The briefing room felt electric with tension as forty personnel squeezed into a space meant for twenty. Emergency lighting threw sharp shadows across faces, and Noah could practically taste the urgency in the recycled air. This wasn't just another deployment—this was big.
"Attention!"
Commander Damien Pierce swept into the room like he owned everything in it, including the people. Tall, broad-shouldered, conventionally handsome in that military recruitment poster way—except for how his eyes moved across the room like a predator cataloging prey. Noah's stomach turned as Pierce's gaze lingered on Sophie for several uncomfortable beats.
Sophie shifted closer to Noah without seeming to realize it. Diana's face went blank—her default response to situations that disgusted her but couldn't be directly confronted. Even Lyra seemed to shrink into her seat.
