Everything was normal on the surface but something was amiss.

The locals tried hard to behave like they had in the morning, but the unusual behaviour didn't leave Hritika's eyes.

'Wow! They were so welcoming in the morning and now...Just because I am wearing sweats and an oversized hoodie, it doesn't mean they should look down on me,' Hritika thought as she came out of the restaurant.

She would have just chalked out the stares, not paying any attention to it.  But the occasional sniffing and glazed eyes were the factors that bothered her the most.

"What's with their behaviour? It's not like I entered a 5 star restaurant wearing sweats," she muttered to herself, patting her empty stomach.

No one had stopped her from eating but she was so bothered and irritated that she left the restaurant, leaving her food uneaten.

Going through random food stalls, she stopped at the one that didn't sniff or did something unusual.

"I must say no one can beat street food," she gave out the compliments as she asked for the third serving.

The old lady smiled lovingly and made another plate for Hritika.

"Thank you dear. You are so sweet," the lady thanked her and started talking with her.

That lady had so many stories to tell and Hritika enjoyed them heartily as she too was having a hard time eating alone.

Waving bye to the old lady, Hritika started moving towards her hotel but suddenly changed her path.

Staring at the green patch of land with cold air touching her face, Hritika took a deep breath.

'How can someone ban people from visiting such a beautiful place?' She thought as she looked through the clearing.

Holding the upper wire of the fence with a handkerchief, she put one leg inside after the other through the middle one and entered inside.

Sitting cross legged on the grass with hands behind her, she looked at the sky.

Smiling softly, she was just enjoying her 'me time' when she heard some rustling.

She sat up straight with widened eyes upon hearing and seeing something go past the trees where the forest started. It was too dark to make out what it was but she was sure that there was something.

Not being foolish enough to go and check what was there, she hurriedly stood up and left the clearing.

                           ★★★★★

Joy and Sachi came to an abrupt stop and dashed to hide behind the trees as they smelled a human.

"Shit! I thought humans were banned from coming here," Sachi exclaimed in a scared tone.

"What if they saw us?" Joy asked, equally scared, fearing Alpha's disappointment if he found out about this.

They both made a collective decision to shift back to their human form, knowing that their humans were capable of handling this situation better.

They went behind different trees and shifted back to humans. Taking clothes from the bag they had carried in their mouth, they hurriedly wore them and came out.

"The scent is still strong. The human would be nearby. Let's hurry," Vivaan suggested.

Yara nodded absentmindedly as something about this scent was bothering her.

Sniffing they went behind the trail that scent had left and saw a hoodie-covered person walking a little too fast than the average person.

"Hey wait!!" Vivaan called out but instead of stopping that person started running.

"Dammit!" Vivaan ran behind her.

The human's speed was no match to Vivaan's and hence he easily caught up to her.

Clutching the cloth, he pulled the hood only to get smashed with the girl's long hair.

"Achoo," he sneezed as some of the hair tickled his nose.

Yara too joined Vivaan as the girl turned around with a glare.

Hritika glared at the strangers pretending to be strong even though her heart was beating fast due to fear.

"What were you doing here? Don't you know that people are banned from entering the clearing?" Vivaan questioned.

"I can ask you the same question," Hritika retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"We are the authorities here while you are the trespasser," Yara came up with the lie.

"So now that's clear, state your reason behind entering the clearing," Vivaan ordered in a cold tone.

"First of all, what proof do you have that I was inside the clearing? As for now, I was just having a night walk and ran thinking you were criminals. Secondly, you should make some believable lies. Two teenagers trying to act like authorities. Pfft, as if," Hritika snorted.

Vivaan was getting annoyed with this oversmart human while Yara was getting distracted with the faint smell that was coming from this human.

Yara knew it wasn't this human's scent that was troubling her.

"Is this hoodie yours?" Yara asked, finally understanding the source of that faint smell.

"How does that bother you?" Hritika asked, weirded out by the question.

Vivaan raised an eyebrow at Yara, not understanding what was troubling her.

"Vivaan, Can't you smell something different from her hoodie?" Yara mind-linked.

"Nope. There's my scent, yours and this girl's. That's it," Vivaan answered with furrowed eyebrows.

"Hey wait!" Vivaan called out as he saw Hritika walking away.

While they were mind-linking, Hritika took the opportunity to get away. She didn't know what they were doing but knew that their attention wasn't on her so she left as soon as she could. Alas! They stopped her again.

"Argh!" she groaned upon her failed attempt to escape.

"What's your problem? Why are you troubling me? Wait, I totally understand now. You two were behind the trees, weren't you? The one's who made the rustling sound. Ooo, you two were worried that I saw you two having fun. Don't worry, I only heard the rustling noise. It was too dark to see anything," Hritika assured them, albeit a little cheekily.

"Don't get too adventurous. Umm...you two aren't minors, right?" Hritika questioned.

Everything aside, if they were minors then she would have to report them.

"We weren't doing...," Vivaan started denying but Yara stopped him by clutching his hand.

"Don't worry, we are adults and you are right. We were worried because we thought you saw us," Yara spoke in a sheepish tone.

"Learn some manners from your girlfriend. And I didn't see anything so stop worrying," Hritika taunted Vivaan and started leaving after mumbling the word 'Authorities' in a snorting way.

Hritika was right that they both were the ones who made the rustling sound but not in the way she was thinking.