All Chapters of Say My Name, Alpha : Chapter 21 - Chapter 28

Zade couldn’t stop replaying the moment Xander carried him out of the infirmary, the way those sharp, commanding eyes had softened for a split second—as though the Alpha had seen something fragile behind Zade’s façade and had no idea how to handle it. Now, several hours later, Zade sat on the far side of Xander’s dorm room, hugging his knees to his chest as he watched Xander move around with a tension so quiet it felt loud.They hadn’t spoken much since the morning. Xander had simply brought him here, locked the door, and muttered something about “keeping him close.” Which, in Alpha language, usually meant something far more complicated than the words alone suggested.“You haven’t touched your food,” Xander said finally, not turning around. He stood by his desk, hands braced against it like he was holding himself up.Zade looked at the untouched tray on the nightstand. “I’m not hungry.”A muscle in Xander’s jaw twitched. “Even fake omegas need strength.”“Stop calling me fake.”Xander

For a moment, the room didn’t feel like a room.It felt like the center of a storm no one saw coming.Xander stood frozen mid-step, chest rising unevenly, jaw tight with disbelief. Kade stared at Zade as if the world had just bent itself into a shape he couldn’t comprehend.Zade didn’t know what he had done—only that something inside him had snapped open like a wound or a door. His skin felt too hot. His breath too sharp. His pulse too loud.He took a step back, heart pounding. “What… what just happened?”No one answered immediately.Xander was breathing like he had run miles. He moved a hand to his throat, eyes dark with shock. “You didn’t just suppress me. You forced my instincts to stand down.”Kade wiped the corner of his mouth, still stunned. “That’s not Variant behavior. Not even close.”Zade swallowed hard. “Then what am I?”Xander’s expression turned grim—almost fearful, but not of Zade. Of the implications.Kade said it quietly, like naming something forbidden. “You’re a Prim

The red emergency lights washed the arena in a harsh, pulsing glow.Zade could hear nothing but the echoing alarms and the frantic rattle of his own heartbeat. The air smelled like adrenaline, fear, and rain blowing through the cracked windows—but beneath all of that, he felt something worse.His scent.Faint, but leaking through the suppressants that were wearing off faster than usual.He forced himself to breathe through his mouth, but it did nothing to calm the rising burn beneath his skin.Damon noticed instantly.His eyes sharpened, hungry and cruel, the way a predator focused on prey that finally stumbled.“Well,” Damon murmured. “This just keeps getting better.”Zade stiffened.Xander moved without thinking, stepping forward in a protective stance so natural it startled the other students. His body angled toward Damon, shielding Zade entirely, even though they weren’t touching.Even though they shouldn’t have been anything.Yet Xander stood like he was ready to destroy the acad

Zade woke long before dawn.Not because he wanted to.Because something in the air felt wrong—too still, too sharp, carrying the faint electric charge that came right before a storm. He sat up slowly, his head heavy and stuffed with the remnants of the nightmare he’d been wrestling all night. He could still feel it on his skin, the sensation of hands dragging him away, the metallic scent of restraint clamps snapping shut around his wrists.He scrubbed a hand over his face and forced the dream away. It didn’t matter. Dreams had never mattered. Survival did.He rose from bed, muscles tight, and walked to the window overlooking the training yards. A gray pre-dawn gloom hovered over the academy grounds, cold mist clinging to the stone paths. The world looked muted, like it was holding its breath.Like something was about to break.Zade’s jaw clenched as he leaned against the window frame. The last week had been hell—Xander growing more unmanageable, more unpredictable, more… fixated. Xand