A.N. Well, it's not June or July. It's not even August or September. Oops.
Sorry for the long wait, I'm not missing, I'm just very disorganised! I hope you enjoy this update, and sorry for the multiple chapters of just info dumping, but it needed to happen at some point. As always, I read and love every comment you write, so keep them coming x
Also, I'm not Welsh, and other than a love of Gavin and Stacey, that and Google Translate are all I have as reference for the Welsh language, so I apologise if any Welsh people are reading this and are horrified at my dodgy translations.
WELSH TRANSLATIONS (I think):
- Gwaudd: Daughter-in-law
- Priod: (marriage) partner, partner, spouse
Chapter 15: Maddy
He'd run again. Why does he always run when things get hard?
It's not like this was the first time. Running away when Tom and Shan found out, trying to run when Maddy confronted him when they first met, and constantly flighty when anything went wrong. For once, she wanted him to stick around and work out how to get through a problem with Maddy, instead of just thinking for himself and getting scared.
Maddy felt her face fall as she watched him go and knew she needed to be away from her parents for a bit to take all of this new information in.
"I'm going for a shower." She began while rising from the table.
"But I need to… When Ceri gets back…" Whatever her mother was attempting to say was cut off as Maddy gave her a sharp look.
"Come and find me when she does, until then, I need to think this through…" They had to let her go.
It was only when she had submerged herself under a scalding hot shower that she could consider what she had just learned. Everything that had been happening to her had been normal? She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead into the cool tile in front of her face.
The worst part was that her parents had clearly already seen what had been happening, and they didn't think to tell her. Granted, she hadn't asked, but she shouldn't have had to. Both she and Rhydian had been getting increasingly more terrified by what had been happening to them, and to think that her parents had just watched on and let it happen broke her heart.
And the first thing that Rhydian had done after finding out was to run away from her? Great.
Realising that her wallowing had resulted in quite a long shower, Maddy turned off the water and jumped out. She had just begun to dry herself down with a towel when she caught her reflection in the mirror, and paused.
In a month, she and Rhydian would have to have sex, or give each other up. As she stared over the expanse of skin in front of her and the imperfections that it carried, she tried to imagine it was Rhydain in front of her. Would he even want to have sex with her? Were they ready?
She scoffed. They weren't even properly dating. Resuming dressing herself, she thought back to their tumble in the leaves the other day. Was that really only yesterday?
He hadn't appeared to be disgusted by her body. She smiled as she thought back on it. Actually, he had seemed to be more than pleased if his reaction to her had been any indication. Maddy shook herself as she reassessed the situation. She was being silly, lust and desire weren't the issue here. What she needed to work out was whether she could imagine spending the rest of her life with him.
unhelpful voice immediately supplied as Maddy sighed and left the bathroom.
Annoyingly, her mam was already sitting down on her bed by the time that she returned to her bedroom. Maddy scowled at her before noticing that she had dragged Ceri and Jana in as well, the former staring pensively out of the window, while the latter sat on her desk chair looking down at her still healing leg.
"Jana, please sit on my bed if it's more comfortable." She supplied, annoyed that her mother hadn't already offered, "Is your leg feeling better after your transformation?"
Jana smiled up at Maddy and flexed the limb before replying, "Much better, thanks. But apparently I'm only here for moral support and have to disappear once they start explaining something to you. Care to explain what all this secrecy is about?"
Maddy rolled her eyes, why they were so secretive was really a mystery to her too. A weird wolfblood custom that caused more harm than good in her eyes. "Apparently me and Rhydian are soulmates." She joked.
"Gwaudd!" Ceri exclaimed from her place at the window at the same time that Emma gasped. "Don't joke about that!"
Alarmed at their sudden alarm, Maddy found herself getting irate again. "For god sake! How am I supposed to know what I should or shouldn't do if you never tell me about these things!"
"Well I'm trying to tell you now if you'd stop running off." Maddy found herself rolling her eyes again as her mother spoke. "Now Jana, thank you for coming so quickly but it would be best if you could leave so we can talk about some delicate…"
Whatever her mother had been about to say was cut off when Maddy interrupted, "I want her to know. Whatever you tell me, I'm just going to tell the rest of my pack anyway."
