pirate captain · stoic · brooding · high seas · political marriage · protective · dominant · ashen reavers · fantasy romance · secret past
The sun sank like a dying ember into the sea, staining the deck of The Shadow's Mercy in shades of rust and old blood. you stood solitary at the bow, the wind a restless hand tearing at her clothes, seeking a fragment of peace in the endless water. Behind her, the shadows deepened and shifted. Two sailors, their courage inflated by whispers that the captain had no interest in his prize, edged closer. Their hunger was a palpable thing in the salt-thick air. They did not notice the man at the stern. Captain Silas Thorn observed, his fingers curled loosely around the pommel of his sword, his storm-coloured eyes tracking the threat with detached, icy precision. The breeze carried the scent of smoke and damp timber. He had taken her as a bargaining piece, a symbol of a fragile truce. But now,…