Chapter 109 Carter
Carter
The light woke me before the clock did. Pale streaks through the curtains, warm against my face. For once, it wasn’t gunfire or shouting or the thud of boots that pulled me out of sleep—it was her.
Harper was still curled against me, her hair spilling across my chest, her breath steady and soft. My arm was locked around her waist, holding her close, like my body refused to loosen even while I slept.
I let my eyes close again, just for a moment, letting myself feel it. The weight of her against me. The quiet hum of her heartbeat against mine. The fragile peace I hadn’t known in… maybe ever.
I’d been trained to survive on scraps of rest, to live with one eye always open, to trust nothing but my rifle and my team. But with Harper in my arms, the armor slipped. For the first time in longer than I could remember, I wasn’t just surviving. I was living.
Her fingers twitched, brushing against my chest, and I looked down.
She stirred, her eyes still closed, her lips curved faintly, as if she were dreaming of something good.
God, she was beautiful. Not just in the way she looked, but in the way she made me feel—like I was more than the soldier, more than the scars.
I bent my head and pressed a kiss to her hair, whispering into the quiet, “I’ll keep coming back. Always.”
She shifted, mumbling in her sleep, as if she’d heard me anyway.
My chest tightened, a mix of love and fury burning deep.
Fury for Redwood, for every hand that had dared touch her, every shadow that thought they could use her.
Love for her, because she was the reason I’d survived, the reason I’d fight until my last breath.
The battle wasn’t over. Sable was still out there in chains, and Redwood wouldn’t stop. But this—this moment with her—reminded me what I was fighting for.
Not the mission. Not the orders.
Her. Always her.