The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 168

Zane POV

Dad and I walked down the stairs together and headed to his office.

Inside the office, we met up with Mitch, Ryan, Gerome, Jonathon, Graham, Alex, Zakary and, lastly, Zeek.

Dad’s office seemed a bit crowded with all these men.

Coffee cups were handed out and dad ordered us all to sit down and get comfortable.

‘Speak.’ Dad ordered in his king’s alpha voice, one he rarely uses, and this must mean he wanted answers and not just talk and empty promises, he wanted real answers, not ones they thought he needed to hear.

‘We have come to an agreement between us, the Deep Earth people. We will allow twenty Blue River warriors and Zane through our tunnels to rescue his mate. Alex trusts the Blue River men and I trust his judgement. Zakary has had nothing but good words about Madison, and with Alex and Zakary both supporting that this young woman is worth rescuing, we will assist you. Alex is sending twenty of his best and so is Zakary, and I will put twenty of my men. Hopefully, those eighty elite men will be enough. We cannot risk more, we have families in that area we have to consider, and if we are not successful, that wicked woman won’t hesitate to hunt us all down and exterminate us one by one in the most horrifying ways. She has already shown us she is without feelings or mercy.’ Zeek said this in a matter-of-fact way, that scared me for some reason. Was Zeek going to torture Gladys and kill her slowly and without mercy if he got his chance? I would not blame him, and I am sure dad would not stop him because my Aunty has done or been behind such terrible things.

‘Jonathon, will you be part of the twenty?’ dad asked.

‘Madison would gut me if she saw either myself or Graham in the group of twenty. We both have new mates and she has told me more than once that I need to spend more time with her. I spoke with her this morning, and she said it was time for my happiness and to go spend it with my mate. And though I want to be with the team, I cannot go against my daughters wishes.’ Jonathon was almost in tears as he confessed he could not join the team.

‘Then Madison has saved me from arguing with you to stay. She is a wise woman, that one.’ Dad said, and I was shocked that Jonathon had spoken with her today.

‘How have you spoken to her? She had a communication device?’ Zeek asked, confused.

‘Yes, she had one of those, and she has taken it off and put it on her dressing table, but she does not need one to talk to me, she can still mind-link us.’ Jonathon replied, looking at Zeek and his expression as it showed surprise.

‘But I thought the room she was in was covered in wolfbane?’ Zeek asked, still baffled by this revelation.

‘But I thought the room she was in was covered in wolfbane?’ Zeek asked, still baffled by this revelation.

‘Zeek, we keep telling you, but you do not seem to be listening. Madison is special, she is a descendant of a true tracker, she can scent us even when we have our disguise on, wolfbane and silver do not work on her, so being in a wolfsbane filled room, does nothing to her.’ Alex explains to Zeek in a way we would not be permitted to say.

‘What was her tracker mother’s name?’ Zeek asked, surprising Jonathon. No one has asked his first mate’s name in a very long time.

‘My first mate was called Anastasia.’ Jonathon choked out softly, as he spoke her name reverently.

‘I met her once, and her mother, they have only one daughter ever and the tracker gene is past down to the daughter only, that is why so many true trackers have gone, if the mother is killed before a daughter is born, that gift is lost.’ Zeek said wistfully as he remembered the woman, and I wondered if he was thinking of Anastasia or the mother.

‘But you said your mate died when Madison was six. How can Madison be so good, when she did not have her mother here to teach her?’ Alex asked, confused at the direction this conversation had taken.

‘Anastasia took Madison with her all the time. When she went out tracking and Madison was still a baby, the baby was attached to her mother. When older, she held onto the back of her wolf, Maidson never left her mother’s side except when she started school and then Anastasia would take her to school and collect her afterwards.’ Jonathan was teary eyed as he talked about his first mate with so much love.

‘Where were your two boys, at the time of the attack? We only heard that Madison was there.’ Zakary asked this time. It seemed the Deep Earth people wanted to know more about my mate.

‘Jamie was at football practice, and Graham had gone to his mate’s place to do some study together. Yes, they were young but advanced in their studies, the teachers gave them special assignments and the little group of boys worked together many nights to get them done. They both felt the guilt of not being there when their mother and Luna died. It took a lot of work to get them over that, and poor Madison had nightmares for years. I think she still has them every now and then when something triggers them. But if the boys had been there, I might have lost more than my mate.’ Jonathon had tears running down his face, unashamed to show this emotion. This was a hard subject for Jonathon to speak about, even after all these years.

I rubbed Jonathon on his back in a soothing way, as he hiccupped through his tears, dad came over and squatted down in front of him and said something to him and Jonathon nodded and whatever dad had said had helped Jonathon get control of himself. After a few minutes, giving Jonathon time to regain his composure, we continued the meeting.

‘Your mate was a friend of mine. She went to our underground school at the same time as me, she was an extraordinary woman.’ Zeek said, softly, which made Jonathon look up at him in surprise.

‘You are Deep Earth people. How come she went to one of your schools?’

‘You misunderstand. Anastasia found me one day in the forest. She would have been fourteen at the time. On a school break, the school sent the kids up to our mountains to learn, to survive and hunt in the snow-covered land by themselves, and Anastasia came to me and asked me why I was following the group of kids. When she had told her friends that we were nearby, none of the group believed her. Then she told them they were being followed and they made fun of her, saying she was snow crazy, so after that she kept her mouth shut and cornered me ,asking me what I wanted and where I was from. The six weeks they lived in the forest around our home and Anastasio stayed in one of the caves we had offered as a place to spend the cold nights. She got compliments from our school leader, who thought the world of her, she never revealed our existence and we taught her much of our ways, she was the first in a very long time to enter our tunnels. I was told it was Madison who was the one to replace Anton and had found him through his scent. I should have realised she was the family of Anastasia, when I was told by Zakary that Madison could smell him even when cloaked. It is sad to hear that her mother is gone, such a wonderful woman she was, and she was so very special to us.’ Zeek spoke softly and he was miles away from here in his mind, and I was starting to wonder how Madison would be, when she replaces out that this section of the Deep Earth people had met her mother, when she was younger.