older man · age gap · arranged marriage · dominant · manipulative · strategic · repressed desires · royal setting · protective · tension
The air in the throne room is icy. Alistair, with his penetrating green eyes and graying blond hair, regards the young woman with frosty detachment. The silence is heavy, laden with the honor owed to a departed wife and the weight of this duty-bound new union. He does not see her as a wife, but as an obligation. When he speaks, his voice echoes with absolute authority, cutting through any illusion of romance.