While the Beta drove the car, Justin in his wolf form sat on the passenger seat. Apparently, werewolves' senses are heightened when they are in their wolf form. Justin was sitting on the passenger seat and giving directions to the Beta while using his nose to find out where exactly Elijah's body was. They had driven for no more than thirty minutes, when the Beta pulled the car over. They had arrived at some kind of a restaurant with rooms available for booking. Looking at the faces of everyone in the car, it was pretty obvious that this was where Elijah had died.

"Xander, Jeremy, follow me inside. Alexa and Maddy go check his car. It is the red one over there." Justin said pointing at a Chevrolet. He handed Alexa a spare key and together, Alexa and Maddy made their way to the car.

The car looked perfectly fine which was surprising. Maddy had expected some kind of damage like a dent, but it seemed as though everything was fine. Alexa unlocked the car and searched the front while Maddy searched the back part.

Maddy was checking under the seats when Alexa gave a small shout of surprise.

"Maddy look! The fuel is nearly full," Alexa exclaimed.

"Yeah, so?"

"Quick, search if there are any gasoline bills."

Maddy still didn't understand what Alexa was thinking, but started searching for any bills. They both searched for some time but couldn't find any.

"This car belongs to the pack and whenever it is taken out for important stuff like this, the fuel is always filled to the brim so that there are no stops needed to refill the gasoline. As this is the pack car, the pack in general pays for the gasoline.

Whenever someone needs to refill the tank, they keep the bill. On showing the bill to dad, he will be repaid the amount required for the gasoline. Since, the pack pays 80% of their income to the Alpha, the Alpha takes care of such basic necessities," Alexa explained.

"We will search his room as well for a bill, but if we can't find any it means only one thing. Elijah never reached his destination. We thought that they had somehow figured out that he was a spy and then killed him on his way back, but considering the fact that he didn't use up much of the fuel and he didn't refill the tank either, he never reached the safe house but was killed before itself."

Maddy nodded along as the things became clearer. "This means that someone was waiting for him," she said.

Alexa nodded. "We got to tell dad. Come on."

The two of them rushed inside. On reaching, Maddy was once again surprised. There was no sign of any bloodshed. He looked like he had died in his sleep with his eyes closed.

The Pack Doctor confirmed her thoughts. "He died from carbon monoxide poisoning. He had lit a fire to keep himself warm in this room. Unfortunately, he had shut all the doors and windows. The fire ate up all the oxygen and there wasn't enough oxygen for him to breathe in."

The Beta nodded. "It was a natural death. The door and windows were already opened by some maids when we came in. They had been extremely scared on seeing the dead body. Luckily, we reached before they could take this to the police and when they came to know that it was natural, they didn't call the police. Police poking their nose into werewolf business often get killed."

Maddy and Alexa shared a look of disappointment. If this was a natural death, their entire theory was wrong. The fireplace did have some ashes indicating that there had been a fire lit. However, Justin looked uncomfortable.

"It seems wrong. There has to be something we are missing. During his last moments, Elijah's emotions had been desperate. If Elijah had died in his sleep his emotions would have been calmer," Justin said, pacing back and forth in the room.

The Beta placed his hand on Justin's shoulder. "There is nothing wrong. You must be feeling this way because you are feeling guilty that you had appointed him to scout the safe house. It wasn't your fault. It could have happened to anyone, anywhere."

Xander went up to the door and started inspecting it. He then went to the fireplace and ran his hand through the top part. He spent some time there inspecting each and every corner. Seeing this, Justin too went to the windows and started examining it. When he reached the third window, he exclaimed loudly.

"The latch here is broken! This means he couldn't have possibly closed the windows."

The Pack Doctor frowned. "But I am sure he died because of carbon monoxide poisoning."

A chill went through Maddy's spine as she realized what had happened. "The windows were locked from the outside not inside. This was staged to look like a natural death."

This was even worse than being stabbed to death. She couldn't imagine Elijah's emotions in the last few minutes. He must have known that he was going to suffocate slowly to death, and to know that you are going to die soon must be horrible. Maddy shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.

Meanwhile, Alexa started narrating her theory about Elijah not reaching the safehouse.

"Why did Elijah book this room if he was going to just eat lunch?" Maddy asked, still not understanding.

At that question everyone smiled sadly. "Elijah had this habit of having a nap after eating lunch. It is a well-known fact among the pack. He would have booked this room for that."

Now that Maddy thought about it, Alexa's theory fit in perfectly well with Elijah's death. Elijah would have come here to eat lunch as he had set out just before lunch and then gone to sleep. The rogues locked him in after a lighting a fire in the fireplace. The fire would have taken some time to consume all the oxygen. By then the rogues are far away from the scene of crime. Soon, Elijah had died from suffocation and if they hadn't discovered the broken lock, they would have thought that Elijah died a natural death.

But somethings kept bothering Maddy as they made their way back to the Amalthea Pack headquarters. Why did the rogues kill him if Elijah hadn't even reached the safehouse? Were they afraid that Elijah might have found something if he was allowed to reach the safehouse? How did they know that Elijah would be going to their safehouse? How did they know that Elijah would book a room to nap after lunch?

Pushing all the thoughts away, Maddy tried to catch up on some well-deserved sleep on their way back.

Make sure to vote, comment and share this story. -Aroha