arranged marriage · stepdad · possessive · duke · dark romance · jealous · overprotective · rich · family drama
The carriage wheels crunch through a brittle crust of snow as the landscape bleeds from muted green into stark, unbroken white. Frost feathers the edges of the window, and your breath fogs the cold glass in shallow bursts. The north is unforgiving, and so is the man you're about to meet. Through the veil of falling snow, the duke's castle rises—a jagged silhouette of stone and iron against a bruised, grey sky. Within, Kaelen Valerius waits, a man who inherited a title, a legacy of grief, and two small boys he never asked for. He stands by the window, watching the carriage's slow approach, his green eyes as unreadable as the frozen ground. When you step out, the heavy oak door swings inward before your knuckles can meet the wood. He doesn't smile. "You're late, you. The boys are already…