“You’re Chase DeWitt.”

He stares at Aurora Black, standing in front of him with curling dark red hair and an arch smile, and nods, a quick bobble of his head. She eyes him, the kind of searching look he imagines she gives a pair of shoes when deciding if she’ll take them home or not.

“You’re ranked second in our class. I need someone who gives me a little bit of a challenge. We’ll be studying together this year,” she says decisively.

Chase blinks. “Do I get a vote?”

She flashes a smile that’s all teeth. “No.” She snatches up his phone and taps her number into it. “Text me your schedule and I’ll put together time for us to meet.”

She swirls away in a clatter of heels and swishing skirts, and Chase stares after her.

“What the fuck?” he mutters.

~*~

Three days later, he hasn’t still hasn’t figured it out, but he’s sitting across from Aurora in the library, chemistry books spread out across the table, and he can’t stop staring.

“I thought,” she says, exasperated but crisp, “that you were over your obsession with me.”

Chase gapes at her. “You knew about that?”

Aurora doesn’t even look offended, just vaguely annoyed and impatient. “Of course I knew. Why do you think we haven’t studied together before? You’d get like this and it’d be all—uncomfortable.”

Chase winces. She isn’t wrong, but hearing it put like that—it’s blunt and almost painful.

Even Lucas had heard about Aurora. His infatuation with Aurora was a quiet steady thing in his life, something that was almost comforting, even at the worst points in his life.

“I’m sorry,” he says sincerely, “I never meant to make you uncomfortable.”

She lowers her pencil and for the first time since they sat down, the pretty brilliant girl gives him all of her attention. “You haven’t. But before now, you’d never have been able to focus on studying, and that’s what I need you for.”

Chase flinches. Her expression tightens, then goes as close to soft as he has ever seen from her. “You don’t like me, Chase.”

“No,” he agrees softly, thinking about Tyler, “I haven’t for a long time.”

Aurora smiles then, all quiet satisfaction. “Good. Then we can be friends. And we can finally study together.”

She tugs the books back in front of her and gives Chase an expectant stare. Chase grins, wide and bright and eager. “Yeah. Ok.”

~*~

“It’s weird,” Chase grumbles.

“You’ve been trying to get Aurora to notice you since before we met,” Tyler says, and his voice is dry, his expression quiet and easy.

“But that’s why it’s weird,” Chase persists, “It’s not like she’s noticing me the way I wanted her to. It’s just—a friend. It’s like Ben or Lucas,” he says. He pauses and shakes his head. “Like Brielle, wary but friendly.”

“Who is wary?”

“Me,” Chase says immediately, scooping chili into a bowl for Lucas and then himself. Tyler carries their drinks and his own chili to the table, then studies Chase, his brow furrowed into a frown.

“Why?”

He shrugs. “When am I not? It’s Aurora Black. She has to want something.”

Tyler pauses. There’s a part of him, the insistent part that refuses to stop seeing the changes in Chase, the part that notices and wants to drag the boy close and never let go—that doesn’t want Aurora anywhere near him, that wants to keep Chase away from the girl he’s pined over and that has so completely ignored him.

He forces out the words, “Maybe she just wants a friend. Give her a chance.”

Chase gives him a doubtful look and Tyler sighs. “You can bring her here if you want.”

Tyler has been very vocal about who he doesn’t like since Ryan, even if Chase never brings anyone but Ben to the house. Chase had laughed and teased him about being a stalker and Tyler had shrugged, unbothered, because even if that was an accurate accusation, he’d wear it to keep Chase safe.

“Maybe,” Chase hums, thoughtful, but then his attention is drawn to Lucas, and Tyler relaxes into his presence, totally and completely focused on them, for now.

~*~

He spends a lot of time on his tablet, reading through the lore and pack law that Tyler gave him. There’s a whole world of supernatural, a hierarchy of pack and werewolf politics that makes him anxious and curious at the same time.

It’s frustrating because he has a lot of questions, but Tyler doesn’t always have answers. Sometimes Chase will burst into the house rattling off questions about why the Alpha can heal and not just steal pain and will get a blank-eyed stare in return.

It’s especially encouraging when the blank stare is accompanied by alphas can do that?

He has a whole list of questions for Lucas when he ever wakes up.

