And what they’d lost.
That was what made them terrifying. Not the weapons. Not the rumors. Not the black ops pasts.
But the fact that they were still soft in the places that mattered.
Still capable of love.
Still standing.
I watched Ryker place a hand on Silas’s other shoulder, his grip firm. Elias moved closer to Charlie, and they exchanged a few low words that seemed to ground them both. Marcus didn’t say much, but the expression on his face—half guilt, half bone-deep sorrow—spoke volumes.
And all I could think was how wrong I’d been.
About all of them.
When I’d first arrived in Charleston, I’d kept my distance. I'd mistaken their discipline for coldness, their silence for arrogance. I thought their protectiveness was a form of control. I thought loving someone like Silas meant losing your autonomy. Your self.
But it was the opposite.
Because the love these men gave? It was fierce. Absolute. Shelter from a thousand storms.
They didn’t flinch when things got hard.
They ran toward the fire.
Silas.
I stared at him then—at the man who’d once terrified me, who now held my whole heart in his bloodied hands—and I felt something tighten in my chest.
Love.
Not the kind you write into vow books.
The kind you go to war for. The truest love I’d ever known.
I had never dated a military man before Silas Dane. I’d told myself they were too rigid. Too dangerous. Too burdened by their pasts. But now, looking at him—looking at all of them—I saw what I’d been missing.
I hadn’t been afraid of military men.
I’d been afraid of love that big.
Love that dug its nails into your soul and demanded you become someone worthy of surviving with.
Love that didn’t leave when the bullets flew.
I would’ve never taken this job without Monte. I’d told myself that a dozen times over. But Monte saw something in these men I hadn’t known how to recognize.
Goodness.
Not softness. Not naivety.
But deep, unshakeable goodness forged in fire and loss and sacrifice. He knew their world was dangerous and he worried about me, but he saw the goodness beneath it all.
And now I saw it, too.
Now I understood.
Now I knew what it meant to be loved by a Dane.
