Tao let out a sigh and leaned back against the wooden fence behind him. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes as he took a few deep breaths. He could hear footsteps approach him from the direction he had come from, but didn’t bother to see who it was.

“I heard what happened. “The person stopped beside him. “Are you okay?”

Tao opened his eyes and looked at Baekhyuns face. He gave him a nod, but remained silent. There was just something about the strangers that bothered him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“You don’t have to act.” Chen said as he appeared besides Baekhyun with his arm around Jessicas shoulder. “It easy to see that something is bothering you.”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.” Tao mumbled as he laid his arms around Angelica who had walked over to him and gave him a hug.

Tao let out a sigh and rested his head on top of Angelicas. After you had disappeared, Angelica had been very supportive for him. She had talked to him when he felt like it, and left him alone when he needed it. He had almost accepted the fact that you were gone and that you wouldn’t come back, when the three strangers popped up out of nowhere.

“We miss her too you know.” Baekhyun said as he leaned against the fence next to his friend. “But she’s gone. She was taken by that beast of a wolf and we haven’t been able to find a single trace of it after it happened.”

“You’ve got to let it go soon, Tao.” Chen said in agreement to Baekhyuns comment. “You can’t waste your life on thinking about where she is and trying to find her.”

Jessica nodded hesitantly to her boyfriends’ words as he tightened his grip around her. She had accepted that you were gone, but your long friendship made it hard for her to forget about you, even though she knew it would be for the best.

“But what if it really was her?” Tao said, as he looked at his friends in front him, hurt filling his eyes. “It’s not impossible. And if she’s still alive, then I can’t just sit around here and do nothing!”

“But it wasn’t her.” All their heads turned towards Luhan as he approached them. He had finished his work at the Inn and had decided to join the rest of his friends together with Suho. “They said it was a different girl. The said it was the sister of one of their friends, and neither of us have seen any of them before.”

“But…” Tao bit his lip. He knew it was foolish to keep arguing. He knew they were right, but still, he just couldn’t let go of that feeling deep inside of him telling him that it was you.

“There’s no point in dwelling over it anymore, Tao. Just let it go.” Suho said and placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a weak smile.

“But one of them…” Tao furrowed his brows as he tried to remember his name. “The black haired one-”

“Kai.” Suho said. Tao turned to him and raised an eyebrow in confusion. Suho let out a sigh. “His name was Kai.”

Tao nodded shortly before he continued.

“Kai. I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before.” He said as his eyes darted towards the ground as he immersed himself in his own thoughts. “I can’t remember him, but there is just something about him… I know I’ve met him before, and it gives me a bad feeling.”

“Maybe you should go after them.” Angelica said with a low voice.

“What?” The boys blurted out as their heads turned towards Angelica who was looking up at Taos surprised and confused face.

“If you really think it is our Avry, then you should go after them.” She said matter-of-factly as if it was completely obvious. “You could bring some medical supplies and just say that you thought about helping them out.”

Taos eyes widened a little as the words slowly started to sink in, and a smile started to form on his lips.

“I don’t think it really is our Avry, but if it gives you peace in your mind, then I think you should do it.” She said as she smiled back at him. Taos smile widened.

“You’re a genius Angelica!” Tao beamed and took her face in his palms and kissed her softly.

“I have my moments.” Angelica replied with her cheeks slightly tainted with a pink color.

“I’ll come with you.” Luhan said determined as he walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder with a smile on his face. “If it really is Avry, I’d probably regret it for the rest of my life if I missed out on this chance to see her again.”

Tao nodded. He had to use almost all of his remaining self-control not run home immediately and set after the three strangers. They couldn’t have come far, and he knew that they wouldn’t be able to reject his offer of helping them if he went through all the trouble of catching up with them. It was perfect.

“I’ll let you take two of the horses.” Suho said and smiled the friendly smile that everyone loved him for, as the two heads turned towards him with bright grins. “Just make sure to get them back in good shape.”

Tao and Luhan looked at each other with bright grins before their heads turned towards Suho. The said person just shrugged his shoulders and led them to the stables. They quickly got the horses saddled, gathered a few supplies and headed off in a hope of catching up with the three strangers before they had gone too far.

-

Kai groaned in frustration as he ran his fingers through his hair. The empty road they had traveled on to the village had been crowded ever since they left the village. They couldn’t change in the middle of the road, and if the three of them suddenly disappeared into the forest out of no apparent reason when there was a big road right beside the forest, it would seem suspicious.

“We don’t have time for this.” He hissed through his teeth so that a family that passed by them wouldn’t hear him.

