All Chapters of Claimed By My Stepbrother : Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

I didn’t know what to think. Or feel. I think I was in a daze. One of those thick, woolly kinds that wrap around your brain and numb everything else. Everything was muffled, the voices, the footsteps, the whispers, even my own thoughts. It all felt distant, like I was watching the world through a fogged-up window. One minute, I was standing in the middle of a crowd being stared at like I’d grown a second head. The next, I was inside a building I didn’t even remember walking into. It was only when Ethan placed a glass in my hand that I blinked, my brain slowly crawling back to the present. “Here… have this,” he said gently. “Oh. Thanks.” My voice sounded weird, like it came from someone else entirely. I took the glass automatically and stared at the clear liquid for a second longer than necessary before sipping. The water was cold. Refreshingly so. It shocked my senses just enough to make the rest of the room snap into focus. That was the moment I really looked around. We wer

ETHAN ~ The door clicked shut behind me, and I just stood there for a second, staring at the warped wood, listening to the silence. My hand dragged up the back of my neck and into my hair, fingers pressing into my scalp like I could squeeze the frustration out through my skull. Fuck. The air outside was crisp but stale, the kind of stale that made my jaw clench. The quiet streets of Knoxl always felt too still when I was agitated. Too damn eerie. I could feel it again… those stares. That low hum of attention crawling along my skin like pins dragging across nerve endings. They were watching me. I didn’t know if it was the Elders, the townspeople, or some nosy shifters with nothing better to do, but I felt them. Burning holes in my back. Whispering shit just loud enough that my instincts caught it but my ears didn’t. I ignored it. I had more important things to deal with than fucking rumors or stares from people who couldn’t mind their business. First thing first… I had to find

CAMILA ~ I didn’t remember falling asleep. One minute I was pacing the room in circles, trying not to let my brain spiral into another black hole of what ifs, and the next… nothing. Just warmth. Heavy warmth behind me. A firm chest, the steady rise and fall of breath against my spine. An arm lazily slung around my waist. A thumb brushing slow circles over the thin fabric of my shirt. It was the soft drag of his knuckles against my stomach that pulled me from whatever dreamless abyss I’d slipped into. I blinked, disoriented for a moment, my cheek stuck to the pillow and my mouth dry. The room was dark, lit only by the dying fire and the weak yellowish glow of the bedside lamp Ethan must’ve turned on. I wasn’t even sure what time it was. The clock on the wall blinked 12:07, but it didn’t feel like midnight. It felt like I’d stepped into a bubble where time didn’t really move—just kind of stretched and flexed around me. Ethan was warm behind me. His breath touched the back of

Just like that, a couple of days slipped by without me even noticing. Time didn’t really feel like it moved here—it just… lingered. Stuck. Slow. Sometimes I felt like I was holding my breath for hours without realizing it. Most of the time, I stayed inside with Ethan. He didn’t push me to go out, maybe because he could tell I didn’t want to. Or maybe because he didn’t trust leaving me alone here with all the people who still stared at me like I was some strange, dangerous animal they didn’t want in their backyard. Every now and then, Ethan would head out to bring food or whatever else we needed. He never said much about where he went, and I didn’t ask. It was easier that way. Me? I just… stayed. Sitting by the small window. Watching the light change. Listening to the muffled sound of life outside, too far away to make out details but close enough to remind me that the world was still moving, even if I wasn’t. I would be a terrible liar if I said I liked it here. I wanted to step

I don’t know how long we sat there, but silence started to feel like a blanket around me, heavy, pressing, but also strangely comforting. My knees were hugged to my chest, chin pressed against them, eyes lost in the blur of trees and sky. For a fleeting second, it almost felt like peace, like maybe the air itself was trying to mend me, coax me into believing things could be normal again. And then… I felt it. A stare. That prickling burn of someone’s eyes digging into the side of my head. I shifted, almost reluctantly, turning in the direction the feeling was coming from. And there she was. That girl. The one from before. The red hair was impossible to mistake—it caught the faint sunlight like fire, practically glowing, and her face… yeah, she wasn’t even trying to hide it. She was glaring at me so hard I swore if looks could kill, I’d be six feet under and buried with no gravestone. What was her name again? Maria? Mary? Something like that. The hatred dripping off her was a