The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 164

Zane POV

After an uncomfortable night’s sleep, I think I might have managed a few hours.

I headed out hoping to locate dad and Alex and replace out if they had any news on Madison’s location, if Zeek’s scouts were successful.

They were in the diorama room along with Zakary and Zeek too, which surprised me. I did not think either would be there.

Zakary was supposed to be at the Dark River pack lands, organising the clean-up of the area and Zeek. Well, I am not sure how long it would take to travel here. If going to the Dark River pack was about an hour via the tunnel system, then how long would it be to where Madison is? Was their home base near her or not?

I was confused, my brain not working properly yet.

‘Morning Zane, sleep well?’ Alex asked. He could see the dark circles under my eyes, telling the story before I even opened my mouth.

‘Not really, I was talking to Madison, she had just started having a shower, when someone entered her room, I have not been able to talk to her since.’ I m****d my annoyance.

‘When was that son?’ Dad asked. He seemed surprised to hear I could not talk to her.

‘Last night, when I climbed into bed, I had a rough night wondering what was going on.’ I looked at dad with hopeful eyes, willing him to give me some much-needed good news.

‘I talked to her around three am this morning. She got out of bed and turned the lights off, so the scouts could confirm where she was. Madison seemed fine when I spoke to her. Maybe she had forgotten she had blocked you and re-opened the link.’ Dad suggested and that would have made sense, she may have been too shaken up to think to reopen the link to me.

‘How can you talk to her then?’ I asked, confused.

‘I talked about the normal pack link, not a personal one.’ I did not think about trying other ways. Sometimes I wonder how I can ever be king, when I can’t think of the easy stuff.

‘They have located her?’ I warmed with happiness, they have found her, and we can now plan her release.

‘My scouts located her, and she is in the main pack-house and under guard. Getting to her would be difficult, only a full-on attack on the pack would get near her. Sorry, but it is too risky to send in my men, the guards around her are too. Sorry.’ Zeek,, whom I am yet to be introduced to, answered the question.

‘Zeek, is it? Can we send our men through the tunnels to where they can reach Madison and they can do the rescue?’ I asked in hope.

‘The tunnels are our homes. I do not feel comfortable having a bunch of men, I do not know, running through my home.’ Zeek answered honestly and I am again shocked that I had not really considered the tunnels as people’s homes.

‘Zeek, they saved our lives, they came to our rescue, even though the water ended up killing most of them, they still came to our aid and gave us food and opened their home to us. Can we not make an exception, just this once?’ Alex asked on our behalf.

‘No, I cannot..’ Zeek started, as Zakary jumped in.

‘Zeek, please, Madison is a really good person, she needs to be saved. How do you have any idea what that girl is capable of?’ Zakary joined in the push to rescue Madison and I felt new respect for Zakary and Alex.

‘Would you allow these men to run through your home?’ Zeek asked, challenging Zakary.

‘In a heartbeat, I met this girl, I was fighting by the men’s side, when she was taken.’ Zakary looked challenged at Zeek.

‘So you are feeling guilty about her being taken prisoner on your watch?’ Zeek challenged back.

This was getting out of hand, and this time I jumped in.

‘Stop!.’ Shouted at the men, even dad jumped at the power in my voice, a power I had never tapped into before, and I was even surprised.

All the men in the room turned to stare at me, their mouths dropped open in shock.

‘Madison is my mate, and if I have to, I will run all night and get to her. I am sure the Blue River men will be with me on this one, as she is one of their own. Just show me where you have seen her, and I will head back home and get the warriors together and head out. I don’t need you to be fighting with each other, over my mate’s rescue, enough, okay, just enough?’ I bellowed out in frustration.

Zeek looked at me with surprise at my outburst.

‘Zane, I had no idea she was your mate. I know you said you were talking to her, but I did not realise that she was your mate. I guess I should have realised she was someone of importance, with how hard your people have been trying to replace her, but no one ever mentioned she was the future queen of the land dwellers.’ Zeek spoke in a contrite tone, but that did not make any impression on me. I was beyond explanations and guilt trips, I just wanted my mate back.

‘Zeek, is it? Can we send our men through the tunnels to where they can reach Madison and they can do the rescue?’ I asked in hope.

‘I don’t care whether you knew that she is my mate or not, you have said no, to helping me rescuing her and getting her back to me quickly, by not allowing me to enter your home, so I can reach her quicker, that is fine, now, I will get the men together, and head out, show me on the map, where I can contact you, when we reach the area and your men can guide us close, and we will work something out from there, I have no intensions of running through your home and disturbing your people, I won’t need anything from you except asking your scout to show me where she is, leave the rest to me, if I die rescuing her, then I least tried the best I could.’ I say, looking straight at Zeek with such determination, I was not going to back down, I have had enough of sitting around and waiting.

‘I don’t care whether you knew that she is my mate or not, you have said no, to helping me rescuing her and getting her back to me quickly, by not allowing me to enter your home, so I can reach her quicker, that is fine, now, I will get the men together, and head out, show me on the map, where I can contact you, when we reach the area and your men can guide us close, and we will work something out from there, I have no intensions of running through your home and disturbing your people, I won’t need anything from you except asking your scout to show me where she is, leave the rest to me, if I die rescuing her, then I least tried the best I could.’ I say, looking straight at Zeek with such determination, I was not going to back down, I have had enough of sitting around and waiting.

‘Son?’ dad started.

‘No dad, I have had enough of sitting here and waiting, we now know where she is, all I want is to be shown where and let me go get my mate. I am sure Madison does not want the Deep Earth people arguing with each other because we want to go traipsing through their homes, just because it is quicker to get to where we want to go. I don’t care if it takes me a week to reach there by foot, I will get her and hold her and tell her I love her with all of my heart.’ I replied in a tone that showed I would not back down.

‘There.’ Zeek pointed to a place on the map, and I noted where it was and turned and left the meeting, not saying goodbye or anything.

Just because I needed to get my mate, I did not want to be the cause of internal fights within the Deep Earth People, or ours for that matter, so much death and treachery, and now out of the meeting and running towards home, it was then, I thought how stupid I was. I am about to try and save my mate without my wolf. I have no idea how I am going to run all that way in my human form.

But I know where to go now.

Maybe I can grab a quad and ride part of the way, but one way or another I will get my mate and bring her back home where she belongs.