Claimed by the Reapers MC

3.The Rules

The eggs went cold while I stared at the door Kael had disappeared through.

Welcome to your new life, Avery.

I ate them anyway. Partly because I was starving. Mostly because I needed time to think. My brain had been running on adrenaline since 2:17 a.m., and adrenaline was a terrible strategist.

The room was getting lighter by the minute. Through my window, I watched the compound wake up. A prospect — young, nervous, wearing a PROSPECT patch — swept the courtyard. Wolf did pull-ups on a bar bolted between two pines, shirtless, counting loudly in Spanish. Ghost emerged from the shop carrying a clipboard, completely unbothered by the fact that a man was bleeding in his basement.

Normal morning at the Reapers MC.

A knock. Softer than Kael's. "It's Ghost. Prez wants you downstairs."

I opened the door. He'd changed into a gray henley and clean jeans. Without the glasses, his eyes were the color of a deep lake — calm on the surface, unknowable underneath.

"How's Marcus?"

"Awake. Cooperative." He paused. "He asked about you. The nurse who saved him."

"What did you tell him?"

"That you're a guest of the club." The word guest bent slightly. "He found that... confusing."

I followed him downstairs. The common room was different in daylight — less threatening, more tired. Sunlight exposed the scratches on the pool table, the cigarette burns on the couch, the cracks in the leather. Like seeing a nightclub with the lights on.

Kael sat at the head of a long wooden table in the back room. Church. That's what they called it — the room where the club held meetings. A REAPERS flag hung on the wall behind him. His silver eyes tracked my entrance like a hawk tracking a rabbit.

"Sit."

I sat. Ghost took the chair to Kael's right. After a moment, Tank appeared in the doorway and leaned against the frame, arms crossed. Wolf slid in behind him, still shirtless, towel around his neck.

Jax was conspicuously absent. That didn't make me feel better.

"Three rules," Kael said. "One. You don't leave the compound without an escort. Not the road, not the tree line, not the gas station two miles down. Nowhere."

"Two. Your phone stays with Ghost. You want to call your sister, you ask. He'll dial. He'll stay in the room. And if you say anything that sounds like a code or a cry for help —" He let the silence finish the sentence.

"Three. While you're here, you're under my protection. That means no one touches you without your permission." His eyes cut to Wolf, then to the empty chair where Jax should have been. "No one. Is that understood?"

"And if someone breaks rule three?"

"Then they break my rule. And no one breaks my rule."

Wolf made a small, theatrical shiver. Tank's expression didn't change, but his knuckles went white on the doorframe.

"What about after?" I asked. "After you 'decide I'm not a threat.' What happens then?"

Kael leaned back. The chair creaked. "We'll discuss that when we get there."

"That's not an answer."

"No. It's not."

We stared at each other. Ghost adjusted his glasses. Wolf coughed. Tank didn't move.

I broke first, but only barely. "Fine. Rules one through three. Anything else?"

"You'll help Ghost in the medical room. We have men who can't go to hospitals. You have skills. Use them."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you sit in your room and stare at the wall for however long you're here." Kael's voice didn't rise. "But I don't think you'll refuse. You're not the kind of person who can watch someone hurt and do nothing. We both know that."

He was right. I hated that he was right.

A prospect brought coffee. Real coffee, not instant. Tank's doing, I guessed. The man was full of surprises.

"Sister call," Kael said, nodding at Ghost. "Ten minutes. Now."

Ghost produced my phone from his pocket like a magic trick. He dialed Lily's number and put it on speaker. The ringing felt like a countdown.

"Ave?" My sister's voice, groggy. Six a.m. I'd woken her up.

"Hey, Lil. Sorry it's early."

"You okay? You didn't come home. Mom's still passed out — she didn't even notice, but I —"

"I'm fine." The lie came easily. I'd been lying to Lily for years. Dad's fine, mom's fine, the bills are fine, I'm fine. "I picked up a double shift. Some private patient. Good money. I'll be away a couple days."

"A couple days? With who?"

"A private client." I met Ghost's eyes. His expression was unreadable. "Rich family out in the county. Post-surgery care. They're paying triple."

Lily was quiet for a moment. "You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"Of course."

"Okay." She didn't sound convinced. She never did. "Sarah's mom said I can stay there. She made pancakes."

"Good. Eat extra for me." My throat tightened. "I'll call you tomorrow. I love you."

"Love you too, Ave. Don't be stupid."

The line went dead. Ghost pocketed my phone. No one spoke.

"You're good at that," Wolf said finally. "Lying. Made me almost believe you."

"My sister's fifteen. She's been through enough." I turned to Kael. "She doesn't know anything. She's not a threat. If anything happens to her —"

"Nothing will happen to her." Kael's voice was steel wrapped in velvet. "I gave you my word."

I wanted to believe him. I didn't know if I could.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur. Ghost showed me the medical supply inventory. Tank made lunch — grilled cheese, perfect golden brown, served without comment. Wolf challenged me to pool and lost spectacularly, which he claimed was intentional. I didn't believe him either.

Jax didn't appear until two in the afternoon. I was in the medical room, restocking gauze, when the door opened without a knock. He filled the doorway in a black tank top, arms covered in ink — snakes and skulls and flames that moved when his muscles flexed.

"Little nurse." His smile was all teeth. "Heard Prez gave you the rules."

"He did."

"Did he mention the one about staying out of my room?"

"Wolf covered it."

"Wolf." Jax snorted. "And did our puppy also tell you that rules in this clubhouse have a way of bending? For the right people. Under the right circumstances."

He stepped inside. I didn't step back.

"What circumstances are those?"

His green eyes glittered. "The kind where the little nurse gets curious. Where she starts wondering what it would be like to break just one rule. Just to see what happens."

"Jax."

Kael's voice from the hallway. One word. Jax's entire posture changed — the threat didn't disappear, but it folded itself away, like a blade going back into its sheath.

"Just welcoming our guest, Prez."

"Don't."

Jax held up both hands, surrender with a smirk, and backed out of the room. But as he passed me, his fingers brushed my hip — light, deliberate, gone before I could react.

Kael watched him disappear down the hall. Then his eyes found mine.

"He won't touch you again." It wasn't reassurance. It was fact.

"How do you know?"

"Because if he does, I'll kill him."

He said it the way you'd say you were going to pick up milk. And I believed him completely.

That night, I sat on my bed and catalogued what I knew. Kael would keep his word. Tank was a wall I could lean on. Ghost was a puzzle I couldn't solve. Wolf was a kid playing at being a monster. And Jax was a monster playing at being a man.

I should have been planning my escape. Instead, I was planning how to survive — and somewhere beneath that, how to make myself indispensable.

Because in a world of predators, the only way to stay alive was to become too valuable to kill.

Outside my window, an engine roared to life. Kael's bike. I watched his taillight disappear into the trees.

Wherever he was going, I had the strangest feeling it involved me.

(End of Chapter 3)