Chapter 3

The Alpha's Death

"I need to get the bottle first, Jas," I muttered in a hopeless tone. "That was the reason why I did not fly back to New York City with my mum."

"A bottle?" Jasper muttered while digging into his brain about what it was for. "You mean, the bottle that I gave you the other day?" he even made it clear. Fresh from his memories.

Then I dropped my very disappointed body on Jasper's bed and locked my stare on the ceiling, thinking about backing out from our three-day vacation before the pain, discouragement, and disappointment go deeper.

"Come on, Nathalie. It's just a bottle. Don't ruin your day just because of that fucking bottle." Jasper added. This time, the tone of his voice ascended and sharpened.

He then moved out of the bed and slide closer to the window to get some fresh air. With the immediate silence, he was showing, I assumed his mood has already changed like mine.

"It's not just about the bottle, Jas. There's a letter in it. And it so happened that I replied to the letter. Even followed the instruction written on it." I was supposed not to tell him about it but I left no choice.

"So, you came back to this place, expecting you'd get something in return?" His response was absolutely correct. There is no other reason aside from that.

To my surprise, Jasper suddenly burst out laughing. I don't know what it was about but I guess it has something to do with the bottle. I mean what could else be? Even myself could laugh at the joke about the letter until I saw it myself.

I'm just too kind to hear out someone's grievances. Even believed that it truly existed. After bursting his laugh, Jasper then slide back to the bed and jumped on beside me.

"That was too ridiculous, Nathalie. You'd be the craziest half-werewolf, half-human living on earth if you believe that kind of scenario." he then rubbed my hair shortly. "So what does the letter say? Was it a love letter?"

"I'm serious, Jas." I removed his hands from my hair after being irritated. "I believe the owner of the letter was a person. A man. Somewhere out there in the nearby small islands. And his life right now was extremely devastating."

"Okay. Worst-case scenario. Let's just say, that man truly existed. And the bottle has come to arrive on your doorstep. What will you do then? Don't tell me you will keep having this conversation with him? Through sending a letter in a bottle?"

Jasper inhaled deeply. And I followed next to him with the fact that he was right. That kind of communication was outrageous. Absurd. And unrealistic. But it so happened that I somehow believed in several "What-ifs".

"Nathalie, are you even listening to yourself? You already have hundreds of suitors including me which I know will never happen, by the way, even in my next life. What are you still looking for in a man?"

"You knew that it's not just about that, Jasper. Of all the people who would believe me was you. But I was mistaken." Because I could barely bear the discomfort, I jumped out of the bed and rushed to the seashore.

Jasper did not follow me to the seashore. I know he doesn't want the arguments to extend further so he simply let me have much time I needed to cool down and think things through.

But his decision does not affect what I believed in. Because I believed Joshua existed. And with regards to Jasper's question about what should I do about it, even if I have to search for him all over the world, then so be it.

"Umm... Excuse, me, my Lady?" An old man, carrying a bag of garbage appeared behind my back. "You're not allowed to enter the beach in the meantime as instructed by the management."

I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes before I turned around and said, "I know. And I'm sorry uncle. Umm... Do you mind if ask you a question?" then I dropped my gaze to those collections of garbage he was carrying behind him.

"Of course, my Lady. As long it will not hurt my feelings. Please, throw your question whatever that is." The old man chuckled. He then dropped those black garbage bags he was carrying to the ground and heaved a prolonged sigh.

"Umm... Do you know someone who owns a boat? I mean I wanted to rent a boat for island hopping." I've been thinking about that before Jasper and I reached the beach.

The old man suddenly dragged his gaze somewhere far away heading to the deep wide blue ocean in front of us. He even zoomed in the glimpse of his eyes when they intended to close and wrinkled shortly.

"I might know someone but I've heard it's not for rent." The old man continued watching the ocean. And my expression suddenly brightened with the good news.

As far as my wallet is concerned, I brought enough dough to make things possible. Even if Jasper always disagreed with my childish decisions, he can't stand me. I know, in the end, he will always be on my side.

