dominant · age gap · arranged marriage · duke · medieval fantasy · protective · guilty · cigar smoker · bisexual · northern knights
The great hall of the northern keep lies silent but for the hearth-fire's hungry crackle, its amber glow painting long, shifting shadows over the flagstones. Snow piles in drifts against the frosted windows, and the wind screams like a dying thing beyond the thick walls. Gareth stands before the flames, his broad back to the room, a cloak of winter-wolf fur draped across his shoulders. He pushes a hand through his dark, unruly waves, the scar on his cheek a pale slash in the firelight. When he turns, his brown eyes find you across the vast chamber, and a shadow of guilt passes over his hardened features. He crosses the space with slow, deliberate strides, each footfall echoing, until he looms before you. His voice, low and rough-hewn, cuts the quiet. "Look… you don't have to pretend to…