The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 76

Madison POV

I asked Alpha Alex to turn his communicator back on, in case we had urgent news. Now, that the warriors were no longer spewing up.

The announcement from the Alpha, regarding the advisor and the rogues being dead or dying, was a relief.

I will have to ask dad or Zane if they had viewed the advisor’s body later.

I needed to know that it was him and that he was dead.

I started to help remove the bodies from the tunnels.

I was so surprised at how many dead there were here and wondered if all the tunnels were the same, that would put over a thousand dead, and that was a sizable number of rogues in one place.

One by one, the bodies were piled high, about fifteen minutes’ walk away from the tunnel entrance. Alex had trolleys brought up from the other working tunnel and we loaded up the dead and body parts and they pulled the dead away from the entrance, far enough away where we would put them to rest, later to a funeral pyre.

It was exhausting work. The woman and children came out of the tunnels for the first time in a year, or so Anton had said, and they helped where they could, on the removal of the bodies, and sweeping up the mess left on the floors by the dirty living habits of the rogues.

It was good to see all the pack members helping out.

The youngest, who were really too young to even walk yet, were put in a room where some elderly people who were too old to try to cart bodies out, looked after them. They all seemed to work as a team, no one complained or m****d about the conditions, it was to get in and do it as quickly as possible.

Some of the young lads, instead of trying to move the dead bodies that were way too heavy for them, Alex tasked them with the task of catching rabbits or other small animals for dinner.

Meat was something they craved for. They had run out of catching fresh meat regularly, over eight months ago, and rarely had the opportunity to catch fresh meat as the rogue numbers increased, and had been living mainly on the vegetables that they grew in one of the caves and dried meats that they had stored over the summer months.

The smell slowly improved as the bodies were now removed from this area, and before long the tunnels, the ground was swept clean and debris removed, a clean breeze was blowing down the tunnels, as openings that had been sealed shut, to prevent intruders reaching further into their homes after the invasion first began. They were now reopened to allow the natural air to flow, gush down and clear the bad odour, the ventilation system that the pack had in the caves was amazing, the underground was really not so bad a place to live, though I would miss the stars in the sky and the sound of birds waking.

Tired from the long day, I found a place to sit down for a few minutes and rest. A young girl came and gave me a sweet drink, made from some berries, and a bread roll filled with cheese and pickles. I recognised the roll as one of our kitchens and thought we should bring more food, to tie them over until they could restock themselves.

It was while I was seated eating my roll and Anton had joined me, that a loud explosion rocked the ground and a bloom of smoke billowed into the sky.

Over the communicators, we heard.

‘No need for alarm, we have now sealed the mine shut, no longer will that toxic place be a burden to us.’ Alpha Ezekiel’s voice boomed proudly over the system.

Cheers erupted, echoing through the tunnels and making the cheers boom down the tunnels, and seemed even louder. The grins on faces of each person that passed by me made me feel fantastic, and happy we are at last seeing the end of so much evil.

‘Anton, I am going to head back to the pack-house. Let me know if I can do anything to help the pack get settled back into life again. Also, I would like to offer an invite to the ball we will be having in about three weeks’ time. It is mainly for the unmated to replace their mates. But I am sure we can squeeze in others that may like to come just to have some fun after all that has happened to you all over the past year’. I offered kindly.

Anton’s eyes widened and a grin covered his face. You could see he wanted to come.

‘We can come too? I saw the last ball, I watched from the treeline, and some of us tried to copy the dances we saw, and so did lots of others from my pack. I will ask Alex and if he agrees, I will let you know.’ His excitement glowed in his eyes.

‘I can send your pack an official invitation in a few days.’ I said, as I started walking to the cave entrance.

‘Look forward to it.’ He replied smoothly, a cheeky grin on his face. And I wonder what was going through his mind at that moment. Was he old enough to replace his mate? I had put him at sixteen, but maybe he is older, with a youthful face.