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

Chapter 26

Fifteen minutes and Maddy was getting bored. Jeremy was driving to the beach that they had gone to after which Maddy would be giving directions so Maddy had nothing to do. Maddy didn't want to strike a conversation because she was sure that Katie would somehow find a way to diss her.

Instead, she unlocked her phone and connected it to the car's stereo using an aux cable that was already there in the car. She didn't have any songs downloaded in her new phone so she just put some of the top songs on shuffle. She then sat back and started swaying herself to the music. The others to seem to relax as songs started playing, even Katie.

A few minutes later, Alexa suddenly tried to reach for Maddy's phone from the back. Maddy jumped at the sudden hand sticking out but she relaxed when she saw that it was Alexa's.

"What happened?" Maddy asked.

"What's the name of the song? It sounds so good," Alexa said as she moved her head to the music.

Maddy checked her phone and then turned back to face Alexa. "That was Willow by Taylor Swift," she said with surprise. Maddy was a little disconnected from the real world because of the werewolf drama so didn't know that Taylor Swift had released a new album.

Alexa wrinkled her nose. "Isn't that the same singer who sang shake it off?"

Leia nodded. "Shake it off was one of Taylor Swift's top bops. That album won her a lot of awards, if I recall correctly."

"She sounds so different! How does anyone do that?!" Alexa exclaimed with amazement. "Remind me to check out her other songs."

There was silence for the rest of the drive and in a few more minutes, they reached the beach. From there, Maddy gave the directions to the safehouse. At one point, the road was too narrow for the car to travel on so they had to park the car and walk all the way there. It took some time. Maddy might or might not have made a few turns and gotten herself a little lost. What? She was not good at memorizing directions especially when they were surrounded by very similar trees. In the end, they did manage to reach the safehouse.

The safehouse hadn't changed in appearance a tad bit. The house hadn't been renovated for a long, long time. The exterior of the building which once must have looked gorgeous, was practically falling apart. The house had been neglected for a long time which was probably why the boss had chosen the place. No one would stumble upon such a place. It was well hidden and among a mini-forest. You couldn't possibly find it unless you were specifically searching for it.

"Why would you enter such a building?" Alexa asked. "It is literally oozing bad vibes."

Maddy shrugged. "I wasn't exactly paying much attention to building that time."

As they approached the building's door, Xander shifted so that he could figure out if there was anyone inside. After two minutes of sniffing, he shifted back.

"It seemed quiet inside the building. There are vague scents of werewolves but that doesn't necessarily mean that there is anyone inside. I want everyone to be alert," Xander said as he slowly opened the door. Thankfully, the door didn't make a sound and opened smoothly.

They quietly slipped in. Maddy checked the interior for any sort of booby traps. They were currently standing in one big room which opened into two corridors. Maddy had no doubt that the two corridors eventually forked into two as well and like that there was a maze of corridors. When Maddy found no visible booby traps, she unshouldered the bag she was carrying and took out the piece of paper with the faerie spell to nullify all faerie spells on the building. She then began chanting the spell out loud.

It took a few tries because Maddy couldn't spell many words properly. Also, the fact that Katie made some insulting comment every time Maddy mispronounced the words didn't help. When she did it the fourth time, the two corridors in the room shimmered and then silently merged into one. Everyone stood still, waiting for something to happen. Maddy had been afraid that the floor would collapse under their feet or something, but luckily, nothing like that happened.

"Jeremy, Leia, and Alexa, you take the first two floors. Maddy, Katie, and I will take the third and fourth floors."

Jeremy nodded seriously while Alexa did a mock salute at Xander's command. Xander led Maddy and Katie towards the corridor, hoping to find a staircase somewhere. The building was oddly arranged so Maddy had no idea what to expect next. Just as they were about to enter the corridor, both Xander and Katie halted to a stop which caused Maddy to bump into Katie. Katie turned back and glared at Maddy who scowled back at her. It wasn't her problem that Xander stopped all of a sudden!

Xander peered into the corridor and then started walking. Katie followed and Maddy followed behind Katie. The corridor was narrow and had just enough space for one person to walk. In the middle of the corridor, there was a staircase and on the extreme end of the corridor was one room.

They didn't bother checking that room. That was Jeremy, Alexa, and Leia's job. They needed to reach to the third floor. Xander started climbing the staircase and Maddy followed. The werewolves took huge steps; Maddy was pretty sure Xander skipped over three stairs and directly stepped onto the fourth stair. Maddy hurried along, trying to catch. First of all, she didn't have the speed advantage that werewolves had, and on top of that her legs were still sore from all the sudden work out that Nadine made her do. It was unfair, really. It was bad enough that Maddy wasn't a proper werewolf. The least they could do was slow down and wait for Maddy.

They finally reached the third floor and all the three of them slowed to stop as they looked for any signs of danger. The fun part was about to begin.