Chapter 10: Abandoned barnyard

That evening, the Beta had mind-linked Roel, passing him an order from the Alpha. He was to be on the lookout duty, together with some of the pack mates from the police force. There were five of them in a team. Roel was also ordered to be the team leader since he was the most experienced of them. Although, he does not work in the police force, the Alpha probably sent him because he was a skilled shifter like a ninja; swift and silent. Roel was also good with the knives, which was unsurprising since he worked as a Chef in the human world.

Roel walked inside the diner, with the others following behind him. Before he took a step further, he quickly sniffed the air, checking whether there were potential threats and dangers. And once he confirmed that everything was alright in the diner, he gestured the others to go in. They picked the furthest booth, deep in the diner, away from other patrons. They did not want other people to listen to their conversations.

Roel had prepared for the duty. He had his small knives tucked in his boots and also wore a protective vest that was immune to silver bullets. He did not bring any guns since other than his knives, he prefer to use his fists or his shifter powers.

They ordered some coffees and beef steak strips while discussing their plan. It was good to have something to munch on while discussing the plan.

Minutes later after they had strategize their plan, Roel smelled something familiar in the air. He discreetly looked up and frowned when he saw two familiar figures at the entrance of the diner. 'What are they doing here?' he thought suspiciously as he watched them looking nervous.

He watched them walking towards a lone girl sitting in a booth. He then watched Erick stealing some fries off her plate while looking at Roel's direction. He frowned deeply. It seems too much of a coincidence that they were in the same diner. He could not listen in to their conversation since he was also listening to his teammates, discussing about the plans.

Roel quickly dismissed his suspicions. 'He's probably feeling cautious because of the warning the Alpha had sent out earlier,' he thought as he turned back to his team.

He continued on with his discussion with the other pack mates.

Shortly after, he received a mind-link from his Alpha, telling him that he will join them soon after.

Once they all agreed with the plan, they immediately went out of the diner after paying for their meals and leaving some tips for the waitress.

Roel took a quick glance at where Erick and Hamish were. Seems like they did not notice that they were leaving. Roel mindlink to the other four packmates and ordered them to go their separate ways but meet up at the abandoned barnyard.

Few minutes later, the five of them arrived at the barnyard one by one. There were three old barnyards in the area. The smaller ones were used to store hay, whereas the larger one was where people used to store farm equipment and providing stalls for the farm animals.

They surrounded the larger barnyard because that was where the rogues were last seen. Roel was on the west side, moving closely to the wall of the barnyard, the smaller barnyard few metres away from him. He could hear the sounds of growling and smell death and fear from inside.

Roel peeked through one of the small windows. The windows were all cracked, sending a cool draft in Roel's face as he looked in. He saw that there were actually more than five rogues. According to what the Beta had told him earlier, there were supposed to be only three.

Roel frowned, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. 'Seems like their plan would be useless', he thought. They did not expect that the rogues were this many.

Roel felt even more unsettled when he saw that there were three unconscious people lying on the floor, surrounded by the rogues. What made him more troubled was that one of them were on the brink of death as he could smell death emitting from the man.

Roel immediately request for a mind-link to the Alpha to update him on the situation. He was feeling so unsettled that he did not realize that one of the rogues had smelled and sensed his presence.

He was too busy talking to his Alpha through the mind-link when he was suddenly grabbed from behind and crashed against one of the smaller barnyards behind him.

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Erick and Hamish quickly tried to follow Roel and the other packmates from behind, without being detected. They did not want to get into trouble with Roel. Roel may be the quiet one among the triplets but also the scariest, as well. Erick can tolerate Latham's jokes and Noaz's fussiness. But not Roel's quiet glare.

Every once in awhile, Hamish told Erick to sniff the area since he was the only one among them who already has some of his wolf's sense of smell. Erick would frowned at Hamish whenever he told him to sniff. He thought that Hamish would purposely tell him to do that because it made Erick seems like a dog. But looking at Hamish's serious face, Erick thought twice.

Since Erick has not fully shifted yet, he could not fully utilized Dane's power. He could only get a small whiff of Roel and the others. It was faint but still there. Hamish quickly followed Erick's lead.

They continued on their path until they were a few metres away from the barnyard. They hid behind one of the big water tanks, near one of the smaller barnyards. They did not notice that they actually had one person with them until they heard a 'crack' sound from behind him.

Both Erick and Hamish turned, their bodies in a defensive stance. Eyes widened in shock to find that it was Amber, who was leisurely munching on pocky sticks.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Hamish hissed, shoving his glasses up his nose. "And for feck's sake, stop eating!"

Amber quickly shoved the whole pocky sticks into her mouth and gulped them down. She grabbed her water bottle from her backpack and drank.

Once she was done, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at them with excited and glittering eyes. "So, what are we doing here?" she asked excitedly, in a soft voice.

Hamish growled at her, his eyes narrowed through the lens of his glasses. "Not we. What are YOU doing here?" he hissed again.

Amber frowned, not liking the tone Hamish was using with her. "I followed you two."

"Go back, it's dangerous here!" Erick said softly, shooing her away with his hands.

Amber frowned again. "What about you two?"

Before the two of them could answer, they suddenly heard a loud crash sounds from behind them.

"CRASH!"