All Chapters of OFFSIDE MATE: REJECTED BY ONE ALPHA. CLAIMED BY ANOTHER.: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

55 Chapters

011— "HOW SHAMELESS."

The gates opened and I saw it and I stopped talking.I had grown up in a Beta family home.My father had been proud of that house. Four bedrooms, proper grounds, the kind of home that said we are not wealthy but we are not nothing. I had thought it was large when I was small.Looking at this, I revised that opinion considerably.“Say something,” I told myself."It has a fountain," I said."Yes.""It's running.""It runs continuously.""That's—" I searched for the word. "Unnecessary.”I got no reply.He parked and got out and I got out and stood in the driveway. I looked up at the facade and then sideways at the east wing and then sideways the other way at the west wing and thought. Who needs this much building? I was not impressed.I was assessing.There was a difference.The front door opened before we reached it. A man appeared. Tall, silver-haired, dressed better than I had been at any point in the last three months, with the kind of face that had been carefully trained to expre

Last Updated : 2026-04-20

012— CRANE STREET.

I went on the offensive before he could say anything."So." I crossed my arms. "You had Anton spy on me.""Anton manages the house.""Anton reported back to you.""Anton tells me relevant information." He looked at me. "Your hunger strike was relevant.""It wasn't a hunger strike. It was a statement.""The grapes in your pocket were a statement."I pointed at him. "Don't. You brought me to your enormous ridiculous house against my will and I hadn't eaten since—" I stopped. Redirected. "The point is this arrangement isn't working for me. I want to leave.""No.""That's it? Just no?""Just no."I stared at him standing there in his hallway at midnight looking like someone who had never once in his life been inconvenienced, and something in his face shifted. So small I almost missed it.He was amused.Not smiling. Kai Volkov probably didn't know how to smile, but the corner of his mouth moved slightly and his eyes did something that in any other person I would have called amusement and

Last Updated : 2026-04-21

013— THE KNOCK.

His voice came from the front of the car, steady as if nothing in the back seat mattered."What did I say about leaving without my permission?"I stared at the back of his head.My wrists were zip tied. There was a sack smell on my hair. Four of his people had just grabbed me off a public street and bundled me into the back of a car like I was luggage and he was sitting up front asking me questions in that quiet unbothered voice like this was reasonable. "You." I leaned forward as far as the seat allowed. "You absolute…""Don't.""You zip tied me. You put a SACK over my head…""You left without permission.""I don't NEED your permission, I'm not your—""You're in my house." He still hadn't turned around. Still watching the road and completely calm. "Under my protection. On my terms.""Your TERMS." I laughed. It came out slightly unhinged. "Your terms. That's what we're calling kidnapping now. Terms."He said nothing.I pulled at the zip ties. They didn't move.He reached back without

Last Updated : 2026-04-22

014— NIKO.

I opened the door.The man standing there was tall, very good-looking, holding two plates of food like he'd been personally invited. I recognized him vaguely. One of the faces I'd clocked during the scrimmage and filed under “Kai’s people.”He looked at my face. At the marks on my wrists. At the general energy of someone who had been crying furiously.His expression didn't go uncomfortable or pitying.He just said — "Hi. I'm Niko.""You're one of his," I said."Technically. But I brought food so currently I'm nobody's." He tilted one plate toward me. "Anton made extra. Seems wasteful."I should have said no.My stomach made a decision before I did. …He sat on my floor without being invited anywhere and ate like it was completely normal. He talked because silence seemed to genuinely puzzle him — about the team, about something Luka did at practice that still apparently hadn't been resolved. I said four words total and he didn't seem to require more.Then he said someth

Last Updated : 2026-04-23

015— KAI.

~ KAI ~The security feed showed her in the east wing at eleven forty-three.I watched the small screen on my desk What was she doing?Not a general what was she doing. A specific one. Because the east wing was mapped in my head, and at the end of the east wing corridor was a door that led to a space that was mine. Only mine. That nobody came into.I got up.I could hear the cold before I opened the door.Then I opened it and she was already on the ice and my first thought was “She found the spare skates” “Those are too big” And my third thought was that I was standing here having thoughts about her skates instead of walking in and removing her.I watched her.Just for a moment I told myself.She was running a sequence, completely unaware of me. No performance, no armor, nothing constructed about any of it. Just her and the ice and the low light catching the movement.Her left edge kept breaking on the turn. Almost imperceptibly.I noticed and went i

Last Updated : 2026-04-24

016— FRENCH TOAST.

