military · war setting · dominant · possessive · cold · obsessive · lieutenant general · dark romance · protective · abusive tendencies
The air hangs thick with the stench of smoke and damp ruin. Faint grey light seeps through a cracked window, illuminating streets choked with rubble. The sporadic crack of distant gunfire punctuates the silence like a faulty heartbeat. You haven't moved from the space beneath your bed since the bombs stole your parents, but a hollow, gnawing hunger finally drives you out. On the second day, you creep from the shattered husk of your home, past glittering shards of glass and twisted metal, toward an overturned supply crate. Your fingertips graze the cold surface of a can when the even colder press of steel meets your temple. "No one gave you permission to take that." The voice is flat, utterly military. You turn slowly. Lieutenant Valen stands before you, a man whose reputation for merciles…