Buck
Inside, he could still hear Wren moving around upstairs. Every creak of the floorboards caught his attention instantly. He felt pathetic just noticing it. “You gonna smoke that or marry it?”
Finally, Ghost exhaled smoke and muttered, “You hit hard.”
“You really that pissed?” Ghost asked quietly.
Ghost tilted his head slightly. “You notice you didn’t say no?”
Buck’s jaw clenched. “Your face is saying everything that you’re not,” Ghost murmured.
“Shut up,” Buck grumbled.
“No,” Ghost said. Buck finally looked at him then. Ghost leaned against the porch railing casually, but his pale eyes were sharp beneath the dim floodlights. Buck hated that look, because it always saw too much.
“You think I don’t know?” Ghost asked softly. “Brother, I’ve known you half my life.” Buck looked away first, and that alone told Ghost everything. The bastard sighed dramatically. “Jesus Christ. You really have been repressing some shit.”
“Ghost,” Buck warned.
“No, seriously.” Ghost laughed under his breath.
“All these years I thought you were just emotionally constipated.” Buck flipped him off without heat, and Ghost grinned wider.
But his amusement faded slightly when Buck stayed silent too long.
The wind howled around them while tension settled heavily across the porch.
Finally, Buck muttered, “You ever want something so bad it scares the hell outta you?”
Ghost’s expression shifted instantly. “Yeah,” Ghost answered quietly.
Buck rubbed a hand over his jaw roughly.
“I spent years convincing myself it was just curiosity.” Ghost didn’t interrupt.
Buck stared out across the frozen yard. “First time I realized it, I was nineteen.” His voice came low and rough now.
“A couple of older bikers from another chapter passed through town. They were together.” He swallowed once.
“Everybody else talked shit behind their backs, but I couldn’t stop staring at them.
” Ghost stayed perfectly still beside him.
Buck laughed bitterly. “I thought there was something wrong with me.”
“There ain’t,” Ghost insisted.
“I know that now.” Buck’s mouth tightened.
“But I didn’t know it back then.” He’d buried it deep after that—too deep.
He spent years pretending that he was only attracted to women and hiding the fact that he wanted to be with men too.
Buck had spent years hooking up with women while quietly noticing men.
Years of almost saying something and stopping himself before it became real.
Then Ghost happened—not suddenly. His hand would linger too long during a fight. Late nights drinking shoulder to shoulder felt way too intimate. They had the kind of loyalty that turned intimate without either man meaning for it to.
Buck had spent years pretending he didn’t notice how good Ghost looked, grinning across a poker table, or how badly he sometimes wanted to grab him by the throat and kiss him just to see what happened. And now Wren had walked into the middle of all of it like a lit match hitting gasoline.
“I want her,” Buck admitted roughly. “Bad enough it’s making me stupid.”
Ghost smirked slightly. “Yeah. I gathered that.”
Buck ignored him. “But every time I see you looking at her—” He exhaled hard. “It doesn’t piss me off the way it should.”
Ghost went quiet, and Buck finally forced himself to say the rest. “I keep thinking about both of us with her. Hell, I can’t stop thinking about anything else.” The confession hung in the frozen air between them. Ghost stared at him openly now.
Buck cursed under his breath and looked away again. “I sound insane.”
“No,” Ghost said softly. “You sound like a man honestly sharing how he feels.” Buck knew that honesty always made things worse.
He gripped the porch railing harder. “I’ve always wanted that.
” The words came slower now, dragged out of somewhere deep.
“A man and a woman—the three of us together creating something real.” His throat felt like it was on fire from his confession.
“But I don’t know how the hell to do it without screwing everything up. ”
Ghost watched him carefully. “You think too much.”
“Somebody has to,” Buck grumbled.
“No.” Ghost stepped closer. “You talk too much when you’re scared.”
Buck barked out a humorless laugh. “No shit.”
Ghost’s shoulder bumped him lightly. “You know what I think?” Ghost asked quietly.
Buck didn’t answer. “I think you’ve spent your whole life carrying everybody else.
