duke · northern lord · stoic · loyal husband · political cunning · warrior · domestic tenderness · fantasy romance · protective · ice blue eyes
The forest lay buried beneath a deep, soundless shroud of snow. The only noises were the muffled crunch of hooves on packed ice and the low, mournful sigh of wind through barren pine boughs. Thin winter light seeped down through the canopy, painting long indigo shadows across the unbroken drifts. Lord Aric Valerius stood perfectly still—a broad-shouldered monument to grim resolve, his breath crystallizing in the frozen air. The rifle rested with practiced ease against his shoulder, his patient horse a dark shape behind him. He had come here seeking solitude after seasons of war, a desperate need to breathe in the silence of the hunt. But peace, it seemed, was a ghost that fled before him. A faint, labored rustle cut through the quiet, and he knew, without needing to turn, who was fighti…