The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 180

Madison POV

When he mentioned Mum, I very nearly hit him.

How dare he?

Mum was a sacred place for me, mum was my special person, she was my rock. I held onto her memories, what little I had left, and kept them close to me, making me feel warm. When I remember a song or some other little piece of memory, how dare he say he had time with my mum, that I had to share her memories with this stranger, that I have yet to trust or even want to be near, he is not who he is portraying, and I feel the need to replace out why he is still hiding.

I waited for him to explain how he knew mum, and had to keep my emotions locked away and to not reveal too much myself. Until I had trust, I would keep Zeek at arm’s length, until he reveals the real pack and he stops his double meanings and hiding the truth, until he comes clean.

He said Mum had been there, in this pack, in this cave, with his people, and I started to crumble as I thought of Mum walking the same tunnels as me, breathing the same air, meeting the same people.

Then he explained how she came to be here, and for the length of time during the school holidays, way to go mum, he said she had been happy here, and I could see that, if mum was like me, she would have been happy to see these people, just like I did when I met Alex’s pack and discovered the Deep Earth pack.

To my surprise, Zane broke my thoughts and asked Zeek to show us the real pack and to stop hiding from us. We were here to rescue me and now stay to help capture Gladys.

How can we work together when there is no trust shared?

I was very glad that Zane told Zeek to cut the games that Zeek had been playing at and to show us the real pack. We both realised that it was not real and that we were being put to some test.

It annoyed me greatly.

I understood they had offered to assist with my return, but they had their own agenda too. They wanted Gladys gone as much as we did, so I felt that he had to put us under some test was stupid, we both wanted the same result, and then to replace he had traitors in his own group, made me ever more cross, how dare he test us when he needed to check his own men.

It took a lot for me to calm down, tell myself off, and reason with myself, look at what has happened to us in such a short time and all the different traitors we had found, and then I was hard on myself for thinking badly of Zeek, though I still did not like being tested.

Zeek. He kept talking about what mum did while she spent time there, and how he had spent as much time with her as he could whilst she was there, learning more about her and her abilities and so much wanted to keep her there with him. He did not know what the connection was. Just that he did not to ever let her go, he had found her amazing, and the pack adopted her. She was the first outsider they had met that could replace them when they were cloaked and they loved how special she was.

I saw Zane’s eyes change and I knew he was mind-linking someone, and I assumed it was most likely the alpha, and I suddenly thought I had better talk to dad.

Somehow, I managed to get away from Zeek talking about mum and how much he wanted her to stay there. He was becoming annoying, and his need to be in my face so much and it felt like he needed my approval, but for what I did not know or care, he was trying way too hard to replace things to say about mum.

I told him I would like to see the gardens here that he mentioned mum loved and I followed him down the tunnel.

While I followed Zeek,

I mind-linked dad.

‘Hi dad.’ I called softly, now wanting to make him jump at my sudden voice in his head.

‘Sweetheart, how are you?’ his concern floated through the link.

‘Safe, I am in the Deep Earth packhouse at the moment. Zane is talking to Alex about our next move. I think we are going to attack Gladys soon.’ I hoped that was the fact. Gladys cannot be allowed to keep roaming around killing as she felt the need.

‘Be careful, she is a tricky warrior.’ Dad cautioned, and I felt there was something more, but dad did not divulge it.

‘Will do dad, I am not sure if they will let me join the fight anyway.’ I replied softly.

‘Good, stay out of the fighting if you can, we don’t want you back in her claws.’ Dad warned me, and I had to agree, I did not want to be back there.

‘Will do my best dad.’ I felt the love he was sending me through our bond and warmed my inside.

‘I know you will, sweetheart, you always do.’

‘Give my love to Ceclia, love you dad.’ I said and closed the mind-link as I entered the diorama room, instead of the gardens. I frowned but said nothing about this change of direction. I was sure we were going to go to the gardens.

‘What have you decided to do about Gladys?’ I asked, knowing Zane had asked the same question moments ago. I wanted to hear what Zeek had to say about it, and if it was the same story.

‘We have more warriors coming, and tomorrow we shall look at attacking the pack. We have scouts out watching the roads and the pack area and with this stormy weather. I doubt there will be much movement, but we are watching just in case they suddenly get the idea that moving under the protection of the snow storm would be a good idea. We have lived in this type of weather for a very long time, so it is not new to us, but visitors may replace traversing around in deep snow difficult.’ Zeek stated, and I saw Zane nodding his agreement as Zeek spoke his thoughts.