Chapter 44 The Pack
forty-four
The Pack
*FELIX*
Maddox’s pack, Verdant Forest, is much closer than I anticipated.
We drove six hours to reach our destination, shocking me when I realize how close Gwen was all those years, and that she took a crazy detour to run from there.
It makes sense, though. She probably wanted to put as much distance between herself and her pack as possible.
“It’s surprisingly beautiful,” I admit.
“How did you imagine it to be?” Maddox asks.
“Darker,” I admit. “Gloomy. But the area is beautiful, the forest in particular, and the pack doesn’t look run down.”
Maddox is silent for a while. After four hours of driving with him, I have become accustomed to his silence. I first thought he was freezing me out, but whenever I ask him something, he immediately answers and engages. He is polite, friendly even, but he is also very quiet.
“Gloomy, huh?” he mutters.
“Does it not look beautiful to you?” I ask.
Maddox just shrugs. “I guess it does. But I don’t really mind.”
Okay, there goes my potential conversation about what he enjoys doing in the pack.
Obviously, he is feeling detached. It’s moments like these when I wish that Dario were here.
He is much more sensitive to people’s feelings and can react appropriately.
Whereas I might sense Maddox’s detachment, but I have no idea how to handle it.
“Say, Maddox, you never talk about your mom.“ I feel bad talking about his family, but I need to be prepared now that we are almost at our destination. “She is the pack’s luna, isn’t she?”
“She is still alive, if that’s what you are asking,” Maddox confirms. He doesn’t say any more. Goddess, this is like pulling teeth!
“Is she very active in the pack? Do I need to be prepared?”
“She is somewhat present,” he says. “But not really a lot. She also isn’t really family-oriented, so we won’t see her much.”
“Alright.” Obviously, there is no use in asking any more. “For your dad, I will act like the na?ve, shallow guy everyone thinks I am.”
Maddox shows me something that I could interpret as a smile, with a lot of goodwill. “Is that your reputation?”
“Sunny boy, you know?”
“Hm, it will work well on my father. The less he suspects anything weird from you, the better.”
I wait for him to maybe tell me more, but he falls silent again. Well, fortunately, he gave Liam a proper rundown of his dad’s personality, and Liam was able to brief me a little. I am not supposed to be too prepared, anyway. Liam told me the more natural I act, the better.
I guess Maddox’s private relationship with his parents isn’t my concern, so I shouldn’t bother about it.
But fuck, I am bothered by it! Why is he that way? What’s happening in this pack? First, Gwen tells me how they shunned her, then we realize she wasn’t even a pack member, and now the alpha’s son himself acts completely defeated.
I wish it didn’t bother me. Maddox wasn’t a good friend to Gwen; he wasn’t a friend at all, and he did the bare minimum once he realized she was reaching her breaking point, but still… I can’t help but care.
“Here we are.” Maddox parks the car behind the packhouse, and we both get out, stretching our limbs.
“It’s a bit cooler here,” I say. “The air feels fresh. It’s nice.”
Maddox tilts his head. “Yeah,” he finally says.
Before I can embarrass myself further by pushing for a conversation, footsteps come closer. “Young Alpha!”
“Beta Mateo,” Maddox greets him. I thought he might put on a smile for the ranked members, but he doesn’t. He is equally as quiet and distant as he is with me. For once, I can’t help but appreciate that he doesn’t put on a mask. “You didn’t need to welcome us officially.”
“Your father insisted,” the beta says.
Maddox gestures towards me. “This is Felix Alcott. We need to work on a project together.”
Now it’s my time to shine, quite literally. That’s what I am good at! I put on my best smile and excitedly shake the beta’s hand. “Thank you for having me here. But Maddox is right, I am just a normal guy, like any other.”
My fake humble brag works. It seems like the beta was exactly hoping for it and can act the way he finds appropriate, by reassuring me how happy they are to host me.
That it’s an honor. And blah. He leads us towards the packhouse while doing so, and I make sure to hold a light conversation with him.
Around us, I see curious pack members. To them, it must look like their future alpha just popped up with a spoiled little prince. But even that fits our agenda. Goddess, it makes me realize I am almost too good at playing my part. I guess I did mask my insecurities a lot when growing up.
Beta Mateo stops once we are in front of the alpha’s office. He gives it a short knock, opening it when the alpha’s voice reaches us. “Come in.”
With that, he opens the door and lets us in. Alpha Jacob stands up once we enter. He is smiling, but looks cold as fuck. Yeah, that’s not a real smile, and certainly not a real friendly person. But whatever, I am not here to become his friend; I am here to bring justice to my mate, Marina and Faye.
Dario once told me my signature expression is friendly and warm, and I am relying on it to be that now. As with the beta, I happily accept the alpha’s hand, shaking it with a bright, slightly dumb smile.
“We are happy to host you here, Lord Felix,” he says.
Lord! Goddess, barely anyone calls me by that title. They do it with Dad and Liam a lot, and sometimes with Marius, but forget about the rest of us – and we are all fucking thankful for it.
However, someone must have laid it on thick for him to call me by that title. Maybe it was Liam or Dad. Maybe both.
I beam at the man now. “Please, just call me Felix. I am very thankful for your kind welcome. You have an amazing pack.”
