Land of Wolves (original book 1 outline)

About 20,000 years ago I mentioned how Land of Wolves had deviated quite a bit from the original outline I drew up. A bunch of you asked if I would share the original, but I needed to wait until the party was over since there was still a tiny bit of overlap.

Anyway, below is the original outline I made for book 1 of this story!

• Prologue: Evelyn is marked with the soul bond of the Alpha. She is talking with her father, and they discuss the plan to bring down the wolves. Now is the perfect time. The Alpha is getting married, and her sudden appearance will cause chaos. She will pretend to be oblivious, sheltered by her family once they discovered her mark. They are going to knock her out, beat her up, and tie her up in a cabin in the hopes the wolves find her and bring her to the leader. It will play into her story. She is warned not to fall into his trap, and that no matter what he says or does, he isn't a good man.
• She wakes up in the cabin as planned, but the screaming outside isn't right. The wolves came too quickly. She tries to get out of the ties to fight, but the wolves break inside and see her mark. A man comes busting out from the woods. This is the Alpha.
• The Alpha seems excited, and despite her disgust, she pretends to enjoy his touch. A small part of her does like it, finding it comforting, but she ignores it. She knows who he truly is.
• They reach his land. No human has ever been this close before. At least none have lived to tell the tale. He takes her to his home. Says he will have food brought to her. Takes her to his room and shows her the bathroom and his closet. He lingers before saying he will give her space.
• She looks through his things, searching for clues. Everything is tame, which she hates. He brings her food. She hates him. His kind deserves to die. He asks about her, and she gives her story. She asks about him, pretending to be interested. She will kill him.
• They go to sleep together. He touches her, and she lets him. She's slept with many men, having been encouraged to do so with the intent to hurt Caleb.
• She convinces him to take her to work.
• He kills the people who hurt her.
• He introduces her to his people, and everybody is friendly. Liars. He avoids one woman, Grace, and when she notices, he explains that Grace was the woman he was to marry. He's sorry for not waiting longer for her, but he had given up hope of ever finding his soulmate. Grace was picked because she's kind, they have been friends for many years, and her mate is dead. He will never speak to her again.
• She's in the shower. He peeks in and asks if she's hungry. He makes food and insists on feeding her. She lets him, and they discuss the history between humans and wolves. He claims it was the humans who attacked first, but she knows that's not true.
• They touch.
• He's gone when she wakes up in the morning. She wanders outside, needs to look like she's acclimating. Everybody clearly recognizes her, and she goes to a coffee shop down the street. Caleb meets her there after a while and excitedly asks her about her day.
• He takes her to the bonfire for a date and says he wants to give himself to her.
• Sex.
• They are in his office and he gets pulled away for business. Was she wrong in her opinion of him? He's gone for a while, and she heads in the direction he left. She sees him behead somebody with his bare hands. No, she wasn't wrong.
• Another week has gone by and she's nowhere closer to discovering his weakness. He shows her his wolf.
• She prepares to kill him, finds a knife and memorizes roads
• They go to the party with Caleb, his sister, Cole, and Grace. She finds herself protective of Caleb.
• She runs to him crying and says she had a dream about him dying. She wants to know how best to kill wolves. He consoles her and promises that isn't going to happen. She sobs into his chest. Says she loves him. He's elated.
• It's dinner, and they have a good time. She says she’s hungry for ice cream. He runs to get some. She hides the knife below her pillow.
• She wakes up in the middle of the night and tries to kill him. She almost succeeds but he stops her. He's confused and upset. She continues to fight and says he shouldn't be alive. He needs to die.
• Caleb takes the weapon from her and forces the truth from her. She says she was sent by HPAW, and he’s devastated.
• Caleb refuses to speak to her. He locks her in his room so she can't escape. She doesn't know what to do. HPAW told her if she didn't succeed, he would kill her. He isn't killing her.
• She ponders. Maybe she was wrong? There have been many things that he was supposed to do or say that he didn't. He opens the door, plugs something into the television, and leaves. It's a video, and she watches with horror as a human doctor experiments on a young wolf. This was taken a few years before the great war. He pokes and prods the little boy, cutting off his limbs to see how fast they regenerate. Caleb brings in another video once that one finishes. And another. And another. Why wasn't she told about this?