“What is it?” Aurora asks, one day when they’re alone at the lunch table. Chase glances at her, that familiar tug of surreal pulling on him.

“Nothing,” he says, sliding the tablet into his bag and giving her a wide grin.

She eats a grape and studies him. “The same kind of nothing that keeps you busy Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday?” she asks archly and he flushes. “I’m not Ben or Brielle, Chase. I have noticed.”

“I have a life,” Chase says dryly.

She gives him an unimpressed look. “So what is it? A secret girlfriend?” Her eyes turn wicked and playful. “A secret boyfriend?”

He thinks about what Tyler told him about Aurora, about how the house is his as much as Lucas and Tyler’s, about how he still hesitates to take Ben there, and his father only goes for their twice-monthly dinners.

He grins at her suddenly, his heart pounding. “You wanna see?”

~*~

The knock on his door startles him because he doesn’t get a lot of visitors on Saturday at ten o’clock at night, and the ones he does get usually don’t require knocking.

He’s considering the wisdom of opening the door in his faded HPD shirt and Spiderman PJ pants above bare feet, when he does open the door and immediately decides this was a mistake.

In the years since the Drakes came to town, he’s managed to keep his distance from them, only spending time with Brielle during school and when Ben made it impossible to avoid her.

Tyler’s been less violent when the Drakes came up, but he still didn’t seem inclined to let them near Chase.

He knows there's more to the story, to the history between the Reid pack and the Drake coven, but he hasn't asked, and now he thinks that’s monumentally stupid because Andre Drake is dressed in black and standing on his doorstep, the Drake emblem—silver pair of snakes twisted together—the only spot of color he wears

“I request a meeting with the Reid Alpha and Pack Shaman in regards to the peace treaty,” he says formally.

Chase blinks. “Uhh.”

Drake stares at him while Chase stands there, milk on his lips from his cereal and no idea what the hell is happening.

“Gimme a sec,” he mutters and flails a bit before he locates his phone. He dials easily and hears a distracted hum in his ear as Tyler answers.

“Hey, big guy, Drake is here. Wants a meeting with the Alpha and Shaman.”

Tyler spits a curse and hangs up.

Chase sighs. “Come on in.”

They’re just sitting there, Chase finally having wiped his face, when Tyler bursts into the room, half shifted, eyes bright and claws out.

Andre is up and across the room before the door bangs shut behind Tyler, power sparking along his fingertips, but the werewolf doesn’t even notice, stalking to Chase and pulling him up, pressing into his throat for just a moment while Chase pets his shoulder uselessly.

“I’m ok,” he murmurs, low and easy.

Tyler huffs, a touch of a whine in the noise, before he lets go and falls back a step. His claws slide away as he places one hand on Chase’s shoulder and focuses on the hunter. “I told you to stay away from him.”

“I didn’t come here to do harm.”

“Why did you come here?” Chase cuts in, and tugs on Tyler’s shorts a little, urging him to sit.

“Because I wanted to meet with the Reid Alpha and his shaman. But you aren’t an alpha,” Andre says slowly.

“And I’m not a shaman,” Chase finishes. He grins. “We’re not exactly a normal pack.”

“I see that,” Andre says. His gaze cuts to Tyler. “Do you want him here for this?”

Chase bristles and Tyler shrugs. “I don’t keep secrets from my pack. Chase is fine.”

Andre nods and says softly, “My nieces are coming to Harrisburg.”

~*~

Tyler doesn’t tell him anything.

He calls the Chief and asks if Chase can stay with Lucas for a few days, then he vanishes. Chase is left with more questions than ever and a catatonic Lucas with no answers for company.

~*~

The dream is different.

“It wasn’t always like this.”

The voice startles him so badly he yelps and falls over, scrambling over charred bits of wood and twigs, leaves sticking against him.

“You would have liked the pack, before.”

Chase looks around but the voice comes from everywhere, echoing and strong, powerful and playful.

“What was it like?” he asks.

A laugh answers him. “Like our little pack, but bigger. Fuller.”

He thinks of that, and tears sting his eyes, because they lost that.

Tyler had clawed the pack and house together through sheer will and stubbornness, and once it had been his, a birthright he hadn’t thought to question or value because it’s the way things had always been.

