Maddy could barely keep her eyes open the next day. She couldn't fall asleep yesterday for some reason. The entire time she felt restless, unable to shut down all her thoughts. She kept twisting and turning throughout the entire night. This has never happened before. Maddy was never the kind of person to fall asleep as soon as she hit the bed, but she usually fell asleep in the first hour or so. She had stayed up all night, and sharp at midnight, a chorus of howls started, giving her goosebumps.

She wanted to go out so badly. Something told her that she should go out during the full moon. For a minute, Maddy actually considered going out but then realized how foolish she was acting. There was no way she could defend herself if any of the wolves attacked her without hurting them. Maddy loved her sleep and the fact that she didn't get any, made her extremely grumpy and grouchy.

The werewolves on the other hand seemed rejuvenated after yesterday in spite the fact that none of them had slept that night.

"Maddy!" Alexa called to her from the other end of the room where breakfast was being served. The room was like a massive cafeteria where all meals were served to the entire pack. The room was situated in the club house.

Maddy yawned and slowly made her way to where Alexa and Jeremy were sitting. Even Jeremy seemed to be more cheerful than usual and that's saying something. It seemed like all the werewolves seemed to be high on moonlight or whatever made them so cheerful.

"You know, today Elijah is going to go and scout the safehouse. And then half of the Callisto Pack is going to arrive in three days and if you are right, we will be attacking the hotel in another week!" Alexa blabbered.

"Oh, wait. You wouldn't know because you snuck out of the meeting with Xander! Give me the details, gurl," Alexa said, cheerful as ever.

On second thought, she added, "Never mind. I don't need the details. For a minute I forgot that he was my twin. Ew."

Alexa didn't mind holding the conversation all by herself, so Maddy didn't bother replying to the hundreds of questions Alexa was asking.

"Alexa, you realize that both Maddy and Jeremy aren't listening to you, right?" A deep voice interrupted Alexa's rambling. Maddy didn't need to turn to know that the voice belonged to Xander. Alexa stuck her tongue out at him as he sat down across Maddy. Maddy smiled at him wearily. Xander smiled back at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Maddy wondered what happened but didn't want to pry too much, so she left it.

"Xander, come with me to the office," Justin's said sternly a few minutes after Xander had sat down.

The entire cafeteria became silent. Xander, Alexa and Jeremy winced. With a sigh, Xander got up and followed his dad.

"What happened?" Maddy asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. By the way all the pack members were staring at Xander's retreating figure, everyone seemed to know why Justin was pissed at Xander.

"For the first time in forever, Xander had trouble shifting. That is a bad sign for the pack. Even though Xander won't become an Alpha in another 20 years at least, he should be one of the first to finish shifting and protect the pack. If other packs learn about this, they will think that the Amalthea Pack is weak and might attack," Jeremy explained while nibbling on his sandwich.

"What do you mean he had trouble shifting?"

"It was like his wolf wanted to do something else, not run with the pack. Though, I can't imagine what it wanted to do. Probably go to the Valencia Hotel and kill all the rogues or something. Although Xander doesn't show it, he is extremely protective and possessive, even more than dad and he isn't even Alpha yet," Alexa chimed in.

"Oh."

Later that evening, Maddy, Alexa and Jeremy sat down and started playing Uno in Maddy's room while Xander had some duties to attend to. Yeah, even werewolves played Uno. A match against werewolves can turn out to be extremely aggressive because of the competitive nature of werewolves but competitive-wise, even Maddy was extremely competitive, needing to be the best in everything, so they were evenly matched. This was the second round that Maddy had won and by the way that Alexa was clutching her cards, practically squeezing the life out of them and Jeremy was clenching his jaw, both of them did not like that.

Xander soon came in and without a word, he fell back on the bed, his weight making the bed bounce and all the cards jumped up along with the bed and got shuffled.

"Hey!" Maddy whined. "I was winning."

"Why do you think that this guy is attacking me and Maddy? And how did he know where exactly to find us?" Xander mused aloud, ignoring Maddy.

Soon, they were having a debate on the different ways 'the boss' knew where exactly to attack, forgetting completely about the unfinished Uno match.

"Maybe the matefinder told where to find us and what to do," Jeremy suggested after sometime.

"What!?" Maddy exclaimed. "I thought the matefinder was on our side!"

"The matefinder isn't on anyone's side. Her sole purpose is to make sure that the future goes the way it is supposed to go. In the future, if she saw that we get kidnapped, her job is to make sure that happens even if she needs to tell the bad guys our location," Xander explained.

That piece of information changed everything! A hundred possibilities ran through Maddy's head. What if the matefinder warned the rogues about the attack? The entire attack was based on the element of surprise. If the rogues knew that they were going to be ambushed, they would prepare a large army, in which case the Amalthea and Callisto Pack had no chance of winning. Maddy remembered someone telling her that the Megaclite Pack wouldn't be able to help as they had some internal issues in the pack.

"Think about it. The matefinder had given Katie the dagger. She wouldn't have given it to Katie if Maddy and Xander weren't supposed to be taken hostage."

On seeing Maddy's frightened expression, Jeremy continued, "Don't worry. The matefinder is doing this for the collective good of the werewolves. The mass slaughter of werewolves won't help anyone, which is why I am sure the matefinder wouldn't have told them about the surprise attack."

Alexa frowned and said, "I for one, can't wait until Elijah comes back. If Maddy is right then we have some rogues to kill. Elijah should be back by now. What's taking him so long?"

Elijah had left to scout the safehouse in the morning, just after breakfast. It was a two-hour drive to reach there, and it was late in the evening right now, so he should have been back. Maddy however, wasn't worried. Maybe he ran out of fuel or something. Only after Elijah returns will any sort of attack be launched. If Elijah finds any clues that say that the Valencia hotel is not the place where the matefinder is kept, then there would be no use of launching an attack. She would enjoy killing all the rogues and if she had to wait for a few more days then so be it. Now, that she had already killed one of the rogues, it would be easier to kill the others. Especially after what they had done to Leia.

They continued to play Uno for another hour when suddenly Xander and Alexa doubled over in pain with a small cry and Jeremy let go of all his cards and let out a small gasp, making Maddy freak out.

Maddy thought that something happened to the three of them. After a minute of catching his breath, Jeremy turned to Maddy and explained, "Elijah is dead. Someone killed him." 

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