You expected a bigger reaction, ranging from shock to anger. Instead, you only got silence back. The two werewolves stared at you as though you were an idiot. You narrowed your eyes at them, “What’s wrong? You don’t understand?”

Sungyeol and Sungjong exchanged worried looks. Sungjong spoke up first, “The necklace belongs to Sunggyu’s grandfather. At least it used to.”

Sungyeol continued, “Before Sunggyu’s grandfather died, he told us to keep the necklace safe and away from outside hands.”

“But when he died, the mayor took the necklace from his body at the examiner’s office. He stole it off of a dead man.” Sungjong snarled in dissatisfaction.

“So what do you mean you know what it does? It’s just a necklace.” Sungyeol tried to make you understand as though you were the one who was in the wrong.

You crossed your arms against your chest, “It has the ability to make someone very happy, depending on their situation.” For some reason, you didn’t think it was a good idea to tell them the truth.

Sungjong’s lips curved into a smile, “It does? So if you find it you’ll be happy?” You nodded, only adding to his amusement. Sungyeol seemed equally amused as he elbowed Sungjong to stop laughing. The two didn’t believe you. You couldn’t help but stare at them, mouth agape due to their ignorance.

You didn’t know why Sunggyu’s grandfather would tell Sunggyu to keep the necklace safe but not tell him what the necklace did in the first place. Or maybe the hunters were wrong about it after all? But that didn’t make sense. Zico was too determined to be wrong.

You looked over and saw the two still laughing at you. You rolled your eyes, “Let’s just go okay?”

Sungyeol came up from behind and threw an arm around your neck, “Whatever you say.” He cooed with a smile. Sungjong laughed again. Teaming up with them would allow you to cover more ground. Hopefully, you’d be able to find the hunters, werewolves, and the necklace and then leave this place quickly.

And admittedly, you did miss them, desperately.

“I think we’ve been here before.”

“Have we?”

“Everything smells the same.”

“L, look over here.”

Myungsoo followed Woohyun’s words and walked over to where he was on the other side of the room. Woohyun pointed to various things around the room.

“This stuff has been disturbed recently.” He pointed to the piece of paper on the floor, then the closet in the corner of the room. “And it reeks in here.”

“Hunters.” Myungsoo voiced, more of a statement than a guess. Myungsoo’s nose twitched, “Do you think the others have been here too?”

Woohyun turned, “You noticed too? It smells similar to our scent but it’s not.” Woohyun had been smelling werewolf ever since he stepped inside this place but he never once thought it odd until now, “If Hoya were here, he’d be able to tell instantly wouldn’t he?”

“That’s why we have to find everyone as soon as possible. We’re better together.” Myungsoo pointed out simply, earning a smile from Woohyun. Myungsoo inspected the steel door closing the only other entrance to the room. He banged on it and a hollow sound vibrated throughout the room. “There’s no handle. It must lock from the outside.”

Woohyun came over and kicked the door, “Then not this way then. Dead end?” Woohyun thought for a moment and was even about to pass by the door as though it were nothing. However, he came upon a sudden revelation, “Wait. If the hunters were here, and it’s plausible because their scent is hanging around this room, then where did they go from here? We haven’t left their scent trail once upon getting separated from the others.” Myungsoo looked towards the door and Woohyun did the same, their thoughts coincided. “They had to have went through this door. But how?” Woohyun questioned.

Myungsoo looked over the door again, “It was open before.”

“Why close off the way back?” Woohyun rubbed the back of his head, his thoughts not being able to piece together made his head ache. “There must be a reason.” He murmured.

Myungsoo’s anxiety grew tenfold at that statement. All due to one statement that played over and over in his head, ‘It’s not safe here.’

“I found it!” Dongwoo yelled loudly as the smile on his face grew wider. Sunggyu and Hoya both stopped what they were doing and exited the room they were in. As they rounded the corner, they found Dongwoo unlatching the handle of a steel door.

Before they could even ask what he found, he yanked the door open. Cool air flew into the space. Dust lifted everywhere and the three coughed. As the dust cleared, instead of being faced with the sun as Dongwoo had hoped, he found himself looking down a hallway. He cursed, “I swear it smelt differently from this place, like home. I thought it would lead outside.”

