Page 121 of Specter Bred

Not because I came with Maeve. Not because I was the beta stubborn enough to keep up. Major Nolan Graves thought I belonged there.

I’d spent months trying to prove I deserved to be a Specter. I hadn’t realized until that moment how badly I wanted Nolan Graves to believe it too.

Maeve glanced over. “Why are you smiling?”

“No reason.”

“Hayes.”

I adjusted my pack and kept walking. “Just wondering how a nice farm boy like me ended up here.”

Graves’s voice came from behind us. “Poor decision-making.”

I nodded. “That tracks, sir.”

Maeve snorted, and my grin widened as we headed deeper into the trees.

For once, being called Farm Boy didn’t feel like something I had to prove wrong.

Chapter 16: Nolan "Grizzly" Graves

Teacup and Farm Boy trudged behind me through the dark. Archer didn’t say much, but the tension between us lingered from the night before. It kept both of us quieter than usual, with every glance feeling loaded, and every stretch of silence carrying more than words would’ve.

Hayes, clueless or choosing to be, filled the gaps by humming under his breath and talking as if nothing had shifted at all, carrying on in that easy way of his while walking straight through a storm he didn’t seem to realize was brewing.

"So why Grizzly, sir?"

I sighed.

"What now, Hayes?"

He adjusted his pack and grinned.

"Isn’t this whole thing about bonding? Figured we should get to know each other better."

"It’s not about bonding, Farm Boy," I corrected. "It’s about compatibility."

He frowned.

"Uh... isn’t that the same thing?"

Maeve snorted behind him.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Never mind, Hayes."

But after a few more steps, I answered anyway.

"Got it my second year in Specter service."

Hayes perked up immediately.

"Command stationed us near the Helix border when word came in about an ambush. One of our units got hit a few klicks south. We moved fast to reinforce."

The memory hit harder than I expected, flooding my mind. I kept to the edges of it, just the basics. That was safer. Sometimes if I got too close, if I let myself sink into the details, I lost myself in it.

"By the time we got there, most of our other soldiers were already dead. Rebels pinned the rest inside a bombed-out building, and they took fire from every side.”