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.
All through Winter and Spring Sarai was miserable, her birthday being the absolute worst, Bruce called on the morning of her birthday; making her feel lousy for having a birthday to celebrate her life all because his father had passed away; Bruce expected Sarai to be in mourning with him. No matter how much Sarai tried to explain that she was in no way disrespecting the mourning period, Bruce was always drunk and flaunting how wealthy he was. The day before her birthday Sarai and Bruce went on a “date”, Sarai attempted to make things work, but the very second that Bruce tried to hold her hand or kiss her, just repulsed her and she pulled back instantly and made excuses, this was also done of many of the previous “dates” that Sarai went on with Bruce, each time she was more miserable than the last, Sarai thought back to the last lunch date with Bruce, where he refused to pick her up, or even bring her flowers… ever, claiming that they would die and just a huge waste of money.On many
The next day Sarai was up and about as if nothing had happened the day before, Bruce had tried calling her a number of times to wish her for her birthday, but she was not interested; today was about her, she was a whole twenty-four and she would not let anyone, or anything steal her thunder! Sarai woke up and got dressed, in a few hours her family and some friends would be coming over to celebrate her. Sarai put on her summer dress that was Emerald green, looking down at her bruised arm and torse she concealed it all with makeup, she could not afford for her family or friends to see what Bruce had done yesterday; just last night she had escaped her father noticing her bruised arm and her sisters almost spotted her torso being bruised when she was reaching up on the shelve for popcorn seeds. The colour of her birthstone as well, the dress ended just four fingers above her knees with lace cute out around her waist, earlier in the week she also got a fresh cut of her hair shoulder length
For the duration of winter Sarai avoided Bruce, the more she tried to break up with him, the more he cried and emotionally blackmailed her, Sarai was a gentle and warm person; but Bruce was bringing out a dark and toxic side to her that she did not like. In the weeks that Sarai had been declining to meet Bruce, Sarai had visited the shooting range and got her gun license, she knew that when she did decide to meet Bruce, she would need to protect herself if necessary. After two months, Sarai pulled herself together and agreed to meet Bruce.Sarai arrived at the mall two hours ahead of the scheduled time. She knew when the malls get busier during the lunch breaks and school kids finishing for the day, Sarai chose a spot that was in view of the security guards and a whole lot of people, she kept her revolver in her handbag and sat at one of the tables and waited for Bruce to show up… an hour passed by and Bruce had not shown up, she looked at her phone and there were no texts or calls, a
Two months had gone by and Sarai was finding it more and more difficult to settle in; most days she sat at home with her sisters or they would go out for lunch or brunch; in a couple of weeks her sister Serena would go back to medical college in China and Sadie would start the high school year, Sarai would then be completely alone. A lonely, sad twenty-four-year-old, with no social life and living with her parents; Sarai decided that she would start a cute little bakery at Rockshore Mall outdoor food court now that she was on the verge of being unemployed, she remembered the call she received from work a few months back,FLASHBACK STARTS“Hello, yes this is Sarai Carter speaking”. “Miss Carter this is Simon from BlueSky Airways, how are you today?”“I am well Simon, how are you?”“Well, thank you for asking. Miss Carter, I am sure that by now you are aware of why I am calling”“Yes, I have an idea and that this is for formality”.“Miss Carter, I would like to inform you that this is
Unfortunately, the bakery gotten even busier after valentines day, and Bianca had some wedding duties to attend and interviews for positions in sales. The girls had tried to making time to meet after work just for a sundowner drink and snacks at either of their houses, but something always came up. Sarai hated to admit it but her curiosity was getting the better of her and she wanted to prove a point to Bianca that all those gorgeous men were nothing more than catfish; Sarai downloaded the dating app and waited a few days,“B, I downloaded the app”“No way! We were supposed to do that together babe!”“I know, I know…. But you know how anxious I get”“I know… so, are you going to create a profile?”“No, I will try and wait for you”“Okay, well hopefully this week I will have time and we can meet and do this”Alas, that did not happen, one night Sarai got bored of drawing up budgets for the business and just looking at spreadsheets that focused on analysing the growth of the bakery; her
Thursday came faster than Sarai had expected, she was excited and nervous all at the same time, she couldn’t decide what to wear, some of her clothes too casual, too formal, too sexy and evening wear, too “curl up with a book at home”. Sarai sat on her bed staring aimlessly at her wardrobe; she then pulled out a plain white t-shirt and a three-quarter denim ripped jean and paired it up with a crisp clean pair of white Nike trainers. Keeping her makeup very minimal, she used a little compact powder, black eyeliner, mascara, and ruby red lipstick; Sarai straightened out her hair. Sarai got into her small Hyundai I20 and left for work, a part of her was shaking with nerves while the other part could not wait for the clock to strike two.Sarai kept looking at the clock while attending to customers. As the time dragged, she looked over at her phone that had been buzzing with messages from Hugo, she had been replying but every time she had the goofiest smile on her face, butterflies in her
Thursday Morning Hugo got back from his long and draining shift at the hotel; he had a couple hours to get a solid sleep and be fresh when he met Sarai later that afternoon, as he thought about it, he realized that he had been looking forward to this little coffee date all week and that kept him going. Hugo took a shower and laid down on his bed, his eyes grew heavy; he was drifting into a happy sleep when his mother came barging into his room,“Hugo, wake up you need to take Paige to do grocery shopping”“Can’t she take an uber this one-time mom?”“No, why waste money on Uber when you have a big fancy car”“Mom, I will give her the money for the Uber, I am exhausted and I have a bit of a busy afternoon”“What’s more important than being there for your family?”“It is not more important, but might be equally important”“You will take Paige, that is the end of story”“Fine, tell her to come wake me in an hour”Hugo turned on his stomach and closed his eyes, as he drifted into a deep s
“I love you Hugo”“What?”Hugo was beyond flabbergasted, he looked at Sarai wide-eyed; but in his mind Beast was doing somersaults and howling loudly that Hugo could not focus or react. Sarai covered her mouth,“I’m sorry… I have no idea what came over me; I will understand if this has freaked you out and I never hear from you again”Sarai turned to her car, her hands trembling as she unlocked her car and got in, Hugo held the car door open before Sarai could slam it shut“Where are you going?”“Home, I think I’ve embarrassed myself enough in these last few minutes”Hugo took Sarai by the hand and pulled her gently out the car, he held her around the waist and pulled her close, their faces inches away, Hugo pushed back a stray strand of hair that blew over Sarai’s face,“You did nothing wrong… you simply spoke your mind”