The Infernos Claim
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The Hockey Prince's Secret Ice Queen
All I wanted was to find a computer genius to process the non-linear dynamic equations for my ecological model. Instead, I found myself cornered by Julian Andrews, the university's hockey prince, trading a public, staged kiss for his academic support. To finalize our "deal," I was dragged to the campus ice rink. The cheerleaders and puck bunnies immediately swarmed him, mocking my plain clothes and treating me like a pathetic joke. Brooke, the head cheerleader, even set up a figure skating competition with a date with Julian as the grand prize. She performed a basic spin, blew him a kiss, and smugly waited for me to fall flat on my face and humiliate myself. His hockey teammates laughed from the sidelines, watching me try to support Julian as he stumbled around the ice like a newborn giraffe. But as I held his warm hand to keep him from falling, I couldn't help but feel something was terribly wrong. Why was a top-tier athlete faking such awful balance? And why did his ice-blue eyes stare at me with such knowing anticipation, as if he already knew about the professional figure skating past I had spent years trying to bury? "Just let go and skate." He whispered, slowly releasing my hand. I took a deep breath, glided to the center of the rink, and landed a flawless double Axel. As the entire rink fell into a dead, shocked silence, I realized I had just exposed not only my own hidden past, but also the biggest secret of the campus god.
Chapter 1 No.1
Sage POV:
"Let me kiss you."
The request was a low, hurried murmur—warm, quiet, and laced with the faintest edge of mortification.
Stunned, I snapped my head up toward the sound.
Julian Andrews filled my vision. He easily towered a head over me, his lean, athletic frame silhouetted against the bright morning glare, casting a long shadow across the cobblestones. Briar University's star forward. Team captain. The athletic department's untouchable golden boy.
Campus rumor had it that Julian was notoriously indifferent, never sparing anyone a second glance.
Behind him, a solid wall of navy-and-gold varsity jackets blocked the brick path. His teammates were whistling, shoving each other, and effectively cutting off my only exit.
The sudden commotion immediately bottlenecked the morning foot traffic. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and within seconds, a dozen students reached into their pockets out of sheer muscle memory, black camera lenses catching the light as they aimed squarely at us.
Julian's sharp eyes tracked the movement, his jaw tightening into a hard, irritated line.
Before I could take a single defensive step back, he closed the distance between us. Leaning down into my space, his broad shoulders shifted in a subtle, fluid maneuver—throwing up an impenetrable physical wall that completely shielded my face from the intrusive glare of the cameras.
His sharp, striking face hovered breathtakingly close. His deep baritone brushed against my ear, lost to the autumn wind, meant for me alone:
"Sorry to drop this on you," he whispered, his pale blue eyes disarmingly earnest, holding a quiet heat that sent a tremor straight down my spine. "The guys backed me into a locker-room dare... but I'm not here to use you as a joke. We can fake it. Angle it so it looks real—whatever you're comfortable with. Just help me get them off my back, and I owe you one."
It was only then that my brain finally rebooted.
What on earth? He's actually trying to kiss me?
A sharp flare of pure absurdity hit me, and my gaze dropped to my reflection in the dark glass door of the adjacent building: an oversized, faded gray hoodie that swallowed my frame whole, soft, thin jeans worn at the knees, bare-faced dark circles carved beneath my eyes from forty-eight hours of non-stop coding, my dark hair hastily twisted into a cheap plastic claw clip, and a pair of oversized, thick black-rimmed glasses sitting heavy on the bridge of my nose, completely hiding my face.
I looked like a refugee from an all-night disaster. How had Briar's golden prince ended up in front of me?
When I looked back up, my breath trapped in my throat anyway. He was too close, his clean scent of winter mint and cedar wrapping around my senses. Having those pale blue eyes staring straight down at me made my chest tighten in a way I really didn't want to acknowledge.
