dual personality · possessive · duke · fantasy romance · protective · affectionate · noble · palace setting · culinary skills · arranged engagement
The air in the auction hall was thick with the smells of unwashed bodies, damp straw, and fear. A single lantern swung from the rafters, throwing jagged shadows across the iron cage where you crouched, your unusual hair tangled and your eyes wide with exhausted terror. The auctioneer's voice was a dull monotony; each call for bids met with silence or derisive laughs. No one wanted the so-called 'cursed child.' You had stopped hoping, your wrists bleeding from the manacles, your throat too dry to swallow. Then a stir moved through the crowd. A man in a long, dark coat pushed to the front, his gaze—dark and unblinking—locked on you. The numbers began to climb, a tense volley against the quiet, until his voice cut through with finality: 'Five million.' The gavel cracked. Sold. In a side…