"However, his boat got completely wrecked off and turned into a scrap after the typhoon struck last week," he added that once again saddened by my expression.

Even if I will pay for the boat to get fixed, the fixation will probably take a week or two. Nevertheless, I don't have that long to wait. I might have lost my interest to help Joshua if I waited that long.

"Anyway, I have to send these bottles to the shop. They're money already. And every penny counts for me." The old man then lifted the three large black garbage bags.

"Bottles?" I muttered.

"Yes. I got these bottles after cleaning the ocean. Some of them were already brought to the shop. A cent per bottle was all worth it."

The man was about to turn around but I immediately stopped him from stepping his foot forward and pays for the bottles instead.

A few minutes later, Jasper and I ended up in one room full of empty bottles. Based on my first assumption, there might be around three hundred empty bottles of mixed plastics and glasses in the three garbage bags combined.

"Don't give me that kind of face, Jasper. I already knew that I'm a fool. So, what?" I smiled at him to lift his mood. "If we could not find the letter in one of these bottles, there is still more in the shop."

"For God's sake, Nathalie. You're dragging me into your craziness." Jasper wagged his head sideways as he left no choice.

Then we started checking all the empty bottles in the room. No more talking. Just our eyes being focused on those bottles.

After almost an hour of checking the three large black garbage bags, we found a piece of paper is not just one of the bottles, but a hundred of them. They were of the same quality and the same handwriting.

"See? I told you the person who sent the letter was real." I eagerly announced while wrapping up all the letters in one place.

"Yeah. Joshua is real. But I'm not gonna help you reading those boring letters. I mean... Who on earth could have done those letters, especially from a guy? Maybe he's not the man you think he is."

"So, you were saying he was gay?" I asked back.

"Those words are not from me. You said it yourself. I mean... There's no man in this world who loves writing letters anymore. Nathalie, we are already in a high-tech world."

We then put the empty bottles back in the garbage bags and set them outside. "That is why I wanted to know and see the person better. You said it yourself. He was the only man who write letters these days. And that was the kind of a man I've been looking for all this time. To be my boyfriend and to be my mate."

Jasper agape. I know he wanted me to be his girlfriend but friendship is all I could give him. Nothing more, nothing less.

Later that night, a tiny lit-up lamp illuminated the room as I solemnly started reading the letters in chronological order. Every piece of the letter has a date. There were hundreds of them.

If Joshua wrote them on a daily basis, it simply means that he's been writing these letters for almost a year now. Or more than that since there will still be a few bottles at the junkshop.

As expected about those letters, he keeps writing about his experiences but most of them were disastrous, crying outs, and the feeling that he wanted to disappear, similar to the letter I've read last night.

Jasper, on the other hand, chose not to join me at the table. Instead, he decided to sleep when he could gain nothing out of reading those letters with me.

However, I could not find the letter that could be linked to my response to yesterday's letter. So, instead of searching for it, I wrote a new letter for Joshua.

This time, I jotted down every piece of information about me. Complete name, address, and contact details.

I also included in the letter about me wanting to see him sooner or later. In that way, my heart and mind would feel at ease. And for me to be able to help him with his problem.

The next morning, I immediately rushed to the seashore and throws the bottle into the seawater. Jasper was still in his profound sleep so I did not wake him up.

As I was watching the bottle being dragged by the sea current, my phone suddenly rings. When I checked it out, it was from my mum.

"Mum? I thought we agreed that I'd be back in New York City in three days?" I shortly chuckled. "And if you're calling because dad misses me, please tell him to hold it until the third day..."

"Nathalie," based on the voice from the other line, mum was sobbing. A few seconds later she burst out crying.

"Mum... What's going on?" I let go of my glimpse from the bottle and focused on the phone.

"Your dad... He's gone." Those were the last clear words that came out of mum's mouth. Aside from that, every sound that I could hear was whimpering.

And my hands let go of the phone and dropped to the white sands. My arms and legs were shaking accompanied by the tears that voluntarily dripped to my cheeks.