Swimming Through Sick Lullabies - Larry Stylinson

Chapter 18

"So, this is where you last saw him?" Nick questioned.

"Yes, and he walked that way." Harry pointed at the direction he'd seen Louis leaving.

Nick sniffed the air a couple of times, before taking in a large gulp of air. "I caught a faint trace of his scent and indeed, it leads us that way."

"Huh," Niall fussed, parroting Nick's actions, "I can't smell a thing!"

"That's because of my advanced alpha senses, Niall. Yours isn't as strong as mine. We've been over this ages ago." He ruffled the blond's hair in a brotherly way and proceeded in the direction where Louis had gone too. The two other werewolves quickly following him.

He leads them through a couple of streets, houses getting smaller as they drifted away from the centre of the town, ending up near the edge of the woods. Nick froze. He sniffed a couple of time, eyebrows scrunched.

"Boys," He mumbled, his tone getting higher as if he was uncertain, "Take a sniff yourself and tell me who this is."

Harry and Niall instantly filled their lungs with air, breathing through their nose. They too got confused expressions on their face real fast.

"Well?" Nick inquired.

"I think I," Harry started, taking another sniff to see if he had it right. Could it be? "I think I faintly smell the creature? I thought we were following Louis' trace?"

"We were." Nick answered darkly.

"What? So Louis' scent just disappeared and changed into the creature's scent? Is Louis the-"Niall started to shake.

"No." Nick interrupted. "Yes, Louis' scent vanished, and yes, I can smell the creature too."

"But?" Harry pushed impatiently.

"But, I can smell Louis' scent coming from here," He pointed to where they came from, "And the creature's scent coming from there," he pointed a little bit to the eastern side of the woods. "What peculiar is, is that I can only sense the creature leaving that way." He made a gun of his fingers and pretending shooting towards the south-eastern part of the woods.

"So, like, he ate Louis?"

"Niall! This is not a time for joking!" Harry hissed at the blond, before turning back towards Nick. "What do you think happened?"

"I honestly have no idea. I do propose we follow the third scent. Maybe we'll get an answer to your question sooner than we think."

Nick went off and they followed them, as the trace got stronger and stronger, Harry finally got to follow his nose rather than Nick's. The woods got denser, trees more packed and soggy mud tainting their shoes. He thought it couldn't be far anymore because the scent got very strong.

They were focused only on their nose, practically turning off their other senses, which is probably why they hadn't heard or seen him coming. Harry only noticed it, too late, when Nick and Niall fell to the ground like lump sacks of potatoes. Strong arms locked him in their hold.

Fuck, fuck. What was happening? Panicking, Harry made good use of the adrenaline in his blood to try and get out of the chokehold, but it was effortless. There were hands, if he could call it hands, covered with scales and ending in claws, ripping his clothes where they were holding him. For heaven's sake, what was this? It didn't have a smell, had made his mates pass out in the blink of an eye and it was stronger than a bloody grizzly bear.

"Let go of me!" He begged still struggling to get out of the iron grip.

"Oh, but Harry. The fun part hasn't even begun yet.