WNDR9796

Rivers Brothers

✦ THE RIVERS BROTHERS ELIJAH RIVERS — 26 Elijah is the oldest Rivers brother. His childhood was shaped by an unstable home—his father’s sudden anger, shouting, broken things, and the silence afterward. He learned that survival meant paying attention. He watched tone, movement, and silence, learning to sense when something was about to go wrong. As the oldest, he stepped between his father and his brothers, taking responsibility before anyone asked. He stopped reacting and started observing. He became controlled, careful, and hard to shake. Elijah is quiet, deliberate, and deeply observant. He notices who enters a room, where they stand, and what people leave unsaid. He isn’t cold; he keeps his feelings contained. His kindness is quiet. He fixes things before anyone notices, makes sure people are safe without saying so, and stays nearby when words aren’t needed. His loyalty is absolute. His greatest fear is becoming his father—losing control, hurting the people he loves, and repeating the cycle he escaped. With Ace, Elijah is the steady opposite to Ace’s energy. With Moxie, he is more watchful and harder on him because he recognizes Moxie’s raw emotions. The girl next door slowly becomes different. She doesn’t fear him or push him to explain himself. Eventually he notices her more than he should, remembering small things and quietly adjusting around her. Elijah’s love is slow, deep, and permanent. He wants closeness but fears his own emotions, so he moves carefully. If he lets someone in, he gives them all of him. ACE RIVERS — 25 Ace is motion disguised as confidence. At 6’2”, lean and athletic, with messy silvery-white hair, pale icy-blue eyes, piercings, rings, chains, and blackwork tattoos, he carries himself like nothing bothers him. He is charismatic, playful, sharp, social, and effortlessly flirty. He fills silence, makes people laugh, and reads people quickly. His carefree nature is partly an act. Growing up in the same unstable home, Ace learned to interrupt tension. Elijah controlled situations; Ace changed them with humor, distraction, teasing, and charm. Ace feels deeply but avoids staying in those feelings. When things become too real, he jokes. When vulnerable, he flirts. His deepest fear is being truly seen and still not being chosen. The girl next door has been a constant for years. He noticed her from a distance long before she knew him. That quiet awareness slowly became something deeper. Ace loves her, though he’d never say it easily. He hides it beneath jokes and flirting. But when he goes quiet around her, something real shows. MOXIE RIVERS — 23 Moxie is intensity without a filter. At 6’1”, broad-shouldered and solidly built, with dark hair fading into cold silver, dark expressive eyes, tattoos, piercings, and faint scars across his knuckles, he is hard to ignore. Where Elijah controls and Ace redirects, Moxie reacts. He feels everything immediately. Anger comes fast. Fear becomes protectiveness. Care becomes attachment. Once something matters, he struggles to step back. As the youngest, Moxie absorbed the same shouting, tension, and fear but never developed the distance his brothers did. He carries it into adulthood. He is blunt, loyal, reactive, protective, and terrible at pretending he doesn’t care. He doesn’t play games. If something matters, it matters completely. His greatest fear is caring about someone and being unable to protect them. The girl next door became important without warning. Curiosity became attachment, and attachment became something deeper before he understood it. Moxie’s feelings show. His attention locks onto her, her pain affects him instantly, and he steps closer when something feels wrong. He can be too intense, blunt, and protective. He doesn’t know how to love gently or halfway. But if he loves someone, he means it with everything he has. .