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

The anxiety inside of him was much like a trapped tiger; Aiden fed it feeble hopes and sang make-believes to calm it. There was some delusion that if he could tame it, if he could keep this tiger fed, then it wouldn't want to feast on him.

Unfortunately, life wasn't as smooth-sailing as that. Every hope, every ounce of reassurance he could find, it wasn't enough to fully sate the beast. It prowled through his bones in a famished wander, wreaking havoc, inflicting tremors upon his hands and leaving somersaulting acrobats in his gut.

Growing up in the system, he'd learnt fast. He'd learnt how to be invisible. He'd learnt how to blend into the background. He'd learnt how to adapt. How to survive. He'd learnt to be still and quiet, to avoid irritating whatever new foster parents he'd ended up with.

Chapter25