When Thane and Gabriel finally stepped back into the green room, the mood inside didn’t shift — it cracked open.
Cassie was the first to speak, eyebrows raised over her bottle of water. “You good?”
Thane nodded like it was nothing. “Yeah. All good.”
Mark, seated on the couch with a half-eaten bratwurst and his usual dry glare, didn’t even look up. “You yelled loud enough to echo. Concrete walls, genius.”
Gabriel winced.
Rico tilted his head. “I think you might’ve out-roared the subwoofers tonight. Whole room went quiet.”
Jonah, of course, made a sound effect: a long, slow whistle. “Bro, you growled like you were about to eat a man.”
Thane rubbed the back of his neck, his ears twitching. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make a scene.”
“You didn’t,” Maya said gently. She was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, sipping an imported soda. “You made a stand. There’s a difference.”
There was a beat of silence.
Gabriel glanced around at all of them, then gave a sheepish grin. “Thane was defending me from my brother.”
“We figured,” Mark said, finally putting down his food. “You’ve got a look when it’s personal. We all know it.”
Cassie leaned forward, eyes narrowing playfully. “So… does this mean we get to go beat him up?”
“No,” Thane said quickly.
“Yes,” Rico said at the exact same time.
“Guys,” Gabriel chuckled, eyes misty again. “Seriously. I’m okay.”
Thane met their eyes — each of them, one by one. “I don’t like dragging pack drama into this. But I’m also not going to let anyone, family or not, hurt Gabriel. Not anymore.”
Mark nodded, his expression softening in that rare, almost imperceptible way. “You didn’t bring drama in. You shut it down.”
Jonah leaned against the wall with a grin. “Pretty sure that guy soiled himself through the phone line.”
Everyone laughed, and just like that, the tension melted.
Thane finally sat down beside Gabriel, who immediately leaned into him like a magnet to steel. The rest of the band relaxed — talk shifting back to dinner plans, social media chaos, and how many selfies Jonah had photobombed today.
But underneath it all was something stronger than noise or fame.
It was pack.
It was protection.
It was love, in its fiercest, wildest form.
And every single one of them felt it.