Bab 239: Chapter 230: An unexpected réunion

"Black fur hair?"

Bastian nodded grimly as he slowly stood up. He then stood next to Elder Zyair. "Didn't Jose say anything at all?" he asked.

Elder Zyair shook his head as he looked down at the hair. He looked over at Bastian and gestured at him to pick it up.

Bastian threw him a shocked look. He then looked over to Erick, who was giving him a puzzled look. "Hey Erick, go pick it up!" he ordered.

Erick frowned. "Why me?" he asked.

Bastian gave him a 'are you kidding me?' look and said, "I ain't touching some fur! What if there's some flea in that fur?"

Erick felt black lines going down his forehead. Then how did he do his investigation back then without touching anything??

Elder Zyair just rolled his eyes. He then looked at Erick and gestured for him, instead, to pick the strand up.

Erick inwardly sighed and could only do what his elder told him to do. He cautiously picked up the strand of hair. It felt light and greasy, making him cringe with repulse.

Oblivious to Erick's expression, Elder Zyair looked down at the strand of hair that was dropped in his hand.

After studying it for a few seconds, he dropped the strand to the ground and looked over at the two shifters. "Let's go," he said.

Without waiting for them to agree, he went ahead, deeper in. Both Erick and Bastian quickly followed from behind.

The deeper they went, the more baffled Bastian felt. It felt as if the place had changed. Although he could see some familiar things, yet most of them were changed. And the thing that baffled him the most was the door in front of them.

The last time he went there, there wasn't any door, other than a large boulder blocking the entrance. However, now, the boulder was missing (which wasn't surprising since it probably broke into smaller pieces by now) and there was a wooden door fixed at the entrance.

Elder Zyair stood in front of the door quietly with Erick and Bastian behind him.

Soon after, there was a sound of a crash coming from inside. Both Erick and Bastian's eyes widened. They were about to ram the door down when Elder Zyair held out his arm, barring their actions.

They turned to him in unison. And before they could ask why, he had used his arm to push them away from the door. He jumped to the side, mere seconds after the two were sent flying. And soon after, the door, which was closed, was suddenly smashed open, followed by a flying body!

Elder Zyair immediately stepped aside as he watched the body fly past him. Erick and Bastian, who were thrown away by Zyair, looked on with a shock expression on their faces when they saw the body was about to reach them.

They immediately stepped aside and again, the body flew past them. The body structure looked quite familiar to Bastian and when he realized what it was, he quickly rushed over.

Erick frowned as he watched Bastian's weird actions. But he did not have the time to think about it as he turned his gaze to where Elder Zyair stood.

Elder Zyair was standing in front of the broken debris from the smashed door. He looked inside and frowned deeper.

Inside, Paccia was trying to calm a large man, who was puffing, as if in great anger. His fists were clenched as he was breathing fast.

Riowins, who was crouching next to two unconscious men, was holding one of their wrists, checking their pulse.

"What's going on here?" Elder Zyair asked as he walked inside, followed by Erick.

When the large man turned around, Erick was shocked when he saw his face.

"Oz?!?"

Oz Ainge looked at Erick and the anger on his face slowly faded, turning to confusion. "Erick, is that you?" he asked in surprise.

Elder Zyair frowned. He remembers meeting this bear shifter when he visited Burkendall town years ago. He did not expect to see him once again.

Erick quickly rushed over to Oz's side and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Oz's face suddenly turned grim once more. "We followed our leader's scent here. Weeks ago, Storm went out on an errand. He didn't say what it was, only saying that it was something that he needed to do alone."

"But we didn't expect that it would turn into weeks when he said that he would get it done in days. We just didn't want to reenact of what had happened to us before," he said, referring to their late brother, Pyros. "We looked for clues and found that it led us here," he continued.

"We've spent days, staying here, looking for more clues. This morning, we went out to stock up on our food when we realized someone…" he looked over at Paccia, "Or some people were here."

"Before we could say anything, a muscle brained shifter suddenly knocked Levi and Atticus out!" he ended hotly, pointing at the smashed door.

Paccia facepalmed, letting out a sigh. "And we're sorry for that, Oz. He did not know," she apologised.

Oz just ignored her as he fumed silently.

Erick smiled wryly.

Soon after, Jose walked in, followed by Bastian. One could see that the former was limping a bit as they approached Oz and the others.

Jose narrowed his eyes at Oz and was about to open his mouth when Paccia stopped him with a glaring look. Inwardly surprised that an elder from another pack dared to tell him to be quiet.

But remembering how his Alpha once warned him to not annoy or anger the witch from the Kendall pack, he kept quiet. He wasn't sure why but he knew that he was better off not knowing why.

Once she knew that Jose had listened to her, she turned to Oz, who was still blatantly ignoring her. She then looked over at Erick.

When Erick noticed that Paccia was looking at him seemingly giving him the look, telling him to talk to Oz, he inwardly sighed.

"As Paccia said, we apologised for our actions, Oz. We didn't know that we would be meeting up like this. And they aren't from the Kendall pack, hence why they do not know who you are," Erick explained patiently.

"Doesn't give them a reason to knock my two brothers out!" Oz argued angrily.

"Well, if you're in an unfamiliar place and there was a stranger who was about to intrude on you, not wanting them to get the upper hand, would you let it be?" Erick said.

Oz went quiet. He then nodded. "Makes sense."

"So, you said that you last found a clue to Storm's disappearance in this place?" Erick asked, changing the topic.

Oz nodded. He then looked at where the grandfather clock stood. "I did not expect that clock to hold some secrets to this," he said, sounding amazed. "We've been staying here for days and found nothing."

He looked down at Erick and asked, "What about you? What are you doing here?"

Erick turned to Paccia, who in turn looked at Elder Zyair and Jose, since these two were the team leaders.

"We're looking for clues on the vampires," Elder Zyair confessed.

"Vampires?" Oz repeated in surprise. He never thought to hear about the other supernatural beings.

Elder Zyair nodded. "Rehan is back."

Oz narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Wasn't he the same guy who brought those rogues?" he snarled.

Elder Zyair nodded.

"Count us in! He's probably responsible for Storm's disappearance," Oz said. He then looked at his unconscious brothers and continued, "Let's wait until they are awake."