บททั้งหมดของ Say My Name, Alpha : บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

Ironclad adapted fast.By afternoon, the academy had changed its posture—not openly hostile, not yet—but alert in the way predators became when something unexpected survived an encounter meant to weaken it. The drills were reshuffled. Cadets reassigned. Instructors rotated. Power flowed differently through the halls, subtle but unmistakable.Zade felt it in his bones.Every step back to his quarters felt watched. Not followed—Ironclad was too precise for something so crude—but measured. Logged. Filed away for later dissection.Xander didn’t leave his side.Not when they passed through the central corridor lined with banners of past champions. Not when they crossed the sparring floors where Alphas paused mid-conversation to stare just a fraction too long. Not even when they reached the junction where Xander normally would have peeled off toward the upper ranks’ wing.“You don’t have to,” Zade said quietly, keeping his vo

Ironclad locked down within minutes.Steel barriers slid from the ceilings. Emergency protocols screamed through the halls. Cadets were forced into dormitories, instructors rerouted, surveillance tightened until the academy felt less like a school and more like a prison holding its breath.Zade was vaguely aware of it all.He was aware of Xander’s arm locked firmly around him, solid and unyielding. Aware of being lifted, not dragged, not restrained—carried. Aware of the way Xander’s Alpha presence wrapped around him, not crushing, but shielding, like a storm wall turned outward.He drifted in and out as they moved.The world blurred into fragments: harsh lights, metallic corridors, the echo of boots pounding behind them, alarms shrieking like wounded animals. Somewhere in the chaos, Zade felt hands reach for him—authority, control, Ironclad trying to reclaim what it believed belonged to it.Xander growled.The sound vibrated straight through Zade’s bones.“No,” Xander said, voice low

The academy always felt dangerous, but as the sun sank behind the steel spires, the air sharpened into something ritualistic, heavy with expectation. Lights dimmed across the upper towers, corridors emptied, and the hum of Alpha presence thickened until it pressed against Zade’s skin like an invisible weight.They locked him in the preparation wing.Not a cell—Ironclad never called it that—but a stark, circular chamber carved from black stone, runes etched faintly into the walls. Suppression fields hummed beneath the floor, subtle but unmistakable, designed to test endurance and control. A place where Alphas proved themselves.A place never meant for an Omega.Zade stood in the center of the room, hands clenched at his sides, breathing slow and deliberate. Every instinct screamed at him to hide, to curl inward, to protect what he was. But fear was a luxury he couldn’t afford tonight.The Rite of Ascendancy wasn’t just about strength.

The air inside the Rite Chamber was suffocating. A tension so sharp it could slice through steel hung between the towering walls, the light from the runes still pulsing faintly beneath Zade’s boots. The entire academy seemed frozen in disbelief, watching as one of its highest Alphas defied protocol before the Council. Zade could still feel the faint echo of Xander’s presence—a wall of dominance so vast that it bent the air itself. His aura lashed out, warning, furious, protective. But beneath that rage was something Zade recognized too easily. Fear. Not fear of Morrex. Fear for him. Guards moved again, but slowly this time, uncertainty dripping from their steps. Xander’s eyes flicked to them once, and three halted immediately. The other two shifted their stance, but no one dared make the first move. Zade felt his pulse hammering, every instinct screaming to move closer, to reach for him. But the moment his hand t

The ravine did not welcome them.It swallowed them.Wind tore through the jagged cliffs, carrying the metallic scent of rain and distant ozone from Ironclad’s power grid. The academy loomed above like a predator pacing the edge of its territory, searchlights slicing through the storm in long, furious arcs.Zade forced his legs to keep moving.The ground was uneven, slick with mud and loose stone. Every step jarred his injured shoulder, pain flashing white-hot through his veins. But he didn’t let himself slow. Not while the sound of distant sirens echoed down into the canyon like a warning bell.Xander stayed half a step ahead, body angled to shield him from the worst of the wind, one hand steady at Zade’s waist. He moved with purpose, scanning cliff edges and narrow ledges as if mapping the ravine in real time.“They’ll deploy trackers,” Xander said over the storm. “Thermal first. Then scent units.”Zade swallowed. “I can mask.”Xander shot him a sharp look. “You’re already pushing yo