When Thane and Gabriel finally stepped back into the green room, the mood inside didn\u2019t shift \u2014 it cracked open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassie was the first to speak, eyebrows raised over her bottle of water. \u201cYou good?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thane nodded like it was nothing. \u201cYeah. All good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark, seated on the couch with a half-eaten bratwurst and his usual dry glare, didn\u2019t even look up. \u201cYou yelled loud enough to echo. Concrete walls, genius.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel winced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rico tilted his head. \u201cI think you might\u2019ve out-roared the subwoofers tonight. Whole room went quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonah, of course, made a sound effect: a long, slow whistle. \u201cBro, you growled like you were about to eat a man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thane rubbed the back of his neck, his ears twitching. \u201cSorry. Didn\u2019t mean to make a scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t,\u201d Maya said gently. She was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, sipping an imported soda. \u201cYou made a stand.<\/em> There\u2019s a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a beat of silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel glanced around at all of them, then gave a sheepish grin. \u201cThane was defending me from my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe figured,\u201d Mark said, finally putting down his food. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a look when it\u2019s personal. We all know it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cassie leaned forward, eyes narrowing playfully. \u201cSo\u2026 does this mean we get to go beat him up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d Thane said quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d Rico said at the exact same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGuys,\u201d Gabriel chuckled, eyes misty again. \u201cSeriously. I\u2019m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane met their eyes \u2014 each of them, one by one. \u201cI don\u2019t like dragging pack drama into this. But I\u2019m also not going to let anyone, family or not, hurt Gabriel. Not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark nodded, his expression softening in that rare, almost imperceptible way. \u201cYou didn\u2019t bring drama in. You shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonah leaned against the wall with a grin. \u201cPretty sure that guy soiled himself through the phone line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone laughed, and just like that, the tension melted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane finally sat down beside Gabriel, who immediately leaned into him like a magnet to steel. The rest of the band relaxed \u2014 talk shifting back to dinner plans, social media chaos, and how many selfies Jonah had photobombed today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But underneath it all was something stronger than noise or fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was love, in its fiercest, wildest form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And every single one of them felt it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Thane and Gabriel finally stepped back into the green room, the mood inside didn\u2019t shift \u2014 it cracked open. Cassie was the first to speak, eyebrows raised over her bottle of water. \u201cYou good?\u201d Thane nodded like it was nothing. \u201cYeah. All good.\u201d Mark, seated on the couch with a half-eaten bratwurst and his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2988,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}