Tracking the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 3)

Chapter 2

"On the bright side," Xander said once he finished telling Maddy about all the rules that she broke and all the orders she disobeyed. "You've helped wolves from twenty-seven different packs from all over the world including one alpha and one mated couple. That gives us a huge advantage. If the boss does plan on an attack, wolves from those twenty-seven packs can be called upon."

"Twenty-seven packs? How were they even able to ship so many werewolves? That too from all over the world. Do werewolves have a separate shipping company?" Maddy asked incredulously. "Werewolf Express. It does have a nice ring to it."

There were four snorts heard at the same time as though it was choreographed.

Maddy didn't understand why other packs would risk sacrificing all their wolves just because Maddy helped one or two of their wolves, but then again, she didn't understand many things.

"Also," Alexa excitedly added, "this will make it easier to convince the Werewolf Council to let you join our pack."

"The Werewolf Council," Maddy muttered under her breath as she tried to recall where she had about the council. With all the new information that she had learnt in the past two months, it was no surprise that she barely remembered what the Werewolf Council was. "The Werewolf Council was the council you were hiding me from, right?"

All the four werewolves nodded. Xander had informed Maddy about the Werewolf Council and how the Amalthea and Callisto Pack was trying to hide her from them. Apparently, the Council would have arrested her for the kidnapping of the matefinder because she was only new 'variable' added to the 'equation.'

"If you are going to join our pack, you need the Werewolf Council's permission. Every new pack member needs to be approved first. For your case too, we need to appeal to the Council first. We were afraid that they might reject your case but after all the help you have done, it is highly unlikely that they will reject you."

"Well, that's good. I can't wait to finally join a pack," Maddy said with barely concealed excitement in her voice. "It is not every day that you get to be part of a pack of freaking werewolves."

"Two months and you still freak out over werewolves," Xander said with amusement.

Since Maddy was the mature one of the two, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"We have four hours left for our flight. We should probably start packing up," Jeremy said as he glanced at his watch.

"Flight?" Maddy asked. No one told her anything about a flight. They still had few days left for the full moon.

Xander checked Maddy's shoulder and leg would before replying. "At the rate at which you are recovering, these wounds should completely heal in an hour or two. Our plane to California will arrive here in four hours so you should be in perfect condition."

"Why are we leaving so early?" Maddy asked.

"We are leaving immediately because the matefinder has announced that she will reveal the name of Xander's mate. As expected, mom is super excited and wants Xander to return as soon as possible," Alexa said mournfully.

"Oh." Maddy's cheerful mood dampened all of a sudden. Another day or two and Xander would be replacing Maddy with another girl, not that Maddy was his girlfriend or anything but a girl is allowed to dream.

There was a second of silence. On seeing Alexa's long face, Maddy's eyebrows furrowed. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"It is because we ship him with someone else," Leia whispered to Maddy with a wink.

Maddy cleared her throat and shoved Leia. She didn't want the others to know that she like liked Xander. She didn't want to see the pitying looks on their faces when Xander found his mate. It was better to keep her feelings under the cover and suffer alone.

Leia's smirk grew larger. Her eye quickly darted towards Xander and she opened her mouth to say something when Maddy pushed her off the bed.

"Ow," Leia complained as she got up.

"You shouldn't be stressing your shoulders," Xander fussed as he hurriedly came over to Maddy and checked her shoulder. "You might tear some tissues and we don't want that to happen."

Leia's eyes glinted with amusement as she got up. "See?" Leia mouthed. Thankfully, Xander's back was to Leia so he didn't see their exchange.

"Just saying, I was the one who got pushed off the bed," Leia said out loud as she sat on Maddy's bed once again.

Maddy's wounds didn't hurt anymore, but they weren't completely healed either. You could still see the wounds and Maddy was sure that if she tried to move about too much, those wounds would reopen painfully once again. So, Maddy sat on her bed and rested while the others gave her company.

Within an hour, Maddy's wound closed up completely and Maddy could safely move about without Xander telling her about how she could hurt herself. The others had managed to pack their bags. Maddy didn't need to pack since she still hadn't unpacked her pack (Maddy couldn't possibly be more of an expert at procrastination).

The five of them decided to go out and see a few tourist places in Bangalore before leaving.

"Google says that Cubbon Park is one tourist spot. We could go there," Leia suggested, oblivious to the series of events that had occurred there. They didn't get the time to catch up yet.

That idea was firmly rejected by everyone. Just the thought of stumbling into Tatiana made Maddy want to run in the opposite direction. She didn't know about the other faeries, but Tatiana was like the typical depiction of the faerie—cunning, tricky, and an adept at wordsmithing.

"Fine," Leia said, frowning. "Since everyone is so against that idea we could go to the other famous park in Bangalore—Lal Bagh."

Maddy didn't like that idea either. You never knew what creatures that park could be hiding. The last thing they needed was to stumble upon another set of faeries in the other park.

"How about we go and have some panipuri?" Maddy suggested.

Leia's eyes lit up with excitement. Without replying, she grabbed Jeremy's hand started dragging him outside. "Come on," she hollered when she realized that the others hadn't moved yet. "The faster we go there, the more panipuris we will be able to eat."

Maddy chuckled and followed Leia, Alexa and Xander right behind her. The four of them found a hawker selling panipuri about fifteen minutes later. It wasn't hard to spot the stall. You can usually find it surrounded by a group of people.

As the five of them enjoyed the food, Xander kept commenting about how he would make sure that the food is imported all the way to California once he was the Alpha. Time flew so fast that Maddy had to check her watch twice to make sure that she was seeing it correctly. Before she knew it, she was on her way to boarding the plane to California.