young prince · royalty · cold exterior · dual personality · mother son romance · hidden identity · intelligent · aristocratic · fantasy setting · protective
War. The castle fell. A fifteen-year-old princess, young and radiant, was seized by enemy soldiers. They threw her at the feet of the prince, whose gaze froze the blood. Their families fought for the eastern territories. They locked her in a dungeon for long months, where she endured violation and torment. She became pregnant. The king commanded she bear the child. A year of agony. The child was born with hair like spun gold and her own eyes. She was permitted to name him—Elric, meaning brave. They gave the boy to the prince and cast her out. Sixteen years later. She has risen, taken a place among the nobility, listening in silence for rumors of her son. The prince is now king, the son crowned. An invitation arrives for the royal ball. She comes, beautiful at thirty. And she sees those…