An hour later, I was back on the doorstep of the little cottage in the woods that had been my home all my life. Its tenants included my older brother, his mate and me. Before it had been my father's home too, but now it was just the three of us.
I entered through the wooden front door into the kitchen where my brother, Tobias, sat pouring over a piece of paper in his hands, his forehead creased and eyes fixated on the words.
Rose, his mate, stood next to him, her hand resting on his shoulder.
Tobias was the official Alpha of the Nightingale pack, a role he was burdened with when he was just sixteen after the murder of our father. In the space of an hour, he had gone from a carefree teenager to a leader, charged with the sudden responsibility to lead a pack alone. Not to mention that I was only a kid at the time and with both of our parents dead, he was left to raise me.
So when after three years of struggle he met his mate, Rose, and instantly fell in love with her strength and courage, he jumped at the chance to share his power with her and rule as a team.
Six or so years later, I turned seventeen and the duo became a triplet each with equal charge, responsibility and say in everything we did.
With three of us, it was easy to agree. There was always a majority and that majority always won any dispute, even if it was Rose and me against Tobias.
And together we were strong. The pack was run fairly, the people liked us which meant they trusted us and were glad to follow our lead.
But now this famine threatened everything we'd worked so hard towards. If we couldn't find a way out of this, we would have failed our people and therefore failed as leaders.
"What's that?" I asked, looking down at the paper in his hand as I hung my bow and arrows on their hooks.
"It's a letter from the Pheonix pack," he replied, pressing his hand against his head as he examined it once more.
I furrowed my eyebrows.
"The Pheonix pack?"
"It came as a surprise to us too," Rose said, folding her arms.
I scoffed.
"What are they saying? Threatening to burn what little grain we have left? Boasting about all our people they have murdered?"
Tobias looked up and took a deep breath.
"No..." he said, holding the letter out to me, "They are offering us their... help."
I looked over to Rose in confusion before stepping forward and taking the letter out of his hand.
I skimmed over it.
"Dear Alpha Brynn, I'm writing to offer you help during this time of struggle. Blah, blah, blah. My lands persevered through the trials of this year and remained fertile. Yada, yada. We have grain and will consider negotiating trade with you. Blah, blah, blah. Kind Regards, Alpha Rivers of the Pheonix pack."
It was written in the perfect cursive with sharp thin lines and rich black ink. The signature at the bottom was unnecessarily elaborate, filling a quarter of the page with neat swirls and lettering.
I finished staring at the letter and looked up at Tobias and Rose, even more confused than I was before.
"Why in the name of the Goddesses would the Alpha of the Pheonix pack want to help us?" I asked. "We've been fighting them for decades."
Tobias leant back in his chair, "I have no idea... but..."
"Please say you aren't considering it," I said, knowing that look on his face.
"In two weeks, we will have run out of crop and all the deer and rabbit in the forest will be hunted to extinction. In three weeks, we will be starving. In four weeks, the young, elderly and weak will start to die. In two months, we all will have died," he said, his lips set apart and a look of dismay on his face, "This is our only hope, Esme."
"And you really think you can trust Alpha Rivers? After everything he has done?" I asked. "There's an ulterior motive behind this and we all know it."
The Pheonix pack bordered our territory and had been rivalling with us for years. We were smaller and weaker than them and Alpha Rivers wanted us to stay that way so it wasn't uncommon for Pheonix men to leech into Nightingale land unprovoked to plumage and destroy. He was our enemy and I was not going to jump at the chance to trust him.
"Or maybe there isn't an ulterior motive. We thought Alpha Rivers had his heart set on seeing this pack crumble. Well, now we're crumbling. Why would he step in and interfere if he really wanted that?"
"Exactly my point. We don't know and we can't trust him," I replied.
"Do you have a better idea?" Tobias asked, "I refuse to watch my people starve. There are thirty Nightingale children out there that will die and watch their parents and grandparents die. We can't just accept that."
"At least five of those children won't see their parents die because Alpha Rivers and his men have already killed them," I replied. "We need to find another way to stop the famine. A way that doesn't involve trusting the bloody devil."
I glared once more at Tobias before turning to the kitchen door.
"Esme," I heard Rose's voice plead but I just stormed up to my bedroom in the attic of the house.
An hour or so later, there was a gentle knock on my door.
"Come in," I said.
The door opened. It was Rose. She sighed before putting on a smile and sitting on the end of my bed.
"You know all your brother wants to do is what's best for the pack," she said.
I nodded, "I know."
"And it's been over six months since we last had trouble with the Pheonix pack-"
I groaned and threw my back down on the mattress, "You think we should negotiate with Alpha Rivers too?" I asked, staring up at the wooden beams in the ceiling.
"Yes," she said, "We don't have long and this could be our only chance. We don't know his motivation but whatever it is, it can't be a greater threat than the extinction of the entire Nightingale pack, right? Worse than what is already going to happen."
I sat up and raised my eyebrow, locking my eyes on her, "Alpha Rivers."
She rolled her eyes, "Okay... but my point is we have nothing to lose," she said, "But everything to gain."
"Our dignity?" I suggested.
"Is dignity worth death?" she asked.
After rolling onto my front and pressing my face into my pillow I sighed, "I suppose you're right."
"I'm glad you agree. Because it was two against one and we were gonna do it any way but it's good to have our you on board."
"And you're not just agreeing because Tobias is your mate?"
She opened her mouth in shock and laughed, "You know me better than that, Miss Brynn! Never!"
I smiled, "Just teasing."
She then wrapped her arm around me, "It'll be okay, Esme," she said in a much softer tone, "I'm sure of it."
I squeezed her hand, "I hope you're right."
