Claimed By My Stepbrother novel Chapter 90

Ethan POV

I rolled my eyes and rubbed the back of my neck. “Yes. The goddamn manual, muttered.

That stupid, cheesy thing. A whole printed booklet, stapled and everything, with highlighted passages and little cartoon sketches of home to smile ‘non–creepily‘ and the top ten phrases to sound safe. Greg had handed it to me like it was a Bible for blending in with humans.

“Smile like you don’t want to devour her,” he’d said.

“Give her space. No sniffing.”

“No staring too long. No weird compliments.”

Don’t say mate.

That one was in bold.

And yeah… I’d followed it. Mostly.

The stupid thing worked. For what it’s worth, Camila had started warming up to me. She walked with me to school yesterday. Made eye contact without flinching. She even laughed around me. Progress.

It was pitiful how far gone I was that walking beside her was enough to make me feel high.

I turned like I was heading for my room, wanting this conversation over before it got under my skin any more than it already had.

But Greg just had to open his damn mouth again.

“Don’t ruin everything,” he said, quiet, but with that edge in his voice.

I stopped. Turned my head halfway back.

“What do you mean?” I asked softly, eyes wide with that innocent, clueless expression I used when I wanted people to stop looking too closely. Just a good kid. Just a confused teen. Totally normal. Just a little quiet.

Greg flinched like I had slapped him.

Then he recoiled.

Literally stepped back half an inch.

He ran a hand over his mouth, the veins in his neck tightening. His eyes–icy and sharp like shattered glass–locked on mine.

“Drop the act,” he snapped. “That fake shit is for Camila. Not me.”

My smirk came back slowly. “I went to see/my mate, Greg. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

I watched his face twist, that look of pity or disgust–or maybe both–passing over him like a shadow. He rubbed like he was trying not to say what he really wanted to.

w again, jaw twitching

“You can lie to yourself and say it’s the mate bond making you absolutely obsessed,‘ he said, voice tight, teeth gritted. “But we both know

it’s not that.”

I tilted my head, smile deepening. “No?”

1/3

Chapter 90

“No, he bit back. “It’s because you’re sick in the head. Always have been,”

That one landed like a slap,

But I didn’t flinch.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

Maybe something had always been twisted inside me, long before I even knew what a mate bond was. But so what? It didn’t matter, Because now I had a name for it. Now I had a reason. Camila,

I just stared at him for a second, then smiled wider. “Well… you seem kinda lively tonight, Greg,” I said coolly, voice laced with amusement. “Guess the sweet indulgence with your mate was great?”

I tilted my head, mock curiosity dripping

Greg’s face darkened but didn’t answer.

from

every

word.

Didn’t need to.

I could smell it on him. Sex and sweat and satisfaction. That post–mating glow he was trying to hide.

“Not everyone has that fucking privilege,” I muttered, and this time the smile fell from my lips. “So preach to someone else.”

He doesn’t know how it felt like to want something so bad it drove you mad. To watch your mate sleep in your shirt and not be able to

touch her.

He didn’t say another word. Just stood there, arms still crossed, anger radiating off him in slow, hot waves.

I laughed under my breath, shaking my head. “You made me tame, Greg,” I said, walking past him. “Thought me how to blend with the

hide trail.” agency, humans, hide my scent from the

my

I turned back at the stairs, looking over my shoulder. “But as much as I appreciate what you have done for me, I have to remind you something you seem to have forgotten.”

He didn’t speak.

“I’m the alpha’s son,” I whispered. “I’m the heir to the pack.”

Then I climbed the stairs two at a time, the echo of my footsteps trailing behind me like a warning. My pulse still hammering from being so close to Camila. My hands still twitching with the ghost of her hair between my fingers.

Greg didn’t follow.

He let me walk up to my room, shut the door behind me, and sit there in the dark like I always did after I saw her. Like a junkie coming down from a high.

I sat on the edge of my bed, elbows on my knees, chest heaving.

The ache was back.

That fucking ache that never really left.

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