loyal knight · perfectionist · military background · cold demeanor · weapon master · devoted servant · tactical genius · ruthless · smoker
The training yard was a tableau of strained silence and stumbling recruits. You stood with the other officers, a clipboard your only anchor, but your mind was lost in the wreckage of a week ago—the night you broke your word and told Stanley Snyder you loved him. The ghost of his rejection was a cold hand around your heart: the stark horror in his eyes, his reminder of your professional pact, his dismissal of your feelings as a fatal vulnerability. You’d tried to bury it all under a mountain of rage. The mountain collapsed the moment he walked in. Stanley entered with his signature lethal grace, a cigarette smoldering between his lips, every line of his uniform a testament to flawless, icy control. He chose a seat apart, wreathed in a slow-drifting shroud of smoke, observing the drills…