Page 37 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir
Kalev sleeps light—one arm over his chest, the other under the pillow, like his body’s still braced for a breach. We’re both running on six kinds of exhaustion, and even in sleep he keeps one boot hooked on the floor like he’s ready to launch.
Me? I stare at the condensation gathering on the pipes above our heads and feel the hours chew at my ribs.
Time gets weird down here. No sky. No shift bells. Just the artificial buzz of surveillance gear and the metallic tang of recycled air. It warps your sense of presence—makes you feel like the past and present are stuck in a holding pattern.
Which is probably why I’ve been thinking about the raid.
Not just remembering.Reliving.
Grolgath territory, outer rim, six years ago. I was twenty-one, still dumb enough to think tactical belts made me look competent. They didn’t. They made me a walking beacon of rookie energy, and worse—I thought standing still made me look brave.
I’ve never told anyone.
But it’s been pulling at the edges of me like a frayed thread for days, and I know—if I don’t say it soon, it’s going to tear something vital.
I roll onto my side.
Kalev doesn’t move. His eyes are closed, but I know he’s not asleep. He breathes too evenly when he’s pretending.
“Hey.”
A slow exhale. “Yeah.”
My voice is quiet, but it doesn’t shake. “You ever freeze in the field?”
He doesn’t answer right away. He shifts slightly, opens his eyes, looks at me across the low stretch of floor between us. “You want a real answer or a convenient one?”
“Real.”
He nods once. “Yeah. I have.”
I wait.
He waits, too.
But not in a “your turn” kind of way. More like… “we don’t rush this” kind of way.
I close my eyes for a second.
“When the Grolgath breached our compound, I was in the secondary med wing. I was supposed to help evacuate the auxiliary patients. I had a clear path. No fire, no fallen debris. Nothing in the way.”
My palms are sweating.
“I looked right at them—two of our people. One of them was just a kid. I had a med cart half full of trauma kits and adrenaline stims. Could’ve gotten them both out.”
He doesn’t move.
“I froze.”
There. I said it. Out loud. And nothing exploded. The ceiling didn’t fall. The ground didn’t swallow me whole.
But my throat tightens anyway.
“I don’t even know how long. Ten seconds? Thirty? The Grolgath weren’t even that close yet. But something in my head just… jammed. Like my body hit pause.”
I’m not looking at him now. I can’t.
“They both made it,” I add quickly, as if that’ll soften the rest of it. “Someone else got them out. I just stood there. Like a goddamn statue.”