” Ghost looked toward the clubhouse windows where warm light glowed through frosted glass.
“And now for the first time, you found two people you actually want for yourself.”
Buck swallowed hard because that was exactly it. Ghost wasn’t just his brother, and Wren wasn’t just someone he needed to protect. Somewhere along the way, he wanted them both to be his, and the realization terrified him.
“What if she doesn’t want this?” Buck asked finally.
Ghost smirked faintly. “Then we respect that.”
“And if she does want it?” Buck asked.
Ghost’s pale eyes darkened slightly. “Then I guess we stop pretending.” Buck’s pulse kicked harder.
Jesus Christ. The image of Wren between them hit him instantly.
Ghost’s mouth was on hers while Buck’s hands held her hips.
The three of them tangled together beneath his sheets while snowstorms raged outside.
The thought nearly brought him to his knees.
Ghost must’ve seen it on his face because his grin turned downright wicked.
“There he is,” Ghost murmured. “That’s the look I’ve been waiting for.”
Buck shoved him lightly. “You’re an asshole.”
“Yeah.” Ghost’s smile softened just slightly.
“But I’m betting that you like me that way.
” Buck snorted despite himself as the back door creaked open behind them.
Both men turned instantly to find Wren standing there, wrapped in Buck’s flannel again, hair messy from sleep, eyes wary as she looked between them.
“You two okay?” she asked softly. Buck and Ghost exchanged one long look, and for the first time in years, Buck stopped running from what he wanted.
Wren looked too damn soft standing in the doorway.
Buck’s oversized flannel swallowed her whole, the sleeves hanging past her hands while her curls fell messily around her shoulders like she’d been tossing and turning.
Sleep still lingered in her eyes, but there was concern there, too, as she looked between him and Ghost.
“You two, okay?” she asked softly. Buck’s chest tightened painfully because he wanted this woman too much already.
Ghost leaned casually against the porch railing beside him, but Buck could feel the tension in him now, too.
Everything between the three of them felt different after what had just been said.
Buck cleared his throat roughly. “We’re fine.”
Wren narrowed her eyes immediately, like she knew he was lying. “You look like you were fighting.”
Ghost grinned. “No, we’re fine,” he insisted.
Buck shot him a look. Ghost ignored it completely and pushed away from the railing.
“Relax, sweetheart. Nobody’s bleeding.” His eyes slid toward Buck knowingly.
“Yet.” Wren blinked slowly between them.
Buck could practically see her trying to figure out what had changed out here. The problem was that everything had.
Ghost moved first, brushing past Wren toward the door before pausing beside her. “Get some sleep if you can, pretty thing.” His voice softened unexpectedly. “Tomorrow’s gonna suck.”
Wren frowned slightly. “That’s not comforting.”
“Wasn’t meant to be,” Ghost said. He disappeared inside, leaving Buck alone with her beneath the porch light and falling snow. Silence stretched between them.
Wren stepped closer slowly. “What’s going on?”
Buck stared at her for a long moment before answering. Too many truths sat heavy in his chest right now. Ghost’s confession and his own. The way both of them looked at her like she’d become something precious overnight.
“We’re figuring things out,” he said finally.
“That sounds ominous,” she teased.
“It probably is,” Buck admitted.
A tiny smile tugged at her mouth despite everything. “You know, for a guy built like a mountain, you’re surprisingly bad at reassuring people.” Buck huffed out a quiet laugh. God, he liked her.
Wren’s expression softened slightly at the sound. “You have a nice smile, Buck,” she breathed.
His eyes darkened. “You’re making it really hard not to do something stupid.” Her breath caught almost immediately. Every conversation between them turned into this now—heat and tension and words layered with too much meaning.
Wren looked away first, staring out at the snow-covered yard. “I think that I should leave.”
Buck’s jaw tightened instantly. “Not happening.”
“It might be the smart thing to do,” she insisted.
“It’s not,” Buck countered.
Wren crossed her arms tightly beneath the flannel. “Buck?—”
“No.” He stepped closer. “You leave this compound right now; they’ll snatch you up before sunrise.”
