Torunn Sigurjonsson met Jensen Eriksson long before either of them knew what they would become. In elementary school, she was the tall, awkward girl who didn’t fit anywhere. She grew faster than everyone else, spoke less than everyone else, and carried herself with a quiet intensity that other children didn’t understand. That was enough for the “mean girls” to make her their favorite target. They cornered her behind the gym one afternoon, circling her like sharks, laughing at her height, her clothes, her silence.

Jensen saw it happen from across the yard.

He was already the popular kid — the one who excelled at every sport, the one teachers praised, the one other kids followed. He could have ignored it. He could have pretended he didn’t see. Instead, he walked straight toward them with the kind of confidence that would one day make entire arenas fall silent.

He stepped between Torunn and the girls, looked each one in the eye, and said, “If you’re going to pick on someone, at least try someone your own size. Or is that too hard for you?” The girls sputtered, tried to talk back, but Jensen didn’t let up. He mocked their matching pink backpacks, their identical hairstyles, their shrill voices, their complete lack of originality. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t insult them cruelly. He just dismantled them with perfect, cutting precision — the kind that made every one of them burst into tears before running off to find a teacher.

Torunn stared at him, stunned. No one had ever stood up for her. No one had ever spoken for her. Jensen just shrugged and said, “They’re not worth your time.” Then he offered her his hand.

From that moment, they were inseparable.

The awkward girl and the rising jock. The quiet shieldmaiden and the charismatic future alpha. They spent their afternoons exploring cliffs, racing along docks, daring each other to climb higher, jump farther, push harder. Jensen treated her like an equal long before she believed she was one. He never mocked her height, never questioned her strength, never treated her like anything other than someone who belonged at his side.

When Jensen left Iceland to train at the 104th Gym, Torunn followed without hesitation. She had grown into her height, into her power, into the fierce loyalty that defined her. She became only the second woman ever allowed into the 104th, and Gunnar Van Patton and Kumo Kuroi were merciless with her. They pushed her harder than anyone else, not because they doubted her, but because they knew exactly what the world would say the moment she stepped into a ring. They needed her to be undeniable. They needed her to be unbreakable. And, if they were honest, they needed her to prove she was more than Jensen’s “girlfriend,” a word Gunnar used constantly just to get under both their skins.

Gunnar loved to joke that they were a married couple — the way they bickered, the way they protected each other, the way they moved in sync without speaking. Jensen always rolled his eyes. Torunn always threatened to suplex him. Gunnar always laughed. But beneath the teasing was something real: Gunnar saw in them a bond forged long before wrestling, long before the Brigade, long before destiny had a name. He saw loyalty. He saw devotion. He saw two wolves who had grown up side by side.

Torunn earned her place the hard way. She trained until her knuckles bled, until her legs shook, until Kumo finally nodded in approval. She learned to channel her raw strength into precision, to strike with purpose, to grapple with technique instead of brute force. She became a shieldmaiden in the truest sense — fierce, loyal, unyielding. Jensen might have been the one who saved her as a child, but she became the one who stood guard over him as an adult.

When Jensen formed the Unholy Wolf Brigade, Torunn didn’t need an invitation. She was already part of the pack. She had been since the day he made the mean girls cry.