Chapter 3

Weeks turned into months, every day was a struggle for Hugo; between the pack matters and the hotel being busy; the financial burdens from his family crushing him, some days he just wished the earth would open up and swallow him, hell had to be better than where he was… Today marks three years since Hugo’s dad passed away, he woke up feeling the void in his life. Hugo got out of bed by midday and prepared a few snacks, his dads favourite whiskey; a quick shower and slipping on black board shorts and a black t-shirt, Hugo got into his silver BMW x7 2022 edition and headed off to the pack house. It was a twenty-minute drive down to the private beach. Hugo just needed to get out the house and reach out to his father for some sort of guidance. Hugo reached the pack house, by this time of day most of pack members had gone off to their day jobs; kids at school and it will be a little peaceful. Hugo had his private house just a few meters away from the huge pack house, Hugo’s house faced the ocean, he had his private beach strip, and nobody dared disturb him; as much as Hugo was a warm and compassionate Alpha, but he was also fierce and, in many encounters, killed to protect his pack.

Hugo unpacked the cooler box from the trunk of the SUV and made his down to the beach. He placed a blanket down, cracking opened the bottle of whiskey, he poured a stiff shot for his late father, the man he idealized. He raised the glass up in the air, the tears welling in his eyes.

“This one is for you dad, thank you for raising me into the strong, brave young man. I am so grateful to call myself your son. There is not a day that goes by where I do not miss you; I feel so lost and lonely without you dad. I hope you are resting easy and its better up there than it is down here… Cheers pops”.

Hugo poured the shot into a wave that crashed upon the shore and took a swig from the bottle, the tears ran down his cheeks as he remembered his father and the times they spent together; the wisdom he gave Hugo. The waves crashed onto the shore and pooled around his ankles, he stood looking out into the distance; pulled out of his thoughts by the squawking of a seagull; he wiped his eyes and sniffled a little. Walking back to the picnic blanket and snack box, Hugo sat down and took out a turkey, bacon, and lettuce brioche with a side of crisps.

“Dad, I really wish you were here; things at home are getting unbearable; mum, Rowyn and Paige make it unbearable for me to come home; work is just another dead-end and I still have to hide my werewolf abilities from the human world and uphold my Alpha responsibilities to the pack. The financial stress is becoming unbearable; I just don’t know how you held the household together so meticulously. Everything is piled on my shoulder and I feel like I am being crushed under the weight of the entire world; Dad, I am losing myself and honestly, I want to start my life; I want to have someone to come home too. Just; all I am asking is for a sign from you dad, something that shows me things will work out and that I am on the right path.”

Hugo looked up at the sky and waited for a sign, but none came; for a brief moment Hugo thought about hooking up with his ex-human girlfriend just to have a little stress relieve, when out of nowhere a mini tidal wave hit Hugo full on, soaking the blanket, food , the sea water mixing with the whiskey and drenching Hugo; he looked out at the ocean.

“Okay dad, I get it… I will not go down that path, I guess I’ll just trust the process and maybe, even though I am a bitten werewolf; the moon goddess will bless me with a mate that will love me for all that I am, all that I will become.”

A bright warm beam peaked through the clouds and shone over Hugo, he looked around him and saw his father standing over him and smiling, his hand on his head, Hugo closed his eyes and leaned into the warmth of the sun ray, he knew his father was not really there; but the warmth made his heart ache but also feel full, Hugo slowly opened his eyes as the warmth faded, looking up at the sky; Hugo smiled after a really long time,

“Thanks pops, I know I can always count on you to have my back and guide me when I lean to the wayward side”.

As Hugo packed up the trunk of his SUV, Zeke came over,

“Hey brother, how you doing?”

“What’s up man, Nha; things are okay I guess, just taking it a day at a time”

Zeke looked at Hugo,

“Bro, what happened to you?”

“My father decided that I needed to catch a wakeup”

“Ahhh, couldn’t pass a single mad thought with the old man; have anymore whiskey?”

“The old man decided that I had enough to he mixed it with sea water”

“Good thing I brought a six pack”

Hugo and Zeke went around and sat on the porch, the two young men chuckled and caught up as old friends do and continued in fun banter until Zeke’s phone buzzed continuously, Hugo could see the Zeke was trying to silence the notifications until he saw the notifications were from tinder, taking a large gulp of his beer, Hugo decided to have a go at Zeke;

“Tinder, eh”

“Decided to give the human dating app a try, nothing serious just a casual hook-up”.

“I see”

“Why don’t you give it a try, maybe meet other women while you wait to see if the moon goddess will give a bitten werewolf a mate as well”

“You know I don’t want a casual hook up… I want something serious and that has a meaning”

“Just d******d the app and give it a try… what do you have to lose?”

“Point”

Hugo gulped down his beer and by the third beer he was downloading tinder and creating a profile. Once Hugo reached home slightly tipsy, he spent the remainder of the afternoon swiping left on almost every profile he stumbled across, the days passed by, Hugo had a few matches to see how the app works but none of them actually interested him, his inbox on tinder just flooded, he toyed a little with some emotions but then he just got bored; just as he was about to delete the app, a profile caught his attention; he sat upright on his chair at work, on his screen was a milky white, raven black haired and sapphire blue eyed goddess on his screen, he swiped right and now his nerves kicked in, waiting to see if she would accept the match so he could strike a conversation or would he strike out. He had no idea why, but something about this woman made his heart skip a beat, his palms sweaty and his breathing heavy; Sarai Carter, even her name was as sexy as she. The wait for a response was absolute agony, he closed the app and tried to focus on the other tasks at hand.