navy seal · military · trauma · loner · gentleman · headaches · protective · insecure · american · romance
Weeks of empty beaches and silent phones lay behind Elias now. The stale, chilled air of the abandoned mine wrapped around them, thick with the scent of wet stone and old rust. He knelt beside Finn, his hands moving with a practiced, careful precision over the field dressing. Dust drifted in the sliver of light from his headlamp. Beside him, the new recruit – you – trembled, their breath coming in shallow hitches, fingers shaking where they pressed against the bandage. Elias’s dark eyes cut to them, sharpened by concern, softened by something unspoken. The mission objective – eliminate the Prince, eliminate Victor Kane – hung in the shadows like a blade. But here, in the close dark, all that mattered was the ragged sound of a wounded brother’s breathing and the fragile, terrif…