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, and 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 six 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.

Reaching the training ground, I saw about fifty of us, un-mated 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 find 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 have two brothers. 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. I joined the patrols night or day at least once a week.

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

My pack was called in to help when the Alpha of a neighboring 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 terrible storm developing, the Alpha was desperate and called three neighboring packs to help out.

I arrived with the rest of our pack to help hunt for the lost pups.

They gave everyone a run-down to where they were last seen. I asked to smell some of the clothes of the missing pups. The mothers were so desperate they complied with my request, and those willing mothers hurried back with the shirts, and I, in wolf form, took in the scent of ten of the missing pups.

The place was full of warriors and, as a team, 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. I walked to a spot and Betsy put her snout on the ground and started sniffing the ground. I picked up a faint smell that Betsy recognized 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. Finally, I found the pups huddled under a tree. They were shivering in wet clothes, holding each other for warmth. Luke mind-linked our Alpha, that we had found them, and they were all well, just cold and wet, and hungry.

We took the pups back to the waiting mothers on the back of our wolf and 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. 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, which had my team patting me on my back, and I knew the alpha would be pleased that the pups were found, and we would have a party to celebrate when we returned.

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. The Alpha would watch and assess us today.

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

I stood with my team and bared my neck in respect to our Alpha and waited for his announcement. I was excited and hoped to be picked to go.

‘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.’ he looked at me and hope bloomed in my chest and butterflies fluttered in my stomach.

‘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 go and find these rogues and there could be more than one place they are hiding, and leave the fighting to the warriors.’ The Alpha warned with a small growl.

Congratulations were given and a slap 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 and I got lectured again.