Helping the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 2)

|9| Madison

It was late at night when Maddy realized that she hadn't packed anything. She had been so focused on making sure that everything was going according to plan that she hadn't even thought about what she would be packing. On ruffling through the closet in her room, she found an averaged size backpack. It seemed too small to fit in everything but Maddy didn't have to many things to fit in. Besides, the trip wasn't for luxury so she had to pack outfits according to whether she could fit in them rather than their looks.

She spent fifteen minutes to choose about eight to ten outfits from the various options. She also made sure to carry her dagger, her new phone and a large amount of rubber bands for her hair. Maddy was very irresponsibly, or at least more irresponsible than usual when it came to the rubber bands for her hair. That's when her eyesight lingered on the bunch of things that she had gotten from the safehouse. After a moment of indecision, she decided to take the diary/ calculation book and all the books that she got from tooth-necklace lady's house. They were the only things that seemed to be important enough to carry. She kept the bag aside and hit the sack. Might as well catch some sleep when she could.

Two minutes later someone knocked on the door. Maddy groaned and buried her head under the pillow. She was sleepy as hell. Whoever was at the other end of the door could wait. When the knocking didn't stop, Maddy got up grumbling and went to open the door. That was when her eyes fell on the watch on the bed side table. It was about half an hour past eleven already. She was supposed to meet the others near Jeremy's house by then. Immediately all her sleep vanished and Maddy hurried to open the door.

Standing in front of her was, Alexa looking cheerful as ever, a very restless looking Jeremy and a nearly falling asleep Xander. Maddy was glad that she wasn't the only one who was drowsy. She picked up the bag that she had packed and wore it. The four of them made their way to the borders of the pack headquarters.

They hid behind one of the houses which was near the border. Maddy was unusually excited about this adventure. She felt like a criminal infiltrating a fancy company or something.

"Everybody remembers the plan, right? No deviating from the plan," Xander says.

Everyone nods. There would be about two to three minutes' gap at 11:50 when the guards switch places and that would be the time when the four of them sneak out. Jeremy would be going first to make sure that the place outside the borders is safe followed by Maddy. Alexa would follow Maddy with Xander bringing up the rear.

Maddy stared at her watch while waiting for the time to finally come. Exactly at 11:50 a howl cut through the silent night. Immediately guards started running around. In that confusion, Jeremy slipped outside the borders. The borders were basically a small fence. It wasn't even electrified, which made things extremely easy. A few seconds later Xander pushed Maddy.

"Go on. Jeremy has gotten over to the other side."

Maddy ran towards the border. There wasn't anyone around but still she hurried towards the fence. Just as she was about to climb, she heard a voice, followed by footsteps.

Maddy's heart started hammering. If the werewolves caught her, they might suspect her of treason. Maddy scrambled to climb the fence. The fence had small thorns and in all her hurry, Maddy's shoelace got tangled with one of the thorns. Groaning inwardly, Maddy bent down to untangle her shoelace. While untangling, her trembling fingers poked one of the thorns. Just great. Ignoring the sting, Maddy continued to untie her damn shoelace. Why couldn't she be as graceful aa Jeremy she thought as she ran towards where Jeremy ran. Once she reached Jeremy, she slowed down. She reached just in time because at that moment one of the guards came and stood at the exact place where Maddy had been standing few seconds ago.

Maddy waited for the guard to move along but the guard just stood there waiting. The guard wasn't going anywhere until the next morning. Maddy looked at her watch. Only one minute had been up. Which meant they were still supposed to have a minute or two to escape. How will Alexa and Xander come to this side now that the guard was watching?

"Maybe we should scout the nearby places," Jeremy suggested. "There could be a hole in the fence or something made by the rogues. That way Alexa and Xander can slip in through there."

Maddy nodded and the two of them carefully started walking along the fence trying to find a hole or gap. A minute or two later they stumbled on a hole in the fence but a few meters away from it was an extremely vigilant guard. A human crawling through the hole, would be easily noticed by the guard.

Suddenly Maddy thought of something. They had sprayed themselves with bleach (this time Maddy was warned before being sprayed) so as to not be detected and both Xander and Alexa's wolves had fur the color of night. If they could both shift and try crossing the border through the hole, perhaps they would be able to blend with the night and go undetected. Even though the werewolves did have sharpened eye sight, there was a small chance that the plan might just work.

Maddy told the plan to Jeremy and he nodded saying that the plan was worth a try. He quickly repeated it to Xander through the pack link. Maddy watched with baited breath as two wolves slowly walked over. They did blend into the night and you could only notice them if you were specifically searching for them. The only thing that stood out were their green eyes.

Slowly Alexa stepped forward. She was so silent and still that if Maddy hadn't seen her moving, she wouldn't have believed that Alexa actually moved. The guard was continuously moving her head continuously to scan a larger area. The moment her gazed strayed away from the hole, Alexa darted forward.

She managed to reach Jeremy and Maddy, but while coming she made a slight noise and the guard's attention immediately snapped towards the hole. The guard seemed to think that someone was trying to sneak in because her eyes were intently watching the hole. Now Xander had no way to come across.

After two minutes of waiting, Xander used his mouth to pick a small stone and threw it away from him. Immediately the guard cursed and ran after the sound thinking that it was some intruder. The only advantage they had was the fact that the guards expected someone to sneak in while they were actually sneaking out. Xander safely made it to the other side while the guard was distracted.

The four of them quickly made their way to the shed, with Alexa leading the way. The supposed 'shed' was huge and looked like a garage rather than a shed. It was so old that Maddy was afraid that it would fall on their head. It was a little away from the road and near the forested area which was why Jeremy and Xander hadn't known about this place.

The car that Jeremy and Alexa hid was red in color. That was all Maddy could make out in the dark. Suddenly Xander gave out a cry of surprise.

"The tire is punctured!"

Maddy immediately looked at the tire and sure enough, the tire was completely flat. Jeremy frowned. "The tire was fine when Alexa and I left."

Xander knelt down to check the tire and when he got up, Maddy noticed that there was a piece of paper on his hand.

"I told you to not try to change the future. I also told you that I will serve as an obstacle whenever you do try to change the future. Also, there is no point in trying to steal another car. I know the future, remember? Hope you've learnt your lesson," Xander read out loud.

"The matefinder," Jeremy snarled as he snatched the paper from Xander and reread it.

Maddy was furious. How dare the matefinder spoil all their plans? Not only will they have to wait another week and a half to search for Leia, Maddy also lost an hour of precious sleep.

"We should try to take another car. Maybe then we can escape. We need to get to India as soon as possible."

Jeremy ran his hand over his face and sighed resignedly. "There is no point in doing that. The matefinder will just stop us once again."

Xander thumped Jeremy on his back. "We'll talk to the matefinder in the morning and sort this all out. If the matefinder wants us to wait then there must be a reason."

The four of them disappointedly went back to their respective rooms.