“Got your back,” Jess said from across the table. He didn’t need to say more. It was all there in his stance. Arsenal, the solid presence of a man, their Seargent at Arms who had never let a brother fall.
Ryder was next to him, hazel eyes steady on mine. Doc had a calmness about him, the kind that came with years of mending wounds, and I felt it seep into my bones. “First night’s always hardest,” he said. “But you’ve got this.”
The words mirrored Bronc’s earlier, different in their calm certainty, but just as powerful. I was at the center of something immense, a force I hadn’t realized was possible until it gathered around me.
Eli’s gaze held the weight of a dozen unspoken promises. “Ain’t nothin’ to it.” He folded his arms over his chest, an intimidating posture if I hadn’t known the compassion behind it. Bronc’s enforcer. Wrecker. He’d take a bullet for everyone in this room.
The men exchanged brief words and quieter glances, a silent communication that flowed around me. Bronc was a steady presence at my side, but the fear I’d seen in him before had dulled and was tempered now by their shared confidence.
They moved like parts of a single organism, shifting to fill the space with the perfect blend of strength and warmth. I felt them envelop me in ways that were too big to grasp, too real to deny. Their expressions and gestures, simple and genuine, made my throat tighten.
“You guys gonna stare at her all night, or you gonna let her breathe?” Maddie’s voice carried a teasing lilt as she entered from the kitchen, a reminder that this was as much a family gathering as anything else.
The men laughed, a sound that was deeper and more sincere than I’d ever heard it. They settled into seats and leaned against walls, all of them within reach, all of them ready.
Bronc’s fingers grazed my shoulder, a subtle anchor as he took in the sight of his men around us. “You’re a lucky woman, Juliet,” he said, the gravel of his voice giving way to something almost like awe.
“I believe I am,” I murmured. The room spun slowly, and I felt the warmth of the soft throw from before still wrapped around my shoulders.
“We’ve all been through it,” Bridger said, speaking more to Bronc than to me. The weight of it landed softly. “We know what she’s facing.”
The men’s confidence was like a wall, built with brick and mortar and something stronger than both. They were as solid as the moon was round, as bright as my fever in the dark Texas night.
Bridger, Eli, and Jess exchanged another set of brief nods, each offering the others a quick smile. I watched them, trying to reconcile what I saw with what I felt. How I could be at the center of it when I was still just Juliet, the outsider with strange blood and a stranger life.
JT’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Y’all should hear yourselves. A man’s never been so cared for. And here you are, coddlin’ this one.”
His laughter was a comfort, and it spread like wildfire around the room. Even Bronc’s lips twitched at the corners, his intensity easing as the mood lightened.
I was drowning in their certainty, in the truth of how much they’d already made me theirs. I thought of my other life, the one before Pearl and Bronc and the men in front of me. It felt like a fever dream, more distant by the second.
“Juliet.” Bronc’s voice brought me back, pulled me from the tide of my own thoughts.
“Yeah?” I met his gaze, my heart quickening despite my exhaustion.
He searched my eyes, saw everything I was and everything I feared I wasn’t. “Gonna get through this?” It was half statement, half question. The look in his eyes made it both a promise and a plea.
“With you all breathing down my neck, I might.” My voice was steady, though the weight of the moment was not.
I saw something unguarded in him then, a flicker of hope that seemed to catch and spread like wildfire through the bond I’d felt all along. It anchored me, even as it threatened to undo me.
When he pulled back, his expression was a mask of the same fierce determination I’d seen earlier. The transformation made me shiver.
Maddie’s hands were quick and efficient as she cleared the earlier dishes, and it was barely a breath before she returned with fresh ones, loaded with food that matched the bounty of support the men offered.
“Brought you boys somethin’ to soak up all that hot air,” she said with a grin.
More laughter, more warmth as they settled into easy familiarity. The table groaned under the weight of everything Pearl and Maddie had prepared. It reminded me of them, the way they carried so much and never seemed to bend beneath it.
The sound of forks on plates and the low voices was a backdrop to my thoughts. He was right, what he’d said about my luck.
But luck was only a piece of it. They’d given me something more, something that felt like a glimpse into the next day. It filled the spaces where fear and uncertainty had lived for so long. I felt it seep into me the way fever hadn’t, all-consuming and fierce and relentless.
“Still think she’ll bail?” Jess said with a chuckle, and I realized they were talking about me again. Talking like they already knew the answer, even if I didn’t.
“Not this one,” Ryder replied, a knowing grin tugging at his lips.
Bronc’s eyes were a storm when they locked on mine, swirling with too many emotions to name. But love, real and sure and undeterred, was the clearest of them all.
