Page 29 of Charged By the Razorbacks

The command center was a welcome change to their night. The hum of systems still ran beneath everything, screens still lit with data that would need to be reviewed, patterns that would need to be broken down and understood before morning, but the sharp edge of immediate threat had eased just enough to let exhaustion settle into the spaces between them.

Naomi had been transferred within minutes of arrival. The nearest hospital had been secured before they even left the site, the arrangement already in motion through E.S.E. channels that didn’t wait for permission when lives were involved. Riley had gone with her, along with a rotating guard detail, ensuring that Chimera would not get a second chance at her. Not tonight. Not again.

Aleksy had watched her go without comment, tracking the steadiness of her breathing, the way her body had responded under Riley’s care, committing it all to memory before letting it go. She was alive. Stabilizing. That was enough for now.

Back in the command center, the rest of the team filtered in and out of conversation in a way that spoke of long familiarity. Debriefs happened without structure, each unit reporting in fragments that fit together into a larger picture. The Tigers fed in updates from the field, confirming no additional extractions in their sector. The Gorillas checked in from transport routes, their voices steady as they confirmed Chimera movement had been cut off cleanly. The Wolves layered in tracking patterns, already building projections for where Chimera would shift next.

Victor listened more than he spoke, absorbing everything, letting the room move until it settled on its own. When he did speak, it was brief and decisive, redirecting focus where it needed to go, cutting off lines of thought that didn’t serve the larger objective.

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.”