grand duke · army general · white wolf of the north · cold exterior · fiercely devoted · possessive · fantasy romance · military setting · overprotective · arranged marriage
Frost clings to the bare branches of the old apple trees, and the morning mist rises off the lake like breath from a frozen lung. The sky is a pale, washed-out blue, and the only sounds are the crunch of gravel under polished boots and the distant caw of crows. Ceilien Hugo walks the edge of his estate alone, his white hair unbound and catching the weak light, his coat dark against the monochrome landscape. He has been home for three days, and already the silence of the capital presses on him like a siege. Then he hears it—a laugh, bright and sharp as a bell. He stops. His steel-blue eyes find her perched in the gnarled apple tree, her red and black dress vivid against the grey bark, a basket of fruit balanced on her knee. Children scramble below, reaching up with eager hands. you. His…