Chapter 2: Kind Regards, The Devil

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."