I slept properly for the first time in weeks.I wasn't going to think about why. I got up, splashed water on my face, pulled my hair into a bun and went downstairs.The kitchen maid looked up from the counter and immediately looked like she needed a moment to process my existence."Miss Morrison," she said carefully. "Can I help you?""Just seeing what's cooking," I said, moving to look at the pot on the stove.I looked at it."What is that?" I asked."Oatmeal, miss.""Plain oatmeal.""Yes miss.""Just… plain. Nothing in it.""Mr. Volkov prefers—""Give it to Mr. Volkov," I said, already opening the refrigerator. "I'm making my own."She looked genuinely alarmed. "Miss I really don't think—""Relax," I said. "I'm not going to burn anything. Probably." I started pulling things out. "Do you have brioche bread? Eggs? Heavy cream?""I… yes, but…""Vanilla extract. Cardamom. Cinnamon." I looked at her. "Please."She got everything with the energy of someone who had decided this was above h

Last Updated : 2026-04-25

017— THE FILE.

Niko pulled up outside my building and cut the engine.He looked at the facade for a moment. The narrow entrance. The peeling paint around the door frame that I'd been meaning to report since month one and never did."It's fine," I said before he could."I wasn't going to say anything.""You were doing a face.""I genuinely wasn't—""Niko."He looked at the building again. Then at me. "It has character," he said finally. "Really significant character.""Get out of the car," I said. …The apartment was exactly as I'd left it.Twelve steps across. Mattress on the floor. The chair with the shortened leg sitting at its permanent lean. I stood in the middle of it and breathed.Three months. Gaya Morrison lived here for three months and it already felt like someone else's life.I didn't know if that was good or bad."Cozy," Niko said from the doorway."Don't.""I meant it.""You did another face.""I don't do faces," he said, coming in and sitting on my mattress with the

Last Updated : 2026-04-25

018— ELENA.

I woke up and didn't know where I was for three seconds.Then I did.I was on my feet before I finished remembering. Before the mansion ceiling and the too-soft mattress fully registered — already moving toward the door because Elena had seventy-two hours and I didn't know how many of them I'd already lost lying here.My legs gave out halfway across the room.I caught the bedpost. Went down on one knee and Crew's voice came back immediately, filling my head like something physical."You look good, Sloane."Elena's muffled scream through the gag and — I pressed my hand against my mouth. The fingernail. The way he'd held it up toward the camera between two fingers like it was nothing. Like she was nothing.“Get up,” I told myself. “Get up right now.”I got up.The door didn't open.I tried it twice before I accepted that it was locked. I pushed it, pulled it, rattled the handle with both hands. Still locked. Something snapped.I grabbed the lamp from the nightstand and threw it at the

Last Updated : 2026-04-26

019— EIGHTEEN HOURS.

His office was exactly what I expected.Large and ordered. Everything with a place and nothing out of it. Maps on one wall, a desk, two chairs positioned across from it like he'd anticipated needing witnesses at some point.I sat in one without being invited.He sat behind the desk and looked at me and said nothing. Just waited with that particular stillness.I put my phone on the desk between us and pressed play.He watched the video.I watched him watch it.His face did nothing. Not a flicker, not a single readable thing for the full forty seconds. Just those blue eyes moving across the screen.The video ended.Silence."How long has she been with him?"* he asked."I don't know. I thought she was in Edinburgh.""When did you last hear from her directly?""Three weeks ago. A voice note."My throat did something I ignored. "She sounded fine."He picked up the phone. Watched the video again. I looked at the wall while he did because I couldn't watch Elena's face a third time and stay fu

Last Updated : 2026-04-26

020— "SHE WON'T COME."

The convoy left at midnight.Three black vehicles, no plates, engines quieter than they had any right to be. I stood at the mansion's entrance and watched them go — watched until the tail lights disappeared down the private road.The iron gates swung shut and there was nothing left but the sound of the fountain.Niko had stopped at the door before he left.He looked at Kai first. Something passed between them that didn't need words."Don't be stupid out there," Kai said."Never am," Niko replied.He looked at me then. "We'll bring her back," he said.I nodded because speaking felt dangerous.He left.Kai appeared beside me at the entrance. We stood there for a moment, both looking at the closed gates, and then he said — "Inside" "I know,” I repliedHis office had become something between a command center and a holding room for people who refused to sleep.Two laptops open on the desk. One running the facility's external camera feeds his people had accessed six hours ago. One tra

Last Updated : 2026-04-26

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