Fear flickered briefly across her face before stubbornness buried it again. “You can’t keep me here forever.”
The word forever hit him harder than it should have. Buck rubbed a hand over his jaw roughly. “You think I want this?”
Her eyes lifted slowly. “I think you don’t know what you want.”
That landed too close to the truth. Buck looked away toward the frozen tree line. “That’s the problem.” The back door creaked open again, and Ghost returned holding three beers.
“One for me,” he announced, handing one to Buck. “And one because you both look painfully sober.”
Wren accepted the beer carefully. “Are you always like this?”
Ghost smirked. “Charming?” he asked. “Yeah.”
“Annoying,” Buck corrected.
“Also, yeah,” Ghost agreed. Wren laughed softly. The sound hit both men instantly. Buck felt it beside him, too—the way Ghost stilled slightly at the sound like it mattered to him just as much. And suddenly Buck understood something important—this wasn’t just lust, not for either of them.
Ghost leaned against the porch railing again, watching the snow fall while silence settled comfortably this time. Then, without looking at Buck, he said quietly, “I meant what I said earlier.”
Wren glanced between them in confusion. Buck’s pulse kicked harder. “Ghost,” he warned.
“No.” Ghost finally looked at him directly. “We’re done pretending tonight.” Wren’s cheeks turned pink immediately, and Buck cursed internally.
Ghost’s pale eyes softened slightly when they shifted toward her. “I got feelings for you, sweetheart.” The honesty of it hit Buck like a punch. Wren went completely still. Ghost shrugged one shoulder like it didn’t terrify him too. “Wasn’t exactly planned.”
Buck watched her carefully, and Ghost exhaled slowly and looked toward Buck again. “And I have feelings for him.” Wren’s eyes widened, but Buck closed his eyes briefly. Well, it was out in the open now.
Ghost laughed quietly under his breath. “Yeah. That reaction seems fair.”
Wren looked utterly stunned. “You two?—”
Buck forced himself to answer. “We never did anything.”
“But you wanted to,” she assessed. It wasn’t a question.
Buck met her gaze steadily. “Yeah.” The cold air suddenly felt too tight to breathe. Wren stared between them while snow drifted softly around the porch.
Ghost finally broke the silence. “Problem is, none of this matters if the Vultures get their hands on you first.” That changed the mood instantly. Buck’s expression hardened again, and Ghost’s did too. Reality crashed back hard because there were too many threats that had been made against her now.
Wren swallowed visibly. “You really think they’ll come here?”
Buck answered immediately. “Yes.”
“And if they do?” she whispered.
Buck stepped closer until she had to tilt her head back to look him in the eyes. “Then they die.” The brutal certainty in his voice sent a visible shiver through her. Ghost moved beside them, brushing Buck’s lightly in silent solidarity.
“We protect our own,” Ghost said quietly. Wren’s breath caught at his wording, and Buck noticed. Ghost did too, but neither corrected it. Because deep down, they’d both already decided.
Buck looked toward Ghost slowly. “You serious about this?”
Ghost met his eyes steadily. “About her—yeah.”
“And us?” Buck asked.
Ghost smirked faintly. “Brother, I’ve been halfway in love with you since Thunder Creek.
I just figured you were too emotionally repressed to notice.
” Wren made a small choking sound beside them, and Buck barked out a startled laugh despite himself before Ghost’s expression turned serious again.
“But right now?” he said quietly. “None of that matters more than keeping her breathing.” Buck sobered instantly because Ghost was right.
Whatever this thing between them was, or whatever it might become, it wouldn’t survive if the Vultures reached her first.
Buck looked down at Wren and saw the fear she tried to hide from them and the strength underneath it.
He looked at the woman who somehow walked into their frozen corner of hell and made both men remember they still had hearts.
Mine, something deep inside him growled.
Ours, another voice answered immediately.
Buck reached out before thinking and tucked a curl behind Wren’s ear gently. “You trust us?” he asked quietly. Wren looked between both men carefully and then, slowly, she nodded.
Ghost exhaled softly beside him. “Well,” he muttered. “Guess we'd better start a war.”