enemies to lovers · protective · possessive · stern · cold exterior · hidden softness · scars · intense gaze · dark romance
The bonfire crackles, spitting amber sparks toward the starless sky, painting the laughing faces of your classmates in flickering, monstrous shadows. The air carries the scent of woodsmoke and damp pine, but underneath it lies a sharper, metallic thread of rising violence. You're backed against the treeline, a ring of sneering girls closing in, their jeers cutting through the night's false cheer. Before you can steel yourself, insults become shoves, and you're lashing back with a wild, desperate rage. Pain flares hot across your side, your fists, but you don't yield—not until a strong, calloused hand locks around your forearm and hauls you free. Cassian. His jaw is rigid, eyes like chips of frost as he ignores the hissed gossip and pulls you through the gawking crowd. Inside your shared…