Repossessed: 30 Days to Reclaim His Pack

The Claim

Selene didn't knock.

She walked straight into the Great Hall of the Dravos pack, and forty wolves turned to look at her.

The doors slammed shut behind her guards. Iron on stone.

She'd rehearsed this moment for three years. Not the words. Just the walk — spine straight, chin level, boots even on the marble.

Kane Dravos sat at the head table like nothing had changed.

Three years, and he still filled a room the way he used to fill a doorway.

Their eyes met.

Nobody moved.

She crossed the hall anyway, the sealed case cold against her palm, and set it on the table in front of him. The Elders' crest. Wax unbroken.

"Alpha Dravos." Her voice didn't shake. "You're being claimed."

A woman at his right rose fast — dark hair, sharp jaw, a possessive hand already on his shoulder. Ivy Castellan. Selene clocked the ring before she clocked the face.

"Get her out," Ivy said.

"She speaks for the Elders." Kane hadn't looked away from Selene once. "Nobody touches her."

Selene tapped the seal. "Break it. Read it. That's the job."

He broke it himself. Read it twice.

His hand went still on the parchment.

"A Reckoning Claim," he said, low enough that only the front row caught it.

"Unsanctioned rejection of a true mate. Against the Mating Law." Selene set a second sheet beside the first. "You had cause on file. It doesn't hold."

"It held for three years."

"It held because nobody looked at it for three years." She kept her hands flat on the table. "Now someone has."

Ivy leaned over his shoulder to read it. Her face went tight.

"This is a mistake," Ivy said.

"It's a formality." Selene didn't blink. "Until it isn't."

Kane stood. Six-foot-three of him, and the whole hall moved with it.

"You want to take my territory over a filing error."

"I want you to prove cause. That's all this is." She held his stare. "Sign for receipt, and the clock starts. Thirty days. You produce proof, or the Claim executes itself."

"And if I don't sign?"

"Then it's void by refusal, and I walk out of here empty-handed." A beat. "Try me."

Something shifted behind his eyes. Not anger. Calculation.

He knew what refusal cost him. So did she.

Ivy grabbed his arm. "Kane. Don't."

He shook her off. Not rough. Just final.

"Give me the pen."

Selene didn't have a pen.

She had a blade, small and silver, flat on the table beside the Claim. Blood-oath law. He knew that too.

The hall went dead silent.

Kane picked up the blade himself. Drew it across his palm in one clean line and pressed his hand flat against the parchment.

The Elders' seal flared dark red and sank into the paper.

"There." His voice had gone rough. "Signed."

Selene reached for the case latch.

"One more thing." Kane didn't sit back down. "Read the fine print before you walk out of here thinking you're done."

She stopped.

She hadn't written the Claim. The Elders' office had, and she'd trusted the boilerplate.

She found the line halfway down the second sheet. The Envoy sent to verify this Reckoning shall remain on the accused Alpha's land until it ends.

Her stomach dropped once, hard.

"That's not standard language," she said.

"Then the Elders made an unusual exception for me." Something almost like satisfaction crossed his face. "Thirty days, Envoy Voss. Under my roof."

Ivy's mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Selene closed the case anyway. Kept her voice level even though the ground had just moved under her.

"Fine," she said. "I'll be watching every hour of it."

"Good." He was still bleeding, palm open, and he didn't wipe it off. "Because I'm done letting you walk away thinking you already know the story."

The hall was still watching. Ivy's hand was back on his sleeve, gripping hard enough to go white-knuckled.

"You think I rejected you because I wanted to," Kane said.

"I know you did." Her hand tightened on the edge of the case until the latch bit into her palm. "I was there."

"You were there for the rejection." His eyes didn't move off hers. "You weren't there for the reason."

"Kane." Ivy's voice had an edge now. A warning.

He ignored her.

"Thirty days," he said. "I'm not going to spend them proving cause to the Elders."

Selene's pulse kicked, once, hard.

"Then what are you going to spend them on?"

He crossed the space between them before she could step back. Close enough that she felt the heat off him. Close enough that the mark on her collarbone — three years dormant, three years silent — flared hot enough to steal her breath.

"Proving it to you." His voice caught on the last word, like he hadn't meant to let it come out that raw.

Behind him, Ivy's face went white with fury.

The hall didn't breathe.

Selene didn't either.