3
ADDIE
This house was a…mess. I stood in the middle of the living room and gaped at the stuff haphazardly thrown everywhere. Turning toward Maddox, I had to keep my jaw off the floor because I was afraid of what it might touch down there.
“How do you live like this?”
His brow flattened. Eyes hopping from surface to surface, he finally looked at me and shrugged in confusion. It took me a moment to understand that he didn’t see a problem here.
“Maddox!” I couldn’t help the nervous laugh that left me. “This is a pigsty!”
He waved me off. “It’s all clean. It’s just not organized like you might want.”
I knew that we had other, more important things to talk about, but this was insane. Maddox had a beautiful home. His soft, reclining couch was buried under a heap of clean laundry. There was a collection of full water bottles on a side table, like he grabbed them on his way through the nearby hallway.
The floor was littered with what I assumed to be dirty laundry. There were pants, belts, and even underwear. When Maddox realized his boxers were on display, he huffed and bent to snatch them up. I caught the slight flush to his pale cheeks, and it made me laugh.
While he took his dirty laundry into another room, I started gathering trash and throwing it away. He was a busy man with a new beast living inside him now. I couldn’t judge him for the state of his home. Cleaning a bit of it up was the least I could do for him.
But as I moved, my mind wandered back to the past hour. That woman had pointed at Maddox and accused him of killing her. I glanced over my shoulder to see if he was there, but he was still busy. Had he lost control while I’d been away?
Could Maddox be the one behind these murders? If that was the case, then I would have to keep him away from Ryder.
The new Alpha of the Lakesedge Pack had killed out of necessity before. He’d been the one to strike down his own father when the dragon shifter lost his grip on sanity. Ryder wouldn’t hesitate to do the same with Maddox if the wolf shifter posed a threat to the Pack’s new stability.
I didn’t want to believe that Maddox could be capable of hurting people, but it was a possibility. If Maddox didn’t have the help that he needed, then his beast might go feral. Maddox’s beast always seemed kind and gentle to me. I held onto the hope that I was mistaken and that this was all just a big misunderstanding.
Yet, a seed of doubt still lingered within me. I wanted to shake it off, but the thing had taken root and refused to leave.
“I can call and order dinner,” Maddox said upon returning.
My lips twisted to the side. “How about I cook dinner for us? It could save you some money. I’m sure your payments on the new car are taking a chunk out of your paycheck.”
“We need to talk about what happened out there, though.” Maddox sidled in front of me to block my way.
I lifted my hands. I needed something to do with them, and I was afraid that I might put them on Maddox if I didn’t have a task to distract me. The man in front of me had buttoned his shirt wrong. It was taking every ounce of self-restraint to keep from unbuttoning it to fix it for him. However, if I unbuttoned his shirt, my mind would melt at the sight of his chest beyond it.
Maddox always had that effect on me. His pale form drifted about like a ghost, but his dark eyes were full of warmth that he kept close to himself. At first glance, he seemed intimidating, but I’d spent enough time with him to know that he was full of tender kindness.
I wanted to repay that. The hat on my head hadn’t been there by accident. He’d grabbed it just for me, and I knew it.
“I can cook and talk at the same time,” I promised.
He lifted a brow in challenge. “Are you sure?”
I nodded.
He cringed and stepped aside. Scratching the back of his head, he said, “There’s not much in there. I don’t know what you could make.”
Though I didn’t say it, that was perfect. Thinking about what to make with the few ingredients I had at my disposal would keep me from spiraling into a panic while we discussed the ghost.
Maddox hadn’t been joking, either. I opened the nearest cupboard to find a single box of spaghetti and a can of peas. After blinking in shock, I turned to stare at him. He shrugged in anI told you sogesture.
With a sigh, I resigned myself to my task. This was going to work. It had to.
“What scent led us to that neighborhood. Can you tell what it was?” I asked as I pulled the can and box from the cupboard.
Maddox sighed and turned to lean against the counter. “I’m not sure, actually. It was almost like blood, but not quite. I caught a metallic tang with a bit of rot, like it was an old blood trail. There was something else in it that I’m not quite sure about, though.”