Mute from birth, Aiden Monroe, a young hybrid, had learnt from a young age just how cruel the world could be.

Yet, as means to pay off an old debt, Aiden finds himself trapped in wolf territory. With the Alpha of the Blackwater pack still deciding his fate, he places Aiden's wellbeing in the hands of his emotionally distant nephew, Lincoln Briar. 

At first, Aiden finds himself thinking that Link was just a cold hearted beast, a monster that spoke with such venom that even snakes would bow their head in respect. Yet, the more time that they were forced to spend together, the more Aiden began to realize that there was a tenderness to the beast, a gentleness, though subtle, that he had almost overlooked.

But when the outside threat that had been hanging over the Blackwater pack crept closer, Aiden, with his own life potentially in danger, finds himself thinking that perhaps a beast is only a beast after all.

And his silence, for as loud as it could sometimes be, would never be enough to tame such a beast. Right?

Silence and the Beast

Life at the Lavoe manor passed in perfect contradiction — slowly, but all at once.

The mornings seemed to pass too quickly. Beautiful sunrises, jagged spears of pink piercing through the clouds in creeping waves, would stretch over the terrace, submerging the manor, giving birth to an army of trees that formed a ghoulish illusion of entrapment. They were relentless, forming a perimeter that caged the large home in. There were breaks in the trees, visible only once breached, but from afar, the hulking branches filled the horizon.

The mornings would roll forward into midday. Noon was the part of the day Aiden had come to hate most. It was always the same. He would follow Lincoln blindly through the thicket of high-standing trees, disorientating himself as the scents became dizzying, and the unrelenting backdrop toed the line of repetitiveness. They'd walk for miles at a time.

Chapter17