The Alpha House

Chapter Seven

After we ate, Jamie had to leave for a meeting with Duke and the other guys at the club. For the first time all week, I was able to have some true alone time, and I cherished it. It had been a crazy week, and I usually spent my Saturdays taking some time to myself. I was an introvert at heart, and even though I loved spending time with the people in my life, I always needed at least half a day once a week to have just to myself.

After spending an hour or so on my laptop, catching up on work stuff and emailing my boss at the high school about my "family emergency" and promising to be at practice early on Monday afternoon, I went to explore the house a little bit, taking full advantage of the absence of the men who lived there. I knew Jamie and I lived on the fifth floor, so I wandered out into the brightly-lit hallway to look for a set of stairs that went up. Instead, I discovered that we were on the top floor of the house. I passed a spacious half-bathroom down the hall, and wandered through a beautiful home library that looked too well-stocked to be Jamie's. I figured it was Duke's.

Somehow, I had been expecting the Alpha House to be all dark wood and dimly-lit corners, with shadows lurking at every turn. Instead, it was a regal Southern masterpiece, more like King Charles IV meets Instagram influencer mansion. I rounded the corner, past the home library, and trailed my hand along the bannister. I had reached the "center" of the house, where you could lean over and see all the way down the spiral staircase. It was dizzying.

That's when I came across another bedroom, the enormous cream-colored double-doors closed tightly. Through deductive reasoning I assumed it must've been Duke's bedroom, as it would make the most sense for him to live on the top floor of the house. Jamie still hadn't quite explained the hierarchy to me, but it was abundantly clear that Duke was the head honcho. I wondered if Jamie was like his second-in-command.

I peeked my head into the last two rooms on the fifth floor and found that Duke and Jamie had adjoining home offices with beautiful glass doors leading to a shared balcony much like the one in Jamie's bedroom. Do I call it "our" bedroom now? I wondered to myself.

On the fourth floor I found two more bedrooms, one of which was clearly Mason's. The door was ajar, and the distinct smell of bourbon oozed from the room like a poisonous fog. I didn't dare look inside in case Sophia was lurking nearby.

Other than two more home offices, I also discovered that there was a second kitchen on this floor, smaller than the main one but still harboring a well-stocked fridge and a small kitchen island. When I walked down to the third floor, I was surprised to see that it opened up into one big game room. Decked out like an arcade, there was basketball and air hockey in one corner, a giant TV set up with an Xbox, and more games lining each wall.

"What the hell are you doing?"

I spun around.

Sophia was standing by the staircase, glaring at me. Her intimidating height of five foot ten was made even more intimidating by the three-inch booties she wore, and her blouse and full face of makeup told me she had somewhere to be.

"I was just looking around."

"Yeah, right."

She turned and started down the stairs, and I ran to catch up with her.

"Sophia, wait!"

She didn't stop until we reached the second floor, and we stumbled upon Henny sitting in what appeared to be an upstairs lounge. She was dressed head-to-toe in business casual, a modest blouse tucked neatly underneath her blazer. She spoke furiously, and it took me a minute to realize she was talking into her AirPods, her fingers clicking and clacking across her laptop keyboard.

Friends was playing on the flatscreen TV in front of the couch, and I realized Allesia was lying beside Henny, dressed in sweatpants and looking miserable. The stark contrast between the two of them was almost comical.