Chapter 134 - 127: The suspects

"Look out!"

Erick and the other two shifters immediately went on full alert, turning around to face the unidentified foe when suddenly, they noticed something white flashed towards them. And before that white thing could hit Erick, Noaz had already reached out and grabbed the thing by the mane.

Both Erick and Hamish blinked their eyes in surprise when they realized that it was just a small white wolf. Hamish peered closer with narrowed eyes and said, "Did not expect that there would be such animals here."

Erick shrugged. "Well, I did find Luka here. So…" he said slowly, dragging out his words.

Noaz lifted the wolf up, making it face him. Just as the white wolf was about to growl, Noaz let out a ferocious growl of his own, making the wolf tremble with fright. After the wolf had quietened down, Noaz released it, which immediately ran away to hide. He shrugged. "Just a normal wolf."

He then turned to Erick. "Are we close?"

Erick swiftly looked around him and tilted his head in thought. "If I can recall correctly, yes. We just need to look for the path that will lead us to a small stream where I last saw it."

Hamish turned his head to him and asked, "You sure that it was really Dane's soul?"

Erick shook his head sadly. "I can't totally be sure," he admitted. "It was quite hazy. And I also thought that I might be hallucinating or something."

Noaz turned around and began walking to the direction they first headed to. "Hallucinating or not, we won't know until we reach there," he simply said.

Hamish followed from behind and wondered, "Do you think the soul is still there?"

Noaz just shrugged.

Erick walked past both shifters to guide the way and said, "Let's just go."

After walking for sometime, avoiding some stray branches and fighting off some wild animals, they finally reached the stream that Erick mentioned.

The place was still as serene as he had remembered from before. The sounds of the water rippling in the stream sends a comfortable feeling in these three shifters. There weren't any other living things in the area, other than the fishes swimming in the water. As they got closer to the water, they could see the sparkling water that looked like diamonds shining in the light. It looked quite refreshing and mesmerizing.

Looking down, Erick could see the same sparkling white rock on the side of the stream and remembered that he had taken one as an amulet to repel animals from coming close.

Behind him, Noaz and Hamish looked around them with awe on their faces. "Wow, this place looks amazing. You wouldn't expect this kind of place to exist in such a gloomy forest," Noaz murmured in amazement.

Hamish just kept quiet but one could see the surprise and dazed glint in his eyes.

Noaz then turned to Erick and asked, "So where did you last see the soul? And how does it look?"

Erick pointed at the area in front of him, across the stream and said, "I remember that it was over on the other side of this stream."

Both Noaz and Hamish looked over at the direction Erick was pointing and began to make speculations. Noaz rubbed his chin with his hand as he thought deeply.

"Was it nighttime when you first saw it?" Noaz asked again, his eyes still looking at the direction Erick pointed earlier.

Erick scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to recall the time back then. He wasn't sure whether it was nighttime at all but he did remember that it was during the time he was cooking some instant noodles. He tried to recall once more. Then realization occurred to him. Yes, it was nighttime because he remembered that it was getting dark hence why he cooked instant noodles. He doesn't want to cook during the night when it was so dark.

"I believe so. It was during the night," Erick answered.

Noaz nodded as he sat down next to the stream. He picked up a small pebble and threw it across the stream, watching it skipped on the surface of the water. "Then let's wait until the evening."

Hamish looked up at the sky, or at least, a glimpse of the sky since it was mostly covered by the tall trees with its wide spread branches filled with leaves. He couldn't actually tell whether it was already evening or not since it was dark all day long inside but from what he remembers, they had already spent too much time inside the forest, so it's probably coming to an evening soon.

He sat down, not too far from Noaz and laid down on his back. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. It was refreshing and comforting.

Erick looked down at their carefree attitudes and rolled his eyes. Nevertheless, he laid down too on the ground, not too far from them and with his arms behind his head, he said, "So, we're going to just wait?"

Noaz just murmured an inaudible word, which sounded like yes.

The three of them were quiet as they enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere, relaxing.

Few minutes later, Hamish suddenly sat up and jumped up. He stretched his arms up and said, "I'm going for a run."

He immediately stripped out of his clothes and began to shift. His arms started to grow more fur while his teeth began to lengthen into fangs. Sounds of bones cracking and shifting resounded in the air as Kaius now stood where Hamish stood before. He cricked his neck as he gave an eerily look of what was supposed to be a smile.

Noa lazily looked up and waved him away. "Just don't go too far," he advised as he closed his eyes once again.

With that, Kaius set off to have his long-awaited run. It has been awhile since he ran around. For shifters, especially werewolves, it was a pleasure to run around as it makes them feel free and wild.

Erick just sighed as he watched Kaius leave the area. If Dane was awake, he probably would take the opportunity to run around the area and explore as he pleases.

Looking across the stream, he sincerely hoped the one that he had seen the other day was really there.

For now, he could only wait until nighttime has arrived.

-----

Back at the Burkendall town, in one of the offices at the Police Headquarters, Lachlan was working on some reports when Fergus suddenly barged into the room.

Displeased at the rude intrusion, Lachlan looked up with a deep scowl on his handsome face. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Fergus immediately gave a small bow of his head and said anxiously, "Chief, we have a problem."

Lachlan stopped what he was doing and gave all of his attention to Fergus.

Fergus quickly shut the door and sat down in front of the Alpha's table, after the latter gave him the permission to sit. "Zant had done his investigation, not just on the mayor's attack but also the barnyard's attack."

Lachlan scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Why?"

"He has reasons to believe that the both attacks are related and he is now in the office, giving his statement regarding them," Fergus said with a grim look on his face.

"He then gave his talk, implying that the attacks were from the shifters in town and he made plans to eradicate every shifter here," he continued on.

Lachlan narrowed his eyes, a glint of pure anger in his eyes. "Who gives him the guts to do so?"

"The people."

Lachlan narrowed his eyes even more.

"Ever since he had taken over the office albeit temporarily, many people had sought to support his cause, saying that he had done a great job in investigating the attacks for the better of the town. And he even made those who were in Hilliard and the others' camps to join him."

"Speaking of Hilliard, what is he doing?"

Fergus shook his head. "Other than recuperating, he has done nothing but cooped up in his home office," he replied.

"Any other news?" Lachlan asked.

"There's another bad news."

"What is it?"

Fergus took a deep breath before answering his Alpha, "Earlier this morning, Zant had made an announcement on the suspects of the attacks.

"And one of them is Roel."