"Clock's ticking, Cap!" Landon howled from the sidelines, hands cupped around his mouth as the rest of the players lost their minds laughing. "Plant one on her, or enjoy the five-AM bag skate!"
A raucous chorus of barks and chest-thumping went up from the team.
A few yards away, two girls heading toward the dining hall froze in their tracks, pointing their phones.
"Wait, who the hell is that?" one of them laughed loudly, zooming her camera in on my face. "She looks like she just crawled out of a dumpster. There's no way Julian's actually kissing her. Post it on Sidechat right now—this is going straight to number one."
The cruel words hit like a splash of ice water, snapping me out of my daze and instantly killing the stupid flutter in my chest.
I hated the attention.
Four years ago, after my family and my former training partner framed me and destroyed my competitive skating career, I swore I would never be public entertainment again. I buried my name, switched majors, and hid behind oversized fleece and thick glasses just to live an invisible life. If I ended up on the campus forums with Julian Andrews, the internet vultures would dox me before noon—and drag up the toxic scandal I had bled to walk away from.
My research was already on the verge of falling apart. I didn't have time for this circus.
I locked my grip around my heavy binders, my knuckles straining white.
"Find someone else for your dare, Andrews," I said coldly, taking a step back to put distance between us, my voice tight with adrenaline. "I'm not interested in being part of your game. Move."
I kept my head down, attempting to brush past him.
"You're Sage Kelley, right?"
The sound of my name brought my boots to an immediate halt.
I blinked up at him, caught completely off guard.
"Professor Beaumont's senior research student," Julian straightened up slightly, his cadence measured and even, carrying an intellectual sharpness that seemed impossible beneath a varsity jacket. "I saw your Havenwood Creek senior capstone proposal sitting on his desk over Sunday dinner."
My heart gave a hard, hollow thud. Professor Beaumont was my academic advisor—and the guardian of the final research endowment my late father had left behind.
Julian leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper against the whistle of the wind. "I spent an hour going over your codebase."
My lips parted. "You... read my proposal?"
"Your simulation keeps crashing because your core fluid algorithm strategy is flawed," Julian murmured, his pale blue eyes deadly sharp. "And Uncle Des mentioned that if you don't deliver a working version by this Friday, the department is pulling your grant—which means you don't clear your senior thesis, and you don't graduate in May."
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Friday was the deadline. If the funding was pulled, the project died, my senior capstone failed, and I would be forced to stay another semester without my degree. Worse, my father's final ecological legacy would be reduced to scrap paper.
I had been panicking over that exact deadline for two days straight, and Julian had just laid it out like it was nothing.
Worse, I couldn't even brush him off. I had heard the rumors about Beaumont's nephew—the CS prodigy everyone in the department talked about. I just had never realized it was him.
"I know how to fix your algorithm," Julian stated plainly, laying his cards on the table, his gaze locking onto mine with an unshakeable, quiet certainty. "Help me get through this bet. In return, I'll rewrite your boundary calculations tonight. Deal?"
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The Rogue Alpha's Claim
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THE BLIND CLAIM
When Samantha attempts to escape Morris-the dangerously obsessive man who swears she belongs to him-her world literally goes dark. In a desperate flight for freedom, she loses her sight at the hands of the very man claiming to love her. Blind, terrified, and running on nothing but instinct, she st
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The alpha's claim
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The Inferno's Claim
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THE ALPHA'S CLAIM
THE ALPHA'S CLAIM is a gripping werewolf saga set in a world of rival packs and hidden betrayals. Elara, an enigmatic outcast with a secret warrior spirit, has spent her life concealing her true strength and a painful past. Rejected by her family and forced to live in the shadows, she unexpectedly e
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The Devil's Claim
"He owns her. She defies him. In a world of shadows, love is just another weapon." Valeria Moretti never asked for this life. The mafia was never supposed to be her world-until her father's betrayal left her with two choices: death or marriage to Dante Salvatore, the cold-blooded heir to the most
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The Dual Claim
Soraya Wane knew her place. Low rank, no lineage, no illusions. When the bond appeared at the Luna's Calling, she let herself believe - briefly - that Luna had seen something in her worth choosing. Lucien didn't agree. Rejected before the entire pack and nearly killed by the ritual meant to sever wh
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Bloodmoon Claim
In the heart of the Silver Lake pack, the Alpha's daughter, Lyra, is a force to be reckoned with. Strong and fierce, she's destined for greatness, but the pack elders refuse to accept her as their future leader. According to tradition, a female alpha must have a mate by her side, and Lyra's search f
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S SILENT CLAIM
She needed one night to forget her pain. He needed one night to feel nothing. Serena Vale never expected a stranger's touch to change her life. Lucas Blackwood never expected a woman to walk away from him. But secrets don't stay buried. And when the truth returns, it comes with a heartbeat.