Hoya patted Dongwoo’s back to comfort him and the two turned to proceed where they had come from.

Sunggyu stepped towards the door and frowned. He needed to find a way out as soon as possible. He refused to let anyone of his pack get hurt yet right now he felt helpless to stop it. Everything about this place felt bad. The air was filled with an ugly scent to which he could not pinpoint the source of.

He sighed and turned to leave as well. However, as he inhaled a deep breath, he suddenly froze in place. “This is,” he mumbled. He turned back around and looked down the hallway again. He knew this hallway. He hadn’t been down it in years, sure, but he still knew it. The reason this hallway smelt like home was because it was. This was the hallway in the basement of their home. He turned quickly, “Dongwoo, you were right.”

Dongwoo and Hoya stopped and stared at him, confused. Dongwoo especially. Sunggyu walked up to Dongwoo and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, “Good job.” He told him as he smiled.

“I don’t understand.” Hoya said as he watched his leader smile.

“This door leads to the basement of our house.” Sunggyu said his discovery out loud.

Dongwoo remembered then the day you had stayed over to babysit the house; the day of Sunggyu’s grandfather’s death anniversary. The two of you had felt a rumble and then a glass broke downstairs. When the two of you went to investigate, he saw the door. Now, looking at the hallway, he saw a glimmer of broken glass on the ground, still not cleaned up from that day.

“Wait,” Dongwoo held up a hand, “Why? I don’t,” He became flustered as he rubbed his head.

“I don’t understand either, all that matters now is we found a way out. All we have to do is find everyone else.” Sunggyu said, now more confident in his ability to protect everyone.

“Whoa,” You voiced out as you almost slipped down the stairs. Your foot had skidded off due to the amount of small debris on the step in front of you. Sungyeol had caught your arm as you yourself gripped onto the bars by the stairs.

“Careful.” He told you as he let go slowly. You mumbled about how you would have been fine and he smiled to himself, something you didn’t catch.

“I still don’t smell anyone. Even though the smell of werewolf is all over the place, it’s not the hyungs.” Sungjong said, the worry on his face evident.

“Then there are other werewolves out there beside you guys?” You asked as you reached the top of the stairs.

“Last time we checked, there wasn’t supposed to be. But then that silver one showed up so I guess we were wrong.” Sungyeol mumbled quickly as he ascended the stairs behind you and now stood beside you.

Sungjong turned to Sungyeol as he bit onto his lips, “Hyung,” he called out. Sungyeol faced him, “That werewolf, the silver one. Did you notice and are just not saying anything?” Sungyeol gulped down, not saying a word. “You did notice.” Sungjong read the look on his face.

You looked up at Sungyeol then back at Sungjong. Sungyeol caught you looking and smiled as though he was comforting you. You didn’t understand though. He focused back on Sungjong, “I did. That werewolf was female.” A click went off in your head. Everything made sense now. When you got out of here, you had something to take care of.

“Everyone else must have noticed too.” Sungjong turned his eyes to you now. You zoned back into reality and blinked blankly at him. You didn’t understand why the two of them seemed to be trying to comfort you.

“Shouldn’t the two of you be excited that it’s female? Dongwoo seemed awfully annoyed at the fact that it was just male werewolves around here. I bet her human form is pretty too.” You said knowingly.

“I could care less if she was pretty.” Sungjong scoffed at your comment. You eyed him and he glared back, “You just don’t understand.”

You shrugged and walked past him. Sungyeol and Sungjong both watched you for a moment, both wishing they could turn back time to when you were still on their side and their side alone. When they didn’t know about any other female existence except yours.

Now, they knew there was a female werewolf out there. More importantly, the entire pack knew. Between their personal affairs and the ones entrusted to them by Sunggyu’s grandfather, they knew which was more important. If there was one female werewolf out there, there had to be more. That was where they needed to be. Not by your side.

You pivoted and realized they weren’t moving, “Hurry up. I don’t want to be separated from you two.” How ironic that your words were exactly what they were thinking.

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A/N:

Another update in celebration of Woollim Entertainment's new duo, Tasty. I like them. Really. I seriously like them. Thank them for this update I suppose~

I'm killing you all? Don't die on me! There's more left to find out :)