Chapter 7 A Way Out #2
His words finally push Maddox to move until he is standing next to Daniel. “Hello,” he says awkwardly.
Goddess! Is he always this awkward, or am I only noticing it now because it’s the first time I’ve watched him properly interact with someone?
Well, not that I care much. Leaving the two men in the living room, I distract myself by making coffee and putting the first batch of cookies on a plate before joining them in the living room.
There, Daniel happily accepts both the coffee and the cookies, munching on one of them while Maddox keeps moving one of the cookies between his hands, awkwardly, shifting around, and then takes his cup of coffee.
“He usually drinks it with milk and sugar,” Daniel says dryly.
My lips tug slightly at the look of surprise on Maddox’s face. “No, that’s fine,” he says. “I… I don’t mind.”
I decide to ignore him and grab the two items. Marina used to drink her coffee the same way, which is why I always have these items here for her morning coffee.
Once Maddox has his coffee, I sit down again, and silence engulfs us. The minutes seem to drag by with no one saying a word, until Daniel pinches the bridge of his nose. “Would you just tell her?”
“I was still finding the right words,” Maddox says.
“It’s not rocket science,” Daniel pushes. “Just tell her straight out.”
Maddox clears his throat, and I can see his stance changing slightly. He sits up straight, suddenly looking stronger and more confident, more like a typical alpha. Is this just a pretense? I feel like I am just seeing something I probably shouldn’t see.
Maddox pulls an envelope out of his pocket. “I am sorry, Gwendolyn,” he says. “I… Daniel is right. I should have stopped Brandon and the others the moment I noticed what they were up to. I truly didn’t know what he was planning. When they were chasing you, I was on a run myself.”
“You mean, you simply ran into us?” I ask.
He nods. “I know you don’t believe me. Why would you? But Brandon and Josie set it up themselves.”
I do believe him. When he saw us, he did seem to be surprised. “And when you spotted us-“
“I didn’t know what was going on at first,” he says. “My mind works slowly sometimes,” he explained.
I look at Daniel, and he nods subtly.
What does he mean by ‘his mind works slowly’? Maddox is incredibly smart. He was always ahead of everyone else in school, and I heard he is doing well in college now, too.
“My reasons don’t matter,” he says. “The moment I saw them, I should have acted. It was my failure not to do so.” I stay silent; there isn’t much to say that he doesn’t already know.
He hands me the envelope. “Against popular belief, I live pretty frugally and have saved a lot of money. I don’t spend much of it.
This is part of a fund I have, and it should get you, Marina and Faye, through a couple of months.
” He hands me a sheet of paper next. “This is my cousin’s number.
She left the pack a couple of years ago to be with her mate. She is not loyal to anyone here.”
“She really isn’t,” Daniel says. “I know her. She thinks this place and its leadership suck.”
Nice way of throwing the alpha under the bus without doing so obviously.
“My father has plans,” Maddox says. “He doesn’t want any humans on pack grounds, and I am not sure what he is going to do with human hybrids.”
My heart drops. What the fuck? “Can’t you take over the pack?”
“Not yet. I need to finish my studies first. It will take me another year, then I should be done, and then the pack will be mine.” To my surprise, he doesn’t sound happy when he says it, just tired.
“A year is pretty soon,” I add. “Didn’t you start studying together with…” My voice runs dry even thinking about mentioning Brandon.”
“Yes, I did,” Maddox says. “But I put in a bit of effort to finish sooner. However, a year might not seem like much, but in this scenario it is.”
“He is right,” Daniel says. “A lot of things can happen in a pack in the space of a year.”
Again, my heartbeat picks up.
“I wanted to give you the money and my cousin’s contact a couple of months ago, but then you started to see Brandon,” Maddox says.
“And?” Daniel pushes. “Why did that stop you? You knew he was just fooling around with her.”
Wait a moment…
Every single fucking time that I overheard them talk about me, Maddox made an effort to say something demeaning about my relationship with Brandon. And during the party, he clearly noticed me and kept pushing for Brandon to give answers.
“You did it on purpose,” I blurt out, my mouth dropping open.
Maddox shifts about, looking awkward again.
“You could have just said something!”
“I said the same when he told me everything,” Daniel agrees. When he notices my curiosity, he explains further. “The day after Tulip died, Maddox visited me and told me everything, including his plan.”
“I want you to take the money,” Maddox says.
“And leave with Marina and Faye to a place you can be free and start over. My cousin will be able to set you up with other packs if that’s what you want, but you have time to decide on your next moves.
Faye and Marina are pack wolves, though; they will need a pack to belong to eventually. ”
“But will they be okay being without a pack for a couple of months?”
“Yes, I can’t link Marina,” Maddox says. “She does not seem to have a connection to this pack. As for Faye, she is a child. She does not have a wolf spirit yet.”
I keep blinking at him, not sure if I am fully grasping what he is telling me. “Jacob has prepared his old car for you, the old jeep,” Daniel adds. “You can load your bike and your necessities on it, and it has room for all three of you.“ Tiger chooses this moment to chirp. “All four of you.”
Their words keep running through my mind as I start to think this through.
If it’s true what Maddox just said, it will give me the chance to take Faye and Marina away from here, to give them a chance to build a life somewhere else.
This could be a solution to our problems. Looking into the envelope, I gape. “I can’t accept this!”
“You can,” Maddox mutters. “I wish I could give you more than that, but if I do, my father might grow suspicious, and he can’t know that I-” He is quiet for a while before shaking his head.
“Listen, Gwen, I know I was terrible. I kept watching for years without doing anything, while I should have. I always knew I should have.” His voice trails off again.
It’s as if he is far away in his thoughts all of a sudden.
I glance at Daniel, but he just shakes his head slightly, so we wait.
Eventually, Maddox turns to look at me again.
“I wanted to do something, but for some reason I couldn’t, which makes this even worse.
If I ever want to become a good alpha, I need to finally stop being so impassive and change my ways. ”
Curiosity starts gnawing at me again. Daniel’s hinted at something being off in his life several times, and it seems he was right.
But why did he just keep watching and not interfere when he wanted to?
It doesn’t matter to me, though; it doesn’t change anything.
But this envelope here can change it all.
“Won’t they be able to track me?” I say. “I mean, I doubt anyone will be interested in the three of us, but technically we would be rogues.”
“It will take them days, if not more, to figure out that you are gone,” Daniel says.
“And even then, it’s not clear if they will mind.
As for your concern… you don’t smell like a wolf, which is why you won’t smell like a rogue either.
The same goes for Faye. As for Marina, her wolf spirit is so weak, it’s very hard to take up her smell. ”
Silence engulfs us again, while my thoughts spin.
What would Dad want for me? He always kept saying that I am putting myself down, that I am so much better than I believe I am.
He would have been proud of me for standing up to Brandon, and he would have been furious about what Brandon did.
But none of this would have happened if he were still around.
If I am honest with myself, I know that just like Daniel, he would want me to make something out of my life.
Closing my hands around the envelope, I take a deep breath. “When should I leave?”