The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 194

Zane POV

Not long after, Madison and the men disappeared into the small door almost at the top of the stairs. The patrol walked by. I looked at my phone and checked the time, waiting to hear news was hard, and the next patrol came by sooner than I expected, but one look at my phone told me it was fifteen minutes. It just seemed sooner, I thought, because I was waiting, normally waiting takes for ever, but fear of her being caught and this being a trap, did not leave my mine, so I was surprised when the patrol walked by and fifteen minutes had past.

Another fifteen minutes went by and there was still no sign of Madison and my stress was rising as each patrol walked by.

Just before the next patrol came, Madison asked when it was due to pass, and I was so happy to hear her voice, that I failed to answer and one of the Blue River men answered for me. They had been keeping a close eye on me, while they watched out the windows too, taking turns looking out and then watching me.

Madison was the last to enter, having sent the men down with Peggy first.

I was shocked when I first saw Peggy. I barely recognised it was her, not with the beating she had, and the swelling from it. The wolfbane would have made it impossible for Peggy to heal, and this was the result. I wanted to run out there and replace Gladys and give her the taste of her own medicine. She was a ruthless person and many feared her.

Carefully she was laid down, and wrapped her up in a blanket. Madison had taken off the bed, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Now outside of that room, her wolf will be trying to heal her, and we don’t want her juggled about as we move through the tunnels as fast as we can, and get this place behind us.

Making sure we secured the entrance to the tunnel and covering our tracks the best we could, I sent some men ahead and some to follow, having Madison and I in the middle to care for Peggy. My heart felt for her, she put up one good fight by the look of it.

Pulling Peggy through some of the collapsed parts of the tunnels was tricky, but being wrapped up in a blanket made it a little easier, and I was grateful that Madison had the forethought to grab it and have her wrapped up. Madison’s mind was always thinking ahead.

When Peggy was healed she took over our return to her pack. She was a no-nonsense woman and it made me wonder more about the lifestyle they had, and if leaving the lost out there to die was a part of their way of way of life, it was a harsh way to go, and I am not sure I would like it, if it was us, leaving Ryan that day tore me apart and if it wasn’t for Madison who knows what would have happened to Ryan.

Peggy marched into her pack centre to the cheers of her pack members, they gave her hugs and pats on her back, all seemingly very happy to see her return.

‘Marcus, Jamison, to the diorama room, come fill me in with what has happened while I have been away.’ Peggy demanded and refused to answer any of the questions her pack members had given her.

Madison, the Blue River men and myself all followed her to the room along with the men she called to join her. I had no idea what she had planned, but I was interested. How were they going to cope with the arrival of the mercenaries?

‘Shut the door, Marcus,’ Peggy demanded with very little humour.

Once the door was closed she turned and looked at us crammed in the room and her face hardened before she took a deep breath and said words I never expected to hear.

‘Zeek betrayed us, he is in league with Gladys, she has promised that he will be the real alpha after they have Madison back with her son.’ Peggy spat at us and I gasped in shock, this was definitely not what I expected.

‘That meant when he snapped the necks of those two men, it was to keep them quiet and not reveal his place with Gladys.’ Madison said calmly, which made me think she had already thought he was hiding something more.

‘Yes, he hid it from me well, but when I saw his wrist and the same mark the men had, I knew he was on the wrong side, my own mate. I was disgusted, and he led me and my men into a trap. My poor men were slaughtered by that b***h, and I am so angry right now, I can’t think straight.’ She growled out, barely keeping it together.

‘Your mate bond, would tell you that he is still alive, yes? I asked, wondering what we could do about this.

‘Yes, he is still alive and if he dies, don’t worry, I won’t die. We are not like you on the ground, we have evolved to survive the loss of our mates, as in the early days, we had many losses until we learnt to tunnel better and more securely, and now we have too many and need to move above ground to replace space. But that is a talk on another day. We have a woman to worry about.’ Peggy answered, and I wondered what was wrong with Zeek. He had been the pretend alpha. Killing Peggy won’t change that. If anything from what I have gleaned so far, his daughter being the eldest child would automatically become the alpha and he would miss out.

I filled her in with the arrival of the mercenaries and other changes I had noticed, and Marcus filled Peggy in with Zeek’s attempts to have us open the doors, and no matter how hard Zeek tried, the men would not open the doors for them, it was part of their culture, and Zeek should have known that he would never be able to sway them to open the doors to him.

Zeek sounds like a very mixed-up fellow with the games he plays, and now this, one would think he was a child, not an adult.