Honoring their friend brought them back together. Will love and a common goal keep them there? Four years ago, Leon fled Knoxville with a broken heart and swore he’d never come back. But when his best friend dies tragically, he finds himself face to face with a place he’d just as soon forget, and the man he left behind. As a teacher, Toryn knows how much the community needs a facility like The Collective. But bringing his dead best friend’s legacy to life is complicated. Working with Leon makes it even harder. Toryn never thought he’d see the man who walked away from him again. Together, Leon and Toryn have just three weeks to get The Collective ready to welcome the community. Building something from a clean slate should be easy. But rebuilding what is broken between them will be the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Trigger Warning: This novella contains grief from a friend who died by suicide. While the event is not on screen, there are some parts where the heroes grieve about loss. Please proceed with caution 🖤

I know you've been living in survival mode, but maybe it's time to accept that you deserve to be loved. Duncan Maxwell’s days revolve around helping others, so when his best friend needs Duncan to drive his younger brother around, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. A little less sleep is an easy price to pay to improve someone else’s life, and many of Chance’s appointments are at The Collective, where he volunteers. It also doesn’t hurt that Chance is charming, funny, and . . . attractive. Chance’s world spirals into a blur of adjusted medications and support groups and therapy appointments after his recent bipolar diagnosis. He can’t complain, though, because most people don’t have the support that his brother affords him. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, he focuses on not being a burden and searches for life beyond his diagnosis—maybe even a life with Duncan. But while Chance struggles to tame the wildness within himself, he watches Duncan silently push himself past the brink of exhaustion. In his desperate attempts to help find balance, has Chance caused Duncan to destroy his own? Trigger Warning: The Wild Within explores the aftermath of a suicide attempt and life after a bipolar diagnosis. There are also discussions of grief, and mild suicidal ideation, of a side character's drug abuse. Please proceed with caution.