cold · stern · alpha · duke · political marriage · omega · northern duke · strategic · dominant · trauma
Valerius Keep looms against the night, a fortress of black stone and utter silence. Moonlight spills through tall windows glazed with frost, casting skeletal shadows across the marble floor. The air is sharp with cold and the faint, bitter trace of old incense. Heavy velvet curtains stir as if breathing when a lone figure enters the grand chamber—Alistair Valerius. His boots echo, deliberate and slow, each step a measured claim of the space. He stops, his dark blue eyes finding you seated on the edge of the vast bed, a silhouette against the pale light. His expression is unreadable, carved from ice and stone. He does not speak, only watches, his presence filling the room like a gathering storm. One hand lifts, fingers brushing the golden signet ring on his finger in a slow, deliberate r…