Chapter 2 : Claimed

"Get in the SUV."

Lucian's voice cut through the sidewalk noise like a blade. No room for argument.

I tried to stand. My knees had other plans.

The concrete tilted and I grabbed at air. Gavin caught me before I hit the ground, one arm sweeping under my legs, the other locking around my back.

"Put me down," I said.

"No." He did not even look at me.

"I have a shift tomorrow morning. If I miss it, I don't get paid. If I don't get paid, I lose my apartment." My voice cracked on the last word. "So I need you to put me down."

"You're not walking."

My landlord did not care about my medical emergencies. He cared about the fifteenth of the month.

Zane pulled the SUV door open. Gavin ducked inside with me still in his arms. I had no choice but to let him.

Lucian was already in the driver's seat, jaw locked, eyes on the mirror. The doors sealed shut. Cold air conditioning hit my face like a wall and I felt my nausea flatten just slightly.

The silence lasted four seconds.

"Explain," Lucian said.

"I already told you everything."

"You told us three words. Try again."

I pressed my back against the seat. Zane sat too close on my left, close enough that his shoulder pressed against mine. His eyes kept dropping to my stomach like he was trying to do math he could not solve.

"My IUD failed," I said. "My doctor confirmed it last week. Triplets. All viable. Twelve weeks."

Nobody spoke.

Say something, I thought. Fight each other. Accuse me. Do something I can predict.

"Have you eaten today?" Zane asked.

I blinked. "What?"

"Today. Food. Have you had any?"

"A protein bar at six this morning."

His expression went flat in a way that scared me more than anger would have.

Gavin's hand moved from the seat and settled on my thigh. Heavy and warm and completely uninvited.

"Don't," I said.

He did not move it.

This was wrong. All of it. I had braced for a war between them. I had built my whole plan around surviving whatever blowup happened and walking away to handle this alone. Keep the mascot job. Keep the access. Get my scoop, sell it, rebuild everything Derek took from me.

Instead they were sitting here like a unit.

Like something had already been decided without me.

"We're going to my place," Lucian said.

"Nobody asked me," I said.

"No." He pulled into traffic. "We didn't."

Lucian's building had a private elevator and no lobby staff who would ask questions. The penthouse door opened with a biometric scan. Inside, everything was steel and glass and controlled light, the kind of apartment that cost more per month than I made in a year.

The door locked behind us with a heavy, final click.

I stood in the center of the room and watched all three of them spread out around me. No posturing between them. No territorial sniping.

Just three large men forming a wall, with me at the center of it.

My pulse hammered.

Lucian stopped in front of me. Those gray eyes locked onto mine and did not move.

"Whose are they?" he asked.

The question landed like a stone.

I had rehearsed an answer for this. Something that bought me time, something deflecting. It dissolved completely under the weight of his stare.

"I don't know," I said.

The room did not explode. No one moved.

Then Gavin stepped forward. He walked until my back hit the wall and he was close enough that I had to tilt my chin up to see his face. His tattoos curved along his forearms. His eyes were completely calm.

That calmness was the most frightening thing in the room.

"It doesn't matter," he said. Quiet. Final.

"Gavin."

"They are ours." He held my gaze without blinking. "You are ours."

He let that land.

"And you are never leaving."