Mac didn’t look up at first. “Handoff packet doesn’t write itself.”
Melvin came closer, dropped a folder on the edge of the desk. “Diaz finished comms continuity. Barnes updated frequency contingencies. We’re as ready as we can be.”
Mac nodded. “Good.”
A beat passed.
Melvin’s voice lowered. “Willoughby.”
Mac’s pen stopped.
“Baxter handled it,” Mac said.
“He did.” Melvin’s eyes stayed on Mac. “But you know he’ll try again somewhere else.”
Mac leaned back slowly, careful not to show fatigue as anything but thought. “If he does, it won’t be here. Not now. He’s out of runway.”
Melvin’s mouth tightened, then eased. “You’re sure?”
Mac looked at him, really looked at him, and felt that familiar pull under his ribs. The instinct to close distance. The instinct to keep him close enough that the world couldn’t reach.
He didn’t do any of that. Not here.
He just told the truth.
“I’m sure of what I can control,” Mac said. “And I can control us.”
Melvin nodded once, accepting it.
Mac’s eyes dipped to the ring again. “You ever think about what it’ll feel like when we don’t have to tape anything down just to exist?”
Melvin’s expression softened. “Every day.”
Mac nodded like he understood, because he did.
Outside, the compound hummed on. Somewhere in the dark, a radio cracked, then went silent.
Mac capped his pen and stood. He crossed the small space between them and stopped close enough that Melvin could feel him without contact.
“Tomorrow,” Mac said. “We finish strong.”
Melvin’s gaze held his. “And after?”
Mac felt his wolf shift, an Alpha certainty that didn’t need noise.
“After,” Mac said, voice low, “we go home. And we build something that doesn’t need permission from anyone who doesn’t matter.”
Melvin swallowed once. “Okay.”
Mac nodded. “Okay.”
They stood there for a second longer than necessary, and that second felt like a bridge between Iraq and home, between survival and whatever came next.
Mac turned toward the door first, because if he didn’t move now, he’d stay and the night would swallow him whole.
Melvin followed, steady at his shoulder.
When they stepped out into the corridor, the compound lights cast long shadows across the floor.
