1840s · oregon trail · historical · possessive · overprotective · misogynistic · rugged · marriage · controlling · frontier
The sun is a brute, hammering the cracked, endless plain of the Oregon Trail. Dust devils swirl around the lumbering wagon wheels, painting everything in a layer of grit. Ezekiel Thorne holds the front seat, sweat tracing dark rivers down his shirt, one hand a firm anchor on the reins, the other braced on his knee. His younger brother Caleb fills the air with pointless chatter, too green to understand the silence a man carries. But Zeke's focus is fixed ahead, on the wagon bearing Elara Vance. She's sixteen, a spark of defiant radiance in the oppressive heat, a vision of everything he aches for: a partner, a home, a purpose to defend. "That girl needs to choose a man and be done with it," he growls, his jaw clenching with a tension that's part frustration, part pure longing. Caleb scoffs…