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

Chapter 15

Xander nudged Maddy. "Go ahead. Put the questions that you've written down to use."

Before starting to speak, Maddy peered into the prison. She couldn't see the Beta properly as he was hiding in the shadows. It was imperative for Maddy to see his face while interrogating him. The face could betray information that would never be said by the mouth.

"Could you step into the light?" Maddy asked the Beta.

There was no answer just a growl.

"There is no need to be polite. Remember, he was the reason for the deaths of numerous werewolves. Come forward now and answer all of her questions," Justin said, directing the last sentence to the previous Beta. His voice oozed power that Maddy nearly stepped forward, and she wasn't even part of the pack.

With another growl, the Beta stepped forward. Maddy was relieved to see that he didn't look like he had been tortured. She wasn't sure what to expect when Justin said that he interrogated the shifter.

The Beta looked... different. Since he didn't have the luxury of grooming himself, the Beta had a beard and his hair had grown quite long. The Beta only looked to be slightly starved. He looked a little thin but not that thin that his bones were showing like the werewolves in Krithika's laboratory. His eyes were bloodshot and paired with the snarl on his face and the overgrown hair, he looked downright scary.

Maddy immediately took a step back. "Well, that wasn't what I was expecting," Maddy muttered.

"What do you want?" the Beta asked.

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions," Maddy said as she opened her notebook and flipped to the page where she had written down her questions.

"Again, with the same stupid questions," the Beta muttered under his breath.

Unfazed, Maddy started speaking, "We will start with the most obvious questions first and then move to the unobvi-"

"You don't need to start a conversation," an amused Xander interrupted her. "Just go ahead with the questions."

"Right. First question- Who is the boss?" Maddy asked while intently watching the Beta's face for any reactions.

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything related to him? Anything at all?"

"No."

"Okay," Maddy said. It hadn't been a surprise that he knew nothing about the boss. "Next question, what is the motive of the boss?"

"I don't know."

"Third question, from where does he get all the money to buy all the safehouses and everything?"

"I don't know."

Exasperated, Maddy stared at the Beta. "Then, what do you know?"

"I know that I want to be left alone."

Maddy turned to the Alpha. "Now, I'll be asking questions that I think that the Beta will answer to. Could you put a little pressure on him to answer?"

Justin nodded and his eyes glazed over. Maddy started asking the next question. "From where did tooth-necklace lady get all the faerie spells?"

"I don't know."

Xander leaned forward. "Who was the woman working with you? The one who grabbed hold of Maddy in the hotel?"

The Beta seemed reluctant to speak but eventually he was forced to speak. "Elvira," he spat out.

"Good," Xander said. "Now, from where did Elvira get her hands on the faerie spells?"

Maddy realized her mistake. Tooth-necklace lady was the name that she had given to Elvira. The Beta didn't know who tooth-necklace lady was and hence it was easy for him to reply with a 'I don't know' to that question.

The Beta grit his teeth to prevent himself from answering to Xander's question. He put up a serious fight. For five whole minutes, he struggled to keep his mouth shut. Every time the Alpha managed to make him talk, he would clamp his mouth tight. One time, he even tried shifting to avoid speaking.

Finally, he spoke up. "Stole it from the matefinder's house."

"Was that when you kidnapped her?"

"Yes."

The Beta seemed to be more compliant now that he realized that there was no way to keep his mouth shut.

The Beta's answer seemed to make sense. Ella had told Maddy that the matefinder took several things from the Faerie Realm while leaving. The spells were probably one of the things that she brought from the Realm. The matefinder's house had been completely ransacked when Maddy saw it the first time. The rogues probably found the book with the spells and decided to take it with them.

"Well, that's one mystery solved," Maddy said happily. "The next question- Does the boss have other scientists working on finding out how to kill werewolves?"

The Beta shrugged. "I don't know."

"Are there any more safehouses that the boss owns?"

"He owns many."

"And..." Maddy prodded.

"I answered your question," the Beta said as he glared at Maddy.

"Are we seriously going to play the word game once again?" Maddy asked, exasperatedly. "Name all the safehouse that you know of."

"The boss didn't give any names to the safehouses."

"Are you kidding me?" Maddy said loudly. "Give me the locations of the safehouses."

The Beta knew the locations of only two safehouses. Maddy quickly jotted down the addresses in her notebook. She recognized one of the addresses. It was the safehouse where Maddy and Xander had been locked up. The second safehouse wasn't familiar with Maddy.

Maddy was pretty happy with progress so far. They now had two locations which they could investigate to find out more about the boss. Maddy looked down at her notebook. There was one more question left to be answered.

"Why did Xander have trouble shifting? Did Elvira put some spell on him when he was at the safehouse?"

The Beta stared at her. "How on earth am I supposed to know that? Ask Elvira, not me."

Xander cleared his throat. "You needn't bother with that question. I already know the answer to that."

"You do?" Maddy asked, surprised.

"Are we done with all the questions? We can discuss about all of this outside," Justin interrupted the two of them.

Maddy nodded. Xander and Maddy exited the building together while Justin stayed back. He had to go through the voice recognition device's code to undo Alexa's meddling.