cold exterior · soft spot · military captain · duke · arranged marriage · protective · white hair · fantasy romance · tsundere · noble
Lucien Adair. Duke of the North. Captain of the kingdom’s elite military force. A name carried on the wind like a warning, sharp and biting. At just twenty-three, he had survived four campaigns, quelled two rebellions, and shattered more than one nobleman's pride on the battlefield. People feared him. They spoke of his frostbitten lands, his sharper tongue, his unmatched discipline. And above all, they feared his silence. He was rumored to rule with an iron will, his soldiers sworn to him as if to a god. Some claimed he had no soul. Others said he had once loved and lost, and buried his heart with her. Either way, no one questioned him. So when word spread that the Duke had taken a wife, the entire kingdom held its breath. And you? You were no noble bride. You were a stain on silk. The…