"This is not good," Percy spoke as he caught up with the Alpha. "The heavy rain must've erased their smell."
"Alpha, I think we should go back," Liam suggested when he caught up with their leader as well. "We're beyond our borders. We can't cause trouble here."
The leader decided to halt their movements and stopped in an alley to regroup.
The four other members of the group joined, and the whole group gathered in a tight and eerie silent alley.
The earth on the ground was muddy, the evening chilly due to the heavy rain. But that shouldn't be a hindrance to their goal for the night.
The Alpha was far from giving up the raid that night. He raised his face a little and sniffed the air.
"Can't you smell it? I smell a wolf nearby," the leader of the pack said. "Come on, this way."
Instead of following the Alpha's command, Liam, the Beta, held the Alpha's shoulder.
"Sawyer, are you saying your sense of smell is better than mine?"
"No. But I can smell a wolf, and I have to see if that wolf is ours or not."
Without waiting for their reaction, Sawyer moved to where he could smell his own kind.
Percy sneered. "I must say, I'm disappointed, Mr. Beta. Praised as the best in the pack. Should I start doubting?"
Liam glared at Percy, and the latter whistled at the former's soul-penetrating eyes.
"Just sayin'," he defended and then took back his playful words out of fright. "It must've been the rain, right?"
"There was nothing to smell, Percival. The Alpha is just desperate to find Aubrey."
Percy scoffed and dilated his eyes. "I honestly can't deal with lovesick men."
Liam side-eyed him.
"That's so savage coming from Kim's mate," so sarcastically, he retorted, that it insulted Percy.
Liam flew away in a wink to follow Sawyer's track. And the other four members followed.
Percy hissed and laughed alone.
"Me? I'm not a lovesick guy!" he roared in defense in the air before following the others.
Meanwhile, Sawyer could swear on his throat that he could smell a wolf nearby.
The scent had an unordinary pull. He couldn't figure out how a normal wolf could smell so attractive to his nose. His wolf inside was on the verge of losing control.
It wanted to get out and take over. So it could follow the sweet, enticing, and enchanting smell of another wolf.
There must have been a reason why only he could smell the wolf. In the back of his mind, he was dreading the thought that, perhaps, it was Aubrey's call for help.
She might be in danger somewhere around the outskirts of a human city. He couldn't risk that possibility for the sole reason that they were beyond their borders.
He and his wolves went out to raid a group of blood traders, and among them were his former pack mates he wanted to take home.
The blood traders were his only way to finding Aubrey.
His wolf instincts lead him in front of an abandoned huge house with wood fencing around the house. Some parts of the fence were destroyed. Even the wooden gate looked rotten.
Sawyer easily slipped inside the front yard of the big house.
He raised his face and inhaled the scent coming from inside the house.
"Humans…" he murmured.
So timely, the door of the abandoned house opened and revealed a grubby man. Like a pig gnawing its food, his mouth moved in a constant motion while he chewed gum loudly.
The distance from the man to where Sawyer stood was approximately fifteen meters. Even so, he could hear the annoying gum-chewing noise from the man.
Sawyer's ears moved because the sound of the man's chewing irritated him.
"Hey, man! You're not supposed to be 'round here, ya know," the man called out. "Leave before things get loud."
The man hissed when Sawyer, so unbothered, took a step forward. He walked a few meters closer to the man.
Sawyer snickered. "Sorry, man,” he imitated the man’s tone. “I can't leave. I know you have a wolf inside that house."
At the mention of the word 'wolf', the man tensed up and pulled his revolver from his side.
He aimed it at Sawyer.
"So you're one of those monsters!" the man stated while looking so unstable and anxious.
Sawyer shrugged.
"If you know what I am, step aside before I tear your limbs and feast on them."
"Do you think you're the only monster here?!" the man screamed.
He shot at Sawyer out of fear, but Sawyer dodged the bullet without sweating.
With his bestial speed, he arrived in front of the man in a flash. The man's eyes widened in surprise to see Sawyer in front of him.
Now that he was closer to the house, the enchanting attraction from the scent intensified.
"How did you—" the man trailed.
Sawyer hit the man's hand, and the revolver fell to the ground. He then kicked it away from the man's reach.
"You should've expected this from a wolf."
The scent was tautening him. His wolf instincts wanted to ditch the scene and see who was drawing him from inside.
But he had to take care of this man first.
With a trembling mouth, the man started to scream for someone's name.
"Barron! Boss! A wolf! A wolf!"
Sawyer's hands transformed into a wolf’s paw and grew sharp claws on them. He grabbed the man by his neck and lifted him in the air.
Moments later, Sawyer heard four hurrying feet.
"Put him down, beast!"
Sawyer turned his head to where the voice came from and saw two ugly men pointing their guns at him. The other one stood out to him as he had scars on his face.
Sawyer was sure it was from a wolf's claw.
He sighed. "Fuck… this is such a drag."
He swung the man and tossed him twenty meters away from him.
The two men fired at the same time, and he managed to dodge both bullets and arrived in the midst of the two confused men.
He gave the two one blow in their stomachs. That was enough to knock them out.
Finally, nothing was standing between him and the source of that sweet pulling scent.
And then the realization dawned on him.
He raised his face again and inhaled the sweet scent from the house.
The indescribable appeal of a scent. The attraction he was feeling. His bestial instinct was to get close to the source of that scent.
He finally realized what it was.
His wolves soon arrived one by one before he could take a single step forward.
"This isn't cool. Did you party all on your own? How selfish!" Percy joked while he dragged his eyes to Sawyer's victims.
Liam approached Sawyer with his usual concerned face. "If human authorities find out about this, we'll get in troub—"
"Found her," he cut Liam's nagging off.
"What? Did you find Aubrey? She's here? How did you know?"
"No," thoughtlessly, Sawyer answered. He stared at the door of the abandoned house. "Not Aubrey."
"What? Then who did you find?"
Sawyer stepped inside the house without providing answers to Liam's questions.
He didn't know where to go, so he followed the scent. The closer he got, the stronger the scent became.
He arrived inside a stinky cell. On the floor lay an unconscious woman.
Sawyer crouched down and brushed some strands of hair that covered the woman's face.
"So you're right here... all this time…"