Silence fills the command center.
I stare at the holographic display, my mind processing the information with cold, mechanical precision.
They targeted her.
They purchased her debt.
They are using her financial desperation as leverage to extract classified information from my vaults.
And she...
She did not tell me.
The thought lands like a blade between my ribs.
She did not come to me.
She did not ask for help.
She did not trust me to protect her.
Or.
Or she is considering their offer.
The second possibility is worse.
Much worse.
Because if she is considering their offer, then everything—every moment of vulnerability, every whispered confession, every desperate touch—was a calculated manipulation.
A soft, fragile human deployed specifically to exploit my weakness.
To map my defenses.
To destroy me from the inside.
My chest tightens.
No.
No, that is not possible.
I felt the fated-mate bond snap into place. I felt her body respond to mine with absolute, uncontrollable need. I felt her tears on my chest as she fought to save my life.
That cannot be faked.
Can it?
"Sir?"
Kael's voice pulls me back to the present.
I turn to face him.
"What is your assessment?" I ask.
His expression is carefully neutral.
