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“How’s it going, brother?” Silas asked as he stepped up beside Brinley.

“All’s good. You?” Trevan let his attention rake over the peace that had fallen over the land.

“All good here. Maybe a bit bored considering the way things have gone quiet.” My big brother chuckled as he roughed a hand through his hair.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure it won’t be long before you go looking for trouble.”

“Why wouldn’t I when there’s plenty of trouble waiting on me to find it?” Silas cocked a grin.

I turned my attention to Brinley. “How do you even put up with him?”

She gave a shrug. “Orgasms are mind-blowing. The rest of him…”

She held out her free hand and waffled it back and forth. “Eh.”

“Excuse me?” It was feigned offense, and my brother looped an arm around her waist and buried his face in her neck, mumbling something that the rest of us couldn’t hear.

Kai dug a fist into Silas’s hair to try to tug him away. “No hugs, Daddy. My mommy.”

Silas lifted his head and gave him a big grin. “Our mommy.”

Hope bloomed. So firm and fast that I wasn’t sure I could process the sensation.

Silas pressed a lingering kiss to the side of Brinley’s head. “We need to get going. Pyke’s so anxious he’s probably about to bring down the clubhouse walls.”

Trevan grunted a low laugh. “Never seen a prospect so eager.”

“He finally found the place he belongs,” I whispered, glancing between the two of them.

He’d been so lost when he came here, his eyes haunted.

“Yeah,” Trevan agreed.

Silas pecked a kiss to Kai’s temple, then ambled down the steps. He gave me a quick hug, then he and Trevan turned and started down the footpath carved through the woods that led to the clubhouse.

Talking easily, though I could see the ridge of shame that stilted Trevan’s demeanor. Unapparent to most but patent to me.

“The man is going to need to speak up and do it soon,” Brinley tsked as soon as they were out of earshot.

Clearly, it was obvious to her, too.

And I was on the porch and grabbing her hand and rushing below my breath, “I need your help.”

I settled onto the hard tile floor of Brinley and Silas’s bathroom, hand shaking out of control as I set the test between me and Brinley.

She was leaning against the side of the bathtub, right there with me the whole time.

She never left my side as I peed on the stick.

Hell, she’d dragged me straight up the stairs when I’d told her what was going on.

This was what besties were for.

What sisters were for.

Holding you up when you thought you were going to trip right over the edge of sanity.

This reality seeming too far away to actually cling to. No chance it could be tangible.