Maddy stared as Xander coughed and slowly sat up. Of all the things that Maddy had seen, this was by far the coolest thing. She had just watched someone come back to life after being dead for like half an hour. Life couldn't get weirder, Maddy decided.
"Why are all of you staring at me like that?" a confused Xander asked.
The entire crowd including Maddy let out a collective sigh of relief to see that Xander was alright. Immediately Diana and Alexa jumped on top of an extremely bewildered Xander. Maddy too wanted to rush towards him but she held herself back. This was the time for Xander's family to talk to him. Her time would come later.
Diana was crying once more and furiously scolding Xander for putting himself in danger like that. Alexa too was talking animatedly and scolding Xander along with her mother. Xander clearly had no idea what was going on and stared blankly at the two furious women in front of him. Justin, who had been pacing back and forth like a lion in a cage, seemed to finally relax and he helped Xander sit up comfortably. Maddy had a feeling that, had the rest of the pack not been there, he too would have shed tears but he didn't as he couldn't show his weakness in front of the pack.
At that moment, Xander's eye caught Maddy's. The confused and astonished look that Xander gave her, made her smile. When his family got up, Jeremy went up to Xander and helped him stand up. The two of them then did the awkward man-hug that guys do. They exchanged a few words but Maddy couldn't hear them. One by one each and every member of the pack spoke with Xander while the Callisto Pack stood on one side waiting for the Amalthea Pack to finish.
Maddy stood at one corner, not knowing whether she should go up and talk to Xander. The entire pack was talking to him and she definitely wasn't part of the pack. She felt out of depth. Also, the fact that the Alpha and Luna were most probably angry with her made her stand back and wish that she could just disappear instead of standing there awkwardly. She had after all, nearly gotten the future Alpha of the pack killed.
Once everyone had finished their share of conversation with Xander and Xander finally wore a shirt, the Alpha started giving out orders. The Beta, who had been standing frozen, was taken captive for interrogation. Had Maddy not been so worried about what the Alpha would do to her, she would have laughed on seeing the look on the Beta's furious face. He was forced to stand still for the entire time and he was completely under the Alpha's control.
The Alpha appointed his third in command, a rather poised man as his Beta. There was no extravagant ceremony like Maddy expected. The Alpha just announced it out loud and then everyone started lining up to go back to the Amalthea pack headquarters.
However, the entire fight wasn't over yet. Since the tooth-necklace lady had escaped with a bunch of rogues, everyone was expecting another fight soon but first, Leia had to be found.
Meanwhile, Diana was busy interrogating the matefinder.
"Who is Xander's mate?" she demanded.
The matefinder just smiled but didn't reply. Diana repeated herself. Once again, the matefinder remained silent.
"Come on!" Diana said, throwing her hands up in the air with exasperation. "One of my children finally found his mate. Let me have my share of fun and tell who the girl is."
"Or guy," Diana added on second thought.
"Mrs. Dexter, you'll come to know everything in due time but I believe that a certain Alpha is missing a daughter. We'll talk about this once we get to Amalthea Pack's headquarters."
Both Tristan and Jeremy immediately perked up on hearing the matefinder. The Callisto Pack and Amalthea Pack started leaving the hotel. Maddy was one of the last ones to leave.
On looking around the hotel, it was clear that a fight had taken place. Although the plan was to minimalize the damages to the hotel, Xander and the reddish-brown tailed wolf's fight had caused quite a lot of damage. Glass was shattered here and there and the lights of the part of the hotel where they were in, wasn't working anymore. The amount of wreckage didn't matter. The damage would be paid for. Maddy was just grateful that no humans had been killed. Maddy already felt horrible for taking the lives of so many rogues. She didn't want humans to be added to the list of deaths too.
Suddenly, someone grabbed hold of her wrist. Maddy turned around to find Xander standing.
"Hey!" she said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Xander got straight to the point. "Are you mad at me?"
Maddy wrinkled her nose in confusion. Why would she be mad at him? Shouldn't it be the other way round? "No.... why?"
"You were the only one who didn't seem to be relieved that I am alive. You didn't even talk to me," he pointed out.
"Your pack wanted to see you and well, the pack is huge so it took some time. After that everyone started rushing out of the hotel," Maddy explained.
Xander sighed. "You are pack, Maddy. I honestly thought I did something that made you pissed."
Maddy gave a small smile but remained silent. The two of them were slowly walking towards the exit of the hotel. The walk would have been enjoyable if Maddy hadn't been drowning in guilt. After a minute of silence Maddy finally spoke up. "I'm sorry. I couldn't come fast enough to help you. I was helping the matefinder. I know it's just an excuse but-"
"As much as I love to hear your beautiful voice, I will have to ask you stop apologizing. It could have happened with anyone."
When he saw that Maddy still wasn't convinced, Xander said, "Look at it this way, I nearly killed you by drowning you and now you nearly killed me. They cancel out each other. We good?"
Hearing that Maddy burst out laughing. "This is such a buzzard conversation to have," she wheezed out. "A month ago, if you told me that we would be having such a conversation, I would have thought you were crazy."
Xander grinned at her. "Well, I recall a certain someone telling me that I would get a kiss after the battle."
Maddy immediately blushed beet red on hearing him. "Uh..." she stuttered and looked away.
Xander chuckled. "I was just joking."
"Oh!" Maddy said, relieved.
Suddenly, the image of Xander's lifeless body flashed in her eye. She remembered Xander's words- 'This might be the last chance you ever get to kiss me.' Maybe kissing him wasn't a bad idea, she decided. She liked him a lot, so what was holding her back?
On the spur of the moment, Maddy stood on her tippy-toes and pressed her lips to Xander's. Xander, who had been walking, stumbled with surprise and then without hesitation, wrapped his arms around Maddy's waist.
To say it was a good kiss would be an understatement. He tasted like chocolate which immediately made Maddy want more. Instead of the world fading away like what happened in the books, Maddy was suddenly hyper-aware of everything. Like how her entire body was tingling, like how his hair was so soft to touch and how his hands were wrapped protectively around her waist.
At first, Maddy wasn't sure if she was doing it right. She had never kissed anyone before and all she knew about kissing came from books and movies. However, all doubts flew away when Maddy pulled back.
"Wow," Xander whispered, his eyes wide. His irises were no longer green in color but completely black. Maddy blushed and averted her eyes.
Why hadn't she done this before? Like seriously, why? And then, the answer came, hitting her like a bus. He had a mate. How had that slipped her mind? Maddy felt like one of the mean girls who was trying to steal someone else's boyfriend.
Maddy pushed his chest gently to move away from him but Xander had other ideas. He growled and immediately held on to her tighter. Xander leaned down for a second kiss and Maddy's eyes widened. As much as she wanted to reciprocate, she couldn't steal someone else's man. Maddy wasn't that kind of person.
"Xander," she hissed. "You have a mate."
That seemed to bring him out of his stupor. He let her go of her and stumbled back. Maddy cleared her throat. How on earth had things become so awkward? Both Maddy and Xander were saved from dying of awkwardness by Alexa.
"There you both are. Come along fast. Don't you want to know more about where Leia is being kept?"
With that, Alexa dragged both Maddy and Xander away.