The next morning, Tobias wrote back to Alpha Rivers, enquiring further into his offer. It was only a day before we received his response, ordering us to meet him at the waterfall, where the river flowed that separated our territory from his."Why does he want to meet us?" Rose asked as she stood at the stove, pouring the hot water from the kettle into the teapot, which held a dismal number of leaves for three people, "Can he not send us the grain and be done with it?""Apparently not..." Tobias replied from the kitchen table, "He wants to meet us, me specifically, to decide if he will help us."I rolled my eyes, "What a power freak," I muttered. "He wants to look down on us, desperate and hungry, knowing that the power to control our fate is in his hands. What a bloody-""Esme," Tobias inte
The next afternoon, Rose and I were in the kitchen, peeling the last three small, shrivelled potatoes left of this week's ration whilst Tobias sat repeatedly throwing a stone up into the air and catching it again in the same hand.I had just finished peeling the final potato when I caught him doing it once again in the corner of my eye and clenched my teeth. After abruptly stabbing the peeling knife into the table, I snapped my head to him."Tobias," I hissed, "You are going to drive me insane."He looked at me and sighed before lifting his feed off the table and leaning forward, "I'm sorry. Alpha Rivers could be here, on our territory, any moment and I'm anxious.""Well, you're making us all anxious. Go and throw your stone somewhere else," I replied, "We're trying to make soup out of lite
Later that evening, I sat stretched out on the sofa with my legs up on the armrest staring at the ceiling. Tobias was on the opposite side of the room in his armchair reading a book whilst Rose sat with a head rested on his shoulder as she tried to pick the dried flour from under her nails.We'd spent all afternoon and evening delivering rations of grain to villages and families only to come home and make the first fresh bread we'd had in weeks which, whilst in actual fact was probably just fairly ordinary bread, tasted like heaven. The smell still lingered in the air in all its yeasty glory which made a welcome change from the stale smell of wilting cabbages and bread baked months ago that we had become accustomed to.But as I enjoyed the feeling of a full stomach at last, my mind couldn’t help but dwell on the new doom we could now face.
The following morning was a beautiful one. We were still in the early moments of dawn, the first rays of golden morning sun only just creeping up over the horizon. They filtered through the branches of the trees outside my window, filling my room with glorious light that flickered and danced with every little breeze.I lay my sheets flat on my bed and splashed my face with some cold water before picking up my bow and arrow.It's been weeks since I last went for a hunt. But now that we had grain, there was less need to preserve the wild animals so it was time to treat myself - especially considering how sour this morning was inevitably going to turn later on when Alpha Rivers returns and drags us deeper into his shady deal.I had to make the most of it now."Morning, Esme," a voice said as I reached the bottom of the stairs.I froze. It wasn't as familiar as Rose and Tobias's voices but it wasn't entirely unfamiliar either.Deep and col
Six weeks after the arrival of the first grain and the Nightingale pack had been restored to what it once was. With food in their bellies and a steady supply more, the people were happy again and although we had the knowledge of Alpha Rivers' mysterious enemy looming over us, there was no sign of them yet and we let ourselves relax in the moment of peace.Every week Alpha Rivers came with more grain. I usually did my best to avoid him by staying in my room and watching him out the window or tactically going to hunt at times I thought he was most likely to appear. But he gave no indication of when he was going to come and followed no identifiable pattern so there were still occasions where I got caught out and I fell victim of his invasive stares and snide comments.On one afternoon when Rose and Tobias had gone for a run, I heard the distinct sound of his cart rolling towards the house.After putting my book down and getting up from my bed, I sidled up to my win
After my hunt, I emerged from the woods and headed for the house, I noticed the Pheonix cart was still outside.My stomach sunk. I was hoping he'd left.Whilst Alpha Rivers himself was nowhere in sight, the man he had brought with him stood leant against the cart, his arms folded, patiently waiting."Where's Alpha Rivers?" I asked him."Talking with Alpha Brynn," he replied. "Something about adding vegetables to the grain deliveries."I nodded and began heading to the house, no intention of going anywhere near our office where I knew they would be."You want my advice, sweetheart?" he called after me.I didn't bother turning around."Not really."Who even is this man?"Stay away from, Alpha Rivers," he said firmly, "I know he's doing business with your pack but do not get personally involved."I scoffed and turned around to look at him, "I wasn't planning on.""Just be careful.""Why?" I asked
"Your form is wrong," a voice said.I was in the forest, as I was nearly every afternoon, training. I was halfway through my fifty push-ups and as soon as I recognised the voice I just rolled my eyes."It's not," I replied bluntly.Alpha Rivers seemed to spend more time on our territory these days than he spent on his own. He was constantly delivering grain and vegetables - one day he came with a single sack of turnips and spent three hours in our kitchen talking to Tobias and getting in my way as I was trying to cook.He also had this irritating habit of following me into the woods. I was a woman who valued my time alone and I used to find the forest a peaceful escape. But now it was just another place I had to keep an eye out for him and put up with his condescending, sexist, annoying comments."You're making it harder for yourself without any benefit," he sung, an amused smile on his lips."I'm not," I repeated."Straighten your ba
We kept walking along the lake in quiet until we reached a break in the reeds and vegetation where there was a small beach. He stopped and stepped onto the sand, taking another deep breath of the fresh air.By now the sun had nearly dropped below the horizon, giving the air a wintery chill."Tomorrow at noon, when the sun is at its warmest, come swimming with me here," he said, turning to me.He didn't phrase it as an offer but I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow."Why?" I asked."Why not?" he said in a bored tone, "Live a little, Esme."I sighed and stepped down off the path to join him on the sand. Standing so close next to him, his scent drifted into my nose, undiluted by the other smells of wood and animals around us. I took a deep breath, my muscles easing as I followed his gaze out to the beauty of the lake."I warn you, it's freezing at this time of year," I replied.His lips curled into