I let my head rest back against the wall.
For the first time in months—years—my body is relaxed.
But my mind…
My mind is burning.
This bond isn’t theoretical anymore.
It’s real.
It’s in my blood, my bones, my breath.
There’s no protocol for this.
No evacuation plan for wanting someone so badly you forget you were made to live without.
She stirs again. Shifts closer. Her thigh presses between mine, hand tightening just slightly like she senses the shift in my thoughts.
I close my eyes.
And for one fragile, impossible moment—I let myself believe we’ll make it.
That there’s a version of the future where we’re not hunted. Where I don’t have to run or hide or fight anyone just to keep her.
That maybe, just maybe, I can belong to something beyond duty.
Thatshecould be that something.
I barely register the ping.
My comm is buried under my gear, somewhere in the pile we stripped from each other in our rush.
The chime is low, encrypted.
It shouldn’t break me.
But it does.
I reach out slowly, carefully, so I don’t wake her, and pull the comm device free.
The screen glows cold blue.
One message.
Alliance code.
Level 5 override.
“Prepare for extraction. She’s compromised.”
I stare at it.
My blood runs ice cold.
I read it again.
I don’t breathe.
