All Chapters of Claimed By My Stepbrother : Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

The darkness inside the cabin felt different that night. Heavier somehow. More still. Even though I was safe now—back in the familiar warmth of wooden walls and the quiet hum of night creatures beyond them—my body refused to relax. I lay beside Ethan, curled on my side, facing the wall, his steady breathing brushing the nape of my neck like waves tapping a rocky shore. But no matter how still I tried to be, no matter how many times I shifted my legs or adjusted the blanket, sleep stayed far away. My mind wouldn’t stop spinning. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw it again—Liam's smirk, the way his hands had pinned me, the helpless rage boiling in my chest. The look in Ethan’s eyes when he’d come in. That searing fury. The blood. The screaming. The way his hands trembled as he reached for my face. I reached out in the dark and let my fingers graze the warm skin of Ethan’s arm. His hand found mine immediately, lacing our fingers together without a word. That helped. A litt

The road stretched out in front of us, endless and winding through thick patches of trees that seemed to go on forever. The deeper we drove, the more the sunlight shifted—soft beams slicing through the canopy, dappling the dashboard in flickering gold. It had been a couple of hours since we left the cabin. My heart was still buzzing with anxiety, but the road had a strange way of dulling the sharp edges. The hum of the engine beneath us and the soft sounds of the forest felt… grounding. For now. I shifted in my seat, pulling my legs up and tucking them under me. Ethan glanced at me with a sideways smile, one hand on the wheel, the other resting lazily on my thigh. I liked that hand there more than I cared to admit. "You look like you're about to curl up and take a nap," he teased. I grinned. "Tempting. But no. Someone needs to stay awake to keep you entertained." His smile widened. "I think I can handle myself." "Mmhm. Famous last words," I said, fishing around in the sm

“I hope you don’t regret this,” my mother whispered. Her words weren’t loud, but they felt like thunder cracking over my skull. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I just stared at her, at the worry bleeding into every crease on her face, and the slight shake in her hands as she clutched her purse like it was the only thing keeping her grounded. Maybe I should’ve felt guiltier. Maybe I should’ve backed down, taken a step behind her and pretended I didn’t know Ethan the way I did. Pretended I didn’t crave his presence the way I did. That I didn’t fall asleep every night with the scent of him still clinging to my skin and wake up hoping he was still beside me. But I didn’t do any of that. Instead, I turned my head slowly toward Ethan, standing just a few steps behind me, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, eyes unreadable. “I won’t regret it,” I finally said. My mom’s lips parted like she wanted to argue—like she had more words in her arsenal to try and drag me back to the version

By the time we found a motel, the sun had already started bleeding into the horizon. Everything looked golden and tired, like the sky itself was winding down for the day. I couldn’t tell if the dull ache behind my eyes was from lack of sleep, the weight of everything that had happened, or just the sheer exhaustion of pretending I wasn’t scared out of my mind. Ethan parked the car in front of a squat, dusty building with a neon sign that blinked “VACANCY” like it was barely holding on to hope. The parking lot was cracked in places, weeds pushing up between the cement, and the whole place smelled faintly of hot asphalt and damp pine. “Not exactly a five-star hotel,” I muttered, squinting out the window. Ethan reached over and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “We just need a place to rest. Somewhere quiet.” Quiet. That sounded nice. I hadn’t realized how badly I wanted silence until he said it. Inside the motel, everything looked like it hadn’t been touched since the e

We stepped out of the car and within seconds, it was like the whole goddamn forest came alive. People had gathered. Lots of them. Like they’d known we were coming, like some invisible alarm had gone off. Children peered from behind legs, grown men stood like statues, and women stood wide-eyed, whispering. It was... strange. Like we’d just walked into the climax of a fantasy novel. I half expected someone to raise a sword or start chanting in Latin. Then— “Zarek?” a soft voice said, cracking in disbelief. I turned. A girl with the brightest red hair I had ever seen was moving toward us—toward him. Her long legs carried her fast, her boots crunching on leaves and gravel, her green eyes brimming with tears. “Zarek?” she called again, voice louder. I blinked. Zarek? Ethan smiled. Or... Zarek smiled? What? My heart did something weird in my chest. It flipped—or maybe flopped—as she launched herself at him, arms wrapping tight around his torso like she was afraid he’d