• She has a nightmare.
• They have a conversation. HPAW lied to her, and Caleb says he won’t have her as a mate.
• Her apartment is ready. A few wolves she’s never met before move her things. She’s given a car and Caleb’s card to use for one month. She’s expected to find a job.
• Nobody wants to hire her. She hasn’t seen Caleb in days.
• She goes to the library and tells the truth about what happened—she’s a member of HPAW and tried to kill Caleb. She reads up on mate bonds.
• She goes for a run and falls. Caleb is in her apartment to check in and scolds her for telling the truth. He frets over her head. Why does he even care? He seems conflicted and says just because he doesn’t feel the bond doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her.
• Caleb forces her to go to the hospital before taking her home and deciding to stay with her until she’s healed.
• Sex.
• Caleb takes her to the hospital to get cleared. She holds his hand. She overhears that Caleb’s announced his search for a mate. He put a lot of stipulations on the female, she has to have already found her mate and either rejected the bond over a year ago or he has died. It’s a big claim, but many female wolves are still coming out of the woodwork to put in their name. Most are of high status. The information freaks her out.
• The doctor offers her a job cleaning the hospital on the night shift. He doesn’t seem to care much for her, but he’s still nice. Did Caleb talk to him?
• She gets coffee and strikes up a conversation with her neighbor. He’s a dick.
• People continue to ignore her. It’s her first shift at the hospital. She spends the entire time alone cleaning the floors and stripping the beds.
• She returns home. Caleb is waiting inside and takes her to bed.
• She cries. The neighbor knocks on the door and tells her to keep it the fuck down. He’s tired of listening to her cry every night. She tells him to close his fucking ears and slams the door in his face.
• She leaves in the morning to go for a run. She knows Caleb does that every morning and she wants to spot him. She knows it’s creepy, but she does it anyway. She finds him, and he takes her against a tree.
• The wolf who lives next to her glares at her. She glares back. At work, she hears about an annual party the alpha throws every year. All the wolves are invited. It’s a costume party. Many of his mate candidates will be there.
• She’s angry. He can’t take another. She bakes brownies and takes them to the wolf who yells at her. Then asks for wolf advice. He says wolves find prey sexy.
• She orders a slutty bunny costume, like in mean girls. She’s going to that party.
• Another night at work. She feels pain. It’s all over her front, specifically her thighs and abs, but it isn’t unbearable. She ignores it and goes home.
• She tries going to the coffee shop in the morning, the one she went to before. The barista is cold to her and only fills her drink up halfway. She overhears that Caleb took one of his mate candidates on a date. She sat in his lap.
• She sobs. Her package comes and she tries it on. It looks good on her.
• She rushes through work so she can make it to the party on time. Her thighs hurt again. She gets dressed and drives to the warehouse it’s being held at.
• People stare as she walks in, but she ignores them. She wants to find Caleb. Sash approaches and tells her to get the fuck out, her voice loud. People laugh at her. She refuses to cry. She asks where Caleb is.
• She spots him. He’s sitting at a table with a woman on his lap. She’s beautiful. Evelyn doesn’t know what comes over to her and she storms over there. The woman gets off his lap as she approaches, and Ev slots herself on Caleb and slams her lips on his.
• He kisses her, and the burning on her thighs stops. It must have been because that woman was sitting on him. She grabs his hands and plants them on her ass. He curses, picks her up, and storms her out of the room. There’s a small hallway leading to a private room, and he fucks her in it.
• She begs him to give her a chance. She says she loves him, and she hates what she did. He says he will never trust her again. He’s making her look bad in front of his potentials. Good.
• He orders her to go home. She refuses and says she wants to party. Maybe she’ll even find a nice wolf to take home with her. He says he will kill any male she so much as looks at. She says she will kill any female he so much as looks at. That pisses him off.
• He leaves, mumbling something about needing to shower before returning and apologizing to his potentials. She doesn’t want to go back to the party. She goes home, and the burning in her thighs starts again.
• She is at work, and people are even angrier at her. They say he is being kind by letting her live here and she shouldn’t be making it harder on him.
• The wolf from next door yells at her again.
• The pain is excruciating, and it's all over her body.
• It’s announced that Caleb has chosen his new wife.