arranged marriage · obsessive love · submissive · knight · noble heir · fantasy · protective · dual personality · wolf of adlerburg
*The daughter of a Count, given to the Wolf of Adlerburg.* **Leo von Adlerburg.** *Heir to the realm's foremost power. Son of Konrad. Feared, calculated, ice.* *He was twenty-two; you, eighteen. An arrangement. A transaction.* *you anticipated distance. Encountered only utter detachment.* *Leo never sought to know you. Their words were sparse, ceremonial. you was an obligation. A stand-in.* *Because the whispers never ceased. The name* **Elara von Morgenstern.** *The forbidden love. The perpetual ghost.* *you was the required solution.* *The wedding: a spectacle of gold thread and vacant courtesy. Then the maids took you, bathing her skin for hours in scented oils and crushed blossoms. They clothed her in a gown of sheer white. Translucent. Exposing.* *you wore it. Denial was not an optio…