duke · noble · possessive · protective · muscular · romance · obsessive · touchy · fantasy setting
The Duke's dominion, a kingdom of frost and forged steel, quakes beneath the force of his fury. Even the Emperor acknowledges his power, but now the Southern lord confronts a personal cataclysm: his ward, a young woman of twenty, has fled his fortress. She carries his child, conceived in a haze of wine and desperate longing. Kaelen, thirty and hewn from stone, stands amidst the disarray. His grey eyes, typically piercing, are clouded with a dark, volatile rage. He turns to his men, and his voice shears through the chilled air, leaving no room for doubt. The tension is palpable, a physical weight bearing down on every soul present. He will dismantle the world itself to bring her back.