Chapter 2 - “Claimed by the Man Who Buried Me”

SIENNA

The Northern stronghold smelled like blood, smoke, and wet earth.

I kept my head down as the wolves dragged me through the heavy iron gates. My legs still shook from the run, but I forced them steady. Showing weakness was useful. Showing too much of it would get me killed.

Kieran walked in front of me. Tall. Broad. The same cold set to his shoulders I remembered from another life. He didn’t look back once. He didn’t need to. Every wolf in the courtyard already knew who held the power here.

Someone shoved me forward when we stopped in the center of the open space. Dozens of eyes locked onto me. Some are curious. Some are hungry. A few are already measuring how long I would last.

Kieran’s voice cut through the noise.

“This human is under my protection.”

The words were flat. Practical. He didn’t raise his voice, but the courtyard went quiet anyway.

“Anyone who touches her without my order answers to me.”

A low murmur rolled through the crowd. I kept my face blank and my eyes soft, the way a scared girl should look. Inside, I was already counting faces.

Elder Voss stood near the steps of the main hall. Older now, but the same sharp eyes. The same thin mouth that had smiled when they left me to die. Next to him was a woman I knew too well. Selene. 

Dark hair, perfect posture, the same cold beauty she wore the day she watched them drag me away. Her gaze slid over me once, dismissive, then moved on. She had already decided I was nothing.

Good.

Let them all decide I was nothing.

Kieran’s Beta stepped forward and grabbed my arm. “Come. You’ll be given a room and rations. Stay out of the way.”

I nodded once, quiet. “Thank you.”

The word tasted like ash.

They put me in a small room on the second floor of the east wing. Thin mattress. One window with iron bars. A single bulb that flickered when the generators struggled. I sat on the edge of the bed and waited until the footsteps outside faded.

Only then did I let my shoulders drop.

My hands were still shaking. Not from fear. From the effort of not wrapping them around someone’s throat.

I closed my eyes and forced the memories down. The sound of my own spine breaking under zombie teeth. The way Kieran had turned his back. The way Selene had laughed softly when the screaming started.

Not yet.

I needed time. Information. People who would follow me when the moment came.

A soft knock pulled me back.

I opened the door to find a young wolf holding a tray. Bread. Water. A small piece of dried meat. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“From the Alpha,” he muttered, then left before I could answer.

I ate slowly. Every bite was fuel. Nothing more.

Night came fast. The stronghold settled into uneasy quiet. Generators hummed. Somewhere in the distance a wolf howled, answered by another. I sat on the bed with my back against the wall and listened.

Footsteps stopped outside my door.

I already knew who it was.

The door opened without permission. Kieran filled the frame, still in the same dark clothes, blood dried along one sleeve. His eyes found me immediately.

“You’re awake.”

I stayed seated. “It's hard to sleep when the dead are still screaming outside.”

He stepped in and closed the door. The click of the lock sounded louder than it should have.

“You’re hiding something,” he said.

My pulse jumped, but I kept my voice soft. “I’m just trying to stay alive.”

He moved closer. “Most humans freeze when they see the first wave. You didn’t. You moved like someone who already knew where the teeth would come from.”

I lifted my chin. “Maybe I got lucky.”

“Luck doesn’t look like that.”

He stopped in front of me. Too close. The same height. The same cold control in his stance. For a second the past and present overlapped so hard I almost forgot to breathe.

“And you’re still the same arrogant bastard,” I said before I could stop myself.

The words hung between us.

His eyes flashed gold.

In one step he had me against the wall. One hand braced beside my head, the other gripping my wrist hard enough to remind me how easy it would be to break. Heat rolled off him. Wolf heat. The kind that used to make my old body answer without thinking.

“Careful little human,” he said, voice low. “I don’t like secrets in my territory.”

I didn’t look away. “Then stop looking for them in people who just want to live.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth for half a second. The air between us tightened. I could feel the conflict in him—the Alpha who needed every useful body, and the man who suddenly didn’t like how this particular body made him feel.

“You will stay where I put you,” he said. “You will follow orders. And if I find out you’re lying to me…”

He didn’t finish the threat. He didn’t need to.

I kept my voice steady. “I understand.”

He held my wrist a second longer, then let go. The loss of contact felt sharper than it should have.

Kieran stepped back, eyes still locked on mine. “Sleep. Tomorrow the real work starts.”

He left without another word. The door shut. The lock turned.

I stayed against the wall until his footsteps faded completely.

Then I pushed off and walked to the small window. Outside, the night was thick with smoke and the distant sound of something heavy dragging itself along the outer wall.

I pressed my forehead to the cold bars and whispered the promise I had carried through death itself.

“You claimed me in front of them, Kieran.”

My reflection in the dark glass looked calm. Almost soft.

“Now I’ll make sure you regret every second of it.”