Chapter 12 KADE'S BREAKING

Chapter 12 KADE'S BREAKING
Kade's POV

Run or fight.

Those were the only choices I'd given them. I meant it too. Either Sera and Ryker got out of that greenhouse corner before I did something I couldn't take back, or they stood and faced what was about to happen.

I watched them from the shadows. Sera's hand in Ryker's. That small, intimate gesture that told me everything I needed to know about what was happening in the greenhouse while I was alone.

They ran.

Ryker pulled Sera toward the back exit, moving fast but not panicked. A man who'd calculated escape routes. A man who'd already planned for this moment. The thought made my fists clench.

I let them go. Didn't chase. Didn't grab. Just watched them disappear into the corridor like they had every right to keep secrets from me.

They didn't.

I caught up with Sera in the common area. Ryker was already gone, smart enough to separate and create distance between them. That left Sera alone. Exactly where I needed her.

"Don't," she said before I even spoke. "Whatever you're about to say, don't."

I crossed the space between us. Slow. Deliberate. Giving her time to run again if she wanted to. She didn't run.

"I don't share," I said. The words came out controlled but underneath them was something breaking. Something I'd held together for nineteen years and couldn't hold anymore. "I've never shared anything. My loyalty. My focus. Definitely not a woman."

Sera stood her ground. Her chest was still heaving from running. Her hair was messed up from the greenhouse. She looked alive in a way I'd never seen before and it was killing me.

"I'm not a possession," she said.

"I know that," I replied, frustrated. "Knowing doesn't stop me from feeling it. Doesn't stop me from watching you touch him and knowing I don't get that. Knowing I'm standing here like some discarded soldier while Damon gets your passion and Ryker gets your vulnerability."

Sera's eyes flashed. "You're jealous."

"I'm losing my mind," I corrected. "There's a difference."

I moved closer. She could have moved away. Should have. But she didn't.

"You came to the greenhouse to spy on us," Sera said. Not a question.

"I came to the greenhouse because my second-in-command Warden disappeared into a blind spot with you," I said. "Military protocol. I was securing the perimeter."

"You were following me."

"Yes," I admitted. No point lying anymore. "I was following you because every time you leave the common area, something in my chest breaks open. Every time you laugh at something Damon says, every time you look at Ryker like he matters, I feel it. I feel all of it."

Sera stepped back. Not away from me. Toward me. Testing something.

"Maybe that's your problem," she said quietly. "You think love is a military operation. Turn by turn. You get your shift and then you're satisfied. That's not how this works."

"Then tell me how it works," I demanded. "Tell me how I'm supposed to watch you belong to them and stay sane."

"I don't belong to anyone," Sera said. There was fire in her voice now. "And if you can't accept that, if you can't get past this obsession with control, then we're done. All of us."

The words felt like a knife. Done. Before we'd even started.

"I can't," I said. The admission cost everything. "I can't watch you with them."

Sera's expression softened and I hated it. Pity was worse than anger.

"Maybe you need to break some rules, Commander," she said. "Maybe the military doesn't have all the answers."

Something in me snapped.

Nineteen years of suppression. Nineteen years of keeping emotions locked down like they were security risks. Nineteen years of being a perfect soldier with no wants, no needs, no feelings that interfered with duty.

I kissed her.

Not careful. Not controlled. Hard and possessive like I could make her understand through pressure and intention what I couldn't say with words. My hands cupped her face, held her exactly where I needed her. My entire world narrowed to this one moment. Her mouth. Her breath. The way she was finally, finally mine.

She froze for a second.

Then she kissed me back.

Not like she was surrendering. Like she wanted this as much as I did. Her hands grabbed my shirt. Pulled me closer until there was no space between us. Her intensity matched mine and something inside me felt complete for the first time since I arrived at this facility.

This is a mistake, my training screamed.

I didn't care.

When we broke apart, both of us were breathing hard. Her lips were red. Her eyes were dark and unfocused. I kept my hands on her face because letting go felt impossible.

"This is a bad idea," I said.

"Probably," Sera agreed.

But she didn't pull away and neither did I.

"I can't share you," I said. "I don't know how."

Sera's hand pressed against my chest. I could feel her heartbeat matching mine.

"You don't have to," she whispered. "You just have to trust me."

Trust. The concept felt foreign. I'd learned young that trusting people got you killed. That control was survival. That caring about anything made you vulnerable.

But standing here with her hand on my heart and her eyes locked on mine, I was beginning to understand that maybe the Tribunal had lied about more than just the plague.

We were still pressed together when the lights died.

Not a flicker. Not a problem with the power grid. Complete darkness. Total. Absolute. The kind of darkness that comes before chaos.

The alarms came next. Not regular security alerts. Something different. Something that made every tactical response in my body activate.

Sera grabbed my arm. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," I said, and not knowing meant danger. "Don't move."

But before I could even process what was happening, a voice cut through the darkness.

Not from the speakers. From above.

From the ventilation shaft in the ceiling.

"Commander Voss. Ms. Ashford. We need to move. Now."

A figure dropped from the shaft. Landed with military precision in the dark. Moved with the kind of trained efficiency I recognized immediately.

The shaft sealed behind them.

My hand went to the weapon at my side before I even understood what I was seeing.

Because the person standing in front of us, moving like a ghost from my past, was someone I'd watched die five years ago.

Someone who should have been executed for treason.

Someone whose name was going to change everything.

"Hello, Commander," Nova said, her scarred face becoming visible as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. "We need to talk about betrayal."

And I understood then that the rebellion had already started. That our insider wasn't just gathering information anymore.

They were making their move.

And we were about to find out if we had what it took to survive what came next.