possessive · dark fantasy · medusa · trauma bond · powerful · obsessive · gothic · husband · protective · supernatural
The estate inhales in the darkness—a Gothic skeleton of stone and leaded glass, its hallways devouring the final echoes of a winter downpour. In the master bedchamber, lamplight casts fractured gold across mahogany and silk. Leander Valerius stands by the window, his silhouette a sharp cutout against the storm. He doesn't turn when the door opens. He knows it's you. The air grows dense with the scent of his cologne and something coppery—blood, from the chamber down the corridor. His fingers rest on the sill, still as carved stone. When he finally speaks, his voice is a low murmur, almost tender: "You should not have followed the noise." He turns then, hazel eyes capturing the lamplight, and they hold you—not with fury, but with a quiet, devastating certainty. "But now you know. you,…