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

|29| Madison

Maddy smacked her hand on the table with excitement. It caused a loud sound and everyone stared at her.

"Never mind," Maddy murmured. Tatiana had specifically asked to not talk with her team mate while the competition took place so that no one cheats. Maddy just sat in her chair with her leg bouncing up and down as she waited for Tatiana to announce that they were winners.

Tatiana flew over to Maddy's place. When she looked at Maddy's cups, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Maddy too has chosen the ribbon! I guess we have a winner here," she announced but her eyes scrutinized Maddy as though she was trying to figure out if Maddy and Xander cheated.

The crowd started cheering and whistling. Xander grinned and got up. Before Maddy could even do anything, Xander rushed up to her and hugged the life out of Maddy. The hug was a little awkward because they both couldn't see properly which led to a lot of flailing around. This time, Maddy didn't even bother to ask Xander to loosen his grip on her when he hugged her a little too tight. What was the use anyway? He would end up crushing her in a hug regardless of her warnings. Maddy wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.

When he let go of her, Maddy saw that Tatania was waiting for them to finish with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"Before you start rejoicing too much, I need to ask you both a question," Tatiana said in a low voice so that the crowd didn't hear her. Accusation and suspicion laced her voice. "How is it that you both chose the ribbon instead of the werewolf?"

"It looked like Wattpad's logo," Maddy said.

"I thought it was the Wattpad logo," Xander replied at the same time.

Tatiana looked perplexed while Maddy and Xander exchanged wide eyed looks.

"Stop copying me," Maddy said playfully.

By then Jeremy and Alexa reached them. They heard the conversation with Tatiana. "Thank god for Wattpad," Alexa said jokingly. "Never thought it would save our lives. Quite literally."

Tatiana still looked confused. Clearly, she had no idea what they all were talking about.

Tatiana cleared her throat and looked at Maddy. "Today evening, you have to meet a faerie. Be ready."

With that, she flew away. It was now Maddy's turn to be confused. Another faerie? What did they want from her now?

That evening, Maddy wore one of the outfits given to her by the faeries and got ready. True to Axel's words, the faerie wine stopped affecting Maddy's vision after about half an hour. She could now see things crystal clear.

By seeing Xander's body language it was clear that he wasn't happy about Maddy going alone to meet a faerie but he didn't comment on it. Maddy hid her dagger into her boots. After promising Xander that she would come back if she sensed the slightest of dangers, Maddy made her way to the castle. She hadn't been told where to meet the unknown faerie so she decided to go to the castle and ask about further instructions.

When she reached the castle, she didn't find anyone around. A small noise from behind made Maddy jump. What was up with faeries creeping behind her like they were in some horror movie?

Maddy turned around and just like last time, she didn't find anyone. But this time she didn't get confused. She just sighed and said, "Are we going to play that game once again?"

Maddy expected Tatiana to show herself but instead found herself standing in front of a young girl. She looked to be of around 5 years. The girl started giggling. "You want to play a game?"

Maddy bent down to be in the same height as the same girl. She wondered what the young faerie was doing all alone in the castle. Was she Tatiana's daughter? Maddy couldn't help but smile at the young girl's childishness.

The faerie looked impossibly adorable. The faeries, like werewolves, were naturally gorgeous to look at. Maddy hadn't seen any baby faeries, but if all the baby faeries looked like the girl standing in front of her, then they were dangerously adorable and cute. The girl had light brown hair. It was quite straight and long and reached up to the middle of her back. She had large baby blue eyes and when she widened those already large eyes when she asked Maddy to play with her, Maddy found it hard to tell her no but she had someone to meet.

"What are you doing here?" Maddy asked the girl.

The girl didn't respond. She was busy playing with Maddy's hair. She tugged at it a little forcibly and Maddy had to untangle her hair from the little girl's hands.

"What is your name?" Maddy asked.

This time the girl replied to her as she once again tried to grab Maddy's hair. "Ikshana."

Maddy picked the girl up. "What are you doing here?" she asked once again.

At that moment someone called out. "Ixxy?"

The little girl immediately whipped her head to sound of the voice. A woman entered the room where Maddy was waiting for Tatiana. On seeing Maddy, the woman immediately whipped a bow out of nowhere and targeted Maddy. Maddy's eyes widened.

"What are you doing with my daughter?"

"I'm uh... carrying her?" Maddy said.

"Let her alone. Don't you dare harm her."

Maddy immediately put the girl down. Apparently, faeries didn't pick their children up like humans did. The woman looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

"Ixana come here," the mom cooed to her daughter as her demeanor did a complete 180.

So, the girl's name was Ixana and not Ikshana. The mom checked Ixana for bruises and when she didn't find any, she studied Maddy curiously.

"Are you Madison?" she asked with a reserved voice. Now that her daughter was safe with her, she seemed to be more formal.

Maddy nodded. Now that she didn't have an arrow pointed at her heart, Maddy took her time to examine the mother. Like Ixana, she had straight brown hair that was piled into a messy bun and held together with a clip. Her eyes however, were neither large nor blue.

"I am sorry for nearly killing but I thought my daughter was in danger."

Maddy nodded. She didn't blame the faerie. If she saw some random person carrying her baby, she would freak out too.

The faerie cleared her throat and held out her hand. "I am Ella."