The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 18

Madison POV

We travelled through the forest, heading around the inner perimeter. This place was beautiful, snow covered the ground, no sign of any other wolf paw prints in the snow, but ours.

They had finished the inner circle in quick time, and were now headed to a place that had rogue sightings.

Reaching a small clearing, I smelt the definite smell of stale odour caused by some rogues. I mind-linked Graham and asked if he could smell the old scent.

‘No, Madison, I don’t have the tracker snout, like you do.’ He grumbled back though not in anger, more like frustration at not smelling as well as I could.

I nodded, knowing that meant it was over a month old. If my brother could not smell it, then it could be the one from the sighting that Mitch talked about in the meeting room.

We headed towards the little lake I had seen on the diorama and reached close to the edge of the tree line. I could see the lake beyond through the trees, and the smell of rogues got very strong.

I signalled them to stop before the tree line, and asked if anyone else could smell the rogues?

A unanimous ‘Yes’ came through the link, and I crawled on my belly, slowly to the tree edge.

There, drinking at the small lake, were six rogues. I told the others that six rogues were at the lake, and to watch them, while I mine-linked Mitch. I watched as the guys moved quietly to the treeline edge. The wind direction was on our side and they would not get out scent.

‘Spotted six rogues, drinking at the small lake, eight kilometres north of the inner circle. What are your orders?’ I mind-linked Mitch.

‘Can you take them alive?’ He responded.

I thought of how many blow darts I had in my bag and smiled.

‘I have ten blow darts; I think I can take them down if I don’t miss.’ I responded as I shifted into my woman form and opened my bag. The wolves looked at me and back to the lake, awaiting orders.

‘Try it. I want them alive, or at least some of them.’ Mitch ordered

‘Graham.’ I mind-linked my brother, knowing he was the lead of the warriors on this expedition.

He looked back at me, showing he was listening.

‘I am going to try and blow darts, as many of the rogues as I can. Mitch wants them alive if possible.’

Graham nodded and mind-linked the others.

‘I will get some of the warriors to the other side and some closer to the lake. I will let you know when we are set and you can start sending your darts.’ Graham and I had done this type of action many times, back at home.

I climbed the tree with the largest limbs, and crawled along the limb till I was near the edge. I was in a good high spot to send the blow darts and closer to them, the long limbs of the trees in this area were perfect, nestled with my blow darts at the ready.

‘Now.’ I heard my brother’s soft voice echo in my mind.

‘Now.’ I heard my brother’s soft voice echo in my mind.

In quick consecutive blows, I hit four of the rogues and they fell to the ground with a thud. Before the others knew what had hit them, the warriors raced out of the tree line, the rogues turned to the warriors approaching, and with their backs to me, I got the last two rogues in the back of their necks.

‘Ah, sis, could you not have left at least one for us?’ growled Graham grumpily.

Chuckling at my brother, and his missed opportunity to hurt a rogue, I climbed back down the tree and repacked my bag, glad that my naked self did not get any splinters from the tree.

Shifted and walked over to the rogues and the warriors. They were all in their human form, looking at the rogues and waiting for instructions.

‘We will take turns carrying them, at ten-minute intervals, till we get back to base, or if one lot is struggling, we can change earlier, so don’t be afraid to speak out, if you are having difficulty keeping up a good pace, no shame in that. Not all of us are built to carry an unconscious man at speed.’ Graham said.

‘Who wants to go first, Madison, how long to travel back?’ He looked at me and smiled at my wolf form. He had said many times how much he loved my white wolf, and here, in the snow. It was perfect for me. I loved the snow and the cold; it was as if I had been made for this place.

‘Depending on the men, I would say no more than three hours. It could be two and half hours if they are as good as ours and work well together.’ I replied, grinning.

‘Let’s pair you up by height.’ The warriors worked out who would be going the first round.

‘Lead the way. Madison, the quickest way back, please, those not carrying the men, run in wolf form and save your energy.’

We took off at a nice jogging pace, and the changeover went smoothly. I was impressed by the warriors from the palace. They were good strong warriors and none slowed the pace.

I had forewarned Mitch, that we had six unconscious rogues on the way, and should be there in half an hour. Our pace was good, and we did the return trip in two hours ten minutes.

The warriors took the rogues to the cells, and the men all rushed to the showers to get that smell of rogues off of them. They really do stink.

‘Madison, before you go shower, I need a rundown please.’ Alpha called as I started to head to the stairs.

Sighing, I turned around and went to the meeting room.

My mate grabbed me as I entered the room, and gave me a toe-curling k**s, a uhm cough, broke us apart.

‘Madison, don’t take offence but you smell bad.’ Mitch laughed at me.

I gave him a glare, and Zane growled at him, Mitch put his hands in the air in surrender.

‘Come to the table and talk to us.’ Alpha beckons.

‘We finished the inner circle and I decided to head to the lake, here.’ And I pointed to the lake, as the table had about seven lakes of assorted sizes dotted about the area.

‘Lucky for us, the wind was in the right direction, and the rogues were drinking. They paid little attention to their surroundings. Graham organised the warriors to position themselves around the lake, to cover any trying to run, I climbed up a tree. I hit four quickly, before the rogues could work out what was happening, when the warriors started to come out from the trees, the last two turned towards them, giving me time to hit them too. I have to commend the warriors, they worked well together, and took Graham’s orders without challenge and followed my lead as well. The return trip was quicker than I anticipated. We had no idea how well your men would work together with the Blue Rive pack, but they were all in sync.’ I finished my spiel and waited for questions.

‘How much longer, before the rogues wake from the blow dart concoction?’ Alpha asked, while scratching his chin in thought.

‘Between another hour or two, the darts are made to put you out for at least four hours. It took us two and a half hours to capture and organise the return, so it had to be an hour and a half. However, we are in the snow. That may slow the speed it travels in the body, so I have added another half hour to the time. Please let me know when they wake up, so I can see if my calculations in the snow are correct for the future. I can mix up a new batch to make them sleep longer if we are travelling further out and need more time to return. I really need to see what the effects of the cold had on them.’ I replied, as my mind was already calculating the next batch.

‘You have more ingredients to make more?’ Mitch enquires.

‘Do you think I would come here unprepared? I have a few tricks up my sleeve for these rogues.’ I replied with a grin.

‘Go, have your shower.’ Alpha shooed me away.

‘Can I join you in the cells later, I have an interesting truth drug you can use if your methods are not working.’ I got cheekily.

‘Go, you stink, and I will think about it.’ Alpha made a shooing motion with his hands and I turned, and left the room.