All Chapters of Claimed by my Biker Stepbrother: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Pearl I learned the shape of the house by sound, and when I said that wasn't an ideal way to live, you just had to believe me. Like that wasn't enough, I learned more about the house by the way the floorboard near the hallway clicked when Vienna crossed it, by the soft whine the fridge made every twenty minutes, the way the front door settled into its frame at night, a slow exhale, like it was relieved to be closed again.It had been days since Zander took my phone. Not hours, not one long, awful night, but days. Four fucking days to be exact. He hadn’t given it back, he hadn’t explained what he saw, if he saw anything at all. Every time I asked, his jaw tightened and his eyes went somewhere else, like the answer was written on the wall behind me and he was daring me to find it myself, and when words failed him, silence did the rest.I had no idea what game he was playing, but clearly he had thought things through. He left more now, and came back later. Sometimes after dark, som

Pearl The gate creaked when I pushed it open, and that was the first thing that felt wrong.Amrite Gardens looked like a place people used to care about. The paths were still paved, the hedges trimmed into deliberate shapes, the benches arranged like someone once planned for conversations to happen there, but there was no one. There were no voices, no footsteps, absolutely nothing. Not even the sound of traffic bleeding in from anywhere beyond the walls, and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that all was well, it still rubbed off on me the wrong way. “Something was wrong” my insides screamed, but for the life of me, I couldn't quite point it out. It wasn’t abandoned in the way ruins were abandoned, it was abandoned on purpose, and the only question I saw fit to ask myself was why? My body noticed before my brain did. My shoulders tightened, and my steps slowed. The air felt heavier here, like it pressed against my chest instead of filling it. I told myself I was being

Pearl I stepped into the maintenance building and immediately knew this place was never meant to hold answers.I knew something was wrong right from the minute I got that last text, but a part of me had been hopeful. Back then, I thought that same hope was going to make sure things were going to be okay, even if it was for a little bit, but now that I'd arrived here, I wasn't so sure about that anymore. Hell, no matter how hard I'd tried, I just couldn't shake off the feeling that I just might have made the biggest mistake of the night. “Relax, Pearl.” I muttered the words to myself. “You're fine. You're okay. Everything is going to be okay.” Since chanting it so many times did nothing to help, I pushed the ideas aside. The door groaned shut behind me, sealing in the quiet. I felt my heart jump, but I told myself to not dwell on it. It was simply the wind doing its thing and in a bid to distract myself from the fact that I was scared shitless, I decided to do a quicj tour of t

Pearl I had no idea what had gotten into me when I kissed him again. Maybe it was the fear of almost dying or the realization that I could have actually lost him, we could have actually lost each other, had it not been some kind of miracle that had me in my feelings again. I didn't think, I didn't doubt it or try to second guess myself, I just did it. I kissed him like my life depended on it,but it still wasn’t enough. It was a lifeline, but I needed more, I needed to feel the weight of him, the heat of him, something so intense it would burn away the phantom chill of the cliff and the memory of those shadows.I leaned into him, my fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck before sliding down the broad, hard lines of his back. I could feel the tension radiating off him, a low vibration that mirrored the frantic thrumming in my own veins. My hands didn't stop at his waist; they roamed lower, tracing the firm curve of his glutes before sliding around to the front, my palm

Pearl Zander didn't wait for a second invitation. He stood by the edge of my bed, the moonlight slicing through the gap in the curtains and painting his skin in shades of silver and shadow. He moved with a raw, predatory grace as he stripped, his eyes locked on mine with an intensity that felt like it was peeling back my layers. First the shirt went, revealing the corded muscles of his chest and the sharp V of his hips, then his boots, and finally, he made quick work of his belt.Heaven knows I didn't want that moment to end. Seeing him like that and in all of his glory was doing something to my insides, something I wasn't sure I would be able to recover from no matter how hard I tried. I didn't move to take off my shorts. Instead, I reached out and caught his hands, guiding him to sit on the edge of the mattress.“What are you doing, Pearl?” he rasped, his voice dropping an octave as he looked up at me. His hands gripped my waist, his thumbs digging into the soft skin just above my