All Chapters of Claimed By The Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Ryleigh woke with a sharp inhale, her lungs dragging in air like she’d just surfaced from underwater. Her head throbbed, a dull, pulsing ache that spread behind her eyes. She tried to move, but her limbs felt like they were filled with lead. Aching. Sore. Weak.She lay on her side on something hard and cold. Cement. The chill of it seeped into her skin, numbing her spine, pressing into her bones. She groaned and rolled slowly onto her back, every muscle protesting.When her eyes finally opened, she saw nothing familiar.Dim light buzzed above her, flickering faintly from a single bulb embedded in the ceiling. The walls were solid gray concrete, bare and cold. There were no windows. No clock. No door she could see from where she lay. The air was stale and smelled faintly of stone and metal.She pushed herself upright, wincing. Her back ached like she’d been thrown down a flight of stairs, and her shoulder burned with every movement. Her skin was littered with faint bruises and small cu

The dream started in her old house—but this time, it wasn’t just a false memory. It was actually hers. A day she had lived.The sun had been bright outside, pouring warm light into the quiet home she hadn’t stepped foot in for years. After her parents’ funeral, Ryleigh returned to her parents home. Grief had a way of pulling you toward familiar things, even if they hurt to touch.The apartment in the city had become unbearable. Too loud. Too empty. Too full of reminders that life had kept moving while hers had stopped.She was folding her clothes into neat piles, transferring her life piece by piece into her parents’ bedroom. The master closet was larger than the one in her childhood room, and though it felt invasive at first, something in her needed to be close to them. Needed to belong again.She slid hangers along the rod, clearing space beside her father’s old winter coat and her mother’s silk blouses, still smelling faintly of lilac.Then, tucked behind a stack of shoeboxes, some

The hospital room was quiet, its sterile calm a fragile barrier between Ryleigh and the unknown life waiting outside. For two days, she'd been here—under observation, under care—but more importantly, out of Margaret’s reach.Dr. Derek hadn’t been overly warm, but there was a steady calm to him that made her feel less like a prisoner and more like… a person. He didn’t press her with questions. He treated her physical injuries with a cool professionalism, and though their conversations were short, his voice never held judgment or superiority.In this place, she hadn’t had to fight. She hadn’t had to flinch every time a door opened.But nothing safe lasted long.That morning, she sensed the change before it happened. The nurse’s voice was tighter. The air around her stilled. Then the knock came. Sharp. Measured.Dr. Derek entered first, clipboard in hand, but his jaw was tight. “You’re being discharged.”Behind him stood a tall man in black. Rigid, silent, and unmistakably part of Margar