The room went quiet.Beast gave me a single nod from his seat, the only acknowledgment I needed.This was my play.The club would listen.
I planted both hands on the table and looked out at the room.“Willa’s mine,” I said, not raising my voice.No point -- everyone was listening.“The baby’s mine.Anyone who has a problem with that can bring it to me personally.”
No vote requested.No discussion invited.The finality of it hung in the air -- not just my words but the certainty behind them.I straightened up and let the silence do the rest.
For one long beat, nothing happened.The brothers exchanged glances -- not surprised, exactly, but recalibrating.This wasn’t the usual way -- women weren’t generally brought before Church.And we typically took a vote.Or at least, we were supposed to.I’d skipped every step, taken the decision out of their hands and made it my own.
Nobody objected.I hadn’t expected them to.
“Excuse me?”
Willa’s voice -- sharp, disbelieving.I turned to see her fists closing at her sides, her chin coming up as she took a step forward.
“I didn’t agree to this,” she said, her voice climbing just enough to fill the room.“I didn’t ask to be stood up in front of a roomful of strangers, nor did I want you to make a decision without consulting me first.”
A heavy silence settled around us -- not the same kind as before, but something sharper.Attention fixed, bodies still.I felt their gazes on me, waiting to see what happened next.
I turned to face her fully, and my expression didn’t shift -- no irritation, no apology, no crack in the certainty.I met every word of her anger with the same flat, immovable calm, my gaze holding hers, and I said simply, “You’re mine.The baby’s mine.That’s done.”
She held my gaze, her chest rising and falling with quick breaths.I watched the emotions move across her face -- anger, confusion, a flash of something that might have been fear before she pushed it down.Her hands trembled slightly, most likely from the effort of holding back the full force of what she wanted to say next.
She pulled in a breath, a deep one that lifted her shoulders, and said, “There isn’t one baby.”A pause, deliberate.“There are two.”
I locked up instantly, not with the deliberate calm I usually wore, but with the reflexive reaction of a man caught completely off guard.I shifted back almost imperceptibly on my heels, my jaw loosening, and for one unguarded moment, certainty drained away and left behind something far more vulnerable.I probably had the look of a man staring at something he didn’t know he was allowed to have.
Twins.
My child -- no, my children -- were growing inside her.There was no doubt.But the reality of it hit with a force that nearly drove the air from my lungs.
Two.
“You’re sure?”I asked in a low voice.
She nodded.“The doctor confirmed it.I’m roughly eighteen weeks along.They’re healthy.”
And then the room erupted.
Beast was the first on his feet, his laugh booming across the table.“Holy fucking shit, Nitro!Twins!You dog!”
The others followed, chairs scraping back, voices rising as they took in what had just been said.Rough congratulation flew across the room -- “That’s what I’m talking about!”and “Leave it to Nitro to go all in” -- as they closed in around Willa.Not crowding her but enfolding her in the way the club did when something had just become theirs to protect.
Willa stood in the center of it, still reeling, her expression caught between confusion and something softer.She hadn’t expected this -- hadn’t expected to be welcomed, claimed, included.She’d come to the compound with nothing but the clothes on her back and the bag she’d carried through the gate, and now she was being absorbed into the fabric of the club without ceremony or reservation.
I watched it happen -- watched the room open up around her, watched the brothers ease back just enough to give her space while making it clear she was already one of them.Not because I’d said so, though that had been enough to secure their acceptance.Because of who she was -- the woman who’d come back when she could have stayed gone, who was carrying not just one but two pieces of the club’s future.
My future.
Beast raised a hand, still grinning.“I’ll do my best to hold the old ladies back,” he said, the statement pitched to carry over the noise.“But I’m making no promises.They will be coming.”
Laughter filled the room, the sound swelling again as the reality of it settled.Twins meant twice the fuss, twice the attention from women who took the continuation of the club line as seriously as the brothers took their oaths.Willa had no idea what she was in for.
She looked at me across the room, her anger not gone but no longer clean-edged, worn soft at the corners by the sheer, disorienting reality of a room full of people making space for her before she’d decided whether she was staying.
I moved through the crowd toward her, the brothers parting without being asked.When I reached her, I didn’t touch her -- not yet, not with everyone watching, not when I could still see the uncertainty in her eyes.But I stood close enough that she could feel the heat from my body.
She didn’t step back.
“What happens now?”she asked, her voice low enough that only I could hear it over the noise of the room.
