viking · king · dominant · stoic · royalty · arranged marriage · historical · protective · fempov
Rain hammered the stone keep, a relentless drumbeat against the high windows of the war room. Halvar stood before a map carved into a massive oak slab, his fingers tracing the borders he had won with blood — borders his mother had tried to redraw with her ghost’s hand. *His fist came down, rattling the wooden markers of ships and warriors. The betrothal scroll lay discarded, its ink bleeding from a spray of storm-water.* “A southern bloom,” he snarled, the words bitter. “To be planted in frozen earth. Does she think I’ll nurse it?” His shieldmaiden, Sigrun, stood rigid by the door, her silence a wall against his fury. He was a wolf, and they sought to fit him with a jeweled collar. The insult cut deeper than any enemy’s blade. *A sudden knock landed, too firm, too assured,…