Chapter 5 The first crack

•Freya•

The hug with Sophie lingered longer than I intended. Her small arms tightened around my neck, that dominant spark brushing against mine. The sensation it left me unsettled me more than any contract or viral headline.

Chase watched us in silence, his expression no longer smug but stripped down to something heavier. Raw need flickered in those golden eyes before he masked it. I looked away, pulse unsteady, and let Sophie pull me fully inside the pack house.

The moment I crossed the threshold, the space settled over me like a living thing. Chase’s home—though he had called it the pack house—carried the weight of generations. Solid timber beams rose toward a vaulted ceiling, worn smooth by years of pack gatherings. The air was thick with layered scents: pine from the surrounding forest, faint traces of smoke from a hearth that had burned through countless full moons, and the underlying thread of wolfsbane and hollow tea that marked Chase so distinctly. Family photos lined one wall—images of a woman who must have been his sister Lila, laughing with a younger Chase, her arm around a baby Sophie. Grief lingered here, quiet and permanent, woven into the walls alongside wards that hummed against my skin.

It felt too intimate. Too much like stepping into a life I had no right to borrow, even for six months.

A woman in her late forties emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. She carried the calm efficiency of someone who had managed pack chaos for years. Sophie immediately darted to her side.

“This is Maria,” Chase said, voice low. “She’s looked after Sophie since the accident. Maria, this is Freya.”

Maria’s gaze assessed me without hostility, though I sensed the questions behind her steady eyes. She offered a nod that held more welcome than I deserved. “It’s good to finally meet you. Sophie hasn’t stopped talking about her new luna since the announcement. The pup’s instincts are rarely wrong.”

The title landed like a stone in still water. Luna. I swallowed against the sudden thickness in my throat. My wolf stirred again, drawn to the child’s unfiltered trust and the steady rhythm of this house. This was not my world. I had suppressed that part of myself a long time ago. But the debt from Frey’s broken treatments pressed me like a collar, and this arrangement was the only key.

Before I could respond, footsteps sounded from the hall. Jax Rivera appeared—Chase’s best friend and beta, built like a linebacker with sharp features and an aura of control. He had been at the edges of Chase’s scandals for years, the steady presence behind the tabloid storms. His eyes met mine briefly, assessing, before he inclined his head.

“Freya. The Council’s already sniffing around the perimeter wards. We bought some time with the engagement announcement, but they’ll want to see shared quarters soon.” He glanced at Chase. “I can show her the room. You should take that call from the lawyer before he starts blowing up both our phones.”

Chase’s jaw tightened, but he nodded once. His gaze lingered on me, heavy with everything we weren’t saying. 

Jax led me down the wide corridor without further comment. The house unfolded as we walked—lived-in, masculine, but softened by Sophie’s drawings taped to the walls and a blanket fort in one alcove. It spoke of a man fighting to build stability from his ruins. My chest tightened. This was the same man behind all those cocky headlines, the alpha terrified of losing the last piece of his sister. I pushed the thought down. Empathy was dangerous here.

We stopped at a door near the end of the hall. Jax opened it to reveal a spacious room dominated by a large bed framed in dark wood. The linens carried Chase’s scent faintly, as if he had already begun preparing the space. A wide window overlooked the forest, where moonlight would soon filter through the trees as the full moon approached. My neck tingled again at the reminder of the claiming bite to come.

“This will be yours for the duration,” Jaxon said. “Chase’s room connects through that door. The Council inspection requires it to look… established. Shared closet space has been cleared. Maria will handle Sophie’s schedule, but the pup already wants you at bedtime stories.”

I set my duffel on a chair, fingers tracing the fabric absently. The proximity felt inevitable now, a slow tightening of threads I could not sever. My wolf pressed closer to the surface, responding to the pack energy humming through the floors. Jaxon’s presence was neutral, protective of his alpha, yet I felt Chase’s absence like a missing pulse. 

Jaxon’s phone vibrated sharply. He checked the screen, expression hardening. 

“It’s the team manager. Another leak from the Voss side—Marcus Hale is stirring trouble again, feeding rumors to the press about Chase’s stability.” He exhaled, already turning toward the door. “I need to handle this before it reaches the Council. Chase will be back shortly. The rules you set are known to all of us. We protect our own, Freya. Even when it’s complicated.”

Marcus Hale, Chase’s biggest rival.

Jax left without waiting for a reply, footsteps retreating down the hall until the house fell into a weighted quiet broken only by distant voices—Maria murmuring to Sophie in the kitchen.

I stood alone in the room that would bind me to Chase Bennett for the next six months. The connecting door drew my eye, half-open, offering a glimpse of his space beyond. His scent lingered strongest there, threading through my senses.

I touched the spot on my neck where the temporary bite would soon rest. Thinking about it now actually makes me sick, but a deal is a deal. Now I wondered, with a seriousness that settled deep in my bones, what else he must’ve been hiding in the previous years. 

When his footsteps approached again from the hall, slow and deliberate, the air thickened with anticipation.