Chapter 1Commanded To Kneel By My Ex Husband

I was the leader of the all-female Raven Team, and we were pinned down, trapped in an encirclement during a high-risk humanitarian mission overseas.

I urgently radioed the Operations Room, requesting immediate extraction. The order that came back—from the Commander, who also happened to be my ex-husband—was a punch to the gut:

“Hold your position. Fight to the last man.”

My voice was raw with desperation in the comms unit. “We’re being overrun! If we don’t pull back now, the whole team will be wiped out!”

His reply was chillingly detached.

“Didn’t you leave me standing alone at the altar three years ago, without so much as a backward glance, running off to that foreign hellhole?”

“Now you get to find out if the grass you ran to was truly greener, or just a blood-soaked grave.”

“Mark my words, Nova. Any retreat without my explicit order will be treated as treason.”

I clenched my fists, a spasm of absolute despair, and directed my team to hold the line in a storm of gunfire. Every second felt like a year.

It was an eternity before his voice returned. “I’ve seen enough. You are cleared for extraction.”

A sudden, dizzying wave of relief washed over me, only to be immediately replaced by a plunge into a freezing black void as he delivered his next sentence:

“Before you evacuate, Captain Reed, you will kneel before every civilian you rescued and publicly confess to your betrayal. One hundred loud, ringing kowtows. Not one less.”

* * *

“Ops, I require a confirmation of the last command!”

The artillery was deafening, shrapnel screamed past my helmet.

I was practically shouting into the microphone, my voice lost in the continuous roar of explosions. Behind me, the cries of the hundred-plus rescued civilians twisted around my heart like a garrote.

Lexi, my second-in-command, a sharp young woman in her early twenties, pressed close, wiping blood and grime from her face. Her voice was a strained whisper of fear.

“Captain, we’re down to the last belt for the heavy machine gun, less than thirty rounds per person for the rifles. We won’t survive the next wave…”

It was then that the cold, clinical voice of Elias Barrett cut through the encrypted channel.

“Command confirmed, Captain. Hold the position until the last man falls. This is the Commander’s final order.”

Commander…

The title felt like a bullet through my chest. Sitting in that secure, underground center thousands of miles away, in the highest seat of authority, was the man I had abandoned at the altar.

Now, he watched us bleed out via satellite feed. There was no tremor of feeling in his voice.

“Nova, what… what is he doing? Why?” Lexi’s face was ashen.

“The hostages are secure. We should be getting the highest level of extraction support! Why is he leaving us to die…?”

I didn’t answer.

My gaze was locked on the horizon where the enemy vehicle lights were tearing open the night—a black tide pressing in. I gripped the comms, the stench of gunpowder and desperation in my hoarse voice.

“Elias Barrett, I repeat. Civilians secured, we are nearly out of ammunition. Requesting immediate withdrawal!”

Two seconds of dead silence, followed by a soft sigh—one that carried a faint, almost amused, note.

“Request?”

“Did you listen when I grabbed your sleeve and begged you to stay at our wedding five years ago? You walked away without looking back, Nova. Not even a single glance.”

I slammed my fist into the scorched earth in front of me, the sharp pain in my knuckles barely registering beneath the boiling rage. This was not the time for settling old scores. The lives of my team, and the hundred-thirty-one terrified faces behind us, depended on my next move.

“Elias, you need to be professional!” Every word was forced out through gritted teeth.

“You are the Commander of this operation, not the man settling a personal vendetta! Do you not see the critical danger we’re in?!”

“Professional?”

His cold, quiet laugh resonated in the earpiece—a sound that made my marrow freeze.

“I am perfectly professional, Captain Reed. I’m simply enjoying this foreign moon with you. See for yourself. What did this place, the one you sacrificed everything to run to, give you in return?”

“If we don’t retreat, we’re all going to die!” My eyes were bloodshot. I screamed the words.

“And so what if you do?”

His voice was flat, cold as permafrost.

“You threw away three years of our life together to come here. I imagine paying with your own life now... is something you’re perfectly willing to do.”

The last thread of my control snapped.

“Elias Barrett! You are a psycho!!”

Tearing the radio from my ear, I smashed the handset into the mud.

Lexi lunged forward, grabbing my arm, her voice tight with a suppressed sob. “Nova! Calm down! Please, Captain, calm down!”

I took a deep, ragged breath, snatched the mud-caked radio, and resumed command.

“All teams, report on ammo and casualty status.”

“Team Alpha, contract to Bunker Two. Team Beta, set the last of the claymores on the southeast breach. Snipers, prioritize the enemy MGs and RPGs.”

My team continued its desperate, disciplined resistance. But a support-less team trying to hold off an overwhelming assault was futile.

Our ammunition was depleting fast. Every trigger pull was a grain of sand dropping faster in an hourglass.

A medic’s choked voice broke into the internal channel. “Captain, the civilians… they’re breaking down. They’re asking if we’ve been abandoned. If we’re ever going to get out of here?”

I glanced down at the two remaining magazines on my belt, my throat dry. I swallowed hard and replied hoarsely.

“Tell them… we have not abandoned them. We will take them home. We just need to hold on a little longer.”

Inhaling the mix of smoke and copper, I pressed the button for the encrypted comms channel again. This time, all fury was gone, replaced by a deep, weary submission—a sound I barely recognized.

“Commander Barrett,” I used his rank.

“I have never… begged anyone in my life.”

“Please, consider this a plea. Do whatever you want to me. I’ll accept it. But let these one hundred-plus innocent lives survive.”

The channel went dead silent, only the faint static hiss and the sound of his suppressed breathing. A ridiculous, fleeting thought crossed my mind—had I finally broken through? Had he hesitated?