“Calm down.” Chanyeol said in an attempt to make him relax, but he knew it was hopeless.

Chanyeol smiled weakly at the woman that appeared to be the mother as they passed by. She looked at them with furrowed brows as if they had done something out of the ordinary. He then looked at Sehun. The youngest was starting to get impatient as well. Chanyeol could see how his body itched to transform. The way his fists clenched and unclenched made it pretty obvious.

“Just wait until we reach the next crossroad, then we’ll disappear unnoticed and no one will suspect anything.” He said in a final attempt to calm his two friends down.

“Fine.” The both muttered as they kept walking forward.

Chanyeol let out a sigh. He felt like he should say something to brighten their mood, but nothing came to mind. His head was too filled with thoughts and worries.

“At least you should look at the bright side.” He said in a final attempt. The two of them looked at Chanyeol, both with a brow raised in question.

“We got the antidote, a little rest and food and something to drink, and all that without raising any suspicion or getting in trouble. Not even when we talked to Avrys friends and her older brother.” He said and finished off with a smile of satisfaction.

Kai and Sehun looked at each other and shrugged. The older had a point. They had managed to get through half of their journey faster than expected and without causing any problems. Besides, the sooner they returned, the sooner you would be cured and back on your feet. In addition, the fact that the Alpha and the elders had decided to let Cyrus help you meant that they wouldn’t kill you and most likely let you stay after you recovered.

“Should we tell Avry about what we did in the village?” Sehun asked hesitantly. He didn’t want do depresses the mood after they had finally found something good about their situation, but the question would have popped up sooner or later.

“I don’t know.” Chanyeol said as he furrowed his brows.

“She’s going to ask us you know.” Kai said as he stared blankly at the road in front of him.

“I know.” Chanyeol replied in deep thoughts. “The question is whether we should tell her, or lie and say that we didn’t meet anyone but the doctor.”

“I think we should tell her the truth.” Sehun said after a few moments of silence. “It’s bad enough for her to know that we went to her home village without her being able to join us. If she in addition were to find out that we lied… Well, we all know that wouldn’t be a good thing.”

The two others nodded their heads in thought. It wouldn’t be right to lie to you, they knew that, but they still weren’t sure if it telling you the truth was the smartest thing to do.

“But what if,” Kai said as he looked up from the ground and caught his friends attention. “We tell her that we met both her brother and her friends. It would be good for her to know that they’re all doing fine right?”

His friends nodded and waited for him to continue.

“But what if that makes her miss them even more than she already does. What if it makes her miss them so bad that she tries to go back?”

“There’s no way she could do that.” Chanyeol said quickly. “She knows that we wouldn’t agree to it, and that we would catch up with her before even a day passed if she tried to get there on her own.”

Kai nodded a little. He hadn’t thought about that, and the thought made him relax. He disliked the thought of keeping you trapped in the den against your will, but if that were what he had to do to keep you safe, then he would do it.

“Of course she would know that. Everyone knows that, but there is another problem to that.” Sehun said, as he stopped in his tracks and looked at his friends who stopped in front of him and looked at him in curiosity and questioning. “What if she gets help from another wolf? She’s not stupid, and I bet she could easily convince one of our pack members to take her there without us knowing.”

“That would be bad.” Chanyeol said as his thoughts began to spin again. “Hardly anyone in the pack knows about how special she is. She could easily convince someone who doesn’t know yet, that the Alpha ordered her to leave the den and return to the village.”

“And if anyone asked why we weren’t accompanying her, she could just say that it would be too hard to part with us and that it was better if she said goodbye to us before she left the den.” Sehun continued Chanyeols thoughts, and as if on cue, Kai finished their stream of thoughts.

“And with the full moon approaching that would be bad.”

“We can’t tell her.” Chanyeol concluded for all of them. The two others nodded without protest.

“We’ll say we only met with the doctor and keep our mouths shut about everything else.” Kai added as he looked at the others.

Sehun nodded and started to walk again, the others followed suit. “Then that’s another question we won’t have to worry about. We won’t let her know anything about her friends or her brother.”

They all nodded firmly, but on the inside, they could all feel a lump of guilt in their throat that kept growing at the thought of it, and no matter how hard they swallowed it didn’t disappear.

The three of them reached the crossroads soon after and they all heaved a sigh of relief at the sight. They would finally be able to get away from the road and transform. They smiled at the thought that nothing could possibly go wrong from here on. However, fate apparently had another opinion about that.

“Hey guys!”

The three of them froze at the sound of the voice calling from behind. They slowly turned their heads, only to be met by the sight of Tao and Luhan riding towards them.

Oh great. They all thought