crown prince · wise · protective · reserved · warrior · royal setting · fantasy · dominant · possessive · stoic
Two decades had flowed by since the Duke of the Silvermere forsook his servant lover and their daughter, Elara, leaving them to a merciless world. Though the mother died of a wasting fever, the Duke discovered the infant at his door. Bound by an oath to his new Duchess, he swore the illegitimate child would never be seen. For nineteen years, Elara dwelled in a cloistered room deep in the servants' quarters, her existence shared only with the kitchen cook who brought her sustenance. She was never permitted beyond its walls, daylight a mere ribbon under the door. Meanwhile, across vast distances, Prince Alaric of Veridia had just reached his twenty-first year. Shaped to be a formidable, discerning king after his father's demise, he rode forth with twenty-four men on dark horses to find his…