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

Chapter 45

Quite a few people had gathered in the open courtyard. It seemed that it was uncommon for the matefinder to be called upon. She just appeared when she needed to let someone know about their mate, but other than that, there was no reason to call upon the matefinder. Maddy heard someone say that it was only the fifth time that she had only seen the ritual four times in total.

Maddy was getting a serious sense of Déjà vu. A few months ago, a similar series of events had occurred. Justin decided to call the matefinder and that was when they found out that the matefinder had been kidnapped. Or more like she knew she was going to be kidnapped yet she let them do it, but whatever.

This time, Justin was the one who was initiating the ritual. He knelt down and cut his arm slightly and let the blood drip into the bottle. After that, he started reciting some words. Maddy guessed that the words were probably in the faerie language. After a minute, a familiar white mist appeared and once the mist cleared away, in its place stood the matefinder's house.

Everyone waited for the matefinder to come out of her but nothing happened. "Did she seriously manage to get herself kidnapped once again?" Xander muttered incredulously.

Justin had a concerned look on his face as he approached the house. He opened the door and went inside the house. The Beta followed him inside. Just as the crowd was starting to get worried because Justin and the Beta hadn't come out yet, the two of them walked outside followed by the matefinder who was still in her pajamas.

"You guys have the worst timing," the matefinder complained as she blew on the bowl of noodles she was holding.

No one knew what to say. How were they supposed to react to that? And why was she still in her pajamas at ten in the morning? Maddy couldn't believe that once upon a time, Maddy thought of the matefinder as very wise and solemn teacher, like Dumbledore or Gandalf. Maddy couldn't have been more wrong. The matefinder had little faeries all over her pajamas, for goodness' sake!

"Give me a minute to get dressed. I'll discuss with you later," the matefinder said as she went back inside her house.

In fifteen minutes, the matefinder returned. She was now properly dressed although she still held her bowl of noodles. Justin had decided to have the discussion in the meeting room with a few members of the pack. This time, both Alexa and Maddy were asked to join the meeting so they didn't have to sneak in through the vents.

Maddy took a seat in the room. It was rather empty now that half of the pack members weren't present. Diana, Justin, the Beta, Nadine, three other pack members were present other than Xander, Alexa, Jeremy, and Leia. Everyone waited patiently for the matefinder to speak, but the matefinder was too focused on eating her bowl of noodles. Once the matefinder had finished eating her bowl of noodles, she started speaking. "Why did you call me here?"

"Is Bruce indeed the boss?" Justin asked.

"Maybe. Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you. I can't do all the work for you all the time."

"Is there any advice that you could give us?"

The matefinder thought for a moment before responding. "Sometimes you shouldn't run from your fears. You should face them head on. In fact, you should invite them over and have a chat with them."

Everyone had confused expressions on their faces. The matefinder's 'advice' had started off like an inspirational quote with her talking about not running from your fear but then after that it just got weird.

"What does that mean?" Xander asked.

"That's for you to figure out."

For the next half an hour everyone took chances asking different questions. Why is Bruce doing it? When was he going to attack next? Why was Maddy the only person who could see the mist? How were they supposed to defeat the boss?

The matefinder's responses were mostly a series of 'I'm not supposed to tell you's' but they did get a few answers. The matefinder answered all the questions that were related to the faeries as she was their only source of information.

She explained how all faerie spells were invisible to magical creatures. A faerie wouldn't be able to see the white mist and neither would a werewolf. Humans can see the white mist because they were non-magical creatures. It was a natural adaptation to defend themselves. Since they had no magic to defend themselves, they had to adapt themselves to be safe which was why they could see the white mist, an indicator that a spell was being cast. However, humans were still prone to illusions. Since Maddy was the only human, or rather half-human, present there, she was the only one who could see through the spell.

Hearing that, Maddy felt a little bit better. Perhaps being a half human, half werewolf did have some advantage other than the occasional dust allergy. She was the only one who could use silver and also the only one who could see through a faerie spell. That had to be useful, right?

Once everyone finished asking their share of questions, the matefinder got up. "Are we done?"

Everyone nodded. The matefinder then turned to Xander. "I need to speak to you," she said as she pointedly looked at him. Xander followed the matefinder outside.

"What was that about?" Maddy asked the others.

"I guess it is about Sophia's disappearance," Leia replied.

"We all know that there is something you all aren't telling me about Sophia's disappearance," Maddy said. When no one replied, she sighed. She had been hoping someone would tell her what they were hiding from her. Maddy would definitely wrestle the truth out one fine day.

Now that the discussion was over, everyone started leaving one by one. Maddy too left the room and went directly to the gym. Maddy had started taking interest in Nadine's training and she now trained nearly twice every day. Sure, her body ached after the exercise, but if that helped her bust out badass moves, she was definitely going to train.