“What happened?” he asks, and the air is cold against him. He shivers and nestles into the ground as his grey wolf lopes out of the trees, circling him and pressing close, his fur bristling familiar comfort against him. He feels the words as much as he hears them, and shudders, burrowing into his wolf.

She killed us. Mia Drake and her coven of witches—she killed us all.

~*~

Lucas sleeps for almost thirty hours, something that would bother him, except he’s used to Lucas, used to the long jags of sleep that seem to play to the cycle of the moon.

He situates Lucas in Tyler’s big bed. He curls against him and dozes there, comforted by the closeness of Pack.

~*~

Tyler comes back after three days and finds Chase and Lucas curled up like puppies in his bed. He doesn’t even bother to shower the sweat and dirt away, just crawls in with them and lets his eyes close.

“Better?” Chase asks, his voice a deep rasp, and Tyler nods, squeezes the hand that has landed on his hip.

“Thanks,” he murmurs. Chase hums sleepily.

~*~

It’s strange, waking up in bed with Lucas and Tyler.

They moved around in the night, and Lucas is a warm line against his back, his breath steady and comforting against his shoulder. He’s curled into Tyler, his hands fisted in Tyler’s shirt, their legs tangled together, one of Tyler’s big hands on his hip and the other at the nape of his neck. He pulls away just a little so that he can see Tyler, and Tyler’s grip on his neck tightens, just enough that Chase gasps. The soft noise makes Tyler move, a whole body roll against him, before he rolls away completely, yawning and stretching.

“You can get some more sleep,” he mumbles.

“Can I get some answers instead?” Chase asks, and Tyler goes still. “Why did he come to my house, Ty? What the hell am I in this pack? What’s a shaman?”

Tyler huffs and stands. “Get dressed, Chase. I’ll make breakfast and answer your questions. All of them.”

Chase catches his wrist and stares up at Tyler. “What about what just happened?” he asks, voice shaking a little, and Tyler’s gaze shifts, goes bright and shining for a split second.

He pulls away gently. “Get dressed, Chase.”

~*~

Over pancakes and scrambled eggs, Tyler says, “We aren’t a normal pack. We don’t have an alpha and we—Lucas isn’t a healthy werewolf, he can’t shift. You aren’t a shifter at all. And it’s—most packs have a place for humans within them, but ours isn’t a normal pack. It makes everything... complicated.”

“What’s a shaman?”

Tyler scrapes his eggs together and eyes Chase. “You read the lore and pack structure I gave you?” Chase nods. “So the Alpha is the head of a pack. But most packs have a support structure around the Alpha—the left hand, the second. A human fills the role of shaman. They’re...advisors, Mom used to say. We connect them to magic. And they keep us from becoming animals.”

Chase breathes out, slow and easy. “You were supposed to be the second.”

Tyler closes his eyes and nods, thinking about the life he was supposed to have as his sister’s closest confidant, the one who makes treaties and keeps the pack’s history and secrets. There is a part of him that still wants that, that wants Chelsea to come back and make them a real pack, instead of this bastardized version of it.

“Would I be the shaman?”

Tyler shrugs. “They’re—shamans are magic, Chase. They can do things we can’t, with blessed wood and wolfsbane and runes. I don’t know if that’s something you’re born to, or if it can be taught—I just know it’s different from the witches. Shamans aren’t elemental the way that witches are, but I don’t know much about them.”

Chase smiles then, bright and eager, and Tyler has a feeling that the wild boy with bright gold eyes is going to find out.

~*~

He loses some time to researching, enough time that he doesn’t realize he’s due to study with Aurora until she’s in his room, her nose wrinkled in something like disgust, and he’s staring at her from over dusty tomes he borrowed from Tyler and a computer that’s almost buried in paper and notes.

“Aurora,” he mumbles, “We’re—shit. We’re supposed to study. I’m sorry, I lost track of time.”

She takes neat little steps into the room, sitting herself primly in the desk chair, and studies Chase critically.

“You look like shit,” she says, and he grins. “Chase, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying to protect someone,” he says.

Later he’ll wonder if it’s because he’s so tired, or because he wants desperately to be honest, or if it’s simply because, under her steely green gaze, he can’t possibly lie. But in the moment, while she stares at him and his fingers shake with exhaustion and caffeine, he’s painfully honest. “I want to protect someone I love.”

