Claimed by the Quarter Back Alpha

CHAPTER 15 : Alexander voss

The apartment was too quiet when I got back from school.

The guys were either at practice or gone, leaving only the low hum of the fridge and the faint cedar and wolf scent that clung to every hallway corner like Dave had marked the place as his personal kingdom.

I dropped my bag by the door, kicked off my sneakers, and tried to shake off the echo of Tessan's broken voice from the hallway earlier.

Tessan's kept looping, louder than the memory of Dave's thumb stroking slow circles on my inner thigh under the cafeteria table, hotter than the way his eyes had darkened when our hands brushed.

I needed to stop thinking about him, About any of them. I pulled out my phone and opened the email I'd been ignoring for days.

Subject: Legal Notice – Custody Petition

From: Voss Legal Group

My thumb hovered. I'd seen the sender's name before. Always Voss, my Dad.

I tapped the attachment anyway. The letter was short.

Alexander Voss, through counsel, was petitioning for sole legal and physical custody of Nina Elise Carter, effective upon her eighteenth birthday or sooner if jurisdiction allowed. Grounds cited: material change in circumstances, best interest of the minor, and prior voluntary relinquishment now mitigated by current financial stability, residential security, and demonstrated capacity to provide.

Attached was a single photo recent, taken outside the Voss Tower in Manhattan. Black overcoat, crisp white shirt open at the collar, silver cufflinks catching the flash. Dark hair streaked with silver, the same piercing blue gray eyes I hated seeing in my own mirror.

Alexander Voss, Not the broke, volatile man my mom described from my toddler years the one who packed a duffel bag one night and never came back.

This was Alexander Voss, founder and CEO of Voss Enterprises. The name was unavoidable if you followed business news.

Those days when Mom would work three jobs and we only ate ramen five nights a week. Not when I cried myself to sleep at eight years old wondering why my dad didn't love me enough to stay.

Now, When I was finally living a life without him he wanted custody. I let the phone fall onto the couch cushions.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking as the front door opened. Dave walked in hoodie up, gym bag over one shoulder, still glistening from practice. His eyes found me instantly.

He stopped mid step.

"You look like someone just died." I laughed short, bitter.

"Close enough." He dropped the bag, crossed the room in three long strides, and glanced down at the glowing screen. His jaw tightened the second he saw the photo.

"Who the f**k is that?" I swallowed.

"My father." Dave's gaze flicked from Alexander's cold, polished face to mine sharp, unreadable.

"The billionaire deadbeat?"

"Yeah." My voice cracked. "He's filing for custody." Dave's expression didn't soften.

"He wants you now?" I nodded as Dave let out a low, humorless sound somewhere between a scoff and a growl.

"Typical human bullshit. Disappear when the kid's crying for you, show up when she's old enough to be useful." I flinched.

"He wasn't always like this," I said quietly.

"Mom says he was... angry. Broken. He left us with nothing. Then one day he was gone, and ten years later he's on magazine covers, building hotels and buying sports teams."

Dave's eyes dropped slow, deliberate tracing the line of my throat, the rapid rise and fall of my chest, the way my cropped hoodie rode up just enough to show a sliver of skin.

He stepped closer as his scent wrapped around me cedar, fresh sweat, pure alpha.

"You're not going anywhere," he said flat, final.

"You don't get to decide that." His lips curved slow, dangerous, no warmth in it.

"Try me." For one suspended second the air between us crackled thick with hate, tension, and something darker I refused to name.

Then he reached past me, picked up my phone, and stared at Alexander's face one last time.

He handed it back without a word.

"Tell him to go f**k himself." He turned and stalked toward his room.

But at the doorway he paused back to me, shoulders rigid.

"If he tries to take you..." His voice was low, lethal. "He'll have to go through me first."

The door clicked shut, I stood frozen as my heart slammed.

Dad wanted me back. The man who built an empire out of ruins now wanted the daughter he'd thrown away.

And Dave, my fake boyfriend who hated humans more than anything had just drawn a line in the sand.

I didn't know which one terrified me more or which one I feared losing to.