Chapter 11: Claiming Ground
920 Words
The next morning, Aubrey woke up in Murphy’s bed, tangled in sheets that smelled like tobacco and warm cotton and him. Her body was still buzzing, like she hadn't stopped vibrating since the test hit his chest. She stared at the ceiling, one hand splayed over her stomach, her mind doing somersaults.
There’s a human in there.
His baby.
She shifted slightly, careful not to wake him, but his arm tightened around her waist anyway, pulling her into the curve of his chest. She felt his breath against the back of her neck, steady and grounding.
“You’re not gonna disappear again, right?” she murmured, voice gravelly with sleep.
“Not unless someone rips me outta your arms,” he muttered. “And I don’t go down easy.”
She smiled, eyes still closed.
“Do they know?” she asked.
“The club?”
“Yeah.”
Murphy was quiet a beat. “They will.”
---
It wasn’t long before she found herself perched on the bar top of the clubhouse, legs swinging, sipping an iced tea that had been shoved into her hand by a woman she’d only just met — “Angel,” a tall, sharp-eyed girl with two guns tattooed across her hips and an air of fierce protectiveness that rivaled Murphy’s.
“I’m not supposed to have caffeine,” Aubrey offered sheepishly.
Angel snorted. “It’s peach tea, sweetheart. I’m not trying to fry the fetus.”
Aubrey choked on a laugh. “We’re calling it fetus now?”
Murphy, who was leaning against a nearby wall like a watchtower in denim and leather, flicked his eyes toward them. He hadn’t stopped watching her since they’d walked in.
A few of the club’s members were circled around a pool table, beers in hand, the usual gruff voices lowered when they thought she wasn’t paying attention. Words like “baby,” “Grizz’s girl,” and “s**t’s gettin’ real” floated in and out.
Then there was Andie.
Murphy’s best friend — a wildfire in human form. Red curls, combat boots, and an attitude that said try me, I dare you. She came up beside Aubrey and leaned on the bar, her eyes flicking to the slight curve of Aubrey’s stomach like she could see the future inside it.
“You good?” Andie asked casually.
Aubrey blinked. “I think so.”
“That means no, but you’re too proud to say it.”
She shrugged.
Andie grinned. “You’ll do fine.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you already threw a pregnancy test at his chest. That’s about as biker-wife initiation as it gets.”
Aubrey laughed again — she was doing that more these days. She hated that it felt like relief. Like being seen. Like belonging.
Then she caught the tail end of a look exchanged between Murphy and one of the older guys — Vex, she’d learned his name was. Gray beard, ink crawling up his neck, voice like asphalt.
Aubrey narrowed her eyes.
That wasn’t a normal club business look.
That was a something's coming look.
---
Later that night, back in Murphy’s apartment above the garage, she cornered him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He didn’t pretend not to understand. Murphy wasn’t the kind of man who used words he didn’t need to, and he damn sure didn’t lie.
“There’s chatter,” he said after a pause, pulling off his cut and setting it on the chair. “About a few old threats resurfacing. People think I’ve gone soft.”
Aubrey scoffed. “Soft? You?”
“You’ve made me quiet,” he said, coming toward her. “That scares people. Quiet from me means focused. Focused means dangerous.”
She swallowed, nerves tightening. “So this is about me.”
“This is about us,” he corrected. “They see what you mean to me. They see what we’re building. And that paints a target. But I’ll be damned if I let anyone near you.”
Aubrey stood there, arms crossed under her chest, still wearing one of his shirts — her new go-to wardrobe.
“What if something happens to you?” she whispered. “I can’t— If you leave again, and it’s not by choice—”
Murphy reached her in two strides.
“Then I fight harder,” he said softly. “Then I kill first. Then I burn this whole f*****g city down if I have to, just to get back to you.”
Her eyes stung. His hands cupped her face gently, thumbs brushing her cheekbones.
“I don’t want to live in fear, Murphy.”
“Then don’t. I’ll carry it for you.”
“You’re so damn over-the-top.”
“Better than under.”
Aubrey huffed and pushed her face into his chest.
Murphy wrapped her up, enveloping her completely, like he always did.
---
That night, she couldn’t sleep.
She laid there next to him in the dark, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing, and thought about everything: the life growing inside her, the danger outside these walls, the club that had started to feel like family, and the man beside her who made her feel braver than she really was.
She whispered into the dark, “I’m gonna be a mom.”
Murphy didn’t open his eyes, but his voice rumbled like distant thunder.
“You’re already a fighter. This kid just gets front-row seats.”
- Writer
