The House

POV Gideon

I watched her eyes widen in absolute disbelief as she read the bold, stark words at the top of the page. The exact moment Tessa had walked down the grand staircase in my late mother's carefully preserved dress earlier tonight, she had utterly captivated me. It was as if she had been meticulously designed by the Moon Goddess herself to command my complete and undivided attention. Even now, sitting across from her in my dimly lit study, with her back in her plain, unremarkable clothes, I found it physically impossible to drag my gaze away from her.

From our very first encounter, my eyes had been inexplicably, magnetically drawn to hers. In a sprawling ballroom absolutely full of desperate, calculating women trying everything in their power to be noticed, my gaze had locked onto her. She was the least conspicuous woman in the entire estate, yet she was the only one I could see. Tessa. I had quickly realized she wasn’t on the official guest list, because if a woman with those fierce steel-gray eyes, dark cascading hair, and pouty lips had been on it, I would have memorized her name.

My thoughts flashed vividly back to the dance. I had to admit that an intense, physical pull kept my attention fixated on her every movement. I had invited her for that first dance, and moving across the polished floor with her had been completely intoxicating. It was a fleeting, electric moment of exhilaration, a rare instance where I actually felt free.

But then, as it always did, my deep-seated caution had seeped violently back in.

I was dancing with a woman who had been bold enough to wear my mother’s sacred gown without my permission. Someone that audacious could only mean serious trouble, and I absolutely refused to invite a repeat of my ex-wife Vivienne's toxic, exhausting drama into my home. Yet, I couldn't deny that the dress had fit Tessa flawlessly, breathing life back into the vintage fabric in the most stunning way imaginable. I chose not to dwell on the intense physical pull I felt toward her. Maisie, in her innocent wisdom, had explicitly chosen Tessa. She had wanted her to wear the dress. So, I would push my own desires aside. I needed a mother for my daughter, not a lover for myself.

Sitting behind my heavy oak desk, I pushed the thick mate contract firmly across the polished wood toward her. In exchange for fulfilling her strictly outlined duties to myself and Maisie—primarily Maisie—I would personally pay off her mountain of medical debts and provide a generous monthly salary.

"You can think of this exactly as a job," I told her flatly, making sure my icy facade remained perfectly intact. "And I’m your employer."

POV Tessa

I carefully flipped through the dense, legally binding pages of the heavy document, my hands visibly shaking. The stark black ink laid out terms that felt entirely surreal. I swallowed the thick lump in my throat, my voice cracking with deep hesitation as I looked up into his unreadable eyes.

"Why does this contract explicitly say that you’re going to train me to be Luna?" I asked, my fingers gripping the edge of the parchment so tightly my knuckles turned white. "Is this a joke? I don’t even have a wolf. I lost it years ago."

The admission tasted like ash on my tongue. Who in their right mind would ever actively choose a wolfless, broken woman to be the Luna of a powerful pack? It was completely unheard of.

But Gideon’s stoic, intimidating expression remained completely unchanged. He didn't even blink. "I need you to give Maisie the perfect, stable childhood she deserves," he stated, his voice a low, authoritative rumble. "That means our contract, if all goes well, will last until she is a fully grown adult. From a long-term strategic perspective, I’ll train you to act and become Luna. I will assess your ability as time goes on, and the essential things you learn, you may pass on to her."

I frowned, my mind spinning as I tried to process the sheer magnitude of what he was demanding. I pushed further, despite the obvious risk of angering an Alpha in his own territory. "You’re really choosing me just because Maisie happens to like me? You must be the most indulgent father ever, especially when this entire trial was supposed to be about finding your true mate. I almost feel like you’re desperately trying to make up for something terrible you did to her."

The temperature in the study plummeted instantly. Gideon's handsome face turned incredibly grim, his sharp jaw clenching so hard a muscle feathered in his cheek. A heavy, dangerous silence aggressively filled the room, pressing down on my shoulders like a physical weight. I instantly realized I had struck a raw nerve, but I refused to back down.

"What did you do to her?" I pressed, my heart pounding violently against my ribs.

His response was entirely cold and mercilessly detached. "Sign the contract and remember your strictly outlined duties," he growled, his Alpha aura flaring just enough to serve as a lethal warning. "You have exactly two days to officially move your belongings in, should you choose to accept."

He offered absolutely no further explanation. The wall between us had slammed shut.

But I signed it. I grabbed the heavy gold pen from his desk and dragged my signature across the dotted line without another word. I didn't just do it for the massive wages that would finally clear my suffocating debts, though that was a massive relief. I did it to guarantee I could stay close to Maisie. I needed to firmly embed myself in this estate to finally find out if she was the tiny, fragile daughter I had violently lost years ago. First, I would make sure I wasn't just projecting my own desperate grief onto a random child. I had to take this one agonizing step at a time before I let myself completely shatter over a dream that might not be real.

When I finally returned to the trial's dormitory rooms later that night, I noticed the other competing girls had already been swiftly cleared out. A silent maid was waiting outside my door with my meager belongings already packed into a standard bag. I was unceremoniously escorted to a sleek black car and driven back to my own apartment.

