The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 179

Zane POV

While I watched Alex and Madison make changes to the diorama, I received a mind-link from dad.

‘What is going on son?’ He sounded concerned and I would have expected nothing less, everyone was waiting for news of Madison’s rescue and I had yet to inform him of our movements today. He only knew we were headed out to the packhouse and see what we could do to rescue her.

‘We have Madison safe and sound. Could you let Jonathon know too, please.’ I could hear the change in dad’s voice as I confirmed Madison’s safety. We were all happy about her return.

‘Thank the goddess, Gerome said that the mic picked up a lot of swearing and furniture being thrown around the room, we were concerned they had hurt her.’ Wow, Jacob must be really pissed off with Madison gone.

‘Madison had said she left a mic on the curtain, we should be able to hear anything that goes on in the room. Maybe in the future, if they place anyone else in that room, we may hear it.’ I told dad and gave him a report on what we had learnt so far and what we were working on now. The recording would continue in the background. Too much was going on for Gerome to be sitting there listening to that room when no one was in there.

‘Are they thinking of attacking? We can send more warriors, but it will take a while to get them to you, unless they let us use the tunnels.’ Dad was eager to get this whole traitor stuff settled, and we all felt that once Gladys and Jacob were dealt with, the worst would be over. We hoped.

‘Going to wait and see what Zeek wants to do. I am in no hurry to get near Gladys. I would prefer to come home, now that I have Madison back and start again, but I guess I can leave here with our job half done, so maybe start getting a group together and be prepared to send them at a moment’s notice. I will let you know if and when we need some sent. They have a lot of warriors, but they are not as experienced in real fighting situations.’ Though I wanted nothing more than spend a week in bed, with my mate in my arms, I felt it my duty to take over and have to see this through.

‘Understand son, stay safe and keep me informed.’ Dad’s calm voice was having an effect on me. I was feeling better having spoken to him.

‘Will do dad.’ And we broke the mind-link.

As I broke the link, I heard what Zeek said about Madison’s mother. I was shocked. Zeek had come out with a comment about Madison’s mother, as casually as he had. I thought for a moment that Madison would hit him and I would not blame her if she did. I squeezed her hand to let her know I understood and was here for her.

Looking around, I could see the Blue River warriors were glad they were getting out of this pretend packhouse. It was stupid, to put us through this stupid test. What did Zeek expect us to be like?

Were all the surface dwellers, these people met, all bad people?

No, that can’t be right, he said he liked Madison’s mother, so what gives with all this cloak and dagger stuff.

The walk down the long tunnel was quick and I entered the type of area I had expected to see when we first arrived. That was more like it, the way I had expected when we first arrived and got taken to that other area. It was almost the same as Alex’s place and more up-to-date, and I could hear the Blue River warriors saying that this cave was more like what they had expected to see too, and was glad that it was not like the other cave for real. I felt that even our warriors felt something was just not quite right with the other room.

Zeek let our Blue River warrior sniff out his mate, and it was a surprise to Zeek that it was his eldest daughter that Dameon had claimed was his mate. I told Dameon that he would need to decide if he could live in the Deep Earth pack, as Zeek preferred to keep his daughter home. Dameon said he would stay for a while and see if he could accept their way of life. Zeek accepts this and lets his daughter spend time with him and claim him as his mate and we will have to see how that works out later.

We spent time in the nicer cave, meeting Zeek’s mate and his other children, and eating some decent food for lunch.

‘Alex, have you all decided what you would like to do with Gladys and Jacob, are we going to attack?’ To be honest, I was too busy chatting to dad and missed most of the conversation.

‘Yes, I have called for more warriors and so has Zakary. They will be here tomorrow and we shall look again at how we will go about this. We want those two. The pack does not seem to have that many warriors. We have only counted about three hundred at most, so unless they have some hidden that we have not seen over the years, then we are good to go, and with the sleep dart you brought with you, many will be out of commission before the main attack commences, just like we did earlier, when rescuing Madison.’ Alex looked over at Madison with warmth and I knew he had developed a good friendship with her, Madison seemed to gain the trust of people quickly and I wondered if it was another one of her gifts, she seems to have a few that I have identified.

‘Do you need me to call for more and have them come through the tunnels?’ I asked, wondering how many warriors they could muster.

‘That won’t be necessary, we have more than enough warriors between us, unless some more enemy suddenly appears that we do not know about. It is pretty bad weather, so most won’t travel in this weather. The pass is inaccessible and we have scouts watching it. We would be notified if any try to get through that way, and we have had the two nearest towns under observation since Madison was taken, and no influx of people has been noted, so we feel what they have here at the moment, is most likely all the warriors they have.’ Zakary answered, having arrived as I asked Alex the question and listened in to our conversation.

‘Hi Zakary, how are you?’ I asked, being able to acknowledge him with more than just a nod, now that he had finished talking.

‘Better now that Madison is back with us, and that Zeek has stopped playing his games. I never understood why he did that, but we asked in the past. He said it was for our pack’s safety. If an enemy managed to get into our cave, they would think we are uncivilised and underestimate us. We cannot change his way of thinking and I believe the members enjoy playing their part in it.’ Zakary looked over to where Madson was still talking with Zeek. Madison looked like she was listening to him intently, but through our bond link I could tell she was seething at whatever Zeek had said. We were headed further down a tunnel we had yet to walk through and I wondered what Madison had asked to visit.