumbling to catch up, and most of what they talked about went straight over his head.

"...mated pairs are vicious to be around and let alone the smell…" Daniel's comment made his stomach lurch before he took in Emma's.

"We'll have to talk to Mrs Vaughan about Rhydian staying over in the build up, and of course…"

"We could even call Mike and Laura and ask to stay with them, you'll both be unbearable in the weeks around the moon." Daniel chuckled, "I'll tell you what; me and your mum were..."

Maddy held a hand up to her dad's face as if to say stop talking if you value your extremities, and turned back to her mum, who was still talking.

"Me and Ceri will help you along the way Maddy, it'll be extremely difficult for you so we'll explain what is happening to your body as it changes. Daniel will have to teach Rhydian, but I'm sure th…"

Right. That was it.

The thought of discussing his body preparing to mate with Maddy to her own father was enough to finally pull him out of his stupor. He would genuinely rather strip naked and streak through the Kafe than go through that experience.

Daniel was lovely, but the generally docile man would make that conversation even worse to experience. Let's be honest, in any situation, that would be a terrible conversation.

Whatever he would decide to do, right now, he needed to get out of this kitchen.

Making some sort of choked sound, he stood and staggered back from the table, kicking his chair out from under him in the process. He shared a quick look with Maddy before he frantically gestured to the door. " I've got to… I need…"

He just ran.

She would understand, he needed to clear his head from whatever that clusterfuck was. He needed to run through the woods and breathe in some oxygen and not the stuffy air of that kitchen. He needed to find someone to talk all this through with.

He would have to cancel going to the football with Tom today. Even Tom couldn't help him. He needed someone male, wolfblood and, most importantly, someone who wasn't related to the person he was supposed to be mating with.

Aran was a possibility, but he hated the man. He was always hanging around near Maddy and it had been setting Rhydian's teeth on edge. He knew that asking Aran for help would probably cause more problems that it would solve.

He kept running as he thought this through, absentmindedly following a scent on the wind. Unconsciously, he altered his course to head closer to the village, letting the rush of adrenaline take over the stress that he had been feeling before.

Focussing too closely on the rise and fall of his chest as he took in large gulps of oxygen, Rhydian ran headfirst into the path of a man walking up a country road. As he pinwheeled outwards and fell, the man yelped and dropped on top of him.

"Oi! What do you think you're…" The man gasped and took a large sniff of the air. Rhydian watched as his eyes widened.

He couldn't help but do the same and felt his eyes bug out of his head. The exact person that he needed and the answer to all of his problems had quite literally just fallen into his lap.

"Dad?"