Stepping through the door of my rundown, moldy apartment was a jarring reality check. After the absolute whirlwind of the past few days, it was insane how this dismal space looked exactly the same, while my entire reality had fundamentally shifted. The same peeling linoleum curled up at the corners. The same cheap, stained countertops greeted me.

Before officially moving out, I immediately went to my cramped bedroom and carefully packed my absolute most prized possession. It was a weathered, faded hospital photograph inside a cheap plastic frame. In the picture, I was exhausted, pale, but smiling as I lovingly held my tiny, swaddled premature baby against my chest. I gently traced the protective glass with my thumb, my heart aching with a familiar, suffocating grief. I didn’t own much that I cared to keep, but I made absolutely sure to wrap that photograph in my softest sweater and bury it deep in my heavy suitcase.

Desperate for any shred of information about Gideon’s hidden, shadowed past before I moved into his home, I grabbed my phone and immediately called my best friend Phoebe. She had texted me a few days ago to let me know she and her mate had made it safely out of town, but the sheer chaos of the Mate Trial had completely consumed my attention.

"Hi, Tess!" Phoebe answered cheerfully, her voice a welcome comfort. "I sent the money to your account yesterday when I heard the insane news! I don’t know how you managed to lock down the Alpha in only a few days, but seriously, congratulations."

"Thank you," I said softly, dodging the true, complicated nature of the contract. "Listen, Phoebe, I really need to ask you something. What do you actually know about Gideon’s divorce? I’ve combed through the internet, but his past is completely scrubbed clean. I can't find anything about his former Luna, Vivienne."

The line went dead silent for a long, uncomfortable moment.

"He didn’t tell you?" Phoebe finally asked, her voice dropping to a shocked whisper. "You’re literally moving in to marry the man, and he didn’t tell you?"

"No," I replied flatly. "Tell me."

"Well, there have been a massive amount of rumors swirling in the pack for years," Phoebe explained, her tone entirely serious now. "To speak plainly and not sugarcoat a damn thing, Gideon and his estranged ex-wife, Vivienne, are fated mates. And the horrifying truth is... they surprisingly never officially rejected each other."

My breath hitched. "Never rejected?"

"Yeah. Because violently rejecting a true mating bond can literally kill the rejected mate, everyone knows they are technically still bound. Relentless rumors insist that they will eventually, inevitably reunite. I'm sorry, Tess. No one really knows what goes on behind those estate walls."

I forced a tight sigh, thanking her for the warning before we finally hung up. As I lay in my lumpy bed that night, Phoebe's startling revelation echoed loudly in my skull. Gideon and Vivienne were fated mates. If an Alpha rejected his fated mate, the resulting severed bond would cause the rejected party to wither and die. It made brutal, logical sense that he hadn't formally rejected her—he probably didn't want blood on his hands.

I forcibly reminded myself not to care about his romantic life. My singular, burning priority was figuring out if Gideon had maliciously stolen my baby. If Maisie was mine, the fact that he was tied to another woman meant absolutely nothing to me. I was a contracted employee on a mission.

Two days later, I arrived back at Alpha Gideon’s massive, bustling estate. I dragged my heavy suitcase across the pristine marble floors of the grand foyer, feeling entirely out of place. The staff buzzed frantically around me, completely ignoring my arrival. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to report directly to Gideon's study or find my assigned room on my own.

Spotting a younger maid carrying a stack of fresh towels, I approached her. "Excuse me, could you—"

Before the girl could even turn around, a severe, older woman in a crisp uniform aggressively intercepted us. She rudely shooed the younger maid away with a sharp flick of her wrist and shot me a look of pure, unadulterated disdain.

"I am Martha, the head housekeeper," she announced, her voice dripping with venom. "You will be staying in the servants’ quarters."

She didn't wait for my response. She spun on her heel, leading me forcefully down a narrow, unadorned corridor that smelled faintly of bleach and boiled vegetables. She shoved open a door to a cramped, dimly lit room situated directly next to the noisy kitchens.

I stood in the doorway, my grip tightening on my suitcase handle. "This is... for me?"

"Remember your absolute place in this house," Martha sneered coldly, stepping directly into my personal space. "Luna Vivienne will return to Alpha Gideon soon enough. Don't let that ridiculous contract go to your head. You’re nothing but a glorified, temporary babysitter."

Just as her vicious insult landed, a familiar, excited cry echoed loudly through the stark hallway.

"Mommy!"

I spun around to see Maisie running toward me, her face lit up with pure joy. But before I could even drop my suitcase to respond to the child, the air in the corridor violently shifted. The atmospheric pressure plummeted, making it instantly hard to breathe. Gideon materialized seemingly out of nowhere, his massive, imposing frame stepping out from the shadows of the adjoining hall.

He didn't look at me. His lethal, glowing gaze was locked entirely on the terrified housekeeper. He loomed menacingly over the older woman, his Alpha dominance crashing down on her like a physical blow.

Martha's sneer vanished instantly, replaced by sheer, trembling terror. "A-Alpha, I—"

"You’re maliciously demoting the Alpha’s wife to a mere babysitter?" Gideon growled, his deep voice vibrating with pure, lethal intent. "Who gave you permission to insult her like that?"