The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 141

Zane POV

Waking up alone, sucked. I wanted my mate, the thought of her up there in all that mess, worried me. I did not try to mind-link her last night. I was not sure whether she would sleep much anyway, and she would not mind me intruding, but if she had managed to get a few hours and I woke her up, that would sadden me.

I missed Blaze too and hoped he would come back soon. I still had all my wolf abilities, like hearing and healing. I missed his annoying voice in my head, that presence that was always there, now was an empty space, where he should be.

I found dad, in the library, going through old photos and other family history that had been documented, he was still looking for answers, and confirmation on some of the stuff Russel was saying, not all made sense to me, and I think maybe Russel did not have all the correct answers, it feels like he added his own assumptions and not all fact and that is why dad is in here looking for clues as to what part, Russel spoke, was truth.

It was eating dad apart, this betrayal. It seems he can’t move forward, till we get to the bottom of it all, and root out all the ones we believe to be traitors.

Dad found out enough to know, his first mate was a product made with a pheromone-induced potion to make dad lose it and mate and mark her, and not a true mate bond pull, which we already had assumed by the way dad did not fall apart when mum died.

He, slowly weeding out bits of truth and what is false, gut feelings can only go so far, and though we all thought mum was not dad’s real Luna, we had no proof to the contrary. Until now, mum had journals she had written over the years, hidden in her closet. Dad had been reading them for hours now and I was getting worried, sometimes he would give off a small growl, and I wondered what he had read.

Mum’s betrayal was deeper than just making herself a Luna of power. She had been plotting to get her real mate onto the throne, remove dad, but we could not see anywhere, how she intended to do that or what she had planned for me. I was as broke as dad. When I realised she saw me as a mistake, she was never going to have a pup, until her real mate was on the throne. My coming along spoilt her plans. At one point, she had seen it using me as king and she had the power, but, I was shown to be too hard for her to control, so the plans got changed again, and more people were involved in the removal of dad. Mum’s lies were so out there, we believe she was able to lie with the truth potion, because she actually believed the lies, she was telling and that was the problem that Madison had solved. How? I have no clue, but she managed to change the potion to one that has shown great potential.

Only Mum’s journals proved what she really felt, while she still had some control over her own mind.

You can see a definite change in her writing style, that started a few years back, and dad thinks she may have been on some kind of drugs, or some brain disorder, because each day her journal entry contradicts itself. Mum had lost her mind, her internal conflict, had her believing things that were not true.

Dad had been trying to work out what parts could have been true, some he recognised and others seemed fanciful. I tried to think back to when Mum changed. I do remember the day she slapped me in the face, when I had said I would not do a task she had wanted me to do. From then on, mum seemed to have changed, more mood swings and sleeping later into the day. We did not pick up, just thought mum was bringing mum, but she may have had some other issue going on, or her guilt got too much for her, though I replace that harder to believe, than a mind issue.

‘Come look at this son.’ Dad calls me over to look at a photo.

I leaned down to look at it, and frowned. It is a photo of me when I was about five or six, with a group of other boys. It looks like it could be a birthday party, but I don’t remember who’s birthday.

‘That is Richard, the little boy with the red hair. He was Peter’s eldest son. He died in a rogue attack about six months after this photo was taken. He was a mess for a long time, and he blamed me for the rogue attacks. Although the attacks were on his packland two days’ drive away from here, I never understood how he blamed me for the attacks. But according to the journal, Peter said I had sent the rogues to his pack to wipe him out, he believed I hated him. I cannot see where that idea came from, not in the journals, nor in my memory. But that is why Peter was so easy to get on board with the Advisor and the Elder’s plans. That is at least one person we understand why they had a grievance, no matter how unfounded it was.

‘Dad, do you think that the Elder Emery and his team could have started the seeds of distrust all those years ago, he being the one to send the rogues to Peter’s pack?’ I asked, seeming to be the only answer I could replace that made any sense.

‘Could be son, could be. Even back then, Emery was a trouble maker. He should never have been given the elder title, but the others felt sympathy for him, he never earned the title, and that grated on some of the other Elders that had earnt it, and had not agreed with him to be an Elder. Looking back now, I let the Elders do as they wish. When appointing a new elder when they need one, maybe I need to be proactive in that process moving forward. We have three elders that are traitors, two are now dead and that leaves only Emery to replace. I was trying to think of who else could be in on this, but I went up blank, I need Madison, she seems to be able to get through all the lies.’ Dad said softly and honestly, he needed Madison, and so did I for a totally different reason.