All Chapters of Alpha's Power Bottom: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I walked into my room angry at my father.The walls pressed in on me as I got into proper clothes and lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling like it might crack open and swallow me whole. Despite my anger toward my father, today has been fun. My body still remembered the day. It remembered every hit, every sprint, every moment I’d felt untouchable. But my mind was somewhere else entirely.I still couldn't let go of the locker room. Of seeing Derek naked with steam curling around his skin.I squeezed my eyes shut, but it didn’t help. I could still see him like it was burned into the back of my skull. I could see the water running down his neck, clinging to his shoulders, tracing the lines of muscle he probably didn’t even know he had. His hair was darker when it was wet, plastered to his forehead. The way he’d laughed at something one of his teammates said, head tipped back, throat exposed.I hadn’t meant to stare.That was the lie I kept telling myself.I shifted on the bed, jaw tig

The words "you will never be an Ashbound" stayed lodged in my chest long after Derek’s father slammed the door and left him alone.I pressed my back against the rough bark of the tree and exhaled slowly, forcing my breathing to stay steady. My heart still thudded painfully against my ribs, not from fear this time but from something heavier and something messier.The realization that Derek was Ashbound. A hunter.A part of the people raised to track, trap, and kill my kind.That truth should have burned everything else away. It should have flipped a switch inside me and turned him into a threat, an enemy, a reason to run and never look back.But it didn’t, because I’d also just seen something else, and it was rejection.Derek wasn’t fully welcomed among them. His blood marked him as different. His mother's a witch. Part of the supernatural that is hated and meant to be erased by the Ashbounds. And that had already decided his place before he ever got to choose one for himself.But some

It was another school day, and Lucas dropped me off earlier than usual. The school lot was barely half full, the morning air still cool enough that mist clung faintly to the pavement. I shut the car door and slung my backpack over my shoulder, watching as Lucas lingered for a second longer than necessary before driving off.I knew why.Yesterday had rattled him too, so now, he was being more watchful and cautious.I took a calm and steady breath and turned toward the building. And almost immediately, something felt… wrong. I wasn't ambushed with a sweet and warm voice.Bri wasn’t there.Normally, she would’ve already been pacing near the front steps or hovering by the lockers, with her red hair that was impossible to miss, her energy that was bright and loud even before the first bell. Today, the space she usually occupied felt really hollow, like a missing note in a song I hadn’t realized I had gotten used to.I looked around again, just in case, scanning the crowd, and still nothing

The training started, and in a few minutes later, the grass blurred beneath my feet.No, blurred wasn’t even the right word. It vanished.One second, I was sprinting, cleats biting into the turf, the weight of the ball tucked tight against my ribs, Derek’s presence a sharp burn at my back. The next, the world folded in on itself like someone had snuffed out the sun behind my eyes. Everything turned black.Panic flared instantly. Am I blind?I stumbled. My heart was slamming so hard it felt like it might crack my ribs from the inside. My vision wasn’t just dim... it was gone, replaced by a roaring darkness that pressed in from all sides. I slowed my movements, then stopped completely, breath tearing out of my chest in ragged pulls.Don’t panic. Don’t panic. I kept telling myself.I could hear everything, well, too much of everything. The thud of footsteps, the coach shouting something distant and distorted, the hiss of breath behind me. Derek. I knew it was him. His pace was aggressive

"What is going on here?" he asked again.The room felt too small for my father’s anger. It pressed against the walls, thick and suffocating, curling around my chest until breathing hurt. The candles flickered violently as if even the flames knew better than to stand still in his presence.“Will someone explain to me why I was just informed,” my father said, his voice low and vibrating with barely restrained fury, “that my son once again chose to disobey me.”Lucas stepped forward immediately. “Alpha, it was my fault. I should’ve stopped him. The girl—”My father moved faster than I had ever seen him move in human form. One sharp shove sent Lucas stumbling sideways, crashing into a shelf hard enough that jars rattled and clinked.“I was not speaking to you,” my father said coldly, already walking past him.Lucas didn’t protest again.I lowered my head instinctively as my father stopped in front of me. The familiar weight of his authority pressed down on my spine, on my lungs, on my wol