Page 3 of Claimed By Fur and Fangs

“I don’t know…” I muttered, the confusion of the moment still swirling in my chest. “But when he touched my face—” I stopped myself, realizing I was rambling. “It was just... odd.”

“Sounds like he might be in shock or something,” Sienna suggested, her tone thoughtful. “Maybe he’s mixing up memories, or it could be trauma from the fire. Who knows? We get a lot of weird reactions to that kind of thing.”

I nodded, still unsettled by the whole encounter. “Maybe. But something felt off. And then Julian—Aidan’s assistant, I think—came running over and called me Alma too.” I sighed.

Sienna gave me a sympathetic look and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you just have a striking resemblance with someone they know”

“I guess you’re right”

“I get it. Sometimes these things don’t make sense. But hey, I’m here now. Let’s get you some coffee, yeah?”

Before I could answer, my pager buzzed in my pocket, a soft reminder that there was no time to rest. I looked down at it and sighed. “Duty calls. But we’ll talk later. I promise.”

“Of course,” Sienna smiled.

As I moved through the halls of the hospital, my mind kept drifting back to the scene at the refinery. The sounds, the smoke, the chaos of it swirling in my head. But something else had been nagging me, something I couldn’t shake.

I stopped in my tracks, my heart skipping a beat as a realization hit me like a cold wave.

“Aidan never had any injury not even a scratch despite being brought out from a raging fire… his clothes were torn but his body was untouched. That’s strange” I whispered.

Chapter Two

Finn

The chatter of the other firefighters filled the air, their voices bouncing off the walls of the fire station. The guys were going over every detail of the fire, shaking their heads in disbelief.

“Unbelievable, right?” Marco said, his voice hoarse from the smoke, as he scrubbed his face with a towel. “I've never seen a blaze that fierce. Felt like it was fighting back.”

The others nodded in agreement. Lieutenant Carter let out a low whistle. “You don’t come across fires like that every day. Felt like the whole damn city was on fire.”

I wasn’t listening to them. I couldn’t.

My mind was stuck somewhere else—somewhere between the heat of the fire and the moment I’d spent with Amelia.

The heat from the fire had been brutal, suffocating. But the thing that lingered in my chest wasn’t the scorch of flames—it was the way Amelia’s hands had felt on my arm when she’d cleaned the cut. Her fingers had brushed my skin with such softness that for a second, I almost forgot where I was. The way her grey eyes had locked with mine—like she was seeing right through me.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt a spark with someone, but this? This was different. I wasn’t sure why, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something about Amelia was important.

“Finn, you okay, man?” Marco’s voice cut through the fog in my mind, and I blinked, realizing that everyone was staring at me.

“Yeah.” I exhaled sharply, trying to shake off the haze. “Just... thinking.”

“Thinking?” Marco raised an eyebrow. “About that fire? Or that nurse you were with?”

I froze. How had he known?

“Did you see her?” Marco grinned knowingly. “That woman was stunning. You couldn’t take your eyes off her.”

I felt heat creep up my neck. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t stop looking at her. It was the way she had looked at me. The way she had been so steady, even in the chaos. The way her voice had grounded me, even for just a moment, amidst the storm of everything happening around us.

“I’m going to wash up,” I muttered, stepping away from the group, the weight of their knowing looks still on my back.

I didn’t need their teasing right now. I needed some space, some air, to get my head straight.

The bathroom was small but cold with the scent of bleach and soap hanging in the air. I stood in front of the mirror, looking at my reflection. I was covered in soot, my face streaked with sweat and grime. After a quick shower, the scene from earlier that night—the fire, the chaos, the rescue—flooded back to me in a flash.

My mind immediately went back to when I saw Aidan’s injury healing when I carried him from his office.

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