That triggers the guy into starting a whole-ass monologue about his pack and his reign. Alpha Jacob has coffee and sandwiches brought while he sits down with us, bombarding me with all kinds of details about his pack.
I try to gauge Maddox’s reaction a bit without being too obvious.
He seems to be even quieter than before.
His father talks and talks, basically chewing my ear off as he goes on about how amazing his pack is, his beta is, his gamma is, his organization is and mostly about how amazing he himself is.
All I hear is me, my and myself. The only one he doesn’t mention is his son.
Yeah, the guy sucks.
“Maddox will be at your service as long as you are here,” he tells me, while shooting his son a glare. His tone is annoyed at best, obviously not meant as a friendly suggestion. It’s also the first time the two have looked at each other. Maddox’s expression doesn’t change; he just nods.
I have only been in the dude’s vicinity for ten minutes, and I am already tired of his narcissistic tendencies. I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to be this man’s son!
Time to lay it on thick again. I lock arms with Maddox and grin. “This is going to be fun. You have to show me everything, Maddox! I am so glad I got paired with you for that project. I am counting on you, clearly you bring the brains to the table.”
Maddox looks slightly surprised but then nods. “I will try to be as helpful as possible.”
“Well then,” Alpha Jacob stands up. “I will leave it to both of you. Feel at home here, Lo-“ he stops, “Felix. There are no off-limits for you in this pack. If you need something, just ask for it.”
There are no off-limits, huh? Good to know. In case I get busted for snooping around, I will at least have a small excuse.
I still have my arm linked with Maddox’s when we leave the office, only letting go once we are at a safe distance. Maddox leads me a few stories up to a beautiful guestroom. “It’s our best,” he says.
“It’s beautiful, thank you.”
Maddox closes the door behind us, helping me unpack.
“You are good at that,” Maddox says out of the blue.
I look up at him. “At what?”
“With how you handled Mateo and my father. They didn’t even question you. One smile and you won them over.”
“I guess I am good at that,” I muse. “I think this was my mask for many years. It’s weird… Now, I feel like constantly being goofy and fun is exhausting.”
“But your kindness isn’t a mask,” Maddox says, much to my surprise. “It’s why you can sell this whole thing so easily. Makes sense that Alpha Liam wanted you to come with me.”
The only time he seems to be even slightly talkative is when he talks about Liam.
“You really admire my brother, huh?” I ask with a grin.
Again, Maddox is silent for a long while. “Well, he has a certain reputation and is living up to it. It’s hard not to respect him for it.”
Once I have put everything in its place, I turn to Maddox. “And now?”
“I could show you the pack,” he says.
“Yes, then we probably should sit together somewhere where people can see us and pretend to work on our so-called project.”
In complete silence, Maddox leads me out of my room to the alpha suite, where he apparently lives. Still in silence, he rummages through his room, retrieves some notebooks, books and pens, and then silently we make our way out of the packhouse.
I don’t think I have ever spent time with someone who was so quiet for such a long time. Dario is an introvert, but he is nothing like Maddox.
The pack is beautiful. There is nothing wrong with the place itself, but the apple is obviously rotten from within.
“I wonder how I should do it,” I muse.
Maddox looks up from his notebook. “Hm?”
“Snoop through your father’s place.”
“You really want to do that?”
“Of course, that’s what I am here for. Obviously, we won‘t get far by subtly looking through the pack.” I pause. “I am sure you did that already.”
“I did,” he admits.
A group of young wolves passes us, waving at Maddox and calling out to him.
Maddox shifts to look at them, nodding at them, but he doesn’t engage with anyone.
I have so many questions. I get it. As an alpha’s son, he is popular, especially with his peers, and it’s not always easy to make friends.
I had similar problems, as did all of us.
The thing is, we all still liked to hang out with our pack members, and we found our small circles of people.
I wait for the group to pass us before I continue talking. “I guess I can always return here, and we could take a slow pace. But is this really what we want?”
Maddox looks at me. “If it were for me, I just want to be done with it as soon as possible.”
Now that’s a straightforward statement I can work with.
“But what are our options?” he continues.
“You said your father invited us to dinner tonight, right?”
“Yes, in his office. It has an adjacent living room,” Maddox explains. “The ranked members will be there.”
“I could try to pull something off,” I say thoughtfully. “Not sure if I really can, but since I met Gw-“ I clear my throat. I don’t want to mention her name, too scared it will alert someone. “My mate, I have more control over my gift.”
“And what’s your gift?” Maddox asks. Before I can answer, he shakes his head. “Forget that I asked. Maybe it’s better for me to be surprised by it too.”
I nod. “You have a point.” Another group passes us. There is a girl who ogles Maddox, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Her presence, however, reminds me of something I wanted to ask ever since we came here. Once more, I wait for us to be alone. “You didn’t tell anyone about Charlie.”
“Not yet,” he says.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want her to be stressed,” he says. “And I don’t want additional pressure on her. I am not sure how my father would react if he knew.”
“I get it,” I mutter. “But once we revealed the truth-“
“And everyone is safe,” he adds.
“And everyone is safe,” I agree. “What then?”
“I will announce her as mine immediately.”