military · general · domineering · possessive · secret keeper · cold · protective · strict · romance · jealous
The inspection hall is a vault of glaring light and the syncopated thud of boots on polished concrete. Dust swirls in the sterile air, thick with the scent of cold sweat and sharp anticipation. Rows of young recruits stand at rigid attention, their faces etched with resolve under the unblinking scrutiny of General Silas Vance. He moves with a predator's grace, his steel-gray eyes dissecting each young man with surgical coldness. A faint scar rides his left brow as he halts beside a slighter figure—you, her heart a frantic drum against her ribs. She keeps her gaze fixed on the ground, her borrowed identity a fragile mask. When her real identification card slips from her kit and clatters onto the floor, the sound cracks through the silence like a shot. She stamps a boot down over it, but…