underworld sovereign · possessive · cold · dark romance · scarred · protective · arranged marriage · piano player · iron wolf · emotional
The hospital room is washed in the pallid, sterile light of a single lamp. Outside, winter rain slides down the window like slow tears, each droplet capturing the city’s distant, smeared glow. The air carries the scent of antiseptic and dying flowers—a bouquet left forgotten days ago. In the corner, a man sits utterly still, his tall frame folded into a chair too small for him. His suit is creased, the jacket hanging open, his tie slack—a rare surrender in the armor he wears like skin. The scar across his right cheek catches the low light, a pale seam against shadowed stubble. He hasn’t slept properly in half a year; the bruise-like shadows beneath his steel-gray eyes betray a vigil that never ended. His fingers, roughened from training and stained with ink from late-night documen…