"What we're going to tell you isn't meant for other people's ears, even if you're close to them sweetheart. It's very personal." Emma's eyes were soft, but Maddy was resolute.
"If it's so personal then I will need support, and Jana can be that support for me." She stared down the older women and clasped her hand to Jana's shoulder, steadfast in her choice.
"Okay, but you can't tell anyone else, especially your humans." Maddy appreciated that Ceri was allowing her this comfort, but she was definitely going to tell Shan and Tom everything she heard in this room. They had proven time and again that they deserved that.
"Sit down," Emma patted the bed next to her, and Maddy complied, "We need to break down what exactly is going to happen to you and your body from now on."
Finally! Maddy couldn't help but think to herself, but just nodded and took her mother's offered hand in her own.
"Okay so…" the older woman paused as if confused at how to begin, but Maddy noticed Jana's still very confused face from behind her. It would probably be best to explain what she already knew to the other girl.
"Jana, I don't know if you've noticed, but me and Rhydian have both been acting a bit weird lately. We thought something was wrong with us, but apparently it's a weird wolfblood ritual thing to marry us off?" The end of her explanation raised in pitch at the end like a question and Jana could obviously see that Maddy was just about as confused as she was.
"Marry?" She asked just as Maddy sent her a look that read asI know right?
Luckily, Ceri corrected her "The bonding is a sacred and ancient ritual that our kind is lucky to be blessed with. Your tame ways of weddings and marriages couldn't compare to the Priod bond."
"Is that what you call it?" Maddy asked the older woman by the window, surprised that she had broken into the conversation so soon.
"That is just one way to say it, but every wolfblood knows of it. You are incredibly lucky to have gained the chance at it with my son." Maddy felt her face warm at the comment that sounded equal parts threat and acknowledgement of her role as part of Ceri's life going onwards.
"If every wolfblood knows of it, then why have I never heard of it?" Jana angrily cut in, "If you're training me up to be a good alpha then surely this should have been included? I need to know what could be going on inside my pack."
"We don't usually share the knowledge about mate bonds until maturity or until they begin to happen," Ceri glanced at Jana, "It stops cubs from seeking people out, keeps bonds private and stops disappointment when they don't form."
Jana scoffed, "Surely I could have been the exception to that rule given that I am your alpha?"
Ceri looked so torn at that moment that Maddy was relieved when her mother interrupted them. "That doesn't matter right now anyway. We need to talk about Maddy's bond."
"Yes." Ceri agreed, coming to sit on Maddy's other side and smiling at her for probably the first time ever, "We are to be family now so I will give you all the help I can."
Maddy was shocked at her sudden change of heart, "I thought you hated me? Aren't I too tame for your son?"
A crease appeared between Ceri's eyes as she thought of a response, "There was a time when I thought that, and I still think that you are too tame, but Rhydian has chosen you. It would be unwise to ignore the choice of your instincts."
"Whoa!" Maddy responded, "We haven't decided properly yet."
Ceri gave her another soft look that looked slightly pitying, "You are as good as chosen, Gwaudd."
Maddy frowned at the odd term that she hadn't heard before but before she could ask, Emma appeared to have finally worked out how to start to explain the mechanics behind the bonding process.
"Okay, from what I have seen and heard, it appears that the bonding process has already kicked off inside Rhydian. It's usually the male side of the pair that feels the effects first and initiates. On his end, it doesn't affect his biology in a massive way, but it does and will change the way that he acts."
Maddy's eyes blew open in horror, "So how he's acted towards me has nothing to do with his feelings? He's just been prompted that way?"
Ceri was quick to calm her, "No, it just increases and makes it more obvious what is already there. If he's jealous, he gets very territorial, if he's protective, he won't leave your side. It all gets very annoying after a while." As Maddy turned to watch the woman's far away look, she was reminded that her bond had been broken off. Maddy somehow knew that she was lying about getting annoyed by her old mate's hovering.
After nodding her head, Emma continued on, "What we need to worry about is more your side of the deal. It's much more full on for women."
Before she could ask more about it, Jana broke into the conversation from her perch across from them, "So does that mean that bonds can only form between men and women then?" She frowned, "That feels a bit unfair."
Maddy blinked and realised that she hadn't even considered queer couples. If this amazing biological mating process could only happen between cishet couples then that would feel awful for those who fell out of that bubble.
