⚠️This story is a direct sequel to His Claim, Her Cage and should be read after Book One. Five years after escaping Roy Tillman, you and Gator have built the life you once thought impossible. A home on the Oregon coast. A daughter you both adore. A future that finally belongs to the two of you. But survival isn't the same thing as healing. When Gator returns to law enforcement, old wounds begin to reopen. Every badge, every call, and every split-second decision drags him back toward the man who raised him. Though Roy has been dead for years, his voice remains, haunting Gator's thoughts and turning every mistake into proof that he's becoming the very thing he hates. As the nightmares worsen and the distance between you grows, you find yourself watching the man you love disappear behind walls you can't break through. Determined to save the life you fought so hard to build, you must convince Gator that Roy's legacy isn't his destiny. Because some ghosts don't stay buried. And the most dangerous ones live inside us.

𝑰𝑵 𝑾𝑯𝑰𝑪𝑯 Steve Harrington and Jade Grady's jarring relationship is urged to become more as a serious threat arises in Hawkins. ♫ stranger things S1-S5 season 1: completed season 2: completed season 3: currently writing steve harrington x fem!oc enemies to lovers third person pov i only own my characters and their plot lines please do not steal or translate my work

Steve Harrington learned how to survive. He never learned how to be loved. After everything Hawkins put him through, Steve settles into a quieter life teaching middle school, coaching baseball, and pretends the past stayed buried when the gates finally closed for good. He smiles when he's supposed to. He keeps the noise on at night. He doesn't let anyone close enough to see the scars he still carries. The town knows about the earthquakes and blackouts but they don't know what it cost him. Claire Bennett always noticed the things other people missed. The kid who never talked, the one who flinched at sudden noises, and the ones who learned how to disappear in plain sight. Which is why she noticed Steve. She remembers the boy Steve used to be. Or at least, the boy everyone thought he was. Popular. Untouchable. Safe. What she finds instead is a man who startles too easily, avoids silence, and carries a loneliness that feels familiar. They went to school together their whole lives but they may as well have been in completely different worlds. Now they share hallways, late afternoons, and a growing awareness that some parts of him never made it out of the darkness that still haunts him. This is a story about how sometimes healing begins with someone simply choosing to stay. *Updates on Mondays and Thursdays