Chapter 69: That familiar scent

Erick was snoring quietly at the backseat of the car when they finally arrived at Burkendall town.

Instead of going right, which leads to the city and other residential areas, Reginald turned left, which leads them to the packhouse and other pack residential areas. They had to pass several other houses before entering their pack territory. There were a lot of trees that framed the road that led to their area, that could nearly be described as the forest entrance.

Shortly after, they finally arrived at the packhouse. They saw the car Ulanni's group was using parked nearby the packhouse and they too parked next to it.

Paccia jumped out of the car and immediately flew inside the packhouse, without shutting her door closed.

"Shut the door, you old hag!" Reginald bellowed angrily as he stomped over to Paccia's side. He then slammed the door shut before heading towards the packhouse.

Dex climbed out of the car and followed behind Reginald.

Noaz was scratching the back of his head as he watched Erick still sleeping inside the car. He felt a bit bad for disturbing his sleep so he was in a quandary on how to wake him up.

Before he could think of an answer, Paccia appeared beside him, making him startled. And again, before he could say anything, a pot and a spatula miraculously appeared in her hands. And she suddenly banged the pot on its bottom, waking Erick up.

"Feeeeeeeeecccccccck!" Erick screamed, covering his ears from the incessant banging.

While Erick was rubbing his temples, feeling a bit dazed and confused from the noise, Paccia turned to the shocked Noaz and said, "His mother told me that if you want to wake him up, just do that. It's very effective."

With that, she flew back inside the packhouse.

Noaz just shook his head with a wry smile and looked over at Erick, who was still in daze. "C'mon, Erick. The others are waiting for us inside."

Erick nodded.

As the two of them walked inside the packhouse, Erick muttered, "Can't they even wake me up normally?"

Noaz just smiled, not answering. Because he knew that Erick was a deep sleeper and that sometimes, it can be hard to get him to wake up.

Inside the meeting room at the packhouse, everyone was inside, excluding Omorose's group. Even Latham was inside, sitting next to Roel. He was fiddling with a pencil, whistling as he waited for the others to arrive. Paccia was sitting next to Reginald, who was sitting on Lachlan's left.

Dex, who came in earlier together with Reginald, sat a bit further, leaving two seats for Noaz and Erick, next to Paccia. On the other side, Fergus was sitting on Lachlan's right with Ulanni next to him. And beside Ulanni was Jeayan. Roel sat next to Jeayan whereas Latham sat next to him.

When Noaz and Erick walked in, Lachlan looked up and gestured to them to sit.

Once everyone has settled down, Lachlan laced his fingers together, putting his elbows on top of the table. He then looked around at those who were sitting at the meeting table and said, "Let's get this meeting started. As of now, Omorose's group is at Port Robston Bay, meeting with the Cesaro pack. So, they should be back in a couple of days. According to Omorose's report, they have dead bodies in the forest. They were human beings'. What's disturbing was the fact that their eyes were gouged out and their hearts were ripped off.

Though, they did manage to apprehend a couple of rogues, whom they will be bringing back to the Cesaro pack first," he continued.

Reginald frowned as he leaned against his seat, his arms crossed over his chest. "And will they be bringing those rogues back for questioning?"

Lachlan shook his head. "Since the rogues were found in their territory, the Cesaro pack will do the questioning. Hence why Omorose and the others stayed over to join in the questioning."

He then turned his gaze towards Roel and asked, "And it seems that there's a bear shifter that has followed you all back here."

Roel nodded. "He's probably at the prison where the rogue is being held. I've mindlinked the shifter guards to escort him here to the meeting room," he said.

Lachlan nodded. "And the wolfsbane?" he inquired.

Ulanni carefully grasped the plants, which was covered with leaves and placed it on top of the table.

Everyone's breaths drew back as they could feel the aura that the plants were emitting out. Paccia, with an excited gleam in her eyes, quickly snapped her fingers and the covered plant immediately disappeared in sight.

Lachlan turned to Paccia and said, "You know what to do. I need results."

Paccia grinned and nodded. "Sure, boss."

Roel glared at her disrespect towards the Alpha with narrowed eyes. Paccia just ignored him as she chuckled lightly.

Few minutes later, there was a bit of commotion at the entrance of the packhouse. Everyone in the room looked up to find Oz leaning against the door to the meeting room, lazily waving one hand and his other hand inside his pocket. "Yo!" he greeted.

He then whistled as he looked around the meeting. "Dem. You mutts are living it up so fancy!"

Both Roel and Noaz stood up, pushing their chairs back as their eyes blazed in anger at the insult. Reginald just chuckled. Lachlan only cocked an eyebrow whereas Fergus just looked at the rude bear shifter with narrowed eyes.

Latham looked around him and tapped his chin with the end of his pencil and joked, "Oh, how should I react?"

Erick rolled his eyes at Latham's poor attempt at joking.

Dex's eyes widened as he looked at the huge man at the door. He was one of the biggest men that he had seen. Although the Alpha, the Beta and some of the male Elders were huge, this man could probably go against them when it comes to size and strength.

Oz held his hands up, sniggering. "Relax, mutts. I come here in peace!"

He then walked over and sat next to Latham. He held out his hand, to which the latter shook. "Howdy. The name's Oz. Nice to meet ya."

Latham smiled. "Likewise. Latham's the name," he replied back.

Then, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he gripped the bear shifter's palm tighter. Oz responded back by tightening his grip more too.

Seconds later, the two pulled away and chuckled again.

"Welcome to the Kendall pack. I'm the Alpha of the pack, Lachlan Kendall," Lachlan introduced himself. He then introduced the Beta, the Elders and the others.

"Apparently, they reported that there were some rogues in your territory," he further explained, referring 'they' to Ulanni, Roel and Jeayan.

Oz began to look serious and nodded. He then started to tell them about what he knew. And how the rogues came into their territory months ago. He also talked about his brother's death and hence, the reason as to why they wanted the rogue.

After much discussion, they decided that they will cooperate with the bear shifters and allow Oz to bring the rogue back to the mountain with him. The bear shifters can do whatever they want with him after Lachlan and the others were done with their interrogation. Paccia will experiment on the wolfsbane and further discuss it with Dewei when he gets back.

The day slowly turned to late afternoon by the time the meeting had ended.

Once the meeting was over, everyone went their separate ways. Erick walked home alone since Lachlan had to stay behind to discuss more with the Elders, the triplets and Oz.

Oz will be staying at the packhouse and will be accompanied by the two brothers; Roel and Noaz. They decided to interrogate the rogue once Omorose and the others had returned. With that, they will be able to compare notes.

Erick had just entered his house when a familiar scent caught his attention. He frowned as he looked around.

His mother wasn't at home at that moment. She texted him earlier, saying that she went out to meet her friends in town. Although his mother doesn't work, she does join a lot of community groups as it was her duty as the Police Chief's wife to interact more with the townspeople. Hence, she was quite popular too in her circle of friends.

He climbed up the stairs, heading straight to his room.

The scent smelled stronger as he got closer to his room.

And as he entered his room, his eyes widened as he looked around his room, as if he was frantically looking for something.

"Amber?"