I never imagined bunkers like this even existed.
This one is huge, a big concrete hall with side rooms that might be a bathroom and a pantry or storage, and in the center are pieces of equipment like a power generator, metal cabinets, all kinds of crates, two camp beds, and a table surrounded bychairs. On the table lies a chaotic spread of items, including gas masks and various objects wrapped in aluminum foil, plus some old magazines.
"Wow, this is so cool," I mutter, inhaling. "You’re right, the air is actually pretty good. Looks like the ventilation works."
"And it’s dry," Bay says, looking around carefully. He goes to the two doors we spotted, and when he opens the first one, it really is a food storage room, shelves of canned goods stacked to the ceiling, though I doubt they’re edible now. The second room is a bathroom.
"This bathroom uses groundwater," Bay says. "I remember my dad once joked after we got a high water bill from refilling the pool that if we ever get a bill like that again, we’ll hook up to the well in the bunker and have water for free."
The bathroom is large, with a tub, a shower, and a very strange rotating manual washer with a hand crank.
"Wow, this guy really believed he could live down here for years…"
"Seems like it. And the best part is, I’ve wanted my own gym forever. This is the perfect space." Bay looks around with huge eyes, thrilled and fascinated by everything.
"I think you’re already well built," I say playfully, brushing his bicep, "but if you want to bulk up more, this really could be the perfect spot. No one will bother you here."
Bay grins and pulls me close, and we kiss for a moment.
"It’ll be perfect. I already see in my head how I’ll set everything up."
"And it’s all thanks to you," he says, tilting his head. "If you hadn’t gotten horny enough for making out, we never would’ve gone into those bushes, and I never would’ve remembered the bunker."
I flutter my eyelashes dramatically. "If you need help decorating, I volunteer. If I can’t become a world-famousmathematician, I’ll switch to interior design," I say, winking, and he laughs and grabs me by the waist.
And then we test one of the camp beds because, well, the place needs a proper christening…
BAY
Junior year of high school feels like an entirely new world.
We go to Franklin High now, a school only forty minutes from downtown, and the kids there are completely different, but luckily my reputation gets there a bit ahead of me. I am accepted into the band right away, at first as the second vocalist, since the group already has its star, an omega named Cosmo, and thankfully he does not have a diva complex, so soon enough we are singing duets together.
Alex is also settling in pretty well. Franklin High has a great chess club and a math team, and this change brings both of us a lot of joy. A weight lifts off my chest, because no one here knows the events from Jackson High, no one knows my past.
My relationship with Alex is thriving. We are like two inseparable lovebirds, and if Alex ever feared I might pay attention to someone else, he could not be more wrong, because I only have eyes for him. It is true that a few omegas and even some betas show interest, but they quickly have to accept the fact that Alex is my entire world.
Even Cosmo seems interested at one point, but that is not an option. I only exist in Alex’s light; he pulls me out of nonexistence the way a painter’s hand pulls shapes out of anempty canvas. My love for him knows no limits. Everything I do, I plan with our future life together in mind.
Throughout this entire year, I continue my training sessions with Gurco. I have no intention of giving them up because they bring me a lot of satisfaction and help me release the energy that always fills me, and I have a lot of it.
As for the bunker, it soon takes on exactly the shape I dreamed of. Within a few months, I have already saved a solid amount of money, enough to finish my dream training gym on my own.
I spend long hours there, practicing with fierce dedication. I can finally lift heavy weights and place a few machines with pro-level equipment that truly allow me to build muscle. Of course, I still train with f-AI-t, and the company agreed to let me keep the equipment because I consistently send them my training reports. They do have a lot of questions though, including whether I am a purple alpha, because the force of my hits on the dummy places me on a similar scale, if not above. Somehow, they refuse to believe that this is not the case.
Around this time, at seventeen, my height shoots up as well. I am already six foot four, and I have a feeling this is not the end, since my father has four more inches on me and he kept growing until he was twenty-one.
Alex finally reaches five foot one, but he thinks he will not grow much more. His dad is only five foot three, so genetically he does not expect too much.
One day, I ask him about his father.
The conversation is rather short because Alex actually knows almost nothing about him. His dad never talks about him. Every question gets dodged. All Alex knows is that his father was a judge, much older than his dad, that they struggled for many years to conceive a child, and that his dad only got pregnant after turning forty. The man supposedly died before Alex was born.
But nothing beyond that. Alex has maybe a few photos of him. He shows them to me, and the only thing that comes to mind is that he does not look like him at all, not even a little. Alex does not resemble his dad either. Judge Strada had a strongly Italian look, with black hair, dark eyes, olive skin, and bold facial features. But I do not voice my doubts out loud because I am no geneticist, and maybe Alex just ended up with a bunch of recessive genes.
During the summer break between junior and senior year, I also get to meet Winter’s boyfriend. My brother brings him to the house for about a week.
His name is Finn Delgado, and he is a pretty cool guy. He studied genetics and seems very much in love with Winter, although I have the feeling those emotions are not returned. But with Winter, it is hard to read anything.
