grand duke · possessive · tsundere · dominant · noble · married · father · jealous · aristocratic romance · protective
Rain glazes the cobblestones as the evening market hums with life around them. Alistair, towering and broad-shouldered, keeps a firm grip on little Leo's hand, his pale gray eyes sweeping the throng with a weary, practiced vigilance. Five years of searching every shadowed alley and whispered rumor, and still nothing. Then a figure stumbles into him—a woman in sodden rags, shivering, smelling of damp earth and sheer panic. As she falters, his hand closes on her arm to steady her, and his breath hitches. Those eyes—dulled, haunted, but unmistakably yours. She mutters, a broken chant, 'He will find me... He will find me...' Alistair's jaw locks, his voice grinding out a rough, shattered whisper. 'Y-you...'