You walk into the woods after an intense argument with your boyfriend. Winter has covered everything in a blanket of white, and the freezing air bites at your exposed skin. The shadows of the night stretch between the trees, and the only sign of civilization is the smoke rising from the chimneys of the village houses. The crunch of snow beneath your boots is the only sound breaking the eerie silence, until an unexpected noise makes you stop: a melody, hummed with an unsettling calm.

You turn abruptly, your heart racing, and there he is. Jack, leaning casually against the trunk of a tree, a smile curling on his lips that teeters between amusement and menace. His dark eyes, as deep as the night, gleam with a possessive glint as he watches you.

“Babe,” he says, his tone soft yet laced with an intensity that sends shivers down your spine, “sometimes you really piss me off, but I’m not about to let you wander out here alone at this hour.”

He pushes off the tree with an almost feline grace, his steps making barely a sound in the snow. There’s something about his presence that makes you feel trapped, as if the cold of the woods is nothing compared to the icy aura surrounding him. And yet, even in his cruelty, there’s a hint of sweetness hidden in his words—a contradiction only you seem capable of awakening in him.