Chapter 5.
1458 Words
For two days, Freya did not leave her room.
The walls pressed in tighter with each passing hour, and the air itself seemed to whisper cruel reminders: Breeder. Property. A loan repaid with your body.
She stared at the ceiling until her eyes burned, then buried her face in the pillow until her breath came shallow and raw. But no matter how long she wept, no matter how deeply she tried to bury her thoughts, the truth clung to her like iron chains.
She had begged. She had cried. She had pleaded.
And Alpha Logan had walked away.
By the third morning, the weight became unbearable. Sitting in silence felt worse than death. She could not remain locked in that room like a lamb awaiting slaughter. She had to try something—anything.
Samantha noticed the shift in her. The young nurse had grown attached in those few days, watching Freya fade into the shadows of herself. She had brought food and offered comfort, but Freya could neither eat nor rest. Now, when Freya suddenly bolted upright, a spark of something fierce in her tear-stained eyes, Samantha knew trouble was brewing.
“Freya, what are you—?”
“I can’t stay here,” Freya cut in, her voice sharp with a determination that made her hands shake. “I need to speak to him. I need to beg him again. Maybe he will listen—maybe he will let me work for him instead. I’ll be a maid, I’ll scrub floors, I’ll do anything—just not this.”
Samantha’s face turned pale.
“No, Freya, you don’t understand. He does not take kindly to questions, much less defiance. If you go to him, you will only provoke his wrath.”
“I don’t care,” Freya snapped, startling herself with the edge in her own voice. Then, softer and more desperate, she whispered, “I can’t just sit here and accept this. I’d rather die trying.”
Before Samantha could stop her, Freya pushed past and fled the room.
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The corridors of the Northridge Pack House were vast and confusing, but desperation lent her wings. She ran, her skirt tangling around her ankles, her hair falling from the pins the maids had carefully placed. Her heart thundered against her ribs, her breath coming in short, frantic gasps.
Guards turned their heads as she passed, some shouting after her, but she did not stop. She did not know where she was going, only that she needed to find him.
At last, she saw him.
Alpha Logan stood at the far end of the great hall, speaking with Xavier and two senior guards. His presence dominated the space effortlessly—tall, broad, carved from stone and shadow, his aura coiling around him like a storm barely restrained.
Freya’s knees threatened to buckle, but she forced herself forward.
The guards moved instantly to block her path.
“Stay back, omega—”
“No!”
She cried out, wrenching herself free. Before anyone could seize her again, she ran straight to Logan and dropped to her knees before him, tears already spilling down her cheeks.
“Alpha, please!” she sobbed, the words tumbling out in a frantic river. “I beg you, don’t make me do this. I can’t be your breeder. I don’t want this life! Please—let me work for you instead. I’ll clean, I’ll serve, I’ll work for the rest of my life. I’ll repay every coin my father owes you. Just don’t make me…”
Her voice cracked, breaking under the weight of the unspeakable.
“…don’t make me bear children like this.”
The hall fell into utter silence.
Logan stared down at her, his eyes narrowing. His jaw tightened, and his expression remained unreadable, but the air around him grew heavier, a palpable shadow threatening to crush her into the stone floor.
The guards moved again to restrain her, rough hands grabbing her arms, but she screamed and tore free, throwing herself back down at his feet.
“Please!” she cried, her forehead pressing against the cold stone. “Please, Alpha, I’ll do anything—anything—just not this!”
Xavier’s calm, measured voice cut through the silence like a knife.
“Freya.”
Her head jerked up, her eyes red and wild.
“It is impossible,” the Beta said evenly. “Even if you worked for the rest of your life, every hour of every day, you would not be able to repay what your father owes. His debt was vast. And he collected additional payment when he sold you here. There is no escape from this fate.”
The words struck her like physical blows.
Freya’s chest tightened until she could barely draw breath. She shook her head violently, denial her only shield.
“No. That’s not true. I’ll find a way. There has to be a way—”
But Xavier’s gaze remained firm, unwavering in its cold truth.
“There isn’t.”
Something inside her shattered.
Her tears spilled faster, her voice rising into a raw, broken cry. She turned toward Logan again, desperation stripping away all pride.
“Then kill me! If I can’t pay, if I can’t escape, then kill me, Alpha. Because I can’t live like this!”
A wave of stunned gasps rippled through the hall. The guards stiffened, exchanging uneasy glances. No one had ever dared speak to the Alpha that way.
Logan’s eyes burned with icy fire. He took a single step forward, looming above her like a mountain of dark intent.
“Enough.”
But Freya could not stop. Panic had overtaken all reason.
Her eyes darted to the side—an open archway leading to the outer courtyard. An exit. A chance.
Without another thought, she scrambled to her feet and ran.
The hope lasted only seconds.
Two guards intercepted her at the threshold, seizing her arms in unyielding grips. She thrashed, kicked, clawed, screaming until her voice tore raw in her throat. But their strength was immovable. They dragged her back before the Alpha and tossed her to the floor like a discarded ragdoll.
She landed hard, pain shooting up her side. Her palms scraped against the rough stone, but she hardly felt it over the tidal wave of sobs that wracked her body.
And then—his voice.
Cold. Final. Absolute.
“Try that again,” Logan said, each word deliberate and dipped in frost, “and I will behead you myself.”
The world stopped.
Freya froze, her tears drying instantly on her chilled cheeks. The very air grew heavier, suffocating. His eyes pierced through her, sharp as a blade held to her throat.
Her stomach twisted violently, nausea rising like a tide. She pressed her scraped hands flat against the floor, her entire body trembling beyond control.
How could she ever mate with him? How could she let this man—this monster—touch her, claim her, break her?
She was trapped. Truly, hopelessly trapped.
Samantha rushed into the hall then, her face as pale as death. She dropped to her knees beside Freya, wrapping a steadying arm around her shaking frame.
“It’s all right,” she whispered, though her own voice trembled. “It’s all right, I’ve got you.”
But nothing was all right.
Freya looked around through a blur of tears. Guards lined the walls, every one of them standing stiff and alert. The pack house was a fortress, guarded at every corner, every door, every window.
There was no escape.
Her voice was a cracked whisper as she forced the dreaded question out, her trembling lips forming the words she feared to hear.
“If I refuse…” she whispered hoarsely. “If I refuse to be your breeder, Alpha… what will happen to me?”
The hall froze once more.
Logan had already begun to turn away, his back to her. But her question rooted him in place. Slowly, with a deliberate precision that made every heartbeat drag like an eternity, he turned back.
His steps echoed against the stone floor as he advanced. Each one was measured, predatory, the sound of inevitability closing in. His eyes never wavered from her face, colder than steel, darker than a moonless night.
He stopped just before her trembling form. His shadow fell over her, swallowing her whole.
Then, in a voice that vibrated with quiet, lethal danger, he delivered his verdict.
“Either you do what you were brought here to do…”
He leaned closer, his words a death sentence whispered into the space between them, meant for her ears alone.
“…or you will discover what happens to those who defy me.”
- Writer
