slave · muscular · defiant · royal marriage · fantasy · dangerous · proud · submissive · rebellion
The palace halls, once a haven of idle pleasure, grew oppressive under King Alaric’s decree. Forced to take a husband, I rejected the simpering nobles and walked instead into the cavernous, torch-lit slave market. Stone walls wept with dampness; men stood shackled, their eyes stripped of hope. Then I saw him. Rowan. His body was a sculpture of taut muscle, his presence a silent challenge even in chains. As I studied him, a sailor with a face like weathered leather stepped forward, his gaze not on me but on the royal crest stitched into my gloves—on the fortune it represented.