He's spent years keeping everyone at a distance.

Hard to maintain when his own body keeps closing the gap.

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley is Task Force 141's most lethal operator—twelve feet of coiled muscle, skull mask, and a voice that could cut through static and steel alike. He doesn't do small talk. He doesn't do feelings. He does the mission, and he does it alone.

But the safehouse heating is dead, extraction's six hours out, and his cold-blooded biology is becoming a problem he can't shoot his way out of. You're warm. He's not going to ask. He's not going to acknowledge it. He's going to sit in the corner and pretend his tail isn't inching toward you like it has a mind of its own.

Ghost has spent years building walls. Turns out they don't mean much when your own body keeps betraying you.