CLAIMED BY FIRE

Nova Quinn

The fire was gone by morning, but the scorch marks stayed.

So did the whispers.

The news spread faster than I could stop it — the wolfless girl burst a car into flames with her hands. There were a few different versions floating around, of course. In one I was possessed. In another, I was some kind of elemental witch. My favourite? That I’d gone “heat-crazy” after being rejected by an Alpha and combusted from heartbreak.

Please.

If heartbreak could kill me, it would’ve done it years ago.

Kael Draven might’ve rejected me, but he didn’t get to erase me. Not when I was finally starting to feel real.

But none of that mattered the next morning — not when they came back.

I was halfway through repairing the damn engine I’d set on fire when the rumble of motorcycles cut through the air. Low, deep. Not the usual local drunks or weekend riders. These were pack bikes. Military style. Matte black.

Blackridge Pack.

My spine stiffened.

I wiped my hands slowly, heart thudding harder with every second. When I stepped outside, the entire street had gone still. People peered from windows, and Travis froze with a wrench in midair like the world had stopped turning.

Four bikes. Two armoured SUVs.

And him.

Kael dismounted like he didn’t feel the heat at all. Tight black shirt stretched over broad shoulders. Combat boots crunching on gravel. That tattoo around his throat flexed as his jaw tensed.

And he looked directly at me.

Not past me.

Not through me.

At me.

I squared my shoulders.

“Back for round two?” I called, crossing my arms.

The patrol behind him shifted uneasily. One of them — a tall, silver-eyed woman with a scar across her eyebrow — raised an impressed brow. The others? Stone-faced.

Kael didn’t blink. “Nova Quinn. You’re required to come with us.”

“Required?” I laughed. “That a threat or a really bad invitation?”

He took a slow step forward. “The Council summoned you.”

“Oh, so now I’m important.” I tilted my head. “That’s rich, coming from the man who told me I shouldn’t exist.”

His eyes darkened, but his voice stayed infuriatingly calm. “You set fire to a civilian structure. In wolf territory.”

“I set fire to my own garage.”

“You’re a danger to others—”

“No, I’m a danger to you. And you don’t know what to do with that.”

Something flickered in his expression.

Barely.

But I saw it.

“Nova.” Travis stepped beside me, voice low. “This isn’t the fight. Just… go see what they want. Come back with answers.”

I hated how reasonable he sounded.

I hated more that my fingers were shaking.

Kael’s gaze dropped briefly to my hands. He noticed. Of course he did. The Alpha saw everything.

Without waiting for permission, he nodded once to the patrol.

The silver-eyed she-wolf stepped forward and extended a hand. “Delta Mara. I’ll ride with you.”

I stared at her hand.

Then at Kael.

And without touching either of them, I walked to the SUV and climbed in on my own.

The drive into Blackridge territory took forty silent minutes. No one spoke. Not even Kael.

I pressed my forehead to the cool glass and watched the forest thicken around us. Dark pines and moss-covered oaks. Winding roads with no signs. I’d never been this deep before — never had a reason. The pack kept outsiders out, and I’d never exactly been welcome in.

Not wolfless. Not orphaned. Not… whatever the hell I was now.

When the SUV finally pulled to a stop, I was staring at a compound that looked like it belonged to a warlord.

Black steel gates. Stone walls. Wolves stationed with earpieces and firearms — and that was just at the entrance.

“Charming,” I muttered as Kael opened the door.

“This way.”

He didn’t offer a hand. Didn’t wait. Just started walking like he expected me to follow.

So I didn’t.

Not right away.

I made him wait two full seconds before I moved.

Small rebellions.

Inside the fortress, everything was colder. Cleaner. Dead quiet. Concrete walls framed by black wood beams. Every footstep echoed. The air smelled like power — and ozone.

Kael led me to a wide room with a long stone table surrounded by seven chairs. Only four were occupied.

I recognised none of them.

Until one of them turned — an older woman with streaks of white in her braid and eyes the same gold as Kael’s.

“Bring her forward,” she said.

Kael nodded.

I walked up before he could touch me.

Again: small rebellions.

“You’re Nova Quinn,” the woman said, voice clipped. “Age eighteen. Orphaned at two. Raised in human systems. No recorded shift. No registered wolf lineage.”

I crossed my arms. “You skipped the part where I make great coffee and have an undefeated record in engine diagnostics.”

She didn’t smile.

“This is a Council matter. Not a joke.”

“I wasn’t joking. I’m the only reason that Impala is still in one piece.”

“You set it on fire.”

“I also put it out.”

Kael’s jaw flexed again. I was starting to enjoy that.

The councilwoman — her nameplate read Liora — stood.

“Your existence presents a threat, Miss Quinn. Your powers are unclassified. Your lineage is unknown. The mating bond has snapped with our Alpha, but you are neither claimed nor accepted. This situation requires containment.”

“Containment?”

“You’ll remain in Blackridge territory until we determine what you are.”

“I’m not staying here.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Kael’s voice cut through the room like steel on bone.

“She’ll stay under my supervision.”

My head snapped toward him. “Excuse me?”

He didn’t look at me. Just kept staring straight ahead, unreadable.

Liora raised an eyebrow. “You reject her. Then take her in?”

“She’s dangerous.” His voice was low. Measured. “Better she stays where we can watch her.”

You mean where you can.

Where you can control her. Cage her. Study her like a threat.

I turned slowly, glaring at him. “You’re not my Alpha.”

His gaze finally met mine. And for a split second — a heartbeat — I thought I saw something flicker behind those eyes.

Regret? Pain?

Desire?

No. Couldn’t be.

He blinked. It was gone.

“Starting today,” he said, “I am.”