Emma frowned as if unsure while Ceri just shook her head, being the healer of her pack came with a more complex understanding of how the process worked. "No Cariad, bonds can still happen in those cases, the biology works itself out. Wolf instincts just align the 'male traits' with one part of the pair and 'female traits' with the other. It could be completely random, although I'm not sure exactly. As I said, it's very intimate and I've never actually asked a mate-pair the technicalities."
"So it's completely different then?" Maddy asked, "No matter the gender of those involved, one half of the couple will experience something completely different to the other?"
"It's how bonds have always been formed sweetheart," Emma responded softly, stroking a hair away from her daughter's face as she grimaced, "Someone's whole body has to feel the effects of the bond and the other person has to respond to it. Only unfortunately, that falls to you."
She gulped down a lump that seemed to have formed in her throat in the last couple of minutes, "But I've felt barely anything yet? It's mostly been Rhydian, I've just wolfed out a bit and got heightened senses so far."
She thought back on what had happened the past few weeks, unsure of what to divulge to their mother's. Getting over her embarrassment, she bit the bullet, "The other day he started chasing me and when he caught me he wasn't acting himself. He keeps doing stuff without knowing why he does it and only realises after, I think it's really freaking him out."
Emma hummed as if she had expected as much and stroked her thumb over the back of her daughter's hand, "I think you should both read up on wolf traits with their mates as a lot carries across into our instincts. From what I saw on the full moon, he looked like he was scenting you and play fighting which can lead up to chasing. Chasing is dangerous because it encourages him to catch you, which is often what happens during mating."
As she realised this, Maddy's face went bright scarlet and she grimaced. Well that explained some things, she had wondered why he looked so uncomfortable once he had woken up to what he had been doing. They had basically engaged in wolfblood foreplay.
So distracted by her own thoughts, she almost missed when her mother continued, "He has experienced most of his changes already, and it will probably just continue to be more of the same, increasing in strength and consistency. However, your symptoms will keep developing as you get closer to the full moon. You'll wolf out more, your skin will become incredibly sensitive, and your senses will go into overdrive."
"My skin?" Maddy asked in surprise, absently scratching neck. She would not have guessed that one.
"There!" Her mam pointed out, "Your whole body will start to feel it, but particularly there, where the mating bite is usually placed."
Maddy tore her hand away from herself in shock, thinking back to when Rhydian had lost himself when chasing her yesterday. He had said that that area smelt especially good, and it did feel brilliant when he touched her there. This would have all been great to know prior to these things happening.
"What else?" She found herself asking, resigned to her fate.
"You'll start finding it difficult to sleep without him near," Ceri added, "Something to do with proximity to his scent. You'll swing between too warm and too cold all the time, itchy, thirsty, sensitive to all outside senses."
As the list continued, Maddy could feel her mind spiralling out of control. Before she could lose all sense of where she was, she felt Jana reach across and put a hand on her knee. At her strengthening smile, Maddy found she could raise her head to hear the end of Ceri's speech.
"You and him will both have one thing in common that will increase as you get closer to the moon. You will both want to complete the bond." Ceri looked slightly uncomfortable as she explained this, "It will become desperate."
With this, Maddy understood why this was so difficult to talk about with those not involved in the bond, and why her dad had been so embarrassed to talk about it with her. Ceri was basically telling her that the impulse to shag each other would become so strong that they would literally be ripping each other's clothes off by the time they got to the next full moon. Great.
"Luckily you are not that progressed so this will probably take place the moon after next given that…" Whatever Ceri had been about to say was cut off once Maddy realised what she had just admitted.
"What? I thought we only had a month to decide? We've got two?" Hope was evident in her voice and she felt her heart fill with it. They needed all the time they could get.
Emma frowned at Ceri, "I thought it was two months from when symptoms first began showing? Rhydian appeared to show them when we got off the boat from Canada."
"No," Ceri reaffirmed, looking at Emma now, speaking with all the authority of a seasoned healer, "It's two months from the first moon where their wolf selves show symptoms. I heard that Rhydian was overtaken by his instincts last night?"
Ceri looked at her as if in question and Maddy nodded, "Yeah, he had no control and could barely remember what he had done in the morning."