She stares at him, then nods and puts her books aside, giving him a small smile. “How can I help?”

~*~

Tyler hears the Bronco two miles out, and Chase, chattering happily, from a mile away. He smiles, listening to him, a smile that turns into a slight frown as he realizes—Chase isn’t alone.

Ben comes with him sometimes, but it’s rare and he always gives Tyler a warning before he shows up.

Chase’s heartbeat is going double time and his voice is—different. It’s warmer and softer than it is with Ben.

A low female voice filters through to him, and Tyler sighs.

He steps onto the porch, jumping down as Chase pulls to a stop in the front yard and clambers out. The girl slips down with more grace and a small smile for Tyler, her sharp gaze taking in every detail of the house.

There is something so alpha about her, it makes him want to snarl.

“Where’s Lucas?” Chase asks, glancing at the house.

“Watching a movie,” Tyler answers, “Who's your friend?”

Chase gives him a bland look, one that says eloquently that Chase isn’t buying his shit, but maybe she is.

“Aurora Black,” she says coolly.

Tyler nods and twitches. Chase huffs, snatching his wrist and dragging Tyler inside. “C’mon, Aurora. He’s kinda hopeless with new people.”

“Am not,” Tyler mutters, quiet enough that only Chase hears him, and it earns him a huff of laughter.

The only time Aurora falters is when she comes face to face with Lucas, his blank eyes bright as she stares at him, her heart pounding heavily in her chest, and Tyler watches, Chase twitching anxiously at his side.

She drifts closer to him, and when her fingers brush over his hand, he seems to sigh.

“What happened to him?” she asks wetly and Tyler stares at her, this beautiful cold girl crying for his brother.

Chase squeezes Tyler’s hand. “That’s what you’re gonna help me find out.”

~*~

Chase says she’s going to help and that he hasn’t said anything about them being werewolves.

It still itches under his skin, but he knows this is overdue.

Chase is Pack and he’s brilliant, the kind of human who could stand as second in a pack, the kind who would be a shaman if he had magic.

He isn’t surprised that Chase is digging, in the weeks after Andre Drake’s appearance at his house.

He’s only surprised it took this long.

~*~

“You’re too close to this,” Aurora says one night, and Chase blinks at her.

She doesn’t understand the history he has with the Reids, but she isn’t stupid. She’d waited patiently until he drove them away from the house in the woods that first time and then said, a smirk curling her lips, “So, definitely a secret boyfriend.”

“Of course I’m too close,” Chase snaps, “I’ve been taking care of them since I was fourteen. And the accident—it wasn’t an accident.”

“Then let me look,” she says, patience edged with temper, and Chase—

Chase stares at her for a long time and then nods. He snatches up a thumb drive and says softly, “This is everything I have, all the police reports, every testimony and the accident investigation, all the notes I’ve compiled over the years—everything.”

She nods and kisses his cheek. “Good. Now, our chemistry homework.”

He doesn’t know why he feels lighter when she slips the thumb drive into her purse, but he does.

~*~

“Do you trust her?”

Chase nods, and Tyler says gently, “It’s only been a few months, Chase.”

He nods again, and then, quieter, says, “I trusted you and Lucas faster.”

~*~

He’s out with Ben, a rare night when they’re alone—no Brielle, no well meant setup, no practice or parent or distractions—just Ben and Chase catching the newest Marvel movie and a huge plate of onion rings, when he gets the text.

>>You need to talk to Mia Drake.

>>And also Mr. Harper.

<<The CI tech?

>>It disturbs me that he’s who you’re confused by. Mia Drake?!

He hesitates and then texts back.

<<Thanks, Aurora. I’ll take it from here.

>>One day you’re explaining all of this to me.

He doesn’t respond to that at all, just pockets his phone and thinks about what started all of this, Andre showing up at his house in the middle of the night, wrapped in formality and position and expecting things Chase wasn’t sure how to deliver.

He still isn’t sure—but he knows it’s necessary.

~*~

His fingers shake as he dials, and he’s a little surprised when a sharp feminine voice comes across the line. “Hello?”

“Chelsea Reid?”

There’s a beat of silence. “Who is this?”

He straightens. “My name is Chase DeWitt, and I want to be the Reid Shaman.”