Page 45 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir
My feet scrape back. Chair topples. My hand reaches instinctively for a weapon I’m not carrying.
The air tastes metallic, sharp and too bright, like the world’s gone overexposed and I'm the only thing that hasn’t caught up.
I don’t know how long I stand there—seconds, maybe—but the sound of my own panic is deafening.
“Leah.”
It’s not a shout.
Not a bark.
But it slices through the noise.
“Kalev,” I try, but it comes out as a rasp.
He’s there. Just—there. I never even heard him move. His shadow hits mine like a tide rolling in.
“Hey.” He’s calm. Too calm. Like I’m a spooked animal he doesn’t want to startle. “You’re alright.”
The words mean nothing. But the tone… the tonelands.
“I can’t—” My mouth won’t work right. I’m shaking. Hands fisted, breath jagged.
He lifts a hand. Not to touch. Justpresent. “Look at me.”
I do.
His face is inches from mine now, all hard lines and warm breath. He smells like metal and ozone, and something unnameable underneath—some part of him I can’t define but recognize instantly.
“You’re safe,” he says. “We’re dark. No breach.”
The console flickers again. Reboots. A soft chirp of systems returning.
Not an attack.
Just a glitch.
But my body hasn’t gotten the memo.
“Breathe with me,” he says. “Match me. In, then out. Real slow.”
He inhales, steady and long, like he has all the time in the world.
I try. It catches. My chest burns.
His voice softens even more. “Again.”
I follow him. In. Out. In.
Slowly, the vise on my lungs begins to loosen.
My knees buckle.
He catches me—not like I’m fragile. Just... like I’mreal.
I end up sitting, back against the cold support wall, the terminal rebooting behind me, soft light pulsing in peripheral vision.
Kalev crouches beside me. Not touching, not pushing. Just there.