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THE DEVIL'S CLAIM
On the day of her wedding, Liliana Crawford's future is ripped away in a storm of bullets and blood. Dragged from the altar by Dante Moretti-the merciless mafia boss feared across Europe-she becomes his prisoner, his leverage, his obsession. Dante doesn't want her love. He wants her defiance shatter
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The Alpha's Forbidden Claim
In a world ruled by wolves, Asha never expected to be anything more than an ordinary woman. But when her family's dark past catches up with her, she is thrust into a conflict that could tear her apart. Declan, a brooding Alpha with a ruthless reputation, claims Asha as his mate, bound by a forbidden
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The Alpha's Claim
In the shadowed depths of NorthRidge's ancient forest, Logan, the powerful alpha, rules with an iron will. Feared for his ruthless ways and mysterious past, Logan has built walls around himself, revealing nothing to anyone. But when Freya-a timid yet resilient hybrid omega-is sold to him to settle h
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The Alpha King's Claim
"Love me or hate me, either way I'm already on your mind. I win. You lose." *** As the Alpha King of all werewolves and lycans, Aero needed to be fair to all. He ruled with an iron fist, a steady head and a balanced emotion. He was perfect in everything except for one. He had issues with the o
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The Billionaire's Dangerous Claim
My heart raced wildly as he leaned in, his warm breath brushing my ear. "The next time I see you kiss anyone else..." he whispered, his voice dark and lethal, " I'll make sure these pretty lips of yours are stitched shut." He wasn't supposed to care. I wasn't supposed to matter. But one kiss was
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The Biker's Claim
A virgin at thirty? A plus-size? Yes, that's Hera. After a painful heartbreak, she shuts herself off and chooses to focus on her career. Well, that's until She meets Mason aka Viper, the leader of Shadow riders motorcycle club on her way to her best friends wedding. He stakes his claim on her but li
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The Alpha's Unwanted Claim
Evelyn Crane thought she was human. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, everything she believed about her life falls apart when her parents reveal a secret they have kept from her for years...she is a werewolf, and they are not her real parents. Before Evelyn can make sense of the truth, trag
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His To Claim
22 year old Camille Allister has never hated anyone. She had never hated homophobic people or patriarchy or climate change and the downsides, but she despises Aaron Flitch, her new boss. He’s uncouth, makes rude jokes about her to everyone and goes as far as insulting her fashion taste, which was in
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Mafia's Claim! Crazy Obsession
Dark, frigid eyes look back into hers. She flinched and moved her eyes over the floor to avoid his stare. How could someone be so gorgeous while still having eyes that were too chilly to look into? Who the hell is this guy? Gosh! Is he a human? How come his eyes are so dark and cold? Mia could
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Alpha's Claim
Mira's true identity as a werewolf hieress is revealed when she's sold to The Dramen Pack. She's haunted by those who seek to destroy her. Mated to Evan, the ruthless pack heir, by a forbidden bond. Can she trust him to protect her, or will their love become her greatest danger.
