Zoe
We drove back to the compound in the gray hours before dawn, exhaustion settling so deep into my bones that I barely registered the passing landscape, my head resting against Ryder's shoulder while Mason drove, his good arm steady on the wheel despite the pain he was clearly still fighting through.
Jax and Marisol were waiting when we arrived, both of them unharmed but visibly shaken, and the moment I climbed out of the truck, Marisol pulled me into a fierce, trembling hug.
"You came for me," she said, voice thick with emotion. "All of you."
"Of course we did," I said, holding her tight. "You're family."
The word settled easily between us, true in a way that would have surprised me weeks ago, before grief and danger had rebuilt my understanding of what family actually meant.
The