The healer smiled, "That's all normal. He was courting you and scenting you as the first step of acceptance, you allowed it, so the bonding is now developing more. The roles will reverse next month, where he has to accept and look after you when you're driven by instinct."
Maddy gulped, "I'm going to act like he did last night?" All she could think of was the horror in Rhydian's eyes when he realised he couldn't remember what had happened.
Ceri just nodded. "Only after that, on the third moon, will the two of you be able to bond."
The thought that they'd get another month than she'd expected to decide over the bond should have relieved Maddy, but something stuck in her mind. "Does that mean that both of us will be out of it when we finally bond then? Overtaken by instincts completely so we barely realise we're doing it?"
The horror in her voice must have been heard by everyone in the room because she received a series of pitying looks. "That's one of those things that changes depending on the couple I think." Ceri knelt before her, "I've heard that some people are entirely aware just like any other full moon, but also that some don't remember it at all, it's all up to those taking part in the bonding."
Maddy could feel herself spiralling as she considered that thought. Imagining waking up after the bonding having absolutely no memory of such an intimate and life altering moment. How could she walk into a situation having no idea how she would react, and with no control over her body or mind?
Ceri took a hold of her shoulder and Maddy remembered that she was there, "That is why you have to be absolutely sure Cariad. You'll both be in an incredibly vulnerable position and trust is the most important thing you'll need."
Overwhelmed with this thought, Maddy could only look into Ceri's kind eyes as she thought this through. She had to decide if she could spend the rest of her life with Rhydian, but also if he could get through this ordeal by her side. If she could trust him with everything she was and if he could do the same with her.
Ceri must have seen her desire to think on this because she made her way to her feet, "I would recommend spending some time apart now to fully decide that this is what you want."
She was joined by a nodding Emma, "Yes that is what we have suggested."
Annoyingly, Maddy could only agree.
"After next moon," Ceri continued, "You will need to sleep in the same bed for Maddy's sake, and to foster the bond into a strong pairing. Bonding rituals are very finicky and need to be treated well or they could sour the strength of the bond and the individual people inside it."
Maddy snidely wondered what Rhydian running away would do to their bond. Now that she knew about it, she could almost picture it in her mind. A golden cord connecting them together. Would it fester and rot if he kept avoiding her?
Something suddenly occurred to her, "How will we explain that to Mrs Vaughn? It's not like she'll just let me stay at hers every night or let him stay here, we are still teenagers." This was all getting a bit too much to think about for Maddy and she could feel herself slumping down to put her head into her hands.
"We'll think of something sweetheart," she could feel her mother stroking circles into her back, and sat up to rest her head on her shoulder, "Whatever happens, you have lots of people here to support you, okay?" Maddy could only reply with a tense smile.
"But why has the mating process started so young for us?" She asked in annoyance, the timing of this was all very inconvenient.
Emma stroked a hair away from her daughter's face as she replied softly, "I'm not sure sweetheart, it's never really been an exact science. I guess it's because you both met when you were young and have spent so much time together. It's not till cubs have reached maturity that they're usually allowed to travel to meet other packs and they can find possible mates. So you could have just skipped a step. And even then, you usually have to spend at least a year together before your wolf side can assess whether the other person would be a good match."
Her daughter hummed at the possibility and Emma had another thought, "Maybe the separation could have shocked it into beginning. Rhydian was acting very oddly when we first arrived from Canada, me and your dad thought that was the first sign of the beginning of the bond."
"Oh." Maddy replied, "You noticed that too? I thought he was just worried."
Ceri hummed in thought, "Strong emotional triggers have started bonds in the past, my own was…" She trailed off as if deep in thought.
Jana coughed, drawing the attention away from Ceri and reminding Maddy of her presence, so wrapped up she had been in her mother's embrace, "Maddy, what matters is that we now know what's happening, and none of us are going to leave it up to you and Rhydian to mess this up." She smiled softly and Maddy was reminded what a good alpha she made, "You have so many people supporting you and we're not going anywhere."
A deep growl came from the open doorway, making Maddy and her mum jump. Instead of looking shocked, Jana just rolled her eyes, "That was metaphorical Aran."
The man walked in and crouched next to his alpha, interrupting the quiet bubble of calm that had surrounded Maddy. He had obviously not liked being excluded from the action, but Maddy was instantly relieved that Ceri had kicked him out before coming to find her. Even his presence around them was enough to put her on edge.
