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Last Updated : 2020-08-23
10Synopsis
Esme Brynn, co-leader of the nightingale pack, is fierce, strong-willed and won't to stand for anyone's bullshit.When the Alpha of the powerful Pheonix pack, Theodore Rivers, takes an interest in her, she quickly finds that he is everything she hates: obnoxious, arrogant and condescending.But he can't seem to leave her alone. And however much she despises his snide remarks and tormenting and however horribly they clash, in a cruel deed of fate, they are forced together as mates.At first, Esme remains resolved against him, refusing to accept him as her mate. But when Theodore challenges her independence and puts her through an extreme test of courage and strength, can she persevere?
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Fields of Brown
Silence: the absence of sound.
It's supposed the be peaceful, tranquil, calming. It's supposed to ease the mind and body into a 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 giving myself just 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.
So like an itch at the back of my throat, the coarse reality refused to be forgotten.
I walked out further into the wasteland, plucking at the shards of the shrivelled crop that stuck out of the ground, jagged and deformed, drained completely of life. The once lush foliage was now powdery and brittle between my fingers, it's dry rigid spikes digging into my skin before crumbling like sand to my feet, coating my shoes in a thin layer of pale dust.
The first sign of trouble had been the autumn storms that brought us the battering winds and biblical floods that saturated the landscape with suffocating churns of mud. Then December gave us a stubborn winter with frosts that clung to the fields every dawn until we had rolled well into spring. But even as the cold subsided, May and June refused to have mercy as the drifting clouds above us dissolved, leaving a vast scape of blue as the intense, uninterrupted heat of the sun scorched what little had persevered through everything else.
It'd been a month since the annual harvest day where all the pack would come together to bring in the year's yield.
But this year the fields had been left abandoned, the hopeless crop left to rot and decay as the people of the pack shielded away in the forest, stretching the scraps of last years supplies as thinly as possible, clinging onto survival. But every day was more of a struggle than the last. Every day the inevitable doom of starvation pulled stronger. Every day we grew weaker and soon enough we'd be unable able to resist being dragged down into the darkness of death's jaws.
I sighed and looked out at the fields once more before, unable to take the hopelessness anymore, I decided to head home.
But as turned, from the corner of my eye, I caught a little dash of black amongst the beige.
I looked back to see a small child watching me in the distance. Her raven hair hung messily across her face and in her left hand she clung to a dirty rag doll.
I recognised her. She lived in a village not far from here but this was hardly a pleasant place for children to play.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her.
"I'm sorry Miss Brynn," she replied as I neared her, "I'm hungry and I thought maybe the harvest was finally ready."
I sighed and crouched down in front of her. She was four, maybe five, years old. How do explain a famine to a child that young?
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Penelope," she replied.
"The harvest won't be coming this year, Penelope," I said, holding her hand.
She looked up at me with large, round eyes as her eyebrows folded down and her lips creased with worry.
"Then what will we eat?" she asked.
I sighed and forced my mouth into a reassuring smile, "I don't know yet. But the Alpha, Luna and I will think of something."
I couldn't tell if I believed my own words.
The hopelessness that rendered my heart heavy and filled my mind with a sorrow frustration said I didn't. This had been looming over since last autumn and a solution was yet to grace us.
It would take a miracle to save us now.
But I couldn't convey my fear to any of my pack people, let alone a child. Morale was already at rock bottom and if all it took to ease a child just for a little while was a small display of misplaced hope, I was willing to sacrifice my honesty.
"For now," I said reaching into my pocket, "Have this."
I held out a small scrap of bread wrapped in a cloth. It was my breakfast, lunch and dinner for today but I could do without, especially if it meant a child could eat.
She smiled and took it gladly, "Thank you."
I patted her shoulder, "Now you better get home. Your Mother will be wondering where you are."
She nodded and scuttled away.
I stood up and glanced out at the lifelessness once more, desperately searching for even a hint of an idea of how I'm going to live up to the promise I just made. But my mind was just as spent as it had been for weeks.
We truly needed a miracle.
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All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 45: Thank You Theodore
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
Last Updated : 2020-08-23All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 44: Freedom
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
Last Updated : 2020-08-22All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 43: His Diguise
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
Last Updated : 2020-08-21All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 42: Alone At Last
We were soon back at the camp where Rose and Tobias still sat. Theodore still gripped my arm tightly and as he looked down at Tobias with cold eyes, he instantly knew something was up."It's been settled. Esme will be living with me," Theodore told him, "As my Luna."Tobias looked from Theodore to me and my tear-stained cheeks and the way I depended on Theodore's arm for support, my legs still weak and shaking, maybe from the shock, maybe the pain, maybe the betrayal.Tobias got straight to his feet."What has happened?" he questioned, "Esme?"Saying nothing, I just kept my eyes on the floor, completely unable to face either of them. I was ashamed of my weakness. Ashamed that I had let him do this to me."What the fuck have you done to her?" Tobias growled a few seconds later."None of your business, Alpha Brynn. All you need to know is that she has changed her mind," Theodore replied, "And you will need to manage w
Last Updated : 2020-08-20All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 41: The Betrayal
After hours of walking around Pheonix land, hunting down Alpha Kane's men and loading up the bodies of our soldiers and friends onto carts to return home wrapped in a sheet, we were all drained and exhausted.We still had miles of territory to scour but we hadn't had a moments rest in far
Last Updated : 2026-03-18All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 40: Scars and Role Models
Sometime later, Theodore came over to me. I was sat with Rose and Tobias and had just finished stitching up a nasty wound on the shoulder of one of our soldiers."Alpha Brynn, everything here is sorted. I'm sending my men out to search the rest of the territory for escapees and to recover
Last Updated : 2026-03-18All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 39: Losing Battle
I looked into Theodore's eyes. They were wide and frozen as he kept looking down at his hands. "Klaus," I said to the soldier who now cowered in the corner, "Tell all your fellow soldiers that their leader is dead and that if they surrender immediately, we can end this with no more b
Last Updated : 2026-03-18All Thanks to Theodore Chapter 38: Flesh and Blood
I was taken through a large pair of wooden doors into a large room. I stumbled forward as the men holding me shoved me forwards to where a middle-aged man sat comfortably on an ornate chair."Well, well, well. What do we have here?" he asked, looking me up and down.His voice was de
Last Updated : 2026-03-18
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Jiang Sese was in utter disbelief after hearing all of that.
She was already hurt after losing her child. Now that she had learned the truth, she felt such mental torment that she was about to go mad. Even her emotions were going haywire, so much so that she was becoming hysterical English
