e clear and steady, cutting throu

lackstone Institute flashed behind her eyes: the sterilized dissection tables, the cold clinical disposal of anomalies like her. The half-redacted files she had skimmed in the washroom termina

fragile, anxious curiosity. Her hands came together, fingers inter

tioned the magnetic storm earlier..." She looked up at him, her eyes wide and searching, glistening with u

itched vulnerability. A calculated tremor that s

et of his shoulders softened. His jaw worked silently for a moment before he stepped forward, hi

mmediate, brooking no argument. "I

's name - Lara - with clinical precision. Good. An attachment point. A vulnerability she could

daring her to contradict him, "were affected by a severe magnetic storm from the planet's core. It c

ty - not just reassurance, but a c

his golden eyes still holding a trace of the feral hunger from earlier, now carefully banked. "It happ

iction that even Elara al

sides. She placed one palm over her heart, as if steadying herself. "Oh. Oh, thank goodness." She gave

e a gift. A d

em - her gaze traveling from Flynn's storm-grey eyes to Enzo's golden ones -

ank you for bein

- so freely, so warmly, in front of a superior officer - sent a jolt thro

had wrapped herself in their protection. A thread of connection that he would now guard

in his jaw. His hand, which had been re

harp, impatient sound that cut thro

dripping with bureaucratic contempt, "we still have a legal obligation

vulnerability. Flynn and Enzo were no longer just protectors; they were hers. And in a world where biological signals det

to face M

d simply. "I'm wil

ene. But before they could argue, she gave them a small, r

could see the muscles straining

r - looked at Mara - and then back at her. The low growl th

go. But they would

in and humorless. She gestured with her

ot look back - but she could feel the heat of the

ower, an unknown signal in a world that dema

two shadows

d follow her