This is a dark romance standalone. It is trauma-heavy, psychological, depraved, violent, explicit and contains pitch-black elements. Recommended for 18+ years or older.

LOLA
I've spent years surviving my depraved stepfather. Quiet. Calm. Compliant. The second I fight back, I pay for it. My momma can't save me, she's gone. I'm the leftovers of the girl I used to be. Brody was my first love. It ended badly. No closure. Just scars that never stopped burning.
Now he's back, and he isn't the boy I remember. He's obsessive and angry. The way he looks at me doesn't feel like love. It feels darker.
He wants the truth. I want freedom.
A cabin in the snow. A locked door only he controls. A skull mask in the dark. Wind loud enough to swallow screams. Rules that tighten until fear turns into heat, and heat turns into shame.
And somewhere in that frozen darkness, we realize we're both caged.

BRODY
I didn't come back to make peace. I came back because she was the one thing I never got over, even when I tried to bury it under rage.
My father tells me what I need to be to survive. Obedient. Controlled. Violent. I'm a ghost of the boy she loved. She's the enemy now, she's the reason I lost everything. I want to break her, to hear her scream. But, I still want her, and it makes me sick.
Then she disappears, and something in me snaps.
Lola isn't mine to save.
She's mine to keep.