"Alpha. Your leg?"
"Oh yes!" Ceri remembered suddenly and went for one of the many cavernous pockets of her coat, pulling out what must be a medical kit.
"Cariad, get on the bed, I need to give you…", as Ceri explained the regimen of wild wolfblood medicines that Jana needed to take, Maddy and Aran helped to lift Jana and shift her onto the bed. As their eyes met across Jana's shoulder, she couldn't help but notice how he flinched and was desperately trying to avoid touching her.
Before she could ask what he could sense had changed about her due to her bond, she heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway outside.
"Dacia is here." Her mother confirmed and Maddy gritted her teeth in response, forgetting about Aran for the moment. She couldn't help it if she didn't like the woman.
Her warm smile to the room when she got upstairs didn't convince Maddy to be more cordial to her either. Even when she started giving Jana her medicine, Maddy couldn't shake the distrust she felt for the woman.
She had come to her house when Jana had been shot and Maddy hadn't thought much of Dacia. Having known she was part of Segolia, she just dismissed her as a cog in a bigger machine. However, after being thoroughly unuseful in that situation, there was something annoying in the way that she had said goodbye to Rhydian.
They had stood on the front step as she left and Maddy had been upstairs, preparing the spare room for Jana so she didn't catch exactly what they said, but it had been friendly. Very friendly. She didn't really understand what they had said but it sounded like some sort of inside joke about when they had first met.
It might have been nothing, but it stuck in Maddy's mind. They had met only once before that but had bonded enough to have an inside joke already? What was Dacia doing?
Even now, as the woman waxed lyrical about the wild wolfblood remedies that Ceri was applying, Maddy was on edge. What was her angle? Clearly she wanted something more than she was saying, but Maddy couldn't put her finger on what it was.
"Actually there is something that you could do for me." As the words left Dacia's mouth, Maddy used every ounce of willpower she had not to roll her eyes. "The potions, Segolia would love to research them."
Understandably, Ceri was against this idea and for one of the first times that she remembered, Maddy agreed with her. If this kept up, she could see herself actually developing a comfortable relationship with Rhydian's mum.
Unfortunately, she was shocked out of this thought as the older woman suddenly bolted out of the room, growling at something or someone that must be approaching the property. Both Jana, Aran and her mum followed her and Maddy had been about to do the same when she instead saw Dacia walking further into the room. So wickedly fast that Maddy almost missed it, she pinched the top vial sticking out of Ceri's bag and looked out of the window.
The raised voices outside and the scent of Rhydian returning was almost enough to convince Maddy to join them outside, but the almost imperceptible change in Dacia's face in reaction to what she saw there changed her mind. As the woman frantically reached for her phone as if to call someone, Maddy rushed across the room and snatched it out of her hand.
"What are you doing?" She glanced down at the contact that Dacia had been about to call, "Who's Victoria Sweeney?"
"It doesn't matter." The other woman replied so quickly and with such a look of horror on her face at being caught that Maddy knew that this was nothing good.
"You won't mind if I keep this then?" She asked as she held the phone out of reach.
"What? No, that's mine!" Dacia replied, "You can't just steal my phone!"
"What, like you just stole that remedy?" She bit back, prying Dacia's fingers away from the vial in her grasp and flinging it back to the bed. "No, I think I'll keep it until I find out who you were trying to call!"
Dacia gulped and her eyes flickered back and forth rapidly as she seemed to debate what she could safely tell Maddy. "Victoria works for Segolia."
Maddy frowned, "Okay, so why do you desperately need to call her right now?"
The other woman paused for a second before rolling her eyes and sighing, clearly realising that she wasn't getting out of this situation without explaining herself fully. "She's head of security and she'll want to know that Rhydian's dad has turned up."
Maddy immediately felt her pulse spike and snapped her head around to look out of the 's dad was here?
Why on earth was he here of all places? And why now? Even though Maddy's brain immediately went on the defensive, assuming the worst due to the suspicious timing, she couldn't help but smile. This would be absolutely massive for Rhydian. He needed something like this right now.
She was trying so hard to catch what Ceri was yelling at him outside that Maddy almost didn't react in time to Dacia's attempt at snatching her phone back.
