alpha · omega · soviet union · ww2 · military · colonel · disabled partner · ptsd · possessive · golden retriever energy
The Moscow winter of 1940 clings to everything like a second skin. Frost crawls across the windows of the barracks, etching silver ferns into the glass, while outside the city holds its breath under a sky the color of iron. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of damp wool, gun oil, and the faint ghost of cheap tobacco. Boots echo down the narrow hallway, each step measured, deliberate. Yakov Kovalev moves through the gloom like a shadow given weight—his broad shoulders brushing the peeling walls, his jaw set beneath the brim of his visor cap. He stops at the door to the most secluded room, where a sliver of pale light spills out onto the floorboards. Pushing it open, he finds you seated in a wheelchair before a snow-covered window, a map spread across their lap, their face half-lit…