The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 3

Madison POV

‘Come on dad, you know I am as good as the guys, why can Graham get to compete in the competition and I can’t?’ I wailed at my father for the umpteenth time today and, not to mention all the other times I have argued about being a warrior.

‘Come on Madison, you know the answer to that you are a girl and I don’t want to see you get hurt.’ Dad counters back, with that, we are done with this discussion voice.

‘Dad, I am going to go, whether you like it or not, you will have to lock me in the dungeon for the next 6 months to stop me from going.’ I yelled back at my dad and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me.

Dad knows I will too. I am sure he is blocking me because he can. He likes to throw that “you’re a girl” crap at me every time. Well, it does not work with me. I know I am a girl, and yeah, my 18th birthday is the same day they select the team to go, and I am going to be there, whether dad likes it or not.

I huff and grab my training gear, storming out of the house. I can hear dad calling me back, but I refuse to listen, I want to go so badly, I ache. My wolf, Betsy, is just as keen as I am.

Reaching the training ground, I see about 50 of us, unmated warriors, all eager to get picked, some because they want to get out of the pack and see the world for a little while and hope to replace their mates, others like to kill rogues, just like me, though my thirst to do it is more personal, I still have the occasional nightmare of that day mum died, I don’t know why they still happen, a trigger of some sort during the day must tick into place when I go to sleep and bam I am back to 6 years old and seeing the attack all over again. I have two brothers. The oldest is mated and that keeps him home and safe, but Graham is my twin brother, he is older than me by one minute, and that sucks, because he gets to pull the “you’re the baby of the family” bull crap on me. I just want to get rid of these nightmares and killing rogues. It is not like I have not killed rogues before. We join the patrols night or day at least once a week, which only pisses my dad off even more. He does not want me out fighting at all, the “you’re a girl” only gets my back up even more.

We have one more week of training before the competition. I have spent extra hours in the gym, building my strength up and joining as many training sessions as I can get away with. I love training and I love tracking.

‘Everyone, three laps around the training grounds.’ Luke bellows out as he walks towards us, the Alpha by his side.

I love this part. I am a good runner. As part of being a good tracker, my fighting might let me down every now and then, but Luke says that experience will improve that, but in this pack, I am by far the best tracker.

Our pack was called in to help when the Alpha of a neighbouring pack advised Alpha that they had lost a group of pups out on a field trip. It had started to rain before the teachers at the school reported that a group of kids had not returned from a day out. With a really bad storm developing, the Alpha was desperate and called three neighbouring packs to help out. Dad didn’t want me out there, I was only 15 at the time, but our Alpha knew even then, I was a good tracker. So, against my dad’s wishes, I went with Luke and a bunch of warriors, having proved myself more than once.

We arrived at the pack’s house and they gave us a run down to where they were last seen. I asked to smell some of the clothes of the missing pups and though I got some nasty comments and dirty looks, the mothers were so desperate they complied with my request, and those willing mothers hurried back with the shirts, and me, in wolf form, took in the scent of ten of the missing pups.

Something I did for this trip was take my backpack. I took a bag of dried fruit and nut bars I had made, to top up my energy, strapping the bag to my side, I looked at Luke for the word to head out and start the tracking. Others who saw the bag on my side scoffed at me for it.

The place was full of warriors and we all took off towards the area where they had last seen the pups. The pack warriors were already there, and were slowly widening their search. The rain was coming down hard and washed away most of the scent. Many men seemed to me like they were going over the same trail. I walked to a spot and Betsy put her snout on the ground. We stood sniffing for some time, circling and sniffing the ground, whilst all around us were warriors calling out names. I picked up a faint smell that Betsy recognised from one of the shirts, and took off in a fast walk in that direction. Luke saw me moving away and mind-linked me.

‘I have a scent, going to follow it.’ I linked back, my snout on the ground.

Luke soon followed behind me. He had mind-linked the rest of our team to do the same. After almost an hour of slowly following the faintest of trails and a couple of times, having to stop and do a circle around the area where I had lost the smell, Luke encouraged me to keep trying the other warriors. I heard them say they could not smell what I could. Finally, we found the pups huddled under a tree. They were shivering in wet clothes, holding each other for warmth. I shifted, not worried about being naked, and opened my bag, gave the pups the bars to eat. I dug deeper into my back and pulled out a bag of boiled sweets I keep for emergencies and gave them the bag.

Luke mind-linked our Alpha, that we had found them and they were all well, just cold and wet, and hungry. We had ten pups in all. Unknown to me, that was all that was missing.

The pups were happy to see us, and when I shifted and gave them snacks from my bag, they took them with thanks. I shifted back to wolf form and got one of the pups on my back and the other 9 were on other warrior’s backs. Luke had me lead them back to the pack-house the quickest way I could. Betsy put her snout in the air, and located the smell of their main pack house.

Arriving back at the pack-house, the pups were taken off our backs and rushed to the doctor to be checked out. We were taken to some rooms where we could shower and get some dry clothes. We were to stay the night due to the storm that was now in full force. In the dining hall, the kids were telling their story about how they got lost and how we had found them and gave them food and let them ride on our backs. The Alpha made some speech about thanking us for promptly coming to his aid, and a special thank you to me and my wolf’s special snout. We laughed at that one. The alpha’s son gave me a hug and a big thank you for replaceing them and a second hug for the food. It was a special night for me.

By the time I had finished reminiscing about my best ever tracking day, I had run around the training field and came to a stop in front of Luke and the Alpha, excited about today’s training.

‘Warriors.’ The Alpha greeted us all in a friendly way.

We all stood and bared our necks in respect to our Alpha and waited.

‘The king phoned this morning, early,’ he waited for the sudden murmuring to stop, ‘They required at least 3 trackers, and he has been phoning around the different packs to see if he can muster them up. These trackers are on top of the 20 warrior fighters he has requested.’

‘Yes, you have guessed it, I am sending Madison to go with your group to be a tracker, and not to engage in fighting. Madison, no fighting, they can’t afford to lose a tracker, you are essential to replaceing these rogues and there could be more than one place they are hiding.’ The Alpha warned. You can’t promise to not engage in a fight, Well, not until I know what I am up against, I will not give false promises.

Congratulations were given, and slaps on my back. I did not know whether to be happy I was going, or sad I was not allowed to fight.

The training session went by in a blur. I was excited and wanted to go see dad, before my twin beat me to it.