"Whoa!" She yelped in surprise, reaching the hand holding the phone back behind her and out of reach. When Dacia growled in response, Maddy sneered at her, "And why exactly does this Victoria person need to know about him? Why is she hunting him down?"
Dacia scoffed and crossed her arms across her chest, "So you're just assuming that she's in the wrong? That Segolia is? Just because he's your mate's father doesn't absolve him of guilt!"
Maddy could feel her blood beginning to boil, who the hell was this woman coming into her territory and telling her how to feel about Rhydian's business? And how did she even know about it anyway? She was absolutely fed up with everyone else knowing more about this than her.
"How did you know about that? I've barely worked out what's happening between us and I'm the one who it's happening to!" She could feel herself scowling at the woman and realised that their voices were becoming quite loud, "What exactly is your angle here anyway? Don't think I don't see you cosying up to him and using your influence to wheedle your way in with Jana."
Dacia scoffed, "Oh please, I can smell him all over you, you territorial maniac! Calm down before you read into things too deeply, I just care enough to want him to know about his criminal father."
Annoyingly the wolf just below Maddy's skin could only pay attention to one part of that sentence, "So you admit you do care about him then?"
"Oh for god sake!" She heard the woman mutter in exasperation, before she tried to explain again, completely ignoring Maddy's jealous outburst. "Gerwyn, his dad, is a thief and I was 'cosying up' with Rhydian to see if he had made contact." As she spoke she made the hand gestures for the speech marks with an exaggerated flair that didn't help to calm Maddy's obvious ire.
"I have absolutely no intention of getting in the way of your bond so stop aiming your obvious abandonment issues at me rather than at who they are clearly about." She gave Maddy a once over from head to toe as if assessing if she could take her on before reaching her hand out, "Now are you going to give me my phone back or not?"
Before Maddy could even think of a reply to Dacia's crystal clear read on all of her insecurities rolled into one, the older woman was lunging for the phone again. With her wolf barely contained underneath the threshold of her control, Maddy couldn't stop the snarl and swipe back that she made in response.
Before she knew what was happening, they had devolved into an all out brawl for the phone. She wasn't quite sure what happened where or when but they both began clawing at each other's faces and neck's. Teeth bared and with glowing yellow eyes. Maddy was only aware that at different moments her back had collided with her chest of drawers, she may have flipped Dacia onto the bed and also landed on her arse heavily on the floor.
Their tustle must have produced quite a noise because the room quickly flooded with people. She was forcefully dragged backwards off of Dacia and held back by some strong arms as she continued to flail. It was only when she became aware of Rhydian standing between them that she stopped snarling, although she still fought through the grip of the person holding her back.
"What is wrong with you two?"
"Ask her!" Maddy spat out, vitriol dripping from her voice, "She's the one who is trying to steal Jana's wild wolfblood remedies and is calling Segolia on your dad. I don't know why we even let her in our territory!"
"Me?" Dacia gasped back in anger, "You're the one so jumped up in bonding hormones that you're seeing things that aren't even there!"
The other woman was picking herself up from the ground as she talked. Although Ceri had been attempting to help her, when Maddy spoke, she looked between her dishevelled healing bag and Dacia before snarling and collecting the vials together to turn away from her. Out of the corner of her eye Maddy saw Jana flinch and scowl as well.
"Don't you dar-" before Maddy could continue yelling at Dacia, Rhydian interrupted, directing his question at Dacia in an annoyed and rather angry tone. "Why exactly do you know my dad then?"
After he spoke, he walked towards Maddy and reached for her face, his thumb trailed over a scratch that Dacia had made on her neck and she stopped struggling. His eyes were doing that thing again where they seemed to be looking for damage. Although his face looked carefully controlled, Maddy could see he was livid.
Over his shoulder, Maddy watched Dacia's eyes flick between Rhydian's hold on her neck and the person behind her who still held her arms back. She looked so apprehensive, that Maddy finally connected the dots.
She didn't recognise the person's scent, which could only mean one thing.
Maddy felt herself flinch out of his softening hold and she frantically glanced behind her, focussing in on the strangers face as they glared back at Dacia. "Dacia, long time no see?"
Great. He must be Gerwyn. What a wonderful first impression she had made.
