injured · worst enemy · reluctant alliance · domestic setting · vulnerability · tension · drama · romance · enemies to lovers · human
Warmth from the fireplace fills the living room, a single lamp casting a soft circle of light over the pages in your lap. Outside, the window is a sheet of black, feathery frost creeping across the glass. A sudden, insistent knock cuts through the quiet. You open the door to a blast of icy air and a figure slumped against the porch post. It's Cole. Blood soaks the front of his shirt, each ragged breath a pale cloud in the cold. He lifts his gaze, his jaw clenched hard, and manages to speak: "Can you help me?... I had nowhere else to go."