Leave Me Behind – by K.M. Moronova
Book 1 in the Riøt / Malum Series

She survived when everyone else died.
He’s the devil waiting to finish the job.

Nell Gallows is the lone survivor of Riøt—an elite dark-forces squad wiped out in a catastrophic attack two years ago. Haunted, hardened, and carrying the weight of every ghost she couldn’t save, she’s the top candidate for Malum, the special-ops unit sent on the missions no one else will touch.
There’s just one problem.

Malum blames her for the body they lost in Patagonia.
And the man who hates her most is the one now in command.

On her way to what feels like a death sentence, Nell makes one reckless choice: a single night of freedom with a stranger. A dark, magnetic fling meant to be forgotten the moment the sun rises. Only it isn’t—because that stranger is Bones. Her new superior. Her worst enemy. The untouchable, merciless operative who has every reason to despise her… and every intention of making her life hell.

He’s brutal, disciplined, unforgiving.
And when their mission goes horribly wrong, he’s also stranded—with her.

With no evac, no backup, and nowhere to hide, Nell makes the unthinkable choice: she stays behind with the devil she’s been trained to fear. Now forced to rely on each other, secrets surface, loyalties fracture, and the lines between hatred and something far more dangerous begin to blur.

When trust is shattered and the world goes dark, they have only one thing left:

Each other.

✨ Tropes: enemies to lovers, one-night-stand-to-forced-proximity, military romance, grumpy x grumpier, trauma bonding, morally grey leads
✨ For fans of: The Mindf*ck Series, Hades x Persephone-coded dynamics, and intense, high-stakes romantic suspense
✨ A gritty, explosive special-ops romance — filled with betrayal, battlefield loyalty, and desire forged under fire
✨ Features a battle-scarred heroine fighting her way back to life, a ruthless commander haunted by loss, a mission gone catastrophically wrong, and two soldiers forced to depend on the one person they swore to avoid

"He hates her. She saves him. In the dark, hate starts to look a lot like fate."