299 Narrowed Down
‘Yes, I should definitely bring this issue up with the others. Else, our clan is bound to be doomed if we leave it in the hands of Regulus,’ Jake thought to himself and then walked away after closing the door to the guest room.
He directed the others to wake Regulus up if they found some clues or pieces of evidence. Then he headed straight towards the house of one of the older pack members of the Atkinson clan in order to discuss the matter that was bothering him more than the death of Romulus and Slayer.
—
Early in the morning, after discussing the matter regarding the next alpha, Jake returned to the manor with a few of the elders of the clan.
Since he was the advisor of the previous alpha, he led the discussion and put forth his grievance regarding the carefree nature of Regulus.
After listening to Jake, the elders were convinced that if they handed over the role of the alpha to Regulus that easily then they would all be doomed.
Thus, overnight, they had reached a conclusion that they were going to let every able-bodied man to compete for the position of the alpha.
And they had come to the manor to bring this decision in front of the one who had the first claim over such an important position of the clan.
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“I hope he won’t get angry at us for deciding all this without him.” One of the elders who had seen the angry side of the previous alpha got a little nervous when they were about to walk inside the front door of the manor.
.....
Jake took a deep breath as he led all the elders down the corridor. And he softly mumbled, “If he doesn’t even respect his dead brother then he doesn’t have any right to lead us all.”
The other elder added rather arrogantly, “And we are the oldest members of the clan. He should respect our decision and do as we say. He isn’t our alpha yet. He’s just a candidate. It doesn’t matter if he gets angry or whatever.”
When they all reached the guest room where Regulus was staying in, Jake softly knocked on the door and said, “Milord, I wanted to discuss a few things with you. May I come in?”
He waited for a while to get a reply. But when he didn’t hear a word from the other side of the door, he decided to open the door. He was too restless to wait around when there was another equally important matter to take care of.
“Excuse me for the intrus–” Jake stopped midsentence when he didn’t see anyone in the room. “Lord Regulus?” he called the young lord to check if he was somewhere else in the chambers.
However, just like earlier, there was no answer.
“I think he is somewhere else,” Jake looked at the elders who were standing behind him and then said in an apologetic tone. “Why don’t you all wait in the meeting room by the alpha’s room? I will bring him there.”
The others agreed and were about to walk away when they heard loud footsteps coming from the other end of the corridor.
Regulus swiftly ran and stood in front of everyone within seconds. He looked at everyone and said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, “I didn’t think I was this important. All of the elders are here to greet me personally, I see.”
Some of the elders sighed and rolled their eyes at that calm yet an arrogant man in front of them.
Jake tried to defuse the tension in the air by saying, “Um… Lord Regulus, why don’t we sit down and discuss a few things?”
“Yes, I was going to say the same.” Regulus walked inside his room and then sat down on the bed before Jake could ask him to come to the meeting room.
Thus, the others also entered the room and then awkwardly stood in front of Regulus since there weren’t enough chairs for all eight of them.
Jake cleared his throat and then began the conversation, “We all were discussing something during the night. And we thought that–”
“First, there’s something important that you all should listen to.” Regulus intervened with Jake and started to explain everything that he was doing during the night. “Unlike all of you, I wasn’t busy talking for the whole night. I was looking for clues that could lead us to the killer. And I found the three hearts dumped a few meters away from this manor.”
“Three hearts?” Jake asked while furrowing his brows.
“Yes. The three missing hearts.” Regulus gave a nod and further elaborated his theory, “Meaning, the killer wasn’t one of the family members or close ones of my brother’s victims.” He looked into Jake’s eyes and emphasized, “Victims… meaning someone who he…”
“Who he…?” Jake looked confused since he wasn’t aware of the disgusting fetish of the dead alpha.
Regulus sighed and shook his head. “Nothing. Just know that he did something awful behind the closed door of the dungeon. So, my point is, the killer wasn’t someone who was directly related to my brother’s dungeon victims.”
“Not related to dungeon victims… Umm… Okay. So, you are close to finding who the killer is?” Jake mumbled and waited for Regulus to explain it in a way that he would understand.
Regulus shook his head and replied, “Not that close just yet. But at least now we know can cross out the few possible suspects.”
“That’s no good,” One of the elders arrogantly said. “Crossing out one or two people doesn’t do us any good. The killer might cross the border by the time you narrow it down to one or two suspects.”
“Oh, but I have already narrowed it down to a few people, kind sir,” Regulus said with an innocent smile on his face.
“You have?” Jake raised his brows in a surprised manner.
Regulus shrugged and casually answered, “I mean, there aren’t many wolves who are stronger than Slayer, are there?”