Chapter Five #2
Aleksy stood slightly apart from it all, not disengaged, but not needing to insert himself into every exchange. He listened. Processed. Filed information where it belonged.
And watched.
Because no matter how much the room moved, no matter how many voices filled the space, his awareness kept returning to the same place.
Tamsin.
She hadn’t taken a seat. She hadn’t softened into the fatigue the way some of the others had.
She stood near the far side of the table, one hand resting lightly against the surface, her posture relaxed in appearance only.
Her attention moved across the room, following each report, each conclusion, each adjustment, as if she were mapping it all against something in her own head.
Aleksy let that settle, recognizing the truth of it without resistance. There was no hesitation in her presence here, no sense that she was stepping into something unfamiliar. She absorbed the room the way she absorbed a fight, reading its rhythm, its structure, its weaknesses.
She fit.
Jarek shifted beside him, quieter now than he had been earlier, the sharp edge of adrenaline worn down into something steadier. “Not bad,” he murmured, his voice low enough that it didn’t carry beyond them. “For a first run.”
Aleksy didn’t look at him. “You expected less?”
Jarek huffed a breath that might have been a laugh. “I expected complicated.”
Aleksy’s gaze flicked briefly toward Tamsin before returning forward. “It is, but in the best possible way.”
Jarek didn’t argue that.
The room began to thin as the hour pushed later. One by one, conversations tapered off, decisions were deferred until morning, and Victor finally brought it to a close.
“We regroup tomorrow at noon,” he said, his tone carrying just enough weight to settle the room completely. “Get some rest. We move into offense tomorrow.”
There were no objections. There never were.
Goodnights were exchanged without ceremony, the team dispersing in a practiced flow that left the command center quieter with each passing second until only him, his brother and their mate remained.
Aleksy felt the shift the moment the room cleared, the absence of the others settling into something more intimate, more focused. The noise of the operation fell away, leaving only the steady hum of the building and the awareness that had been building between them all night.
Jarek pushed off the console first, stretching once before rolling his shoulders, his gaze landing unerringly on Tamsin.
“Well,” he said, the word carrying more than it should have. “That was something.”
Tamsin’s lips curved faintly. “You mean the part where we didn’t die, or the part where you almost got yourself killed again?”
Jarek grinned, unbothered. “I was fine.”
“You were lucky,” she corrected.
Aleksy stepped forward then, closing the space without thought, his attention settling fully on her. “We were effective together,” he said.
Tamsin’s gaze shifted to him, sharp, assessing, but there was something else there now. Something that hadn’t been there before the fight. Before the moment that had broken through all three of them and refused to be ignored.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “We were.”
Silence followed, but it wasn’t empty. It held, stretched, filled with everything that hadn’t been said yet.
Jarek broke it first. “You’re going to keep pretending that connection didn’t happen?”
Tamsin didn’t look away from Aleksy. “I tried that. It didn’t stick.”
“No,” Aleksy said, his voice steady, certain. “It didn’t.”
Her breath shifted, just slightly, her control slipping at the edges in a way that only made her more aware, more present in the space between them.
“I don’t do complicated,” she said, though there was no real resistance behind the words.
Jarek stepped closer, circling just enough to close them in without crowding her. “This isn’t complicated,” he said.
Her brow lifted. “Really? I would hate to see what your definition of complicated might be!”
“Not this,” he shot back. “This, the three of us, the most uncomplicated thing in the world.”
A breath of laughter slipped from her, quiet and surprised, and for a moment the tension shifted into something lighter, something easier.
Tamsin looked between them, really looked, as if weighing something she had already decided but wasn’t ready to say out loud.
Aleksy didn’t push. He held where he was, steady, giving her the space to make the choice without forcing it.
When she spoke, her voice was lower, more deliberate. “Come be with me.”
There was no hesitation.
“Hell yes,” Jarek said immediately.
Aleksy didn’t answer right away. He stepped in instead, closing the last of the distance between them. He lifted her easily into his arms, the motion controlled but decisive.
Tamsin’s breath caught, her hands coming up instinctively, bracing against him as her balance shifted, but she didn’t resist.
Jarek fell into step beside them, his grin unrestrained now as they moved toward the elevator.
“About time,” Aleksy muttered.
The doors slid open without delay, the space inside closing around them as Aleksy stepped in, Tamsin still in his arms.
The doors shut. And the moment they did, the air changed.
Aleksy felt it settle through him, steady and certain, the anticipation building with each passing second as the elevator began its ascent.