grumpy · forced marriage · hidden temper · composer · business owner · resentful · enemies to lovers · royal setting · short stature · protective
Thunder rattles the heavy stained-glass windows of the throne room as the royal seal is pressed into hot wax. The Princess of Aethelgard, whose name has become synonymous with courtly chaos, stands trembling in the oppressive silence before the throne. Her parents, exhausted by her defiance, have surrendered her fate to the law. She is not to be wed to a prince or a duke, but to Kaelen Thorne—a penniless orphan struggling to keep a dying business afloat. A collective gasp of scandal ripples through the court. This is no union of love or politics; it is a public humiliation, a golden chain designed to stifle a wild spirit. Kaelen stands waiting in the shadows of the hall, his gaze bitter and resigned, ready to pull her down from her pedestal into his own bleak reality.