Chapter 3

Galen Munroe yawned as he turned off onto the dirt road leading to Cranston Asylum. His rickety old pickup truck struggled to maintain an even pace on the dirt road and the jolting, irritable as it was, served to focus his concentration. He'd been driving for six hours to reach this place, situated deep in the woods of Colby's Cove and knowing he was going to be alone, brought a smile to his lips.

He couldn't wait to shift and run free through the woods. His wolf cried out for release inside of him and he hadn't hunted in almost a week. That's how long he had been outcast from the pack. It had been one week, since his family had turned their backs on him.

"You are a disgrace to this pack and this family,"his father had said, disgust in his voice. "How will you lead someday if you allow your heart to think for you?" It was hard to look at the dark-blond man with green eyes. It was almost like looking in a mirror.

"A disgrace?"Galen countered. "For not killing my brother?"

His mother then slapped him across the face, once, twice.

"Jax is no more a member of this family. He has betrayed all of us and you were meant to end him!"

Galen had looked at his parents, with fire coursing through his blood. "He will always be my brother. . . as well as your son. "

His father had shifted in that moment, and Galen was sure his end had arrived. He shifted too, prepared to go down with a fight. As the two wolves faced off in fury, his mother intervened.

"Death is too good for him,"she said, holding his father at bay. "Banish him, that is a punishment worse than death."

He spent that night in a rundown motel, where he’d found a newspaper and went through the classifieds, to see if he could find a job somewhere. For twelve years, ever since he finished school at eighteen, he'd worked in his parent's bakery as a jack of all trades. He'd saved up some money in those years and could get by for a while, but he really needed something to take his mind off of all the dire disappointments.

It was then he came across an ad, looking for a custodian for Cranston Asylum.

The new owners must have been desperate. They hired him after a phone interview which lasted all of ten minutes. All he had to do, was email his cv and other relevant documents to them.

The building was no longer in use, but in a few months, development would start to turn it into a rustic getaway in the woods and they needed a caretaker, as the previous one died a month ago.

It was a fresh start, and one long overdue.

When the three-storey, red bricked building came into view, Galen swept his hair from his eyes, whistling in disbelief.

"What have I gotten myself into?" he asked out loud.

The place looked like a haunted mansion. Broken shutters mournfully swayed in the breeze and the walls were overgrown with lush vegetation, intermingled with briars. The garden looked like a war zone, with an angelic fountain spitting up water in short bursts.

Luckily, he wouldn't have to stay there. He drove to the left side of the building and the cabin where he would take up stay, appeared before him. Wooden and rustic, but well taken care of.

Galen brought his truck to a stop, grabbed his bag and then prepared for the first day, of his new life.