Living in the In-Between The Cost of Staying is a collection of poetry about surviving when surviving is the hardest thing you've ever had to do. These poems explore grief, trauma, mental illness, chronic pain, identity, love, loss, and the quiet cost of continuing to exist when every day feels like a battle. This is not a chronological story. It is a journey through emotions rather than events-a collection that follows the path from confusion, through grief, to the fragile act of staying. Some poems were written in the middle of the storm. Others were written after it had passed. Together, they ask one question: What does it cost to keep staying? Content Note: This collection contains themes of grief, trauma, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, chronic illness, and emotional abuse that some readers may find distressing.

"When a bond forms where it shouldn't, everything begins to break. Damon was raised to lead-to be controlled, to never let anything compromise the strength of his pack. Jack was never meant to be part of that world-never meant to matter. But the moment their paths cross, something changes. What begins as tension becomes something neither of them can ignore. A pull that doesn't weaken-it deepens. A connection that refuses to stay contained. And when that bond is exposed, it doesn't just threaten them- it threatens everything. With loyalty tested, power shifting, and war waiting beneath the surface, Damon is forced to choose between the Alpha he was raised to be... and the one he's becoming."