The rain of earlier had returned as a raging storm by the time Lou got me to the doorstep of a large house. We were wet through but he soon sat me down and lit a warm fire before finding some dry clothes and making me a soothing mug of hot cocoa.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting down on the end of the bed he had made up for me.
"I've been better," I said hoarsely.
He sighed and squeezed my hand.
"I've had word from some of the men," he said, "Alpha Rivers won't be here until the morning."
"And what horrors will the morning bring?" I asked.
"He's taking you to the Nightingale territory where he will announce Alpha Brynn's death and declare himself your people's new Alpha. The Nightingale citizens are being escorted home tonight and ordered to gather at the waterfall at 10 am tomorrow."
I hugged my knees tighter to my chest, "Just in case he hasn't taken enough from me. Now he's taking my pack."
"I'm sorry, Esme," he said
Half an hour later I was in the hallway of the Pheonix packhouse tying my boots as I sat on the bottom step of the stair. Theodore had just shrugged on his jacket and was now reaching for the coat stand.He plucked the jacket off the top and thrust it in my direction.It was mine. The one I left on Tobias's body.I took it and stared down at it."What did you do with their bodies?" I asked, clutching the brown leather between my fingers."Burnt them," he replied. "The ashes are in the pocket of your jacket."I reached into the pocket to find a glass vial filled with what looked like just the grey soot of a fire. I wrapped my fist tight around it and held it close to my chest."Can I sprinkle them on Nightingale territory?" I asked.He paused for a second before nodding, "Lou will escort you to wherever you want before I claim the pack."I reached for my bow but Theodore's hand got to it before me."You don't need
The next few years weren't easy. I was Alpha of not one but two united packs and I didn't have my Brother and Rose, who the pain of losing still crippled me, beside me to help.But perhaps even more shockingly, a few weeks after Theodore Rivers' death, I discovered I was pregnant.At first, it nearly destroyed me to be carrying his child after everything he did.But eight months later, when I gave birth to my son, I couldn't have felt more the opposite. When he first opened his eyes, I couldn't help recognise their hazel-brown colour and when chocolate brown curls began to sprout from his head, they felt all too familiar but he was my little bundle of joy and when I looked at his sweet little face I didn't feel any of the pain of the past. Only happiness and motivation to carry on even when things got tough. He filled the hole that Theodore had left and without him, things could have been very different.Lou was there for me and my son, who we named
Silence: the absence of sound.It's supposed to be peaceful, tranquil, calming. To ease the mind and body into secure relaxation, free of worries and strife.But I am a firm believer in context.And as I stared out across the fields of brown, I longed only for any sound of life. The chirp of a cricket, the buzz of a bumblebee or the whisper of swaying grass in a gentle breeze.But there was only silence. And it certainly did not bring me any peace.I tilted my head back, taking a deep breath and taking a second to close my eyes and escape. But my lungs soon filled with the dust and fragments of dried up debris that hung in a thick haze in the air, flaked up off the ground by even the slightest of winds.
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
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