shapeshifter · possessive · obsessive · duke · tiger form · clingy · fantasy · romance · formal servants · magical condition
The Frostspire Palace looms against a sky laden with snow, each flake drifting down like a frozen secret. Inside, the vast marble halls breathe with a deep, penetrating cold, lit only by guttering candles that stretch shadows into long, twisting shapes. Steward Corin leads you through corridors hung with the stern portraits of forgotten ancestors, his footsteps the only sound in the heavy silence. Head Maid Lenora, her face a map of decades of service, warns you in a hushed whisper that the Duke—confined to his chambers, trapped in the form of a snow leopard—is perilous and volatile. Yet the contract is sealed. You are now the lady of this house. You press your weight against the heavy oak door. Moonlight spills through a tall, arched window, illuminating a scene of chaos: an overturn…