In fifteen minutes, Maddy heard the screech of tires. The boss had come. She scanner her surrounding, trying to see if there were any rogues or any signs of faerie magic. When she found none, she shifted her position to sit more comfortably. The branch which she was sitting was slightly uncomfortable.
"Don't move," Xander hissed.
"What fake information will Justin tell Bruce?"
"Dad's going to tell him that the boss is part of his pack and ask him to be careful."
Time went on. Maddy kept herself busy by staring at the ants that were climbing on top of the bark of the tree and making sure that they didn't come near her.
"There," Xander said as he nodded towards his right.
Maddy turned to the right and saw Justin and Bruce walking slowly, and unconsciously, her grip tightened on her dagger. Justin was telling him something using his hands and Bruce laughed. They walked at a leisurely pace. Justin seemed to be in no hurry to put Bruce in the prison. Maddy kept her eyes glued to Bruce, and every once in a while, she'd look around just in case Bruce decided to spell the surroundings and not Justin.
Justin and Bruce walked right up to center of the courtyard and that's when Xander tugged at Maddy's arm. "Come on. Let's go."
"Why is Justin not leaving the prison?"
"You can't hear people from outside the prison. For us to question Bruce, we need to be inside the prison."
Maddy panicked. "That's extremely dangerous. He can attack us at any moment or call on his rogues."
Xander nodded grimly. "Which is why we need to extra vigilant. Come on."
Xander smoothly jumped down from the tree. Maddy's eyes followed his movement and she saw him land perfectly on his feet. Maddy rolled her eyes. Of course he would be able to make a movie-landing and land perfectly. They were at quite a height. About twice the height of Maddy. Jumping down seemed like the perfect way to break her leg.
"Jump!" Xander shouted. "I'll catch you."
Maddy raised her eyebrow. She wasn't sure if he would be able to catch her but at least now she had someone to blame if she did break her leg. Maddy shut her eyes and jumped. She fell, and fell, and fell, and then there was a huge thump.
Maddy laughed when she saw that she landed on top of Xander instead of in his arms. "Looks like you aren't that good at catching after all, huh?"
"Get off me," Xander groaned as he pushed her.
Maddy got up and helped him up. The two of them then rushed towards the invisible prison. When Maddy reached there, she saw that the others had already entered the prison. Bruce had a snarl on his face and was saying something but Maddy couldn't hear it. They had no choice but to enter the prison. Hurriedly, she and Xander joined them.
"Bruce, is it true? Are you the boss?" Justin asked, his face a blank canvas.
"What is the meaning of this," Bruce barked. All the friendliness that he usually had vanished and he looked angry. Bruce backed away and tried to get out but he hit the wall of the prison. Bruce turned to the invisible wall and hit it with his fist. When that didn't work, he stopped for a few seconds. It was then that Maddy saw the white mist covering his hands.
"Watch out," Maddy shouted just as Bruce barreled towards the prison and put his hand on the wall of the prison. A bright light exploded in that place and then white electricity covered Bruce's arm and shocked him. Bruce staggered back but the voltage of the current must have been less because he didn't look too injured.
"Bruce," Justin said calmly. "It is not going to break. We aren't going to harm you. I just want to talk."
"There is nothing to talk about."
"You need to stop with all this killing werewolves bullshit. Instead, you could have just appealed to the Werewolf Council for proper rogues' rights."
That was the first time Maddy had heard the Alpha swear, and to say that she was shocked would be an understatement. Justin had fists clenched which was the only indication that he was feeling something. His face betrayed no sort of emotions.
"Yeah?" Bruce said, all the panic suddenly ebbing away. Just like Justin, he too had a completely blank face. He folded his hands and smiled. It was then that Maddy was hit by how similar tooth-necklace lady and Bruce looked. Bruce was behaving exactly like how tooth-necklace lady was behaving when she got captured- unusually calm. "You think I haven't tried that already? You know what their response was? Nothing. They didn't even bother to answer and I appealed to them years ago."
Justin shook his head. "That's still does not give you the right to kill other werewolves. You could have told me. I could have help you."
"You could have but you wouldn't. You wouldn't believe me if I told you that the rogues weren't bad."
"So, you killed my son? It was you, wasn't it? The brown tailed wolf?"
Up until now, everyone had been watching the conversation between the two best friends. No one dared to speak anything. The two Alphas had carefully kept blank faces and were firing off at each other like nobody's business. The air was so tensed that Maddy could have easily cut through it with her dagger. On hearing that it was Bruce who had killed Xander, everyone tensed up even more, if that was possible.
Bruce shrugged. "It was either your son or my daughter. The decision was easy to make."
Justin sagged as if that was the last proof he needed to let go of whatever hope he had that Bruce was in fact not the boss. "Why? Why are you doing this? You could have just asked me and I would have helped you no questions asked."
Bruce laughed. "Why? This misconception that the rogues are the bad ones is the reason why my mate is dead."