The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 109: Chapter 109

MADELINE
“That’s not your wolf.”
That’s what Freya said. Someone was in my head, hiding in the darkness where I couldn’t see her, crawling out into the light only when she wanted to hurt someone.
And whoever it was, she wasn’t mine. She wasn’t supposed to be there. The idea of it had my dinner circling its way up, and I could taste the chicken on my tongue.
When one of the guards peeked his head into the room, curious about the wolf swap, Noah slammed it shut in his face and locked the door. Everyone was crammed in my room; there was plenty of space, but four werewolves and one witch in a confined space didn’t strike me as the best of ideas.
“Maybe we should do this somewhere else. Like, outside maybe?” I was starting to feel claustrophobic, but I couldn’t tell if it was due to exterior circumstances or because I had an intruder in my head.
This was messed up. How does that even work? Did somebody plant a wolf in my head that wasn’t mine? Or was it a mistake from the get-go, was I born with the wrong wolf, and it only showed when she woke up?
“Nobody’s leaving this room until you,” Noah glared at Freya. “Tell us who’s living in Maddie’s head.”
Ew, don’t say it like that…
It was like I had a parasite nesting in my head, but it also made me wonder; if Nasha wasn’t my wolf, did that mean that my wolf was somewhere else? Did she exist?
“I can’t tell you whose wolf it is that is with you, but it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Switching something as sacred as one’s wolf between vessels does not come cheap. For a werewolf, your wolf is an integral part of your existence, and losing them is like,” Freya tossed her head, “like half a death. You fall sick because you can’t heal, your immune system weakens remarkably fast and you grow weaker and weaker until your body learns to cope as a human.”
That didn’t tell me much, I still didn’t know who it was. It couldn’t be anyone in this pack, I haven’t heard of anyone losing their wolf.
“You’re telling us that someone has sacrificed their wolf to put into Madeline?” Malania asked.
“Yes, and the who of it all isn’t necessarily important right now, I can still help. But for your sake, Alpha, I suggest you find the person. Because whoever it is has paid the steepest price known to your kind—they’re malicious and vengeful, and I would strongly advise you to deal with them.”
“I know who it is,” Noah said as a matter of fact, and I looked at the wheels turning behind his eyes. My first guess would’ve been Olivia, but she had her wolf—as evidenced by my father’s recap of the torture bender Noah had led in the office a few weeks ago.
“Who?” I asked.
He rubbed the heel of his palm on his forehead and shook his head. What was he beating himself up about?
“I should’ve asked more questions, but I didn’t think much of it when I saw her. You said the loss of a wolf makes you ill, like you’re sick?”
Freya nodded.
“They’d have pale, dull skin, weak bones.” He muttered to himself.
“Mind catching us up on the epiphany you got going on in there?” Logan asked.
“When I went over to Landon’s place to delete the tape, Tilly was there. I was too far gone in my anger to react to it then, but she looked like she was half dying, shaking like a leaf, but werewolves don’t get cold. I just dismissed it as fear. Her skin had a sickly reddish tone to it.”
Tilly?
But why on earth would she give up her wolf just to torture me? We hadn’t ended on a bad note—other than me bashing her head into the bedpost but that was warranted, she was fucking my ex.
“There you go, there’s your defector, but as I said, this matter is much more pressing and we don’t need her to find the witch. You’ll have time to deal with her later, she’s not going anywhere.”
I did wonder if Tilly gave up her wolf, and Nasha tried to attack Noah, telling me it was a hit, and then cheering me on when I stood on the edge about to jump, was Tilly under the impression that she’d get her wolf back? Was that what this was—a temporary loan, a job, until Nasha was done with her task, after which she’d return to Tilly?
That’s what it felt like, it made the most sense. Nasha couldn’t get to Noah, she didn’t succeed in killing him that day in the woods, so she tried to kill me instead. When she failed a second time… all I remembered was that awful sound, like a million chirping crickets at war in my mind, and now I barely felt her at all. I knew she was there, it was like an echo of remembrance blowing through every now and then to keep me on my toes, but she hadn’t spoken or come out in a long time.
“We should get started,” Freya lifted her hands, fingers straight and pressed together—she flicked her wrists and the window closed, the drapes drew shut, and candles I hadn’t lit since I moved in here were lit with their first flame.
See, that’s exactly why I didn’t like witches, why I didn’t trust them—she just made fire from nothing. Where did it come from? The air?
“Maddie, why don’t you take a seat?” She pulled a chair out from the corner and plopped it down in the middle of the room.
Everyone gathered in a circle around me. Noah stood so close he nearly brushed against her when she moved around, and I could tell she was uncomfortable.
I was about to speak up and ask him to back away, my own nerves were enough, I couldn’t deal with his too.
“Do you mind?” Freya asked with a sass that I didn’t expect from her.
Actually, it was the innocent kindness I didn’t expect, based solely on the fact that she’s a witch, but the sass felt more natural. That’s kind of how I envisioned them.
It was nice to see both wrapped up in a surreal package, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I don’t know if Malania could tell, but this entire time that we’d been in my room, her eyes hadn’t left Freya once.
Noah stepped back with a grunt, and a silent warning passed through his glare.
“I won’t hurt her,” Freya said, taking my hands. “I hope,” she said under her breath, but shot me a wink immediately.
“Woah, what do you mean hope? Abort mission, what the fuck,” Logan was hauled back when he tried to intervene. A dome-like shadow crossed the line of my feet and spread out around the chair, coming to a stop just in front of the others.
“It’s so they won’t bother us. One misstep in magic can result in fatalities, and I’d rather we avoid that.”
“Um, yeah, thanks,” I whispered. I tried to hold it together, but when I felt her energy surging through my fingers, tickling my arms, and moving like a warm cloth up my chest and my neck, it was hard to control the fear.
“You might feel a tingle in your mind, but I need you to work with me; you need to let me in. If you block me or if you try to fight me, I won’t get what we need.”
Okay, good to know. Now, how exactly do I not block her?
Freya closed her eyes. The flames sparked in the bookshelves and doubled in size, then tripled, and eventually they licked their wooden surroundings and sent an orange hue over her face.
“There we go,” she whispered